You can go here and see that the school board has again not come to a conclusion on what the school district will look like in the future.
I think we’re closer. I think that it seems the Board has come behind the K-4, 5-6, 7-8 model (so, we’re not closing a middle school, which was a big deal for me) and that the implementation won’t happen until 2010-2011 (which, I also think is a good idea, it gives plenty of time to get all the planning done, and, selfishly, means there will be no effect on Kevin).
The school board, realistically, couldn’t have come to a decision Monday night because there was too much legal junk in the way. The review of the deeds of the schools to be closed isn’t finished, and, knowing what the possibilities for reuse are needs to be complete before the school choice is made. The topper, though, was finding out that a parent had filed a lawsuit against the district so that she could have a 15 minute presentation to the school board.
School board begins the meeting at 7 pm; it’s 9:15 pm, and they are ready to listen to public comment, and they decide, well, we have this lawsuit to deal with, so, let’s give her the time and (hopefully) she’ll drop her lawsuit.
So she begins. And I swear, if there was constant monitoring of my blood pressure during her 15 minutes, by the end of it, I probably was in unhealthy ranges. She starts off with this discussion of how the school closings will affect minorities and disadvantaged (and of course, now the Board has to engage legal counsel to make sure all of this ‘junk’ that she’s thrown into the fray isn’t valid) and, at end, spends the rest of the time continuing the favorite argument in Okemos, for or against the Montessori school.
About 3/4 of the way through I make my decision that I’m going to say something about this, so, I fill out my card to speak, and start trying to make notes so that I remember to hit the high points. They start public comment right after she finishes (and, as she finishes, she’s promptly accosted by the local news reporter and they leave the room). Not sure how I ended up being the 2nd to speak, since I was the last card submitted to talk, but, the 2nd name called is mine, and I’m up.
In hindsight, the part I regret the most is that I was still pretty pissed off about the whole sequence of events, and it showed in my comments. But, maybe that I was so pissed was a good thing, it helped to emphasize the point (one of Suzanne’s coworkers described me as '”emotional”, so, I know it showed). I was so pissed off that I only really remember my first comment (“I didn’t intend to speak here tonight”) and my last comment (“You need to have the courage to do what’s right and what the community wants”). The rest I couldn’t quote exactly if I tried. I know I made a major point that the Board could not consider that presentation any more than any other opinion, that they had 600+ opinions already, and the community has pretty resoundingly said what they wanted, and that there’s a way to present data to the Board, by email and then 3 minute presentation, not lawsuits. I know I made reference to the reporter getting the wrong ideas now. And I know I pounded (or hit) the table once, but I can’t remember what point I was emphasizing.
I ended my speech, and walked away from the podium, and the room was full of applause. Most of the rest of this week has been a sequence of people stopping to say they appreciated my comments (happened on my walk with Suzanne last night). ‘She’ wasn’t in the room for my comments, so, I missed her reaction…that’s my other regret, I had to listen to her for 15 minutes and she missed my 3 minutes of rebuttal.
Next board meeting is a week from Wednesday, so, the story continues then. On the walk last night, I pointed out to Suzanne that it was a good thing the Board meeting wasn’t next Thursday, or I would have a heck of a choice, go to the meeting or go the first showing of Star Trek. Suzanne asked me which I would go to….
It’s sad….but I don’t know.
