OCR Text |
Show vniEwipaDnKnr Page A14 Thursday, January 14, 1988 Park Record v School board meetings get ' F We're not bragging here, but as a group, we employees of the Park Record consider ourselves meeting experts. Collectively, we cover meetings of the city council, school board, county commission, commis-sion, the ChamberBureau, Main Street Merchants, Mer-chants, historic district, planning commission...to say nothing of special meetings Senators Cup, America's Opening, EPA issues, teen center concerns, con-cerns, water problems and whatever else crops up in a week. We consider information gleaned from these meetings valuable on the average, but we also think our time is valuable and limited. After years of attending meetings, we have come up with standards by which a meeting is judged for effectiveness or efficiency. Overall, the city council coun-cil takes first place, but unanimous agreement from this office gives the school board meetings the lowest marks. Before anyone starts ringing school bells in defense, we want to point out that for almost 10 years these meetings have been dreadful. It is a not a direct reflection upon this board or superintendent those before them handled the meetings the same way. In a model meeting with elected officials, i.e. the city council, all the ironing out of details and rolling-up-the-shirtsleeves work on projects is done in an afternoon session open to the public. Any secret stuff like executive sessions are done in a certain well-publicized time frame and it end very nearly when they tell you it will. The public portion of the city's meeting also almost always starts exactly on time 6 p.m. The public is invited to make any comments they may have at an alloted input period. The mayor recognizes audience questions, but cuts them off ' when they start to get long or repetitive. And no one interrupts when there is a motion on the floor. It is a rare public session of city council that lasts even two hours. The city staff and the council members work hard to be productive and to be respectful of the public and each other's time. The county commission is another example. While it holds long meetings, from 10 a.m. each Wednesday until about 5 or 6 p.m. (with a two-hour two-hour break for lunch) at least there is some order to it. The publicized agenda gives time allotments to each item, which are pretty much adhered to throughout the day. Those making presentations know when to appear before the board, and they know when they have to shut up. Not so with the school board. They have no work iiiinii sessions prior to their regular meeting and in fact, work sessions take place as they are meeting, (Yes, we know they schedule "work session meetings" but this doesn't seem to eliminate a lot of banter during regular meetings.) 1 Executive session is invariably held prior to the public meeting and lasts until they decide to start the public meeting. And while public meetings are usually scheduled for 7:30 p.m., the board almost always goes overtime in executive session, giving little regard to waiting members of the public. At times the board has been as much as an hour late. But once the meeting begins, hang onto your hat and your bladder. You will meet until it's over. The board will allow teachers and parents to repeat one another and interrupt when they have a motion on the floor. There is no time limit for topics and no time limit for input. If the item on the agenda you came to listen to happens to be placed near the bottom, bring No-Doze you could be there well-past the ten o'clock news, or M.A.S.H. even David Letterman may be over before you get home. Stop to consider that this is a public body conducting con-ducting the public's business. One would hope the board would want reasonable public input. And reasonable people concerned with school board issues are often parents with small children who need to be put to bed. Unfortunately, attendance to a board meeting usually negates the possibility of being home by bed time. And this leads us to wonder the quality of decisions deci-sions made late at night without a break and often under great pressure. The audience and the board members and the staff often seem to have the attitude, at-titude, "let's just get the damn thing over with and go home." School board, take a tip from the city, or better still sit through a couple of their meetings and take notes. The public is not being being well served serv-ed by length and disorder of the public meetings held by this public board. We hear that people in education are often the first to embrace new ideas. We'd like to give you a good report card for showing creativity and being flexible enough to change. After years of bench blisters, however, we can only give you failing marks. Maybe things will improve next semester... t k- biatlM cojgji f FINISH ijr m 5AVE THE FILIBUSTERING-FOR FILIBUSTERING-FOR WHEH YOU'RE BACK IN SESSION li ,r - ; S In response to editorial by SUSAN C ARCELLI and POLLY NEVILLE We at the Prevention Center take strong exception excep-tion to the Record's editorial of Dec. 31 (Drinking and Drugs Don't Mix). We were extremely disturbed at the editorial position that 1) any action ac-tion taken by the City Council should be seen by tourists as "moral repression," which would in turn drive them away, and 2) that the only solution of our drug problem is a "major overhaul of existing ex-isting drug laws." tj , "Regarding concern about potential loss' of tourist dollars, we question the perspective that condoning irresponsible usage of alcohol and other drugs is the only way to keep tourist dollars. Such a point of view indicates a lack of respect for and concern for the health and safety of tourists and locals alike. Obviously the writer is neglecting to remember that people come to our area to ski, golf, fish, hunt, enjoy the arts, and relax. The editorialist's perspective is that the ski hill is just a sidelight to heavy drinkingdrug taking. Responsible use of alcohol and other drugs focuses on the health and safety of all individuals. Responsible usage is the responsibility of both patrons and proprietors in our bars, clubs, and restaurants, and is not just the province of the police. Managers have far more control over what As I See It happens in their respective establishments than law enforcement personnel do; and both will have only limited control as long as our society as a whole fails to recognize our common responsibility- The editorial is an excellent (albeit sad) example exam-ple of the "good vs. evil" perspective of drugalcohol use. Until usage is removed form such a polarized moral context and is seen as a healthsafety issue, such diatribes as the editorial , will continue and "responsible use" will not be achieved. Susan Carcelli, Ph.D., program director Polly Neville, MS., clinical supervisor "As I See It" is the guest column of The Park Record and is a forum open to anyone who wishes to share an opinion or feeling. We only ask you keep your thoughts to two-and-a-half typed pages and include nothing scandalous or libelous. Who's going to be in the Super Bowl. And who will prevail? V -r ;., ''.- ': ; ' ' I -i. .. . -i ! I ; : - : 1 1 ; - . 1 -- ...mi ffj Chris McGonigle Steve Kemp Lisa Weinberger Dave Ashworth Tod Gris wold Judy Zenger ripveland's eonna beat The Rams and the I'll say it's the Vikings and Redskins and Denver; and I have no opinion, since The team with the nict Denver and the Vikings are Chargers. Probably the Denver, with the Vikings Denver's gonna win by Arizona State blew it on the bums will win. iunv) 1 o - , , ' At going to beat Washington. In Chargers will take it by 15 winning by three. P. , 1 U ...Ml k. mmJ m knlf maimIa seven. Rose Bowl. I lost all interest T , after that. I the oUper duwi 11 win uc aiiu a lion pjinto. Cleveland by ten. it |