The August 10, 2021 board meeting was to start at 6:30PM. Where were they? The livestream screen says they are still in executive session. Why does the board disrespect the public by managing its Executive Session time so poorly that the Regular Open Session doesn't start on time?
Who's in charge? Oh, that would be the (illegitimate) board chair, Teresa Holmes.
But there are six other board members, and they ought to be calling for the Executive Session to adjourn and to get into the main room at the R2i2 conference center and hear what the public has to say tonight.
6:43PM Well, here they are!
No one spoke during the public hearing. Have all the parents given up?
Holmes was lost when attending to the order of business. She should stop fooling around with her tablet and work from a printed agenda. Somebody should tell McKie to lose her mask so that she can be heard and understood; she finally did remove it. What was that garbage that she read? Nobody wants to listen to her act like she is reading to second-graders. Isn't there a copyright on that book she was reading from?
Agostini asked whether her vote would be counted tonight, since it was not counted when entering into Executve Session. Holmes was really snippy in her response.
The Board still has not figured out how to take votes expeditiously.
Holmes didn't even know she had the list of speakers for the Public Participagtion segment.
Holmes didn't know how long public participation was supposed to be. Holmes wouldn't even answer a simple question about masks for young students. The superintendent was sitting right there and could have answered simply and easily. Holmes told the speaker to email the Ombudsman or any one on the board. WRONG!!!
I emailed the District Ombudsman on July 10 and have never received a response. Mask questions get directed to Administration, not to the Board.
During Public Participation parents made comments requiring responses. For the first time ever, after public participation the superintendent asked for staff to catch up with those parents before they left the room. I've never seen that happen in 3½ years.
Manning made a motion to extend the superintendent's contract to June 30, 2025. Agostini said she will not support the contract extension because she does not trust the superintendent. On the video that is 2:15:50 in length, Manning's motion is at 41:43, and Agostini's remark is at 42:30.
A long delay occurred while a staffer typed up Manning's motion. His motion was poorly worded and unnecessarily long, stating the superintendent's evaluation and to extend his contract. Motion passed 6-1. Of course. All the followers piled right on. No other board member asked for discussion about Agostini's refusal to follow the herd.
Holmes didn't have her glasses and couldn't read the Board Policy to be considered.
I bailed out at 7:10PM. Pitiful.
