School Board Meeting - 3/24/09

How does the HCPS Board balance issues of transparency and minimizing the time dealing with the public?

The Board chair let it be known that electronic voting would be routinely done because "somebody requested it". Right out of the gate, there was the cumbersome task of dealing with the consent agenda. Mr. Lamb, apparently unrecognized by the chair, made a comment that this process took too much time. The Board then spent 5 or 6 minutes discussing various aspects of when, why and how they should or should not do electronic voting. They even had an electronically recorded vote to suspend the electronic voting for the consent agenda until they perfected the routine, I think. That is my best guess.

Right after this issue of some meddlesome person seeking electronic voting for nefarious reasons no doubt, the issue of vendor bidding once again rose it's ugly head. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed the two "members of minority" were supportive of the need for making it easier for vendors to navigate the red tape, while others lamented the cost of making this happen plus reminding others that vendors should be held responsible for their part of the navigation system with a hint that "they may be too stupid to understand a website, so we don't want to do business with them". Sort of like "first you blame the vendor builder, and then you blame the vendor's secretary". Pesky outsiders. Ms. Faliero must not have any vendors hounding her because she finally recommended to cut off the discussion and remand it to a workshop. Ms. Valdes and Ms. Olson both claimed they have a right to their feelings and opinions, with Ms. Valdes sharing her passionate objection to local tax payer's vendor money being spent in California, New York city and Arizona - assuming there still is an Arizona.

A lot of time was taken up talking about a bunch of agenda items. Some of them were apparently pulled so positive strokes could be recorded. Even if it was just for one person. Didn't they try to muzzle some of these requests for exposure a few years ago?

Dr. Hildebrand trotted out the character education process. Note that I paid very close attention to the fact that this is a process, not a program. Apparently Ms. Elia and others did not get that memo, as it was erroneously referred to by others as a program. The woman presenter, who for some reason is retiring, tried valiantly to make sure that everyone understood that a program would be more work intensive, but a process would not. Some Board members were relieved that this process would not add to the stress of teachers and support personnel and lower level administrators and students. Some stress could be applied to parents, though.

This character education program is obviously discriminatory as it is only being used in the 40 schools that have 70% free or reduced lunch users. Perhaps there may be a slew of parents lining up asking for special assignment to these schools so their character-free kids can learn some character. The way to a kid's character must be through their stomach and not their heart or brain.

I am reluctant to say that my early thoughts were that maybe this character education would trickle up. My reluctance is based on the fact that the lone public commenter also picked up on that thread. I wasn't using a broad-brush application. Having said that, how many of you remember "Mr. Malfeasance"? For those who don't remember, he was the environmentalist guy who showed up for years bashing the District and the District personnel for having the wrong building designs, wrong light bulbs, wrong shrubbery and was basically an avenger of environmental destruction. Even water bottles on the dais were not safe from ridicule. If my memory serves me right, Mr. Newsome tried to take action to kick the guy off the premises. I don't know what happened to him. Maybe he quit after some reporter interviewed him. His favorite word, delivered in the most hateful, mean spirited accusatory tone was "malfeasance".

Ms. Edgecomb must have taken a page right out of the recent Alafia Elementary debacle. Not to beat a dead gator, but Ms. Edgecomb lamented that she was not very optimistic about being heard and wanted desperately some method to get the people upstate to respond to her concerns. Perhaps she could start a blog.