There’s been a lot on the news about the format of the District 150 public forum last night at Woodruff High School. There was no real dialogue — the board gave their presentation and the residents gave their presentations. The board chose not to respond to questions or comments from the audience, but instead post responses on their website at a later date, after they’ve had a chance to discuss them.
I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The natural tendency would be for the school board members to be defensive in the face of questions and comments from the audience, and want to explain themselves. Had they responded directly in the forum last night, a lot of time would have been spent with the school board talking, and talking, and talking. The format they chose allowed the maximum amount of time for East Bluff residents and other concerned citizens to voice their concerns and for the board to do the best thing they could do: listen.
Of more concern to me was the fact that not all the school board members were there. According to the Journal Star, the board members who attended were Alicia Butler, Sean Matheson, Steve Morris, David Gorenz and Mary Spangler. That means Garrie Allen and Martha Ross didn’t show up. Why not? Where were they? Did they have a good excuse to miss such an important meeting? Or did they not feel listening to residents was important?
Martha Ross said at last week’s D150 meeting that she would be out of town, her plans had been made previous to the special meeting. I believe that Garrie Allen came later from another appointment. I saw six of seven present. It was a meeting of democracy in action —- various solutions of which all were to use the existing site, in the center of the bluff. Surprise, no not really, because the neighbors know what works best and several speakers shared current research which validated the ‘locals’ common sense know-how.