NOT A BORING BOARD MEETING Excerpts from The Eagle's View By Klaus Gaebel--Post Star
Ever since Michael Brennan became a school board member, he’s talked about video taping school board meetings and putting them on cable TV. Too bad that hasn’t come to fruition. The November 13th board meeting would probably have achieved the highest viewer ratings ever for the local cable access channel! Viewers would have seen board member Terry Parisian at one point gush “I’m sick and tired of Mr. Heidcamp shooting his mouth off.” Those kinds of outbursts led board President Tucker to admonish Parisian, and at one point even threaten to call police to remove him. Mocking by Parisian was further unbecoming. It’s worth remembering that in July Tucker accepted the presidency in a 6-3 vote. In his first remarks as president and with three new members aboard advocating change, he tried to quell any rifts by saying he would seek the advice of senior board members. It was his attempt to reach out and prevent the kind of dissension that happened at this meeting. Parisian’s complaints seemed aimed as much to Tucker as to Heidcamp. Maybe Parisian felt Tucker let Heidcamp speak too often and too long. Tucker does appear even-handed when it comes to giving privilege of the floor and letting board members have their say. Board members do waste time when they become repetitious during rebuttal, something Tucker has to figure out how to avoid from happening. Parisian would have been better off making his criticism after asking for the floor to speak, instead of interrupting. Board member tirades are usually reserved for after the meeting, sometimes when they retreat into executive session. The confrontation in public at this meeting seemed intentional, although it probably didn’t go by the script. In the course of four years, a board with a solid seven person majority has found their numbers dwindle to three. Loss of power and prestige will sometimes make you act irrationally. That may be what happened here. Majority board members from that period should realize they largely brought their losses upon themselves. During and since the proposed $62 million capital project in 2003, the public took notice of their actions. Board members from that period have never been able to transform themselves. They never appeared to want to. That arrogance has cost them. Change came slow – sometimes with a downward blip on the graph - but it came. The jury is still out on whether that change will have long-lasting effects. It all depends if changes are eventually institutionalized. The next meeting in front of an audience will likely find all board members on their best behavior – much like the student that tries to impress the teacher after being caught in an act of bad conduct. For Parisian, it was a bad night. One he probably wants to forget. The best way to make it go away would be to offer an apology in public at the next board meeting, and move on. |