"Disengaged:" A serious accusation

School board members deserve the benefit of every doubt: it is the only unpaid elected position in the state, the only one that carries mandatory training, and the only one subject to criminal background check.  Why would anyone want the hassle unless they really intended to serve the families of their community?

Well, being an effective school board member requires even more than this.  It takes time.  It requires commitment.  Meetings are the easy part  - you have to come to meetings prepared.  And the board has to be organized effectively to meet even it's most basic obligations.

Collectively, the Wharton Board of Ed is falling short.

• Attendance - Of the recent board meetings I've attended, there was never a full board of all seven members seated.  In fact, if you go through meeting minutes you would have to go all the way back to November 29 to find a meeting with all seven members in attendance.  At arguably the most important meeting of the year, the annual budget presentation, merely a quorum of four was present - and that after having delayed the start of the meeting while waiting for a fourth member to arrive.

(Update: At the October 16 meeting, for the second time in as many months, the board was unable to pass the previous meeting's minutes because there were not enough members in attendance who had been at that meeting!)

• Engagement - As a Mine Hill board member for 10 years (board president for four of them), the budget presentation was the most stressful of the year.  I prepared for the budget hearing for weeks to make sure I knew that budget inside and out.

But when I asked this board the most basic question, "How much is the budget increasing this year from last year?" the meeting STOPPED.  No one - not the superintendent, the business administrator, the board president nor any board member - could answer the question until the business administrator pulled out a calculator and came up with the answer (6.9%)

If you are not concerned that no one on the board or administration could answer such a basic question, as a tax payer you should be.

• Accountability - Holding the professionals accountable to performance expectations is a most basic responsibility of a board of education; in fact, it is a statutory responsibility to evaluate the performance of the chief school administrator by April 30, in part based on his achievement of district goals set by the board.  This board does not meet this responsibility on time, nor does it take this responsibility seriously.  Further, this board does not routinely evaluate its own performance - a "best practice" for all NJ boards of education.

Once seated on the Wharton Board of Education, you can count on me to attend regularly, ask questions, and hold leadership accountable to results.