The mystery of what ever happened to School Board member Laura Chardiet’s proposal for a sweeping Board policy change regarding certain teaching assistants is about to be resolved.
But probably not in a meaningful way for at least a month, according School Board President Karlo Silbiger.
Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin, one of the community’s most active moms in preserving the present threatened status of adjuncts at El Marino Language School, offered an opinion on that development.
Before a capacity crowd at last week’s Board meeting in Council Chambers, Ms. Chardiet’s attempt to get the matter agendized was – not accidentally – stalled. More candidly, it appeared to be pointedly ignored.
Besides Ms. Chardiet, one “soft yes” was heard from Kathy Paspalis. No other trace of agreement, leaving at least three opposed.
“There wasn’t clear direction that night,” Supt. Patti Jaffe said this afternoon. Of last week’s meeting
She promised there will be movement at Tuesday night’s 7 o’clock meeting in School District headquarters
“The issue of Board Policy 1240, volunteer assistants, in relation to Board By-law 9310, changing Board policy, will be addressed,” Ms. Jaffe pledged.
In response to a request from the newspaper about why action was not taken at last week’s meeting to agendize or reject Ms. Chardiet’s plan, Board President Silbiger said:
“There are two ways for things to be agendized. Either, three or more members can direct staff to work on something and agendize it for an upcoming meeting or any single member of the Board can ask for something to be agendized with limited staff time. In this case, two members of the Board asked for something to be agendized. There was no possibility of a vote on Feb. 28 because it was not an agendized action item. Any vote would have been in violation of the Brown Act.
“Once items are agendized through either of the above methods, the Board President and Superintendent work to schedule it onto the appropriate agenda.
“This is a complicated process that includes determining how much time our staff needs to prepare their report and how full our upcoming agendas are.
“In this case, Ms. Jaffe and I spoke by phone earlier this week and decided that with an item this important and controversial, we would schedule a study session for Tuesday, April 10. In fact, that looks to be the only item on that agenda.”
Ms. Wisnosky Stehlin’s reaction:
“I am wondering if you know why Karlo Silbiger thinks this is a controversial item.
While I agree with him that it’s important, over 1,034 people have signed a petition asking the School Board to write a policy protecting volunteers and booster club-funded programs and positions. That’s a lot of people, considering how many (or how few) people voted in the last School Board election. Has he expanded on why he says this is controversial?”
