Thursday, September 04, 2008

Lancaster's answer to Jimmy Olsen, the intrepid Bill Conrad, wrote about the LISD budget:

http://www.todaynewspapers.net/articles/2008/08/29/lancaster/news/lnnews1.txt

The district didn't meet the TEA recommendation of 65 percent of funding going towards instruction. In the final budget, 58 percent of the funding went towards instruction. As a result, the board passed a resolution acknowledging the issue and the district will be required to post its check register online.

Anybody who noticed which trustees moved, and seconded, that resolution? Anybody record the vote? Did anybody happen to see the display of the verbiage of that resolution projected up on the big screen TVs there in the Lancaster ISD board room?

Dr Lewis assured the trustees that a draft of the resolution was in their "packet" along with the budget.

The budget was moved for approval by Ed Kirkland -- who made no mention of the resolution. Perhaps he was deliberately trying to set Carolyn Morris up; to show her the fool and not come back for the resolution.

On the other hand, perhaps Morris moved on deliberately, to show Kirkland as the fool for not including the legally required resolution in his motion to rubberstamp Dr Lewis's latest proposal.

It's odd though that in a room full of Trustees, highly paid administrators, a state-appointed conservator, the district's hired legal advisor, and at least one local attorney well known as a critic of district sloppy disregard of the law and parlimentary procedure; nobody noticed the omission.

That is, if it WAS an omission. Bill Conrad heard the resolution approved, and the official paper of record for all LISD matters reported it DID get approved. So maybe it happened so fast and so subtly that audio/video records couldn't keep up.