Fighting Local Bureaucracy
“Local Bureaucrat: But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?
Arthur Dent: Yes, yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard'”
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Fighting Franklin’s Board of Education’s Bureaucracy
The August Board of Education meeting comprised three distinct sections:
- A discussion of the Regionalization Study and public comment.
- A Executive Session expected to last 90 minutes to further discuss the Regionalization Study.
- A discussion on the budget, the bond referendum and the Superintendent search followed by public comment.
We joined members of the community at the August meeting and had to leave the room for the Executive Session. We talked for over an hour with our neighbors at the meeting but eventually all of us returned home to our families, and there were no members of the community remaining to hear why the board reduced the bond from $12M to $2.9M and the probable impact to our facilities, or the Superintendent search status.
This is either incompetence or a shocking disregard for the community. We have talked with people responsible for local authority meetings and got a consistent response – a board with respect for their community would hold the Executive Session after all topics that the community can listen to have concluded or before the meeting with a hard stop to ensure the start of the meeting is as advertised to the public.
Our community deserves better.
“Surely You can’t be Serious?” “I am Serious, and Don’t Call Me Shirley”
On 17th June the Board of Education held a meeting. As of 14-Sep the minutes of the meeting have not been posted.
As noted above the 19th August the Board of Education meeting supposedly informed the community about the progress of the Superintendent search, and the decision and reasons for a greatly reduced bond being put to the community for a vote. As of 14-Sep the only information the community has is Dr. Diaz’s letter on 22nd August which gave minimal information on these key topics.
The Board of Education is meeting on 16th September – as of 14th September 6:45PM no agenda has been posted so we have no idea what will be discussed at this meeting.
Regardless of whether this is a violation of the Sunshine Law or not – this is just insulting to the community. Perhaps the agenda is available in the municipal clerk’s office, perhaps the agenda has been provided to the local newspapers but this is 2024 and there is zero reason that this agenda on what we assume will be critical issues shouldn’t be available to our community through the Board’s own webpage.
Our community deserves better.