Board of Education meeting

 

On February 6, 2013, I attended an Oneonta city School District Board of Education meeting. The meeting was held in the Science wing of the Oneonta High School. The meeting started at 7 and ended 40 minutes later at 740. They had a set agenda for the night, and a good amount of people were in attendance. There were a great number of students from SUNY Oneonta, as well as many parents, teachers and even a few students from Oneonta high/middle school. The Board was made up of 11 members, Lisa Weeks, Susan Kkowski, Alexis Ramsey, Eileen Lishonsky, David P Rowley, Grace Larkin, Roslie Higgins, Bill Grau, Jamie Reynolds, Marilyn Rosas, and Darren Gaisford.

The meeting opened up with roll call, and then to accept the minutes of the January 23, 2013 meeting. Once this was done, it was opened up to the public to speak out.  Mike Raven and John Paul (both community members) proposed the idea of having a mountain biking club for the middle and high school students at Oneonta. When they spoke, they gave full on details about mountain biking as a sport, the history behind it, and all of the scholarship opportunities that are involved with it. I was actually very impressed that these two men took the time to research all of this information! It showed how dedicated these two were to help and try to get the board to consider this club. They said it would be a strictly volunteer led organization and that they weren’t and wouldn’t ask for funds. These two men also brought along some of the boys who would participate in this club if the board chose to allow it. I thought that was also interesting. I think the board was impressed with the amount of information and work these two men put into this idea; they thanked them for their research and told them they would get back to them soon.

Another woman also spoke during this time, but, her issue was about the rumors that had been
spreading. She said that she had been hearing lately that the 6^th grade would be moved into the middle school next year to save money. The board assured her that the rumors were in fact true and then she started to get really angry. She asked if anyone had announced it publically or if it was going to stay hidden but the man on the board said that it had been addressed a little in the last meeting. I thought that was kind of wrong because some people can’t attend every meeting which means that they lose the chance to find out important information. This woman was very angry and worried for her son at the same time. She asked if the board had taken into consideration how big of a change this would be not only on the child’s mental state, but on the actual school times as well. I thought she was going to freak out on the board members; it was getting really heated in the room. The man on the board told her that it wasn’t a set in stone thing yet and that it had just been proposed. The final decision should be made by March and will then be made public. He told her that this was a way to save money for the school and that they needed to do what was best. She then asked if this would cut programs such as band, chorus, etc., the board said that was a possible affect, however, it’s a finical necessity and they are going to do what is needed to be done for the school. The parent was very angry.

The school however, brought up a good point about the budge in my opinion. Like the article we had to read for journal #2, schools are struggling with the budget and aren’t getting the proper money that they need. Oneonta schools are no different and they are just trying to do what is best for them finically. When this parent brought this issue up, and grew as angry as she did, I was confused because my elementary school was K-5, my middle school was 6-8 and my high school was 9-12. To me, having the 6^th graders in the same building as the 7^th and 8^th graders was nothing new. However, this is something I would agree with the school board on because schools don’t really get the money that they actually need. Money is a huge issue when it comes to schools and I feel that if this change will help them to save money, they should do it. I think it’s really weird that the Oneonta elementary school is K-6 as it is, putting the 6^th with the 7^th and 8^th graders will only make them like most schools, and will help them finically, I beleive.

After these two people spoke, the board moved right along. I found it very confusing how they went through everything. It happened so fast, it was almost as if they were mind reading rather than speaking it out. They had an agenda, but I have no idea what half of what they spoke about meant. They also went very fast and all’s they really did was say “I do”. The board did a lot of the speaking, especially towards the end.  Again, it was all very confusing, I felt like I was in a foreign language class! The meeting also went by very quickly and I always thought that they were hours long. We were only there for 45 minutes, and in those 45 minutes I feel like a lot was discussed. It was very fast and I think I could speak for a lot of the people who attended, the board didn’t really explain much to the community, and they more or less just spoke in their heads which I don’t think was right.

I never had gone to board meeting so I wasn’t sure what to expect beforehand. I knew that there would be a group of board members, and then community, parents, teachers, etc. I was actually pretty amazed at how the whole thing worked. What I was even more amazed at was that people who attended actually spoke about issues that upset them and/or proposed new ideas for the board to consider. I know as a future teacher and parent I will most likely have things that need to be brought up but right now, as a college student, that isn’t something I worry about and I just found it really interesting. I actually would like to attend another school board meeting just to see other issues brought up. It was just cool to actually see what goes on behind the scenes of schools.

I think schools board meetings are very beneficial. As a future teacher, these issues are the things that we need to know about daily. For parents, it can benefit them as well because it is a way to have say in this crazy education system. I think that the board should be more open to including teachers, parents, and the community in these meetings. These issues not only are affecting the school, but they are affecting the community in which the school is located and I think that it is only fair for the people to help better their community. Overall I thought this meeting was very interesting. I thought it was a little dry and boring, but it was very cool to see this entire thing take place. It made me even more excited to get out there in the field and start my career!