(Ed. Note: Due to popular demand I have reprinted this nostalgic look at the candidates meeting of February 2006. Enjoy. )
Back in February 2006, the Evansville School District invited all prospective school board candidates to an informational meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to help candidates understand the role and responsibility of a board member.
Supr. Heidi Carvin opened the meeting by explaining that the entire power of the school board member occurs when he/she votes in a board meeting. A board member has no other power to represent the district in any way, or obligate it in any way. They can however refer citizen concerns to the proper person in the district and advise the board of concerns etc..
The school board meeting are meetings held in public, but not "public" meetings and the public has no right to speak, unless the board seeks it. Thus, they differ from public meetings in a city, for example.
When the time came for questions, The Observer spoke up. "Recently I have been writing a lot of stories about Monroe. As you may remember, in the Monroe case, the Monroe Supr. told the controller of the school district that he reported to the Supr and nobody else. The board never knew of the 1.8 million shortfall until almost a year later."
I went on, "My question is, "How are we different than Monroe?"
Mr. Larson spoke up. He said "That could never happen here in Evansville. We have ethics here."
Make a note of it! We are the Blue Devils. We are NOT the Cheesemakers. Go BIG BLUE.