Re “Silbiger Tells Critic to Check Last Night’s Agenda”
To Karlo Silbiger:
I read yesterday that you confessed to writing parents and telling them that “the School Board is in the early stages of considering this issue (about a union and El Marino Language School) to make sure that we comply with all state and federal statutes and our collective bargaining agreement with our employees.”
You printed the same thing in the newspaper.
When someone said that there wasn’t “consideration of this issue” on any school board agenda you tried to correct them explaining that item 3.2 covered the issue. You said, “As everyone knows, this issue related to the adjuncts (a reference to the parents of El Marino Language School opposing unionization) is a negotiable item. It would, therefore, be an obvious topic for discussion in Closed Session with our staff, who are negotiating with the union.”
Okay, I will accept that the topic could have been covered in item 3.2 in Closed Session. That solves one of your problems but creates an even bigger, more troubling problem.
If you discussed the parent-funded volunteer topic during Closed Session, how could you then tell parents and the newspaper what was discussed in Closed Session?
Isn’t Closed Session supposed to be super-secret? Isn’t that the reason that you have Closed Session? Is the School Board President allowed to tell the public what was said in Closed Session?
The way it looks to me, either you misled us when you said that “the School Board is in the early stages of considering this issue to make sure that we comply with all state and federal statutes and our collective bargaining agreement with our employees,” or you broke the rules for Closed Session.
Ms. Turner may be contacted at Roselovesdavid@yahoo.com
