Your March 27 article on recent District 65 School Board activity around school reopening and major financial decisions focuses on only one of two disturbing aspects of this activity: the failure of the Board to have its discussions about these issues in public.
You note that the School Board had the “right” to discuss the school reopening plan and to “affirm, modify or disapprove” it.
The Board didn’t just have the “right” to do this; it had the responsibility to do so. And the same is true, of course, of the major financial decisions facing the district.
As to both issues, the Board’s conduct suggests one of two things is occurring. Either (1) the Board is having discussions but doing everything it can think of to avoid having them in public, or 2) the Board is declining to exercise its responsibility to have these discussions at all. The first is an abdication of transparency. The second is an abdication of duty.
— Jonathan Baum, District 65 Board of Education member, 2003-2007; District 202 Board of Education member, 2011-2019