BCPSS School Board Commentary

After attending the BCPSS School Board Meeting on Tuesday, March 13^th, I have been reflecting on the happenings at this meeting as well as the overall productivity of the meeting. The meeting, which started approximately 15 minutes late and lasted approximately 3 hours, was quite different than I expected it to be. Growing up in a small community, I attended our local school board meetings several times as a middle and high school student, and in fact knew most of the board members by name. I was familiar with the process and on goings at these meetings. Therefore, I was quite surprised to notice so many differences at the Baltimore City meeting. To begin, I do realize that Baltimore City is quite large in comparison to my own small district back home, and is thus responsible for so many more people and schools. This being said, I was appalled at the length of the general processes of the school board meeting, and was particularly surprised with the public commentary section.

As I had taken the time to get there early, I was surprised upon my arrival to find all seats filled. In fact, many people were sitting outside of the main room watching the meeting via a television screen. I had gone in thinking that people did not really care about the happenings at these meetings, and was initially filled with hope at seeing so many people. This being said, I was shocked when person after person left the meeting throughout the public commentary section, after they had stated their part. I was surprised at how many different people addressed the board, mentioned that they were not going to bring their ‘dirty laundry’ to the table, and then proceeded to do so. While I do understand the board’s need to communicate with the public by listening to their comments and concerns, I was also surprised at how much time was given to this portion of the meeting. Although each group and/or person is supposed to be allocated a certain number of minutes, very few if any stayed within their time limit, thus extending the meeting far beyond its expected duration.

Finally, I was frustrated toward the end of the meeting as more and more people left and the building cleared out. When the board finally moved on from the public comment section to its next step on the agenda, there were only 16 people left in a now practically empty room. At this time, the board presented the Budget Proposal for 2008, and described its alignment with the Master Plan. The board explained how much money was being allocated to each Goal of the Master Plan, and how the money would be divided within each section. Clearly, the proposed budget will affect every single person involved in Baltimore City schools. Looking around the empty room, I kept thinking that more people should hear this information. Even though people came to voice their own valid concerns, they did not stay to hear anybody else’s, nor did they stay to hear something as important as the budget proposal for the upcoming school year. This only validated my prior thought that many of our priorities are awry.

Although currently the minutes for this meeting have not been updated, I am hoping they will be posted shortly at the following address: http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/School_Board/index.asp. Also, if you are further interested in the budget overview, the board will be adopting this budget proposal during the 3/27 meeting, and then hopefully posting it for the public to view shortly after.