ABC's MC style... Another Bad Creation

As if to prove again why the Michigan City school system sucks, one of our own school board members tells a member of the community that the MCAS doesn't have to deal with the public, they just have to be in the public's eye.

MCAS board chided at meeting



By Deborah Sederberg, The News-Dispatch








Three women chided the Board of the Michigan City Area Schools on Tuesday for failing to answer questions during the public forum



They were also irked when the boark enforced the three-minute speaking limit against speaker Pam Edgington.



The board has a three-minute rule and board secretary Rick Carlson - who times the speakers - told Edgington her three minutes were up.



She asked to speak longer and another woman, Toni Lee, offered to give Edgington her three minutes but the board enforced the limit.



Edgington has voiced opposition to the preschool the corporation will open next fall because she objects to the funding plan.



“We are finding out more (about the preschool) at the City Council than at the school board,” she said.



She was referring to the last Council meeting at which school officials - seeking a contribution to the preschool project from the city - made a presentation and answered questions for the Council.



Edgington accused the board of passing the plan for the preschool at the Feb. 28 meeting with little discussion.



Board President Adrienne Gottlieb reminded Edgington the board had conducted a 2-hour public workshop meeting two weeks before the board voted on the matter.



Lee and Hazel Thomas told the board the public wants answers to questions asked during the public forum portion of the meeting.



The board has made it a practice to allow the public to speak without commenting during public forum.



“We deserve answers,” Thomas said.



After the meeting, Gottlieb iterated a point that has been made at several meetings.



“The board's public meetings are just that, a meeting of the board in public,” she said. The board meets to do the public's business in public, she added, but not necessarily to have lengthy discussions with members of the public.



The public forum is a time for the public to speak to the board, but it is not intended to be a question-and-answer session, Gottlieb noted.



As for Carlson's role as timekeeper, she said, “He was just enforcing a board rule. He was doing what the board asked him to do.”