L. Merion board will restore trimmed video

The Lower Merion School District has rescinded its decision to edit a videotape of Monday's stormy school-board meeting and will make the restored version available to the public.

In a letter sent home to parents yesterday, Superintendent Christopher McGinley apologized for making what he called a "heat-of-the-moment" decision to excise a five-minute segment of the video.

He said the complete version would be posted on the district's Web site by last night and would be available for viewing on public-access TV.

"While our policy might have allowed us to edit the tape, it is clear that the edit has had unintended consequences and the decision added more fuel to an already hot fire," McGinley wrote.

"This is not the way we wish to move forward and this is not the signal we want to send to the community."

On Monday night, the board enacted a redistricting plan that will have 200 children from slices of South Ardmore, North Narberth and Penn Valley bused to Harriton High School in Rosemont. Most live close enough to Lower Merion High in Ardmore to walk there.

The redistricting plan is needed to balance enrollment between the high schools because more families live near Lower Merion High than Harriton.

Before the vote, South Ardmore parent Aaron Williams, 37, interrupted a board member's speech with an outburst accusing the board of racism. He then stormed out of the building.

That episode was cut from a videotape of the meeting because Williams spoke out of turn and violated district civility policy, a spokesman said.

Williams' wife, Liz, spoke for him yesterday. "While an apology is very nice, it doesn't take away the events that have happened or how I feel about them," she said.

Williams explained in a letter to The Inquirer yesterday why he grew incensed at the meeting. It seemed to him that board members were not hearing concerns from African Americans that pockets of children would be isolated by the plan, he said. The district denies that and has said it listens carefully.

Response came quickly to the district's reversal.

"I respect them for admitting to the fact that they made the wrong choice. However, what we have to take away from this incident is the clear fact that race relations in the Lower Merion School District are not good," said South Ardmore resident Lynn Brandsma. "Until they deal with this problem, there is no foundation on which to build trust."

An opponent of the redistricting plan, Brandsma had called the district's editing of the tape censorship.

"Censoring someone from our community is just another example of what little regard they have of our opinions and feelings. It is just one more slap in the face," said Anastasia Frandsen, a Penn Valley Elementary School parent from Ardmore.

"No amount of workshops, transition meetings, or other types of token support for affected parents will heal the rift that has been caused by this process," said Ivan Haskell of South Ardmore.