1/28/2020 Board Meeting - one public speaker

At the January 28, 2020 Regular Meeting of the school board, the Minutes for this meeting indicate that "One person spoke during public participation. "

It is the practice of the District not to identify the person who spoke in the Minutes and not to provide information about the topic addressed. There is no written record of the name of the person and no mention of the topic. That detail is lost forever - except in the video-recording of the meeting.

In this way the Minutes of every Board meeting are incomplete.

Who spoke during Public Participation on January 28?

At 0:03:59 on the YouTube video-recording the Board Chair introduced (sounded like) Latasha Talton to speak during the Public Participation segment of the meeting. When she introduced herself, her name sounded to me like Ratasha Talton. She told the board that she is an Activities bus driver (for the District).

Ms. Talton spoke to the board about the money ($1,000 bonus) that is set aside for the permanent, full-time employees. There are 30 drivers in the Activities (bus) section who are part-time employees. They fill in when needed and work without benefits. She mentioned "medical" (which may depend on how many hours a part-time employee can get in). They get no time off. She asked that the board remember them (when money is being passed out).

Her words were prophetic, because she referred to inclement weather and not getting paid when, for example, activities are canceled. Isn't that exactly what happened two days later?

In fairness to all employees, should not the board have made some disbursement to part-time employees, instead of just doling out $1,000 to all full-time, permanent salaried employees?

That is one brave lady.

I wonder how long she'll be employed by the District. Will she suffer the same fate as Lt. Col. Vindman and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Yovanovitch?

Thank you, Ms. Talton, for being brave enough to step up and address the board! I hope they didn't just listen to you; I hope they heard you.