What happend at the Nashville School Board meeting of April 9

This school board meeting is only 48 minutes long, which is kind of short for a Metro School Board meeting. The meeting ends abruptly mid-sentence instead of continuing to adjournment, so I don't know if more occurred than is what on this video or not, but I assume nothing else important took place. It looks like they were about through the agenda. The school board produces good agendas with all of the attachments. To follow along with the agenda follow this link.

One thing I like about School Board meetings is the effort to involve students and recognize outstanding student achievement and the opportunity for public involvement. School Board meetings really have a much more community town hall feel than do Metro Council meetings. If you have never watched one, please do. Anyone may address the board during the pubic comment period, so if you have a complaint or suggestion to the school board, you can to be heard. School board meeting are not simply about school policy and passing resolutions.  One can really get a feel for what is going on in the schools from watching a school board meeting.

It is announced that two school board members will be attending the National School Board Members Associations in San Diego. I do not have a problem with members of our school board attending a national conference. I tend to think it is a good thing that members of our school board are networking with school board members from across the nation. National conferences, however, can be occasions for a vacation at taxpayers' expense and I hope there is adequate accountability to insure that this is a justifiable use of public funds. While in general I think it is a good thing that members of the Council and the School Board attend national conferences, I think there should be a report of how much this is costing the taxpayers.

At 34:35 in the video the Board begins the discussion of the proposed annual school budget and presents a slide presentation on the budget. The proposal is for an increase in funding of approximately $43.7 million or a 6.1% increase over the current budget. To see more detail of the draft budget see the agenda starting at page 67 at this link.

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