Bloggin’ on the Edge

Posted by Scott Spielman at 3:00 AM | Comments

Dear Mr./Ms: _______________

Congratulations on your appointment Tuesday night as the president of the Northville Public School Board.
I am sure you are well-qualified for the position and will do a capable job of guiding the board through the difficult year ahead.

I’m writing this a day before the board convenes to elect new officers. I’m not sure who they will be, even though right now I could find out with a call. The decision has already been made—and probably finalized when the results of the May school board elections were certified.

Those who are not familiar with the process should expect a brief process, unanimous votes and plenty of platitudes.

That’s OK, too. This is one of those rare political processes that plays out best behind the scenes, rather than in front of the cameras and everyone. These people have to work together for the next two years and tackle some difficult subjects—there’s no room for hurt feelings to get in the way.

It plays into something I’ve heard often at recent Northville School Board meetings: concern about the lack of disagreement—or even a negative vote—among school board members.

Residents have walked away, shaking their head and wondering if their concerns have been heard after they’ve given impassioned pleas about the fate of one of the teachers who was laid off, or the ongoing non-negotiations with the teachers’ union, or the study of privatization of some services.

In some cases, they’re right. When these issues come up for discussion at the board level, the talk is usually more explanatory than anything else, as various members of the board describe what has brought them to that particular point.

This doesn’t mean, though, that all these decisions happen around some coffee table before residents have a chance to weigh in on them in front of the cameras. Much of the background discussion takes place at subcommittee meetings, which are set regularly and frequently. It’s the same in other districts, too.

There’s a perfect example of this in the board packet for the July 10 Northville meeting. One agenda item outlined the regular school board meetings, another the subcommittee meetings—which are akin to study sessions in some municipalities.

The list of board meetings fits in a single neat, vertical row. The board meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays for most of the year, but only once in July.

The list of subcommittee meetings is a little more complex—it’s a horizontal spreadsheet complete with footnotes.

The board always listens to resident comments. They sometimes don’t impact the decision—as in the case with the teachers—because there’s sometimes no other alternative. That doesn’t mean that they’re a body of rubber-stampers impervious to the will of the community. They’re just the opposite.

Originally published in the July 12 edition of the Journal Newspapers.

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