"Now, what?"

I suspect there aren't many Beetle Bailey fans out there, but there's a running gag that seldom fails to make me smile.

It goes like this: a series of unlikely events and unfortunate decisions eventually produces a bizarre and ridiculous situation into which General Halftrack walks, completely unaware of the context. His invariable response: "Now, what??"

This came to mind recently upon hearing that the State Senate had passed legislation that would "prohibit a school board from taking votes or any other official action, other than votes of a ministerial or emergency nature, between October 1 of each odd-numbered year and the board’s re-organizational meeting following a primary election."

This legislation is apparently so important that it was "fast-tracked" (I guess there's nothing else going on at the moment.)

The intent, I'm sure, is to prevent boards that have just undergone a significant election turnover from making a 'lame-duck' decision that would be contrary to the will of the newly elected board. And, to be fair, lame-duck boards have occasionally made big, vindictive decisions on their way out the door, such as hiring or firing superintendents.

Here's one question: why "October 1st", a full month before the election?

But what really troubles me is that no consideration appears to have been given to how a board is supposed to conduct normal business for two months. Such as, "entering into any contract over $100" or "filling any kind of staff vacancy".  Are you kidding me??

I guess it's also safe to assume that no serious discipline issues ever come up in the months of October or November.

Why do legislators appear to have such little regard for elected school boards? Don't they realize that the citizens who vote for school board are the very same people who vote for state representatives?

It's stunning how willing our legislators are to impose a restriction on school boards that they would never consider putting on themselves. Another example: we are only 3 days away from the legal deadline for passing the school budget, and we still don't know what our state appropriation will be, because the state hasn't passed it's budget - but school boards were required to make key budget decisions based on that six months ago!

The vote was 33-17.

A typical meeting

People often ask me why I enjoy being a school board member.  Part of my answer is that it’s rarely boring; on a regular basis we have the opportunity to deal with an incredibly wide range of issues. Our last meeting was a good example.

Mike Hardy began by listing some of the District’s accomplishments over the past year, including several national honors:  the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching to Gail Romig; an Agri-science Educator Award to Paul Heasley; and the National Scholastics Championship by the “Dream Team”. 

We listened to about a half-hour of very well-articulated public comment, mostly in reference to the proposed furlough of the engineering position.  (You can watch for yourself here:, beginning at about the 11 minute mark.)

We welcomed a new athletic director, Peg Pennypacker.  She appears to have great experience and energy, and at the risk of stereotype, I’m excited that we’ve hired a female for this position.

We welcomed our new superintendent and his family. His few words of introduction, which highlighted the importance of “knowing students as individual learners, developing innovative, meaningful and complex experiences for students, and fostering leadership among faculty” suggests that Bob O’Donnell is going to be an asset to the district and community.
We voted to refinance some of the districts bonds, which will save about $300,000 over the next several years.

We voted on the furloughs, to which I stated my objections concerning three specific items. One, the elimination of the development specialist, strikes me as counter-productive, especially when one considers that our reliance on private fundraising is almost certainly going to increase in the future.

Two other positions, the engineering and automotive teacher reductions, seem contrary to the board’s objective of keeping these cuts “as far as away from the classroom as possible.”  I am particularly saddened by the engineering reduction, which cuts the heart out of a great partnership between the science and CTC departments; the kind of collaboration that represents the future of education.

I’m not sure whether the closeness of the 5-4 vote makes me feel better, or worse.

We had an extended discussion on whether to authorize the development of design documents for the first phase of the Memorial Field renovation. Unless we intend to abandon the west side bleachers altogether, to not move forward while we still have the team in place would seem to risk wasting an entire year of effort and money already spent.

We voted on the purchase of furniture for the new elementary schools. (The ‘old’ furniture will be ‘handed-down’ to replace decades-old furniture elsewhere in the district.)

As I mentioned later in the meeting, it seems that most classroom furniture is intentionally designed to be uncomfortable – but one of the first things I learned as a school board member was that this is not a legal requirement!  So I’m thrilled to hear that the district is now purchasing ergonomically-correct, molded plastic seats instead of the hard plastic (or wood) that students have put up with for generations.

We authorized textbook purchases for next year, not without at least a little controversy.

Ed Poprick gave his monthly update on the two elementary building projects.  Each time, Ed highlights how our commitment to LEED certification affects a building feature.  I’m thrilled about the attention that’s been given to acoustics, from design through construction, which will have a direct impact on  the classroom learning environment.

We heard an enlightening – and, from a board member’s perspective, exciting - presentation on a somewhat revised district strategy on student assessments.  The new Classroom Diagnostic Tools (CDT) can be taken up to five times per year, on-line, at no cost, and will provide teachers with a wealth of easily accessible individual and aggregate student data, aligned to state standards, and tied to the state’s Standards Aligned System (SAS).  This will be an incredible resource for teachers.

The assessments will also tie to the new Keystone exams, which are being designed to assess a typical mid-20th century curriculum. The silver lining of the state budget crisis is that the implementation of the Keystone exams will be delayed by a year. 

We talked briefly about the impact of this year’s budget and tax decisions on next year’s budget, and the fact that due to Act 1 and the early presidential-year primary, next year’s preliminary budget will have to be prepared by January.

At 11:00, we still weren’t finished, as we adjourned to an executive session to discuss the status of contract negotiations and property tax appeals. (When the economy struggles, businesses often feel their properties are no longer worth their previously assessed value–but wouldn’t it be interesting if we could buy the property at the price of the proposed reassessment?)  And then there’s the matter of a couple of outstanding federal lawsuits.  Just another day on the school board.

A little longer post than usual, but reflective of a typical board meeting.