Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta said he's not anticipating any last-minute additions to Tuesday's meeting agenda.
The inclusion of eight items at the board table on Dec. 1 without advance notice to all board members drew complaints from critics of the new majority. Normally, agenda items are added no later than 48 hours before a meeting.
Accusations flew that the new board majority was at least violating the spirit of the state Open Public Meetings Law.
The eight items were added at the last minute because the new board members, who were not sworn in yet, were able to meet as a group with Margiotta. But Margiotta said that's not possible now that everyone is in office.
The Dec. 1 board meeting was a topic on the latest episode of NC Spin.
Former state House Speaker Joe Mavretic said the new board majority "did it exactly right" by meeting in secret beforehand and sending a "clear message that change is here" with the agenda items.
"What do you think would have happened if they had 'transparency' and left those ideas out there for 60 days for public comment?," Mavretic said. "My gracious the News & Observer would have been all over them. So would the media, NCAE. Everybody who lost in the election would have had this 60-day period to throw darts and axes. I'm glad they did it just like they did."
But Chris Fitzsimon, director of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, responded that he had never disagreed with Mavretic more during the history of the program. He called the new board's actions, in which the agenda items weren't available ahead of time, an "abomination."
John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, said what's missing in the discussion is that the staff is, in his view, "the enemy" and "the adversary" of the new board. He said the new majority could have done some things differently, like having copies available, but he said they were "trying to avoid being outmaneuvered by the staff."
Hood compared the new board's actions to members of the state legislature meeting in caucus.
Comments
Chris throws another Fitz who?
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 13:48 — g88ky07He's as irrelevant as that CCCCAAACCCXYZ lady!
Gas up the VW honey, tomorrow change is a comin' and I can hardly wait to get there!
"John Hood, president of the
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 10:47 — user12345"John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, said what's missing in the discussion is that the staff is, in his view, "the enemy" and "the adversary" of the new board. He said the new majority could have done some things differently, like having copies available, but he said they were "trying to avoid being outmaneuvered by the staff."
So many enemies to slay / fire .... parents, teachers, staff, super, unions, minority groups ... the world seems to be closing in on these lonely five ....
They need to slay only the
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 12:41 — red_balloonThey need to slay only the enemies of education. Those harboring notions of WCPSS excellence and willing to play social engineering games at the expense of education need to be shown the door.
Quite the contrary. The
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 12:32 — changewcpssQuite the contrary. The world is opening up thanks to the majority 5. Parents and teachers are elated. They finally have reasonable folks in office to represent them.
Feel free to ignore the reality of the situation. Keep right on believing Lanane, Bader, and the frustrated 4 from the littlepicture4wakecountyschools gaggle. Voters have spoken, the truth is being exposed. Some selfish magnet parents and whiners are running scared.
It is sad when a board of
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 13:38 — user12345It is sad when a board of directors needs to fire all of its employees and ignore some of its customers to "save" a business.
I am not convinced that this board is anymore knowledgeable or receptive than the previous one ... they don't seem to be interested in understanding the issues or consequences before acting ... I guess both board found listening to all sides tiresome ... so, more of the same just from the Right this time ...
Not at all, it was a moment of delight
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 17:10 — Dadof3Businesses understand that there's always the rare customer that you can't please without taking a significant loss. Scaled up to the non-profit venture of public education, we must strive to hear all voices, but some voices are calling for issues that are not germane to education and well, some voices have other vested interests (political or power) that are not the County's.
This doesn't break right or left; it breaks in favor of the parents and voters for Wake County.
Just keep thinking that....
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:57 — Bob_SconceParents are behind the board, as are many teachers (although you wouldn't know it if you paid much attention to the NCEA). The Superintendent is part of the Staff that Hood was referring to. And, if you recall, the pre-election polls showed that black parents also don't like the busing program.
Instead, what you have is a bunch of very vocal people who are battling tooth and nail to avoid losing their hegemony.
If you don't think that Del Burns has a dog in the hunt, you're very misinformed.
So many games to play
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:55 — Dadof3For the Rip Taylor of blogging.
Your use of English is the only thing in common with the original post by Mr. Hui.
The only enemies we've ever had to (and will continue to) "slay" are fools who put everything but education into the mix.
User, you may want to
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:20 — woodstockUser, you may want to familiarize yourself with the following"
de⋅lu⋅sion
–noun
1. an act or instance of deluding.
2. the state of being deluded.
3. a false belief or opinion: delusions of grandeur.
4. Psychiatry. a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact: a paranoid delusion.
----------------
The new board members have tremendous support county-wide as evidenced by their overwhelming margin of victory in the elections and the much higher than normal turnout. Also, one only has to look at who it is who is screeching loudest to understand they are merely the fanatical fringe of the ultra-left.
Mr Hui
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 10:39 — supportwcpssDo you know of any way to skip to the part regarding the school board?
Link to NC Spin
Mon, 12/14/2009 - 11:06 — RichardAndersonhttp://www.carolinabroadcasting.com/NCSpinVideo.html
Dec 13 edition.
EDIT - ≈16:30 into the show is when they start on the board issue.