Clarkston Board of Education has unfinished business leftover for Monday’s meeting ? whether to change board policy allowing trustees to cast votes electronically in the event of an ’emergency.?
Examples of emergencies cited at the last board meeting include trustees sick in the hospital, pandemic, schools shut down, everyone confined to their homes, utter chaos.
We don’t buy it.
In those kinds of dire circumstances, the least of anyone’s worries would be student and staff recognitions, budget reports, curriculum updates, and other items on a typical school board agenda.
The superintendent would have emergency powers typical of any executive, anyway.
The real reason for such a change, as we see it, is convenience for board members, pure and simple. It would be interesting to see what would end up an ’emergency? if the policy change happened.
The job of any board member is to render decisions after careful consideration, only possible in the presence of other board members. Voting in absentia robs fellow board members of an opportunity to persuade, or at least have their views heard.
Being at meetings is a commitment trustees accepted when taking their oaths of office.
? PMC