Without a particle of tension being detected between School Board member Karlo Silbiger and Supt. Dr. Myrna Rivera Cote at last night’s meeting after their weekend email exchange, the few eyes in the room shifted from personalities to a discussion over whether the meeting site should be changed.
Except for high-profile meetings, such as next Wednesday’s 7 o’clock date at Lin Howe School when budget cuts will be studied, most School Board meetings could be held on the running board of a getaway van. The softest work assignment in Culver City is setting up folding chairs for the anticipated peanut-sized throng every other Tuesday night at School District headquarters.
To stir slightly more community interest, Mr. Silbiger lately has been championing shifting the meetings two blocks west to Council Chambers at City Hall. It is spacious, palatial, and crucially, this would allow the meetings to be televised, Mr. Silbiger’s main objective.
Board member Pat Siever has a different idea. She would like to rotate Board meetings among the various schools, again motivated by accommodation. If you bring the meetings to the community, the community will come out, Ms. Siever believes.
However, there are problems with both proposals, said Board Vice President Scott Zeidman.
On school sites: If you shift meetings from campus to campus, he contended, there will be a loss of continuity. The few people who attend could lose track of the location.
Mr. Zeidman lauded a move to City Hall as a grand idea, a healthy elevation in prestige, a professional setting representing a sharp upgrade from the informal living-room style environment at the District building.
But logistical hurdles may be insurmountable. The School Board’s regular meeting night already is spoken for. Changing the meeting night would eliminate at least one Board member, who has a prior professional commitment.
Mr. Zeidman said almost invisible attendance at Board meetings may be explained by the observation that they are boring.
Regardless, the site-change discussion will be resumed in July.
Meanwhile, when last night’s 3 ½-hour meeting ended at 10:30, four eyes remained in the room. Two belonged to Alan Elmont and two to George Laase.
