Meeting Two: No rhymes, also no fun

For my second meeting, I decided to check out a school board meeting. The Orange County School Board met on October 26, 2010. I know…That is before the date of my first meeting, how is that possible? I simply decided to write in reverse order.

I expected to be extremely bored, but what I had forgotten is that I had already met two of the members of the school board.

I worked for a radio show on WEUS the Big 810 in Orlando this passed summer. Joie Cadle, Chairman from District 1, and Superintendent Ronald Blocker, were both on the show and I had the pleasure of meeting both of them.

It made it easier to bare witness to this meeting, being familiar with two of the members.

The meeting started with a moment of silence for one of the board’s colleagues who had recently passed away. The thing that touched me the most is when it was brought up that the deceased had left 3 beloved dogs behind. I tend to have a soft spot for dogs, probably more-so than humans. That’s something maybe I should work on.

Again, like the first meeting, the members following up the opening by handing out various awards.

I began to wonder how much these awards truly meant. They seem to be pretty frivolous in bestowing them upon people.

One thing that I found interesting was the name plate in from of Kathleen Gordon. It read: Kathleen “Kat” Gordon.

What struck me as being “out of place” was the need for a nickname. In such a formal setting, it seemed odd to place the board member’s nickname on the plate. It made it a bit difficult to take her seriously. I found it a bit pretentious.

The next item on the agenda was the rejection of two applications for charter schools. I wasn’t really sure what was going on here, but I knew then and there that I do not want to report on politics. I never really did have an interest, and sitting through these meetings made that interest even more so.

They covered ESOL (English for speakers of foreign languages), enrollment changes according to numbers and demographics, and much more.

I realize that a school board meeting is far from high level politics, but the bureaucracy is the same.

They read labels for schools and explained what each meant. They discussed timelines for various projects. Each time they used numbers, rather than simply using a title that would describe what was actually happening.

I applaud those who can sit through this type of meeting and decipher what was covered. Aside from seeing the two individuals that I had met previously, this was more of an exercise in staying awake than anything else.

However, I did enjoy the experience. I had never been witness to something like this before and it is something I am proud to say that I did and will quite possibly do many more times, depending on my career path after school.