Tonight's BOE Meeting was full of gems.

On allowing parents to participate in BOE Meetings on Zoom: Angela Penna cited that cost is now the reason Zoom participation will be quashed. $7500. We pay one law firm more than that for one month of work, but getting more parents to participate in BOE meetings isn't worth that, and after almost two years, they suddenly discover the price tag? You can use Google Meet for less than $200 a year. Ms. Penna used the "well, I called the NJSBA, and they said that not a lot of Districts were doing this" [paraphrasing] excuse - how is that a reason?

We will be clipping and presenting Mr. Cianculli's logic on the 48-hour rule, which is essentially unenforceable. No BOE Member has to follow it, and Ms. Khanna did a pretty effective job of exposing it for what it was - a muzzle. It got so bad that Ms. Stanley played the old "we need to move on from this card." Ms. Khanna reminded Ms. Stanley that, as a BOE Member, it is her job to deliberate and debate policy changes - especially politically motivated ones. This is neither a mandatory nor legally required policy - in fact, I couldn't find one District that had this policy on the books.

They also further consolidated power to the President on committees. Ms. Penna's argument that committee selection had to be done "quickly" is untrue (we don't need committees at all), as is her assertion that she tries to match the most qualified people to the committee (somehow this led to the Phd in Math not ending up on the Finance Committee and a train wreck of a budget/budget process last year)

So, the theme for tonight is that it will be up to the New BOE to implement remote participation in meetings, and they should not follow the 48-hour rule.

2024 cannot come soon enough. JM

Added -from SW:"Another interesting point was that although they did not seem to have ready numbers as to how many OPRA requests have been submitted in the last couple of months, dr. Varley assures us that it’s too burdensome for the business administrator to do. If that’s the case, wonder why Hopkins is no longer continuing? Do they have someone else in mind? Or did they finally realize that he can’t do the job properly?"