SouthsideCentral was LIVE! from the basement of the River District Plaza for Thursday’s Danville School Board meeting. This article is now complete, so enjoy the recap.
We’re underway. All board members are here tonight. Kathy Osborne isn’t here and board attorney Alan Spencer is taking the day off. City attorney Clarke Whitfield is taking Alan’s place. We start with the prayer and Pledge of Allegiance, then the approval of the minutes. Renee Hughes abstains from the approval of the minutes vote and I’m thinking it’s just for the hell of it. Or maybe she wants a special mention in this article for that abstention. Well, she’ll get that here.
RENEE HUGHES SHOCKS SCHOOL BOARD WITH HER SURPRISE VOTE!
Everybody’s ready to go.
Good seats are still available tonight. Very much available.
Nobody has signed up for the public comment section. Ed Polhamus says that the board wants to move to a sign up in advance policy for public comment. The sign up sheet is available at the door so that’s no problem. Now that I’ve had a few hours to think about that, I’m changing my mind. That’s an unnecessary step, considering that the clipboard is in the room and there’s no advance requirement. And another thing… there should be a public comment section at both monthly meetings. The second meeting of the month is the “work session”, but it’s just another meeting at heart. Both meetings should have a public comment section and an around the horn session. Oh well.
We heart Juliet Jennings.
On to personnel time where the board has to officially approve every change. The amazingly awesome Juliet Jennings has six personnel recommendations including the hiring of three new teachers.
Policy changes are approved and the board decides to use two existing labs in the vocational building for the upcoming precision machining program. That will allow for a full class of 20 juniors & 20 seniors in the program.
That’s pretty much it tonight, folks. Superintendent Stan Jones lets the board know that WSET is running a story on long lunch lines at GW because all students get free lunch now. The around the horn session has Philip Campbell talking about the Law Enforcement & Community Day. Steven Gould mentions Galileo’s Newsweek recognition. Ed Polhamus concurs. Renee Hughes gets tonight’s last word and we’re done. The board will move into a closed session after the recess and I’m heading to Texas Steakhouse for “Tunes at the Saloon”.
Thanks for reading the most comprehensive coverage of tonight’s rather uneventful Danville School Board meeting. Heh.
I find this FREE food story to be outrageous. Long lines? Well of course if you offer it (free lunches) everyone will take advantage of it, but this is totally wrong. How in the world can EVERYONE be ENTITLED to a free lunch? Our system is SO broken. I don’t know whoever came up with the idea to use a “percentage” of people qualifying for a free lunch = everyone gets it, but that’s just wrong. Some people need it and should get it. But to have an entire school (GW) get it burns me up. Money could be better spent in the school system, local and state government. That is only teaching the future generation….take what you can and get what you can without having to do a damn thing to get it. Totally disgusting!