KEENE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS ARE PUBLIC ABOUT THE COST OF A DISCIPLINE MATTER

However one stands on the continued employment of the Keene
elementary school teacher who was put on leave pending his
prosecution and ultimate conviction for a marijuana-related
misdemeanor, the school administration is handling the financial
consequences of the matter in the right way.

Against its own preferences, the administration was ordered by the
school board to keep 3rd grade teacher Darrel L. Beymer on the
Symonds School payroll. After complaints by some parents, however, he
will return to school in a different job until September, and a
substitute will be paid to handle his teaching responsibilities for
the remainder of the year.

The administration can cover the $17,000 cost of this arrangement out
of its budget for substitute services. But it will not draw on the
existing balance in that account; it plans to transfer the sum from a
separate account for debt service that has a surplus, thanks to lower
than expected interest rates on school borrowings.

The transfer, which awaits school board approvals next week, is a
public recognition of the financial consequences of the Beymer
affair; at an earlier time in the history of this school system, when
the need to be transparent was less compelling, the cost could have
been swept under the rug.

This is not to say that everything about the resolution of the Beymer
affair is right. People reasonably differ over whether the man's
conviction, which resulted from a plea agreement down from a felony
charge, should have led to a different outcome, such as expulsion.

But, having determined to keep him on, the school system is publicly
acknowledging the cost of decision.

All this may matter little to the public, which, after all, showed no
interest in the school system's $61 million budget at a public
hearing last week. School officials outnumbered the members of the
audience, and not a single question about spending was asked.

The Beymer situation is not only about money, of course, and there's
sure to be continuing interest in the matter. But the
administration's open approach to the financial side is appropriate
and deserves recognition.