By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

AMBRIDGE, Pa. – Two leaders of the Ambridge school district have been feuding in public over a petty disagreement on the use of library space.

The situation has deteriorated to the point where a police officer was summoned to a school board meeting to preserve the peace.

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Their conduct is an embarrassment to their district and an insult to the taxpayers who fund it.

Ambridge Superintendent Cynthia Zurchin recently filed a complaint with police and hired an officer to attend a school board meeting, after accusing board member Brian Padgett of verbally threatened her in a previous meeting.

Padgett didn’t appreciate her course of action and criticized her use of public dollars to hire a personal security officer, the TimesOnline.com reports.

“I’ve never heard of a superintendent being labeled ‘little Hitler’ before they’ve even taken office,” Padgett shouted at Zurchin during the board meeting, according to the news report. “You cannot hire a personal bodyguard with the public’s money.”

Zurchin insisted the security was necessary because “a superintendent has never been threatened like that in executive session before,” TimesOnline reports.

The dispute centers on Zurchin’s decision to move her office to the high school library to build “a bridge to a leading and learning center.” She said it’s the only place in the district with large enough rooms for training, and students can share the library space.

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Padgett offered a motion at the board meeting to block the superintendent from moving her office to the library, but it failed in a 5-4 vote, TimesOnline reports.

“Taking away educational space when we already have an office for the superintendent seems illogical to me,” Padgett said.

What’s even more illogical is watching adults conduct themselves like children over inevitable disagreements. School officials in Ambridge should remember their behavior sets an example for the students they’re responsible to educate. Students deserve better than this.

Hopefully Zurchin and Padgett will come to their senses and realize there are more important things at stake than their personal power struggle.