Reorganization; Authority and Responsibility; How shall we govern?

(Ed. note. Please excuse poor tone quality. Board discusses reporting formats, functional and detailed reports etc.)

Reorganizational Meeting. Doesn't seem too exciting. However, this is the meeting whether at the city or the school, where representatives elected by the citizens decide the details about how they will govern. Since sometimes, as in the case of the school, the election has just happened, you can listen as the new structure takes place. Sometimes you can sense a new way of conducting business--- a new style.

If you listen to the Evansville School Board discuss the details of how the Board receives detailed information from the principals and the administration, you can hear that the new Board wants to avoid the confusion that has resulted from two sets of reports---one set of detailed transaction reports and another report generated by excel spreadsheet manually. They are unable to make the two sets of reports reconcile. The need to know they do reconcile.

When times are flush with money, the phrase used to be "just throw the change over my shoulder". I briefly remember that phrase from my youth. Anyway, in lean budget times, everything matters, and you can hear in the audiotape that your elected board members are serious about knowing the detail. They understand that the community is counting on them. They understand that they are responsible.

This is the first meeting of the new Evansville School Board. As I see it, this was an excellent beginning. Stay tuned. The Observer is on the job.