Almost Funny...But Not Quite

And people say our district's school board has problems. From Newsday:

Tensions among feuding factions of the Brentwood Board of Education intensified this week when a former district clerk filed a complaint to the state alleging a special board meeting was illegal. As a result, the former clerk said, all actions taken that night should be voided.

Kathleen Hoey, 46, district clerk until July, said a special board meeting Monday violated the state regulation that requires at least 24 hours notice to board members about a planned meeting.

Hoey argued that the board violated community members' voting and civil rights by not notifying three of the seven board members. They included Tomas Del Rio, Joseph Fritz and Gail Kirkham.

Hoey said the majority faction - board president George Talley, along with Stephen Coleman, Lorraine Pace and Suzanne Belanger - did not act in the interest of the district.

"They cannot pick and choose who they want to come to a meeting," Hoey said.

Talley said Del Rio, Fritz and Kirkham were not informed of Monday's special meeting because they had all responded to an e-mail message earlier asking for their availability in October by stating they were unavailable for special meetings during the month.

"Why would I notify them if they already notified me they were not available?" he said.

Del Rio said that although he had responded earlier that he would be unavailable for special meetings this month, the law requires that he be notified nonetheless. "They don't want us to participate," he said. Fritz agreed, saying, "you're expected to be notified."

The special meeting was called primarily to hire a lawyer to represent the board in response to an earlier complaint by Del Rio and Fritz to the state against the majority faction calling for their ouster. Talley and the majority have also filed a complaint calling for Del Rio's and Fritz's removal. All three complaints await a legally binding decision from the state education commissioner.

What a lousy example to set for district schoolchildren. Thank goodness our board's issues and internecine battling have not sunk to the lows of those in Brentwood. I do, however, think the Brentwood board's extreme outlandish behavior should make members of SD15 realize how such skirmishing benefits no one at all - least of all the children of this district.