The Bored Board

Thursday, April 27, 1995

Well, last night’s Board meeting was less eventful than feared or anticipated, at least according to the Times, which ran a tiny article buried at the lower right corner of page two of the Ventura County section. It told of six students who spoke before the board in protest over the proposed schedule change. The Board was unable to comment on the statements/complaints/requests because the subject was not on the agenda. Right.

When I arrived on campus, nobody knew any different; we’d all read the same article. Then I ran into Shirley, a science teacher, who had driven by the meeting last night, on her way back from grocery shopping. She asked me if I knew what had happened at the meeting; I recounted the Times account. She begged to differ. According to her, there was an overflow crowd, since Cedric was out in the street directing traffic. Well, this is different. So was a local radio’s station estimate of how many parents were there... one hundred.

By the end of first period, a few teachers had heard from students who had been there. Supposedly it was a packed and vocal house, and the Board allowed some students and parents to speak. But the Board didn’t listen. One student went so far to tell the members to stop looking at their watches and the walls and to listen to what the "People" had to say. To no avail. After allowing a few placating turns at the podium, the Board made no decision or statement on the matter and went on with their agenda.

This story is corroborated time and time again over the course of the day. Some embellish the story with 90-second time constraints for speakers, with one Board member shouting out Thirty seconds!" when speakers had taken up a minute of the Bored Board’s valuable time. The basic student consensus was that it was a waste of time.

A valuable civics lesson.

Ah, cynicism creeps in again.

Sorry.