At tonight’s 7 o’clock School Board meeting — inside School District headquarters on Irving Place — members will debate the wisdom and the pitfalls of permanently shifting their meetings wholesale — if that is what they want — around the corner to City Hall.
“We are interested in moving to City Council Chambers whenever possible,” Scott Zeidman, who will be selected President of the Board next month, said this morning.
When Board member Karlo Silbiger, the passionate champion of this projected site change, appeared before the City Council last night seeking confirmation of his longtime dream, he encountered at least two complicating roadblocks:
• Advisory commissions already are scheduled for the second Tuesday, and the Board’s long-entrenched schedule has them meeting the second and fourth Tuesdays.
• An annual rental fee in the range of $1,600 seemed to be a wedge subject before the Council last night even though it is relative pocket change.
Mr. Zeidman was asked if the School Board could fine-tune its meeting schedule.
“Theoretically we could,” he said. “We want to make this (transfer) as convenient as possible for the people who are interested in what is going on in our schools. This has nothing to do with wanting to sit in more comfortable chairs. My seat at the School District is comfortable. To move to City Council Chambers, it is a lot more comfortable for the audience, and it allows people at home more readily to see what is going on.
Adapting to City Hall
“In my opinion, moving there makes perfect sense whenever possible.”
Those last two words were packed with subtle power.
Does “whenever possible” mean a fulltime move?
Said Mr. Zeidman:
“No, it does not. Let’s say, for example, it only is available on the fourth Tuesday of the month. There is nothing wrong with saying ‘Every second Tuesday we meet on Irving Place and every fourth Tuesday in Council Chambers.’ That is a consistent schedule people can follow.
“What I would like to avoid is meeting there sometimes, whenever — that may be too hard for people to figure out where we are.
“Could we move to another tonight? Theoretically, we could.
“Is there another night available that will make it better for the public? How about the public that expects the School Board on Tuesday nights? Are we not defeating the purpose if we move to the second Wednesday and the fourth Tuesday, or something like that?
“If we had a schedule that said we are at the School District offices on the second Tuesday and we are at City Council on the fourth Tuesday of every month, that is a schedule people can understand.
“If the commissions (meeting on Tuesdays in Council Chambers) wanted to move to, say, Thursdays, of course I don’t mind that. But I can’t imagine us saying, ‘Look, you must move.’
“We have not discussed this as a Board. So I can’t tell you what the Board is thinking.”
Mr. Zeidman hailed the City Council’s somewhat unexpected vote last night to table the matter until a coherent message is sent by the School Board. “We need to give them exact direction of what we want,” he said.
