One magnet that drew supporters to Prof. Kelly Kent’s winning School Board campaign was the immediate conviction that she would be pro-active.
In preparation for her first Board meeting next month, Dr. Kent practically has been on roller skates, participating in multiple rounds of meetings.
“I am meeting with everyone and their mother,” she said. “Meeting upon meeting.”
No sleeping in late, not that she would anyway with two young children.
“Apparently, people on the School Board just lovvvve to meet for breakfast,” she said with a lilt. “That’s the newest thing, getting up super early, looking bright-eyed and meeting for breakfast.”
Dr. Kent was speaking just after a robust two-hour breakfast with Board member Sue Robins. “I had some questions for her,” said the freshman member. “Like, ‘What are the passions you hope to get accomplished over the next couple of years?’ And ‘How do the reorganization meetings work when new officers are selected?’
“I had a lot of questions about process, how processes work, and also about issues,” said Dr. Kent. “We talked a lot about ideas and history.”
When she huddles with others, she wants to talk about the Brown Act boundaries that forbid an elected official from consulting with more than one member on an issue up for a vote.
“I want to know more about that because I am trying to figure out issues where I will work well with other people. I would like to have one issue with each Board member.
“That,” said Dr. Kent, “is my goal right now.”
When the School Board convenes in November and Dr. Kent and Anne Burke are sworn in as freshmen, the Board will have a new Ms. Bursting Personality now that Laura Chardiet is stepping down.
Don’t look for Dr. Kent to curl in a corner and wait, shyly, to be called on.
With a month still to go, she is fireworksing with bombs of unspent energy.
The next four years promise to be entertaining and enlightening.
“I am so excited, I am just beside myself,” she said. “I know people don’t want me to come in guns blazing. I won’t. I know I have to be tempered and patient. I really have proven I can be a grownup. I will be fine.”
