The following article,
written by Klaus Gaebel, is reprinted from The
Saugerties Post Star, 04-10-08 Eagle's View A View Around Town Saugerties Post Star , April 10,
2008 On the agenda at the February 12th school board meeting
was the vote on allocating floor space, with the Technology
Department and the Adaptive Physical Education Department
(more commonly referred to as the weight room) seeking space
at the expense of the other. In my February
21st column (Page 3), speaking about the 3 no-show
school board members at the meeting, I said “why all
three board members [Terry Parisan, Michael Brennan,
Robert McCaig] who were seen as supporters of
Rhau’s plan, weren’t there, is curious. Weather to
blame? Over forty people besides board members made it to
the meeting. If the three had the five votes to support the
superintendent’s plan [which favored the weight
room], does anyone think they would not have shown
up?” Weather reports indicated snow was expected to fall by
meeting time. At the March school board meeting, Terry Parisian
complained in public that he was “bashed” by my
comments (Post Star, March 27, Page A8) and said he
wasn’t at the meeting because he was recuperating from
a hospital stay. Brennan said he was absent because he
assumed since after school activities had been cancelled
because of possible snow, that the school board meeting was
postponed too. McCaig didn’t offer an excuse for his
absence. Parisan also commented “for some reason this board
meeting was held [in spite of the chance for
snow].” The reason the meeting was held was because some board
members felt a further delay in a decision by the board
between the technology department and weight room space
would result in the superintendent’s plan being put in
place by default. Deciding issues isn’t just about putting forth a
proposal and seeing which way it goes during a formal vote.
Timing of when votes are held is important. It’s also
about whealing and dealing and backroom discussions and
attempts at consensus building before the vote. It’s
about trying to get to 5 votes about important matters (it
takes 5 votes to pass anything, no matter how many board
members show up at a meeting.) When you have your 5 votes – you want the vote to
occur on its scheduled date. Any delay may jeopardize the
expected result because minds may change in between or
rescheduling a meeting may wind up being inconvenient for a
board member, and their absence might mean a majority is
lost. Board advocates for the Technology Department felt good
about having their 5 votes at the February 12th meeting. The
others were well aware they had likely fallen short in
gaining majority support for the weight room plan.
That’s why the five board members in favor of the
Technology Department plan made sure to make it to the
meeting. Parisian has played the games of counting votes and
timing of when to hold a vote. His desire for a delay in the
vote was a last ditch effort to change the outcome. For him
to claim to wonder why the meeting wasn’t postponed and
complain about it is disingenuous.