I went to the monthly school committee meeting. I really am surprised to see that I am the only candidate, other than the three incumbants, who seems to be attending the meetings. I know that it is summer time, but I would think that people would make an effort to go to these things. How can you convince people to vote for you when you aren't even attendng the meetings while you are running!

It was a pretty interesting meeting. For one thing, I was surprised by one of the names mentioned as they were going through the list of appointments (hirings) that need to be approved. It was in the position of the media specialist (aka school librarian) at the high school. It was the name of a woman who was a page (shelver) at the library I work at when I was first hired. She has since gone to library school. I am really excited for her since she will be great, and she was hoping to get something a little closer to home. I did not even know she had applied for the position.

For the most part the meeting moved along pretty quickly. There really wasn't much of controversy brought up. That is surprising considering the fact that the school year is set to start in two weeks, and we are entereing our second year without a teachers' contract.

Just before the end of the meeting, the committee chair, who is not up for election called me over to talk to me. We ended up talking about the last meeting, which was a special one that I had attended. It was really a workshop to set up goals and objectives for the superintendent to be used as part of his evaulation. I had an opportunity to speak up a bit during that meeting.

The chair said that he had been talking with the superintendent about some of the challenges of the previous meeting, and the superintendent had said that he believed that I seemed to be the person making the most sense during the meeting when it came to the planning process. I ahve sort of an advantage since I teach planning like that in two of my classes. Even though the focus is on libraries, the theory is the same. Anyway, the superintendent's comments made me feel really good.

I also learned that starting next month, I (and any other candidates attending the meetings) will be getting informational packets that are like those of the current members (minus anything priviledged). That will help get us up to speed with any information we will need to follow what is going on. As a first step, the chair gave me a copy of the results of the previous meeting on the superintendent's goals and objectives.

I do have to say that I really feel like I am in my element with all of this. I understand what they are talking about and really feel that I could be a great addition to such conversations as a committee member.

I just have to hope I can win my election.