Keep BOE Issue Factual, Please

So tonight the City Council will be asked to consider a resolution to move the school board elections back to November.

Blogger Dan Damon posts this:

Consider this: for the four November elections (2012-15) a total of 44,706 votes were cast for 3-year board seats; from 2005-2008, when elections were in April, the total was 16,788. So, how would reducing the turnout by 60% be "progressive"?

In my opinion, he is making the same mistake Norman E. Ortega made on his analysis of the 2014 school board election results, namely confusing total votes with turnout. Each voter is entitled to three votes for school board candidates, so the turnout is much less than the total votes cast.

Getting the facts from the school board is not easy. I made an Open Public Records Act request on Jan. 4 for two items:

OPRA REQUEST: Text of resolution hiring Norman C. Payne, including date of hire, date of resolution, title, salary, term of employment, recorded vote by board

(If more than one title, text of resolution, date of hire, date of resolution, title, salary, term of employment, recorded vote by board for each title)

OPRA REQUEST: Text of resolution to change school board election date back to April,  date of resolution and recorded vote by board.

It is my understanding that a reply is due within seven business days and responses must be in writing. As I have stated, my preference is to receive the responses by email at the address above.

Today I got this response first:

The requested information is on the District’s website under minutes.

So I spent a while looking around a large batch of minutes that were just posted recently for meetings going back several months.

I had to run an errand and when I got  back I found a subsequent message:

The information you are requesting is located in the September 22nd and November 10th minutes.

September 22 was the date of a special meeting. Here is the information I requested Formatting did not survive the cut-and-paste):

The Superintendent of Schools recommends and moved by Mrs. Campbell and seconded by Mr. Moore for adoption of the following: RESOLUTION WHEREAS, the Plainfield Board of Education recognizes that a highly qualified, competent, skilled, and dedicated workforce is essential to the success of the District and the students. RESOLVED, that the Plainfield Board of Education approves the appointment of N. Christopher Payne as Chief Information Officer and Technology Officer effective October 20, 2015 or sooner at a prorated salary of $125,000.00. The motion carried on a roll-call vote with Mr. Campbell, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Coley, Mr. Moore, Mr. Rutherford and Mr. Wyatt in favor and none were opposed.

The November 10 meeting was a work-and-study session. Here is the reference in the minutes:

IV. REMARKS FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT 

Mrs. Campbell stated that as a Board they had an option to change the Board Elections to April after four years of having November elections. She questioned whether the process had become too political. It was supposed to be separate and apart from partisan elections and people were confused in thinking that when they voted for a particular board candidate they were voting a party line. She stated a resolution had been prepared to change the election back to the third Tuesday in April and then read the resolution out loud.

Mr. John Campbell stated that he believed education was too important to mingle in politics. The motion to move the election was carried by a 7-1 vote. Mrs. Campbell moved and seconded by Mr. Moore to move the election to April. The motion passed on a roll-call vote with seven members in favor and one opposed.

In my opinion, the board had the right to make the change as provided in state law. I feel it is the method that is questionable, and perhaps the notion that voters would think they were voting the party line, as the general election ballot separates the school board election from other elective offices identified by party. Some might say Democrats confused the issue by linking the party to board elections in various ways, i.e., announcing slates at party meetings or mingling campaign signs for the general and school board elections.

I have joked that Plainfield's favorite sport is jumping to conclusions and now I would add that perhaps Plainfield's favorite exercise is spinning. The issue of when school board elections should take place may end up enriching some lawyers, but meanwhile can we please try to be factual in discussing it?

--Bernice