BOE Meeting June 4, 2007

This is a report of the June 4th BOE meeting from Alex Smith. I plan to watch the re-broadcast and maybe have additional comments.


I arrived at the meeting at about 7:10 and I realized I was going to have to sit out in the hallway and watch from the closed circuit TV. The first thing I noticed was that Wogahn was not there. Not a surprise.

There was a rather long discussion about the agenda item "Immediate Action-Public Comment Guidelines."

Carol Craig made several good points. Most notably she argued that whatever was being proposed was too restrictive and that guidelines should err on the side of encouraging public input rather than stifling it. She also pointed out that the proposed guidelines were at odds with existing board policies. It was a bit painful because obviously many people were there to hear the discussion about co-curriculars and this agenda item seemed to be making them impatient, although I found it pertinent and better than a Broadway play. O'Brien asked if anybody in the audience would like to speak to this issue. I guess nobody in the board room raised their hand. I meekly raised my hand from my seat in the hallway but of course he could not see me since I was not in the board room. I do not know what I would have said if I was noticed. I would have probably pointed out the irony: the public did not have the actual motion to look at and study, if there even was an actual motion. The board could learn lots by seeing how the City Council, Plan Commission and County Board proceed when public comments are allowed at open meetings.

At one point Bollinger made a spurious announcement which made the Leader Telegram. He pointed out the the district was not going to have to pay more for health benefits, and therefore the pittance allowed by the QEO would end up being almost exclusively salary dollars. He then implied that teachers would be nothing less than selfish if they did not accept a raise that is something less than the QEO offer. (This would solve the board's budget problems.) I think he said that he could not support a future referendum if teachers ended up not settling for less than the QEO. In my opinion his point was outrageous and should have been ruled out of order. Teachers perform an invaluable service. We trust our children with them. They are an integral part of our community its economy. The district successfully >paid< a consultant to find a way to hold insurance increases down. Kudos. But now it appears that they cynically did this to create leverage that would allow them to paint teachers as selfish if they accept a QEO that is mostly salary. Negative Kudos.

At another point in the meeting there was a discussion about developing a conflict of interest policy. I think the board agreed to form a subcommittee. O'Brien pointed out that he deals with conflict of interest issues everyday and therefore he would be a valuable member of the subcommittee. OK. I get it. This issue will dog this board for a year or so. Public appearance makes a difference but a majority of the board does not appreciate this fact of political life. They cannot get around it and it will paint the viability of any future referendum.

Eventually the meeting turned to co-curriculars. There was still no open seats in the board room. My back was aching so I went and sat down and watched the closed circuit TV from one of the little lounges in the building. This part of the meeting was kind of boring to me. Other people in the lounge seemed to be teachers and they were multi-tasking by grading as they listened to the discussion about co-curriculars.

Even though I said that this part of the meeting was boring, I want to say that I am a converted fan of co-curriculars. In high school, my only co-curricular was the chess club, and we did not have a sponsor, so we were off the books. As a teenager I despised official co-curriculars. But now I am an adult with four daughters. My middle school daughter has been involved in cross country and track this year. I came into her participation in these co-curriculars with a cynical perspective, but now I could go on and on about the benefits. Co-curriculars, with good, positive facutly role models, cannot be measured by reduction percentages.