School board to discuss Patrick Henry at 4.30pm

Ross Catrow — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:39:01 +0000

The RPS school board has decided to discuss the Patrick Henry Initiative at its 4.30pm meeting today.

Typically the school board reserves the 4.30 meeting to discuss boring legal business that does not concern parents or citizens -- its 6.00pm meeting is reserved for the juicy tidbits. You can find the agenda (released on Friday) for tonight's meeting here.

I just spoked to Keith West, the district seven rep, and he confirmed that the board will discuss the charter school recommendation at the 4.30 meeting. He also said that the agenda is George Braxton's (the chairman and district four's rep) agenda and that it is "very unusual" to discuss something like this at the earlier meeting.

Update:

From District Three Rep Carol Wolf:

Changing an agenda at the last minute, for whatever reason, is not something that instills trust. There is nothing that can be said by either proponents or opponents to the Patrick Henry Charter Initiative that cannot, or should not, be said to the widest possible audience. We gain nothing as a system or a society when we appear to engage in efforts that will squelch public comment or the right to dissent.
Dissent is as American as the 4th of July. Elected officials who seek to stifle public comment or dissent by scheduling meetings at inconvenient times, harm the fundamental freedoms that this nation is supposed to promote and protect.
I respectfully and firmly disagree with this action. ~ Carol

Update two:

This from Kim Bridges the First district rep:

The 4:30 agenda item is NOT the vote on the charter proposal - it is
the presentation of the updates that the Charter group sent to RPS
late last week.
The board will still hear public comments on the charter proposal
during the 6:00 meeting, though. I'll make that motion if no one else
does first.
The vote should take place during the regular school board meeting of
5/19, allowing additional time for the new information and the PHI
group's work to be factored into the decision-making.

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