by Thaddeus Flint
Residents in the Berlin School District might notice this month that their abandoned schools in Stephentown and Grafton are looking, well, a bit more abandoned. The quick assumption might be that someone isn’t doing their job or that there is no money to mow the lawns at those buildings. Those assumptions, however, are far too simplistic for BCS, where just getting a lawn mowed is done by committee, or in the case of the Berlin School Board at the monthly meeting May 22, not done at all.
[private]To keep a lawn shorn at a school nobody goes to requires a multi-step process at BCS. Gone are the old days where the Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, Cyril Grant, would make sure the grass got cut when the grass needed to get cut. Now the whole project is put out to bid by the Board of Education. Right there anyone who has ever spent any time with the School Board would know that there will probably be a problem, but the Board had some success with it at first, and so it continued.
That was until the bid came up for renewal. At least one bid was received and probably would have been accepted had not Board Member Bev Stewart brought up the point that maybe it is not such a great idea to have family members of the Board being employed by the Board.
“We need a policy in place that deals with the hiring of Board member’s family,” said Stewart, who added that she would agree to the grass cutting contract once a policy was put in place.
District Superintendent Dr. Stephen Young noted that in a small district of small towns, there was a greater chance of someone being related to a Board member, “and sometimes they are the low bidders.”
“I’m not saying your second cousin,” pointed out Stewart, who counted “at least six” people on the payrolls. The six were not named, but Stewart said they included “a mom-in-law, a wife and a brother-in-law.” Whoever had the audacity to bid for the lawn mowing contract was not named either.
“All I’m saying is make sure we are getting the best person for the job, with no favors,” said Stewart, who has been saying the same thing for the last couple years, to no avail.
Board Member John Nash was in agreement. “The issue here is the ability to supervise them,” he said. “It creates problems.”
Meanwhile the grass was growing. One of the schools was already “looking pretty ratty,” observed Board Member Gina Goodermote. By the time a policy for the employment of family members of Board members could be put together and agreed to, small jungles could spring up. Actually it would most likely be July, which is when Stewart, Nash and Alan Webster Jr. are being replaced by returning Board Members Elizabeth Miller, Jeff Paine and Rachel Finney. At that point a policy might easily be adopted or the whole matter just forgotten now that Stewart was no longer around to bring it up every other month.
As both elementary schools are on the real estate market, it might help to have them looking marginally presentable in case anyone might come by wanting to buy a school in a town where your kids have to commute around a half hour to school. Board Member Frank Zwack advised extending the current contract for a month and that was voted on.
This might have put an end to the whole matter, but this being BCS what it actually accomplishes is the beginning of yet another fiasco.
Zwack and Goodermote and Board Member Katie Fiske voted for the extension. Nash and Stewart voted against. Board President Jim Willis abstained from the vote. Webster Jr. could have had the deciding vote if only he had come to the meeting. Since he didn’t, and in fact hasn’t been seen at the past few meetings, the vote was three for and two against, which Willis felt should have passed the motion.
Not according to Stewart. As Webster Jr. was missing, the Board as a whole failed to get a majority of votes. “It didn’t pass,” she said.
This created a whole new argument which nobody could solve as nobody had a copy of the school law book.
Zwack said, “Consult the parliamentarian!”
“Who’s the parliamentarian?” asked Nash.
Nobody had an answer for this.
“We don’t have a parliamentarian,” pointed out Nash.
“Well, Google it on the internet,” advised Zwack. But nobody seemed to want to be the one to Google it.
Stewart wanted to take a recess and find a copy of the school law book. The meeting was being held in a library in a school. There probably should be a copy someplace. But nobody wanted to be bothered to do that either. They just argued about it instead. Grant was consulted. What would happen if there was no contract for mowing?
“It’s not going to get mowed,” replied Grant.
“Leave it then,” said Zwack, who had had enough. “We won’t mow them then.”
Something Gets Done
What made this scene all the more outlandish was a presentation by the Middle School’s Student Council earlier in the night. Here were a group of young students planning trips and raising money to help others and generally getting some pretty impressive projects accomplished while the guiding Board of their school was coming apart over getting a lawn mowed.
Which is not to say that nothing gets done. A new policy outlining the use of personal electronic devices was voted on with all in favor. The outcome was the same when Zwack called for a strict policy in the case of any “incidents” involving a school bus with kids on it. 911 must be called from now on until a new formal policy is put in place. “Let the professionals who are in the business handle it,” was Zwack’s opinion.
The budget, put together over several months by both the Board and school administrators, was passed by voters the night before. Young thanked the voters for coming out and supporting a budget that provided “several new staff positions” that will allow the District to “reduce the drop-out rate and increase the graduation rate.” Around 71% of voters were in support of the new budget, although with only 444 votes being cast for and against the budget, voter turnout was below 10% of the population of the District.[/private]