HOW WE SEE IT Board Needs To Face Public

LITTLE ROCK — It may be hard to believe, but the question of how to redraw school attendance zones in Rogers reached the school board just this week.

From an off cial standpoint, the Rogers School Board hadn’t previously discussed the matter.

The school administration developed the proposal, which some families aftected view as a major disruption, in response to the opening of a new elementary school and the need to create a revised “feeder” system to the city’s high schools, Rogers and Heritage.

It was just back Jan. 26 the newspaper reported the details to the public.

Superintendent Janie Darr had planned to reveal the proposed attendance zone map on Jan. 28 at the fi rstof two public feedback sessions. The next session was Jan. 29. Thanks to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, the newspaper was able to report on the plan two days before of the fi rst input session, so the public at least got some time to digest the details.

No doubt the Rogers School District wants its patrons to feel they’ve been listened to. Yet it’s reasonable to question whether the process initially envisioned would have accomplished that.

Now it seems the board itself is trying to avoid direct interaction with the public over the proposed boundary changes. The board received the recommendation of the administration and copies of submitted comments Tuesday, and disallowed any public comment before the board.

“Now it’s our turn,” School Board President Jerry Carmichael told fellow board members Tuesday. “The public has had the opportunity to have input.”

It’s important to remember the deliberations on this important matter are far from over. The board has scheduled two study sessions - Feb. 28 and March 7 - at which only board members will be permitted to speak. A vote on the boundaries proposal is set for March 12.

The matter is important enough to deserve that kind of time, and the board individually appears to have spent time visiting with some folks. But the public also deserves more consideration than the School Board has deigned to grant.

Any freeze-out of public opinion from the board’s decision-making serves only the convenience of board members. Public comment would be messy and, no doubt, emotional.

But they were not elected to make things convenient for themselves. Patrons should have that fi nal opportunity to beg, plead, infl uence and persuade right in front of the decisionmakers themselves. Even if the decision goes against some of them, those folks will go home knowing they were not silenced when it counted most.

It’s entirely understandable the School Board doesn’t want a lengthy meeting and a vote on this happening at midnight or later.

So how about scheduling a public forum at which members of the public can have that fi nal say in front of the decision-makers. Not an administrator. Not a committee making a recommendation, but the ones voters entrusted with operating the school system.

Is it too much to ask?