Are you ready for Monday?

On Monday evening, the Orange County Board of Education will hold its first full meeting since scores of parents (from both CES and HES) found out about the proposed merger. With all the news that has broken since the last meeting and the growing awareness of the merger issue, I expect the crowd to be very large.

Thanks to the requests of an HES parent, the meeting has been moved from the cramped district offices on King Street to a larger space at Gravelly Hill Middle School. (I guess I need to figure out where that is.)

One of the key points on the Board's agenda will be the Merger Study Group's presentation of a "process" for exploring a merger of the two schools. I attended the Group's final meeting last night and found it pretty disturbing that they were ready to put forth a nine-point process without ever defining the problem they were creating a process to solve. That seems a bit backward to me, but then again I've never worked in government. So, it might be entirely normal.

I want to encourage every parent to take an active role in this decision-making process. I was proud to see how many parents attended the last full Board meeting given the short notice and lack of awareness of this proposal. I hope the numbers are even higher for Monday's meeting. I will be there, and I will be using my time during the public comments period to discuss the results of the HES Parents' Survey I distributed in March.

Will I see you there?


Orange County Board of Education
Regular Meeting
Date: Mon., April 23, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m
Location: Gravelly Hill Middle School