Quote:
Originally Posted by fatlazyless
As I understand from what I've read in your other posts, you are right now running for the Alton school board, and your husband is a math teacher in the local school system that includes Alton, so your situation is remarkably similar to Chris Mega in Meredith. Both you and Chris are running for a school board seat, you in Alton, he in Meredith, and both of you have spouses who are math teachers in the same system for which you are now school board candidates.
Correct me if I am incorrect as I am not very knowlegable about the working of the school board, but based on the letter from Howard Cunningham, School Board Member from Sandwich, it would seem that as a spouse of a teacher, wouldn't it be likely that you would probably be asked to recuse yourself when dealing with school board issues that deal with teachers since your spouse is a teacher, there? That has got to cover and include a very large volume of school board issues because the teacher is a signifigant factor in the education of the student.
For a voter in either Meredith or Alton, it certainly seems to me that this is an important question for the voters to consider. After all, no matter how caring, concerned, understanding, knowlegable, and hard-working somebody may be; does it really make them a good choice for the board if they will frequently need to be recused when making a vote on any one issue that includes teachers?
Is this a school board member who will be able to work effectively for Meredith or Alton parents?
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For the record: My husband does NOT teach in the Alton school district. He teaches for the Newfound School District in Bristol, NH. I have two children in the Alton District and that's hardly a conflict of interest.
I gave you the example I did in my first post on this thread to show (a) it's not really a problem here - I've watched this in action for over three years and the number of times that board member with a parent working for the district has had to recuse himself from a discussion or vote were few and far between; and (b) if policies are adhered to there's no issue, either.
School board policies vary from district to district but I would think that a spouse on a Board would only need to recuse himself/herself when there was a DIRECT decision concerning that board member's husband/wife/SO or their department w/in the school.
If someone wanted true stats on that, they should go back through two or three years' worth of meeting minutes and see when Mrs. Mega's name comes up or her department. That might give someone an idea of how often Mr. Mega would need to recuse himself.... I would imagine it's not that often, if at all.
In answer to your question: If elected, Mr. Mega would have a good perspective to bring to the Board table on the day-in/day-out life of a teacher and, along with the other members of the Board, would be a
part of the decision making process - remember: one person does not speak for the Board - the Board works as a collective or majority.