Shortest meeting on record?

If you attended tonight’s Board of Ed meeting, or if you watched online or on Channel 77, you may have been surprised at how, well, uneventful the meeting was. First of all, the meeting was scheduled for 5:00 p.m. but didn’t start until around 5:45. Then, after the Pledge of Allegiance and comments from four members of the community, Dr. Fishbein made a brief statement, and then the meeting was adjourned. What was that all about?

Well, as Dr. Fishbein stated, we have a couple of things developing in terms of the budget. First, the District received some promising information from a new health insurance vendor and it looks like we will be able to cut some from the benefits line of the new budget. We are waiting to have the exact quote in writing, any day now. Second, we are in conversations with the REA (hence our late arrival at the Board table). In light of those two developments, we will be reprioritizing the list of cuts and preparing the final budget for next Wednesday’s official Public Hearing and the Board’s approval. It did not make sense to discuss the cuts any further -- nor to discuss the tax increase or potential for a waiver -- while things are in possible flux.

I do apologize to those who were waiting for us at 5:00. Our Executive Session meeting lasted longer than expected. Thank you for your patience.

The next meeting will be Wednesday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m. in the RHS Campus Center.