More of the same, School Board excludes the public

The following was in the November 9th issue of the Times Union:
The Duval County School Board is holding a special meeting at 10 a.m. today in Room 613 of the School Administration Building at 1701 Prudential Drive. The board will hold a public hearing before it votes on updates to its official policies.

The board will consider incorporating into its policies the process used to create, review and amend the district strategic plan, update the responsibilities and authority of the board, update the policy that governs professional development for non-instructional personnel, and update the policy to require all comprehensive high schools have an acceleration program.

I hope everybody sees the problems with this. First the school board announces the meeting to the public on the day of the meeting. Then they have the meeting at a time that practically ensures nobody can or will come. This my friends is not how government is supposed to work and I have to say it severely diminishes my optimism for this new board that for the first time in a long time actually has members who have worked in local classrooms.

If we want things to improve for our schools and our children, the school board is undoubtedly going to have to include the public, not think of creative ways that exclude them. They must change their ways and stop paying lip service to the citizens of Jacksonville.

I am reminded of a quote from one of our national treasures, Mark Twain, who was hopefully being studied somewhere as the new school board decided to leave out the public during their very first meeting. “First God created idiots; that was for practice, then he created the school board.”
I will hope for better but sadly after seeing how the school board has been run for the last decade and one meeting, I will prepare myself for more of the same. "