Daisy Gonzalez was the first Board of Education member to take a two-week timeout, following a recent lawsuit-settlement agreement with the Board of Alders.
The ed board shared the agreement with the public for the first time at Monday night’s meeting at L.W. Beecher School and voted to accept a new rotation of board members that complies with the settlement. The vote concludes a battle lasting months between the Board of Ed and Board of Alders on whether the ed board should have seven or eight members for the next year.
The problem developed as two new elected members prepared to join the board on Jan. 1 — bringing the count to eight members, rather than seven, as governed by a change to the city charter in 2013. The charter required the board to have seven members, but left out language on how to downsize from eight.
The settlement says that one of the five mayorally appointed members will rotate in two-week increments through the end of 2016, so that one will not be able to vote during that period. Each board member will be on a two-week leave at least three times. Two will have to be on leave four times, because of the uneven division of the dates between now and December 12, 2016. Those two will be chosen by lottery, said Superintendent Garth Harries.
The board meets every two weeks, meaning a different member will be on leave each meeting.
The two newly elected members, Darnell Goldson and Ed Joyner, will not be affected by the agreement. Nor are student voting members Kimberly Sullivan and Coral Ortiz.
Mayor Toni Harp, also president of the board, said the rotation was created “alphabetically,” though Gonzalez volunteered to go first, sitting out of Monday’s meeting after the vote.
The board voted first to withdraw a previous resolution that allowed eight voting members to sit on the board until two members end their terms in December 2016. Board member Carlos Torre abstained from the vote; other members voted yes.
Harp clarified for the board that the agreement also prevents the on-leave member from participating in special meetings held within any two-week span. Committees are not addressed in the settlement, meaning any member who wants to can participate in committee meetings.
What if additional members are absent? asked board member Michael Nast.
With any absences, the board will proceed as usual. The on-leave member cannot substitute for any member on the board, Harp said. With six people, a tie is more likely and “we would have to wait until we have seven” members again, she said.
For previous coverage:
•In Ed Board Settlement, 8=7
• Alders, Ed Board Near Settlement
• Alders Sue Ed Board
• Veto Issued, Withdrawn
• 4+4=Stalemate
• The Lawyers Win
• Separation Of Powers Battle Looms
• Schools Approve 8‑Member Transition Board
• Eyewitness to Blunder (Opinion)
• Bartlett: Goldson’s Wrong (Opinion)
• In Board Of Ed’s Math, 7=8 (Opinion)
• Schools Try To Fix Supersized Board
• Oops! New Board of Ed Illegally Supersized
This is the most cockamamie solution that I never could have imagined.