BURKEonBOARD

(Dec. 16, 2008) – If you wanted to make a bet with me at 5:30 this evening about what was going to happen tonight, you could have made a lot of money.

I’m talking about the special Farmington School Board meeting to interview candidates and select a replacement for a coming vacancy on the Farmington board.

Tonight, the board chose Veronica Walter over Carol Kappes for that seat even though the board knew full well that Walter is not a charter member of the Brad Meeks Fan Club and has been critical of how the board has conducted some of its business.

Walter’s selection paves the way for some potentially interesting dynamics once the new board is seated in January. There will be three new board members in January–Walter, Julie Singewald and yours truly–all of whom have taken issue with how the board does business and how it kowtows to Superintendent Meeks.

With the new board seemingly split three to three, there is reason to hope that on some important issues there will have to be some real debate and movement of at least one board member.

Perhaps more important than any particular issue is that all three new board members have a lot of questions and plan to ask them in public and expect to receive those answers in public. That will be a change from the way business is done now. A big change.

All the existing board member know this and they can’t be excited about what is lilkely to come. Nor can Meeks. So why did the board vote to seat Walter over Kappes?

They really didn’t have any choice. Their own process of public interviews of both candidates made it clear to all who attended there could only be one choice. And the board made the right one. Good for them.

And good for us.

Anyone who knows Veronica and also knows me, knows there are probably precious few partisan elections for which we vote for the same candidates. But I voted for her and I’m glad she’s going to be on our school board.

(Dec. 12, 2008) – It’s still not easy getting a straight answer from the Farmington School District. If you don’t ask precisely the right question, you don’t the right answer, even though they know full well what is being requested.

In any case, after asking the question a couple different ways, and after the district lost the initial request, it appears we now have an answer to question: How much school district taxpayer money was spend trying to keep the superintendent’s contract secret over the course of more than a year and a half.

The answer? Almost $8000 ($7989 to be precise) in attorney’s fees.

I suspect that some administrators and current board members think this is money I caused them to waste (judging from a comment that Terry Donnelly made at the last board meeting). It probably doesn’t occur to them that all that money that someone at the district chose to spend, could have been saved had they simply released the superintendent’s contract in the first place.

I’m curious. Who authorized the district’s attorneys to spend time on this matter? I never heard it discussed at a board meeting. Did the superintendent decide to spend the money keeping his contract secret on his own, or did he get an informal approval from the board chairwoman to do so?

Maybe it will get brought up at the next regular board meeting. I understand there will a couple new board members then.

(Dec. 8, 2008) – Hope you’re planning at attend this evening’s school board meeting. It’s going to be one of those “tax ‘n spend” meetings.

First the spend part.

With nary a whisper, the board has scheduled a vote on a new three year contract for superintendent Brad Meeks and we know nothing about what’s in it. No one is saying a word about what’s in the contract. After all we went through earlier this year and the district spending almost $4000 in lawyers fees trying to keep Meeks’ contract secret, then being slapped down by a state ruling, they’re still trying to keep the public, you and me, in the dark.

Some people never learn.

An educated guess is that the board will be voting on a contract that raises Meeks’ salary to around $180,000 a year with benefits pushing it well over $200,000 a year.

Now the tax part.

At the same time the board is giving Meeks a fat pay raise while many folks are trying to hang on to their jobs, the board will also vote on a tax increase. It would fund the sale of bonds to pay future health insurance benefits for retired district employees.

I think this is a really bad idea.

Even if you don’t agree, though, we should all be able to agree that in this economy, with foreclosures mounting, people losing jobs, this is not the time to add additional taxes on the backs of local property owners.

The problem the board proposes to solve is not dire and it’s not imminent.

Even if this is the right solution (and it isn’t), this is the wrong time to do it.

I hope you will make a special effort to attend Monday night’s school board meeting.

Show up and tell the board, “We need time to look at Meeks’ new contract before they vote on it.”

Show up and tell the board, “No tax increase to pay for a bond sale we don’t need.”

The meeting is in the Farmington High School Little Theater at the south end of the building.

The meeting starts a 7 p.m. Pick up a blue slip by the door and sign-up to speak when the contract and the tax increases are discussed.

This board counts on the silence of the public to do what you don’t want. It’s time to speak up.