November 12th RIH BOE Meeting Recap: Superintendent Goals Approved, Block Scheduling Talks Begin, But Board Drama Steals the Spotlight
- RIH Board Watch
- Nov 13, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 14, 2024
Update from the RIH BOE meeting of November 12:
Block Scheduling:
Upcoming Block Scheduling presentations and discussions were announced:
Nov 21, 7pm
General Virtual Info Session
Nov 25, 8pm
Next BOE Meeting
Jan 14-15
Kitchen Table Conversations with Superintendent
Superintendent Report:
Superintendent DeMarco stated that her Superintendent Goals were aligned with Board Committees to make it easier for the Board members to assess accountability and crafted based on assessment of interests of all groups that contribute to our schools as well as the Superintendent Job Posting.
It was not clear how the interests of all groups were collected, since the Strategic Plan (which included input from many, many community members) was not mentioned as a consideration in formulating the goals. Again, I note, in my opinion, the Strategic Plan appears to remain on the shelf, because the Board members and Superintendent are not referring to it or following it (cherry picking a few items to follow and ignoring the other recommendations). While the Board did not act to either approve or shelve the plan, it is notably not being followed.
Nonetheless, the Superintendent put out an aggressive list of goals, and I hope the Board will be supportive so she will be successful in meeting them.
The Superintendent Goals passed unanimously with no discussion. I will address more details on these goals and the strategic plan in separate posts. Stay tuned.
Board Business Observation:
Board meetings are for conducting Board business. None of the Board members had a single question or comment about the agenda items in front of them, other than Ms. Souders thanking Ms. DeMarco for the goals. All agenda items passed unanimously. The Board’s business was done in under 15 minutes.
The meeting was one hour and 21 minutes. What took up the rest of the time? Board members' attacks on each other, board members defense of their past records (some which conflicting with their prior statements), board members accusing members of the community for spreading misinformation, board members evaluating and blaming previous administrators for failures to execute, etc. If you have an hour and twenty-one minutes you can listen for yourself.
The most sensible comment of the evening came from Melissa Kiel: "I just want to say I see no purpose in speaking of what happened in the past and past board decisions, whether it's regarding block scheduling or any other topic because we live in the world of the present and the future. And I look forward to future board initiatives and making positive changes moving forward. And I see no benefit in bringing up past actions. That's it." While her comment made sense, it was ironic, considering Melissa herself has often brought up past decisions to criticize fellow Board members at previous meetings.
Here the link to the Livestream Archive: https://www.rih.org/board_of_ed/meeting_calendar_livestream/board_livestream_archives
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