While there is certainly a contingent that is going to try to spin last night’s meeting as “too long” or “chaotic” it’s important to note that if one considers all the important material the BOE had to vote on last night – several hours is an appropriate amount of time.  This is NOT a rubber stamp BOE anymore.  Those days are over, for this year at least.

The BOE can do what members of the community have asked them to do- increase meetings to two times a month and provide BOE Members with the agenda and attachments in a timely manner.  Also, we could have stripped about 40 minutes from the meeting if certain BOE members stopped trying to improperly block motions and spin trying to change policies that restrict the rights of BOE Members to represent their constituents as “trying to shut down our schools”.

The BOE had to go into recess so Sai could educate the Attorney on how to count an “Abstain” vote.  One way to shorten meetings is to obtain counsel that actually knows this going into a BOE meeting.

Seriously – consider that for a second.

The meeting had to be stopped so Sai can educate the Board Attorney on how an Abstain Vote should be counted.

Should we just let that go so that the meeting could end sooner?

With all that said, Jordan Hyman did an epic job of facilitating the meeting last night– here is an email I sent to the Board:

This was the first time in three years that I felt a BOE meeting was presided over fairly .

Being president means ensuring all BOE members are given fair access to influence the District and you did it patiently and without condescension.  You also held every single BOE member accountable.

I know a few people are looking at this meeting and are working feverishly to spin it as a shit show.  In reality this meeting (and the last one) is what representative government is about -it’s what happens when a plurality of opinions come to the table – it’s messy, inefficient but it is accountable and produces the best outcomes.

You allowed the Board to do its work in full view of the public – properly.

I’ll take this opportunity to encourage the Board to increase the number of meetings as these meetings will keep going on for hours in my opinion -it is what is supposed to happen.

It is a different BOE now with different players – it can’t be the way it was – and that is a very good thing for our students.

I hope whoever ends up being President took notes on how tonight’s meeting was facilitated.