By GLYNIS HART
The meeting of the SAU #6 Claremont-Unity school board Thursday was briefly interrupted by an emotional meltdown on the part of a school board member, a deeply weird situation that left the board confused about what to do with the motion on the table, and caused a reporter from another newspaper to exit stage left, muttering, “I’ve got better things to do with my time.”
He’s got a point. The board was discussing what to do about the strategic plan, and a motion had been made to postpone the strategic plan until a later date. With finding a new superintendent their number one priority, and budget presentations beginning in October, a certain school board member said they didn’t have time to do it all. Others felt the strategic planning could at least begin; a long-term strategic plan can often guide the hiring process by clarifying the district’s goals and vision.
School board discussions are dry stuff, generally, and not the easiest for a reporter to wrestle into narrative form. Earlier this month while sitting in a municipal meeting, I got a text from a young colleague at another paper. It read: “School board just spent an hour talking about food allergies. This is the worst job ever.”
Wednesday he sent me another text: “Again, how do you do these school meetings? … I could have read the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy in this time. Not even watch. Read.”
The key to finding interest in school board meetings and any government meetings is very simple: They’re spending your money. People like my reporter friend, who doesn’t own land or a house, are still affected by property taxes even if it’s harder for them to see the connection between school budget negotiations and the rise in their rent each year. Not everyone can make it to school board meetings, so we do our best to apprise our readers of anything critical that happens there.
Another thing: Public servants in local government and on school boards, often serve in a quasi-voluntary capacity. They don’t get paid much, if at all, for their service, and the reading they have to do is a head-banger, to say the least. Site plan reviews? A snooze if you’re not a builder or a town planner. Environmental quality control? Yegads. And heaven help you if you’ve got to read through stormwater regulations, or pick your way through energy efficiency grant applications. Almost always, the newly elected public servant finds that the job description didn’t come close to describing how many hours it really requires.
Still, these folks run for office again and again, and they vote with or against a round table of people who agree or disagree with them, and they sit through more meetings than even a hardened local government reporter can shake a stick at. It’s a noble endeavor, democracy.
Most people who run for school board, or select board, or serve on advisory committees, are motivated by a sincere desire to improve the place where they live. There’s very little money in it, and no glory.
Time after time, no one from the public shows up at the meetings. Only when something occurs that gives people a chance to voice strong opinions — such as, the failure to renew a favorite coach’s contract — do the audience chairs fill up, and people come to the mic and tell the board what they think.
Back to the deeply weird situation at SAU#6’s school board meeting. The school board member, having insisted on commenting on virtually every item, often at length, and having been rather gently handled by the school board chair — who wished to move the meeting along — was overcome by strong emotion when her motion was questioned for specifics, and left the meeting via the back door, disappearing into the night.
The chair, Marjorie Erickson, wondered aloud what to do with the motion on the table. Vote on it without the absent member? Wait until the emotional storm passed?
Finally she and the rest of the board agreed on a five-minute break, after which the meeting resumed. The upset party returned to the table and was able to accept an amended motion, this one to include a firm date: the strategic plan will be considered at the January meeting.
Had the board not accommodated that member’s conduct, the vote would have gone another way, and likely begun the strategic planning process in September. However, because Erickson and the other board members decided to wait courteously for the member to collect herself, the strategic plan will be taken up again in January — at which time the board may or may not have selected a new superintendent, and will still be going through budget presentations.
They are to be commended for their gentility, which would have been appropriate at a bridge game, but this is no way to conduct a serious meeting. The school board is not there for the benefit and comfort of the people serving on it, but for the benefit of the people who live and pay taxes here — whether they’re present in the audience, or not.
Glynis Hart is the staff reporter at the Eagle Times. Contact her at [email protected].
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