There was a spring in the step of School Board member Scott Zeidman as he walked away from the Lin Howe School campus a little after 6:30 last evening.
“I am very excited, and I am very happy,” he said about the just-completed Community Meeting that he had called.
His attitude, no exaggeration, could be catching.
Setting the Scene
Seated at a front-of-the-room table with School District Supt. Dr. Myrna Rivera Cote, Asst. Supt. David El Fattal and School Board colleague Dr. Jessica Beagles-Roos, the always-spirited Mr. Zeidman emceed a lively give-and-take session with unbashful parents.
The 95-minute meeting was one of those oddities — a community round table over a wall of District-wide budget cuts that actually was upbeat, not funereal.
Mr. Zeidman’s enthusiasm and his infectious energy seem to be prodding once-dormant areas of the community into actively participating in the budget-cutting process.
Some $3.7 million in expenses needs to be trimmed from the District budget, roughly one-third of that total by the end of this school year.
Being Punctual
During his campaign last autumn to join the Board, Mr. Zeidman probably was the most punctual of the candidates, and again yesterday, he was the first to arrive at the scene.
Not empty-handed, either.
He came in a little before 5 with an armload of pizzas and trimmings for a crowd that promised to be properly hungry.
He was excited that 47 community members came to Lin Howe at a slightly off hour, 5 o’clock.
Floating Opinions
The worried, well-informed and motivated parents immediately plunged into the spirit of the moment, They asked questions and freely handed off opinions about what should and should not be sacred.
Mr. Zeidman also was pleased that three of his four School Board colleagues, at various points in the program, wandered into Lin Howe.
Because of the much feared Brown Act, no more than two Board members may appear at one time at a public assembly.
There was some fast shuffling when first-year Board member Steve Gourley arrived before the meeting started, and later on when Saundra Davis came into the cafeteria setting.
Motivation
Mr. Zeidman has been attempting to inspire colleagues and School District families into getting involved, hoping to engineer wider community participation in sensitive District decisions.
He raised the possibility of placing a parcel tax propositions before voters in the not-distant future.
He said he wanted to be sure his Board colleagues knew that he was grateful for their presence.
El Fattal’s Directness
Most parents came to the meeting because they had questions about the 58 tentatively proposed personnel and programmatic cuts proposed by the citizens’ Community Budget Advisory Committee.
More than 50 questions were raised, many of them aimed at Mr. El Fattal, who impressed the crowd with the forthrightness and the clarity of his answers.
Perhaps the most touching moment was when Christopher Knight of the 11-member security staff spoke up. The citizens committee has suggested cutting three security persons. Mr. Knight made a plain, eloquent, undramatic statement about the nature of his responsibilities.
His remarks seemed to hit several parents hard because they set off a chain reaction of comments in defense of Mr. Knight and his colleagues.
Families Worried About Security
Parents of both boy and girl students emphasized the importance of a vigilant security staff for the safety of their children.
Mr. Zeidman, and for that matter Dr. Beagles-Roos, Dr. Cote and Mr. El Fattal listened thoughtfully.
Reading the main question in the eyes of audience members, Mr. Zeidman said, “I can’t tell you we will and I can’t tell you we won’t (make certain cuts). We will just have to wait and see.”
