Second in a series
Re “Take 1, Ms. Chardiet, Please. No Second Take Needed”
[img]1248|right|Laura Chardiet||no_popup[/img]The new president of the School Board and the immediate past president are best pals with governing styles that are two planets apart.
During the past turbulent year when the intended bond measure was the target of a nuclear flameout, incoming President Laura Chardiet was asked if she had internally mapped out her responses while Kathy Paspalis was confronting various crises.
“One thing Kathy does really well,” said Ms. Chardiet, “is that she is present in the moment. She listens and she responds in the moment. She also knows people’s names. She doesn’t have to look at the cards.
“When we had a safety forum and people were making comments, she knew 99 percent of the names.”
Do you, Ms. Chardiet?
“I don’t,” she said candidly.
“Kathy knows a wider breadth of the community, just from being on the School Board two years longer.
“That is one of her many strengths.”
Ms. Chardiet’s subsequent line deserved to be seen not merely heard – or read.
“Obviously,” said the dainty actress with the darting mind, “I am nicer.”
She laughed richly.
Ms. Chardiet was asked if she has sketched an agenda for her year in the president’s chair.
“Big changes are at hand,” she said.
With the fairly radical concepts of the Local Control Funding Formula and the Common Core curriculum overhaul on the doorsteps of California school districts, the new calendar year is going to be a teeth-gritter for policy setters.
“Regardless of changes we may have in mind,” Ms. Chardiet said, the above alterations will color and dominate plans she and her four colleagues will formulate.
(To be continued)
