Unanimous Decisions

In the front of the room, long tables were situated to face the audience. Seated were the administrators, the attorney, as well as the five Board of Education members.

The crowd of residents, parents and students practiced their impassioned thoughts silently to themselves in preparation for their turn to speak.

An undercurrent of contention pulsed well before any words were spoken.

On a winter's night in 2009 people left their dinner tables to implore the Board of Education to either keep graduation on Sunday or to move it to Saturday morning.  And when the allotted time for public comment had ended, the president of the BOE called a vote: the president and one other member voted to move graduation to Saturday morning, but the 3 remaining members voted to keep graduation on Sunday for one more year.

The crowd cheered in hearing the 3-2 vote in favor of keeping the traditional Sunday date.

And that is when the President of the Board of Education called a brief recess.

The crowd hollered that private discussions were in violation of open meetings law (OML).

But the five members left the room and conversed in private anyway. The attorney for the district remained silent.

And when the 15 minute conclave was over, the president called for a re-vote. But this time all five members unanimously voted in favor of moving graduation to Saturday. After that private discussion three of the five BOE members completely reversed their vote and sided with the BOE president.

The audience protested--- but it did not matter. The president said so moved.

And two months ago a friend who had been in the room with me that February night four years ago said What do you make of the unanimous decision the Board of Education made to extend the Superintendent’s contract along with giving him a hefty salary increase-- particularly in face of budgetary constraints and cuts?

And I said based on personal experience and what I had witnessed in the past with this regime, I could not help but wonder whether the BOE’s decision on the superintendent’s contract was unanimously unanimous or made to be unanimously unanimous behind closed doors.

It is something I will never know for sure.

Because fool me once shame on you, but fool me twice--- well that’s an entirely different blog post altogether.