Dyer Says School Board Service, Impeachment Highlights of Career

The votes are in, the cards tallied and the six finalists in the race for Board of Education (BOE) have been selected.

Two of the three incumbents on the primary ballot—Janet Siddiqui and Ellen Giles—will go on to the general election where they will contend with Ann De Lacy, Jackie Scott, David Gertler and Bob Ballinger for three open BOE seats.

Missing from November’s ballot will be Allen Dyer, a current BOE member who has been called everything from a “bully” and “drain on resources” to  a “true advocate for the children.”

In June, the board passed a resolution asking the State Board of Education to remove Dyer from his seat on the board, citing misconduct and the repeated legal suits he has brought against the board in which he called for more “openness” in its discussion and votes.

In Tuesday’s primary, Dyer came in eighth, with 17.55 percent of the vote.  Despite the and voters citing lack of information about local candidates, Dyer said the results of this race do not reflect any fault on the part of the electorate.

“The public has a limited amount of time to order their lives,” he said. “How much of that time can be taken up by following the governmental process? … [Voters] evaluated the info they’d been receiving through the press and other sources, and they did the best job they could.”

Much of that press, Dyer said, focused on the impeachment resolution which he called “free press” for incumbents Siddiqui and Giles.

The impeachment hearings are still scheduled for the beginning of May; Dyer said he is looking forward to “facing his accusers,” regardless of the fact that he will not be running for office in November.

“I’ve paid the political price that resulted from that accusation [of misconduct] but there’s still a price to be paid if those allegations are false,” he said.

“If I was not guilty of misconduct in office, it’s very important for the public to know that. And if they say I was guilty, it’s very important for them to know that, too.

“The assumption I think is that I was," said Dyer. "The election results show that.”

Despite—or maybe because of—the way Dyer’s term on the board played out, he said serving was the high point of his career. 

“It may sound kind of strange to say that the high point of my career is ‘I got impeached,’” he explained, “but I think I earned that impeachment. I worked hard for it.

“The board impeached me to get me out of office because I’m doing my job. So I’m proud of that.”