The School Board has "Ruffled Some Feathers"
September 8th, 2011
I little feather has been ruffled on behalf of our School
Board and the almost $1 billion dollar budget recently passed for our
Collier County Schools.
Through emails I have recently received, I find out that only two board members were present at this meeting. Seems odd, don't you think? This is a pretty important meeting, am I right? I thought we had more members than that? I recall voting for, let's see, five! Yes, five!
The email also went on to say that two others were called in and one did neither. This person who emailed me and yourself are probably wondering if this is a big deal or not? Is this normal that only two of our School Board members physically show up for such a big budget meeting?
Now don't get me wrong, I did read that there was an earlier workshop pertaining to this budget and conclusions may have already been set in stone. But why on earth do us taxpayers hire board members if they cannot attend meetings in full? Is there a law? When are we going to set our priorities as elected officials and do our jobs as we were hired to do?
School is now in session and so are these 5 seats. We have had all summer long to get our vacations out of the way. There is no excuse for all 5 not to attend this meeting. Unless of course something serious I can understand.
Also keep in mind, the two that did show up, Julie Sprague and Kathy Curatolo, are the two that may be going for re-election next year. The call ins, Barbara Berry and Roy Terry. Reading through the email, call ins mean they attended the meeting via phone. Pat Carroll neither attended nor called in.
So with this tid-bit of information sent through emails amongst 26 individuals, the question lies by the main email recipient, she wrote:
"I’m wondering what you all think about that? Perhaps I am making a big deal out of nothing but I don’t think so. Even if it is legal, it just doesn’t seem right to me."
Another email recipient wrote:
"When I missed work, I didn't get paid. It should be the same for our elected officials."
And one last email recipient wrote:
"If I can't be there, I always have substitute hosts and I always call in to thank them on the air regardless of where I am. These board members are guardians of the public trust. To coin a commercial phrase "so what's in your wallet". It is a sad day when a nearly 1 Billion Dollar budget, paid for by us, is simply approved via phone calls."
I could not agree more.
And if you would like to read up on the article NDN recently published on behalf of this budget, here you go!
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/sep/06/school-board-members-approve-9385-million-budget-i/
And of course, your thoughts please.
Through emails I have recently received, I find out that only two board members were present at this meeting. Seems odd, don't you think? This is a pretty important meeting, am I right? I thought we had more members than that? I recall voting for, let's see, five! Yes, five!
The email also went on to say that two others were called in and one did neither. This person who emailed me and yourself are probably wondering if this is a big deal or not? Is this normal that only two of our School Board members physically show up for such a big budget meeting?
Now don't get me wrong, I did read that there was an earlier workshop pertaining to this budget and conclusions may have already been set in stone. But why on earth do us taxpayers hire board members if they cannot attend meetings in full? Is there a law? When are we going to set our priorities as elected officials and do our jobs as we were hired to do?
School is now in session and so are these 5 seats. We have had all summer long to get our vacations out of the way. There is no excuse for all 5 not to attend this meeting. Unless of course something serious I can understand.
Also keep in mind, the two that did show up, Julie Sprague and Kathy Curatolo, are the two that may be going for re-election next year. The call ins, Barbara Berry and Roy Terry. Reading through the email, call ins mean they attended the meeting via phone. Pat Carroll neither attended nor called in.
So with this tid-bit of information sent through emails amongst 26 individuals, the question lies by the main email recipient, she wrote:
"I’m wondering what you all think about that? Perhaps I am making a big deal out of nothing but I don’t think so. Even if it is legal, it just doesn’t seem right to me."
Another email recipient wrote:
"When I missed work, I didn't get paid. It should be the same for our elected officials."
And one last email recipient wrote:
"If I can't be there, I always have substitute hosts and I always call in to thank them on the air regardless of where I am. These board members are guardians of the public trust. To coin a commercial phrase "so what's in your wallet". It is a sad day when a nearly 1 Billion Dollar budget, paid for by us, is simply approved via phone calls."
I could not agree more.
And if you would like to read up on the article NDN recently published on behalf of this budget, here you go!
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/sep/06/school-board-members-approve-9385-million-budget-i/
And of course, your thoughts please.
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