I knew as soon as we had finished saying the Pledge that it could be an interesting school Board meeting: there were only four members present, which (because we were a 7-member board) meant that we had to have unanimous consent to pass any resolution, including, as we would soon learn, convening a meeting.
A motion to accept the agenda was made and seconded. I asked that two items be added to ?Old Business,? usually a rather routine request. ?Not tonight.
?No,? said the board veep, sitting in for the board president, who was among the missing.? It was a fast and pointed ?No!? meant to let me know that he wasn't happy about my recent letter to the editor criticizing my board colleagues for not backing me up on my request to see personnel records of twelve people we were going to hire.
(Answer to the quiz question from September 2: there was no official vote on my request to see the records; I made a motion, but got no second. Unofficially, then, it was 5-1. And that makes Mia Munn the unofficial winner.? She will receive a free copy of Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry: Life on the School Board, should I ever write it.)
So, the No on my request to add a couple items to the agenda was pointed, as was the silence from the others at the table. ?Yes, they were mad.
But then came the vote on accepting the agenda. I smiled as I raised my hand for Nay: ??3-1.? It was a deer-caught-in-the-headlights moment as board members and audience members realized that this could be a long meeting ? if it ever got started.? ?The veep looked dumbstruck.? I suggested moving on without an agenda. He refused.? I shrugged, savoring my quick and sweet revenge.? A row of principals and teachers sitting in the front row of the audience, all prepared for their presentations about the opening week of school (item 4.1.1 on the agenda, if we?accepted it), fidgeted nervously.? Audience members, many of them veterans of these meetings, smiled, as if to say, ?Here we go again.?
There was complete silence in the room?for what seemed like hours. It was, in fact, about 30 seconds before I relented and offered to change my vote.? (I was proud of myself for not demanding that my two items be included on the agenda in return for that change, but the favor was returned later in the meeting when the veep asked what the two items were and offered to put them on the agenda for next meeting.? Yes, folks, honey does sometimes work.)
The meeting proceeded, and the president eventually showed up ? in time to ensure a 4-1 victory in the vote to spend our $584,579 federal Edujobs funds on hiring the people whose personnel files I never saw.? (My letter to the editor had shaken the Superintendent a bit; he offered to make the files available in his office, ?if the Board wants to see them.?? Oy! ?A little late, I said, and a little far. Fagedaboutit.? Besides, the guy sitting next to me looked as if he was going to slug me.)
Is there a moral here?? Does this mean school boards are a lousy way to run a railroad ? or a school?? No free books on this one, but I would love to be enlightened.
?Peter Meyer
