Letter: School board still missing the point

Nepotism is "favoritism shown on the basis of family relationship." This is any form of favoritism, whether directly toward a subordinate or indirectly by virtue of one's position, authority or responsibility for an organization.

Example: You run a department of a dozen staff members. A position opens up, and you know a perfect candidate from another department. Before your selection is approved, it is "suggested" that you first "consider" your boss' son. Can you tell your boss his son is not the best candidate? Can you welcome the son, who is clearly less qualified, and truthfully justify the decision to your staff? It's a no-win situation, and will demotivate your organization either way.

The problem with the draft policy is it makes it easy to bring in a family member and have him or her report to someone else. That does not eliminate favoritism.

Here is the only (and proven) nepotism policy that works:

Only one family member can work within the same employee unit or organization. That means the football coach can't hire his son as assistant coach, but his daughter could coach girls' basketball; a school principal cannot hire her brother to teach driver's education, but he could teach in a neighboring school; and the district superintendent cannot hire a family member for any position in the district, period.

The current draft fails to address the real problem with nepotism.

Richard Bradbury

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 9:50 PM with the headline "Letter: School board still missing the point."