Karen Carpenter Story

EDITORIAL: Who Does the School Board Work for?

The answer should be elementary, but as I observed Monday's school board meeting , I heard several troubling statements that made me wonder whether the board, district administration and even the taxpayers themselves may have forgotten.

Monday's meeting was the first that I've attended since the mild shake-up in last November's elections. I can say that without exception, it was the most poorly planned and executed government meeting I've ever sat through – and I've sat through many.

The big-ticket item was a revised budget proposal to be delivered by superintendent Tim McGonegal for the board's consideration. It was item number 65 on the agenda and finally arrived at just after 10 p.m. – in a meeting that started at 5:30. Much of the crowd had left and some that remained were nodding off, which may have been the plan – wait them out and ram it through.

The whole event seemed one workshop short of being ready for a meeting, and there were many items that should have been pushed, considering the importance of ironing out a budget that there has been almost no agreement on. Recently-elected board members Julie Aranibar and Karen Carpenter repeatedly asked questions regarding information they said they had previously requested, but hadn't received, despite the fact that they were being asked to vote on moving a plan forward.

There were vague PowerPoint slides presented that claimed to show big-picture, bottom-line numbers, while promises of eventually delivering those “specifics” were made. Needless to say, Aranibar and Carpenter understandably seemed less than comfortable being asked to give their support to something they couldn't explain to their constituents – and not for lack of trying. Their off the script attitudes seemed to be taken as little more than a child's petulance. Sure, have your turn ladies, but get on board. This train's moving with or without you. where are we making them from, and are we in fact doing everything we can, including looking at the bloated cost of administration (which has skyrocketed in recent years despite relatively flat enrollment), to make sure that the cuts do not impact the classroom? The answer to that question seems to be no, though without the line items it's harder to say so. Again, the skeptic in me says, maybe that's the point.