Rivers Wins BOE Presidency
As a large group of her family and friends looked on, school board members chose Bridget B. Rivers Tuesday to serve as president for one year. Rivers thanked all who supported her re-election on April 15 and said, “Hold us accountable.”
Rivers said the past year was a rough one for outgoing president Patricia Barksdale, who faced numerous staff changes and a harsh state monitoring report. Filling Barksdale’s shoes would be hard, she said, but added, “We’re going to move this district to a premier district.”
Rivers, Agurs Linward Cathcart Jr. and Vickey Sheppard were all sworn in for three-year terms before the vote. All three were incumbents who over came challenges from Yolanda Van Fleet and Jaclynne Callands in the election contest. The board also chose Martin Cox to serve as vice president.
While most of the votes at the annual organization meeting were perfunctory, such as naming bank depositories and signatories for school accounts, Rivers grew testy when a discussion of school attorneys bogged down and became confusing.
“I don’t even know what we’re talking about,” board member Rasheed Abdul-Haqq said at one point.
“A lot of times it’s like a circus up here,” Rivers said. “I can’t have that.”
Rivers admonished the nine-member board to work out its disagreements “behind closed doors,” saying the audience, including children, was noting the disarray.
“It’s not going to happen this year,” she said. “I’m gonna get respect.”
The board was to have held an executive session before the open meeting, but did not. An executive session then followed the open portion and Rivers said when the board emerged from the closed discussion of legal and personnel matters, “Action may be taken.”
Plaintalker did not wait for the board to return, but will check today on any votes taken after the closed session.
--Bernice Paglia
Rivers said the past year was a rough one for outgoing president Patricia Barksdale, who faced numerous staff changes and a harsh state monitoring report. Filling Barksdale’s shoes would be hard, she said, but added, “We’re going to move this district to a premier district.”
Rivers, Agurs Linward Cathcart Jr. and Vickey Sheppard were all sworn in for three-year terms before the vote. All three were incumbents who over came challenges from Yolanda Van Fleet and Jaclynne Callands in the election contest. The board also chose Martin Cox to serve as vice president.
While most of the votes at the annual organization meeting were perfunctory, such as naming bank depositories and signatories for school accounts, Rivers grew testy when a discussion of school attorneys bogged down and became confusing.
“I don’t even know what we’re talking about,” board member Rasheed Abdul-Haqq said at one point.
“A lot of times it’s like a circus up here,” Rivers said. “I can’t have that.”
Rivers admonished the nine-member board to work out its disagreements “behind closed doors,” saying the audience, including children, was noting the disarray.
“It’s not going to happen this year,” she said. “I’m gonna get respect.”
The board was to have held an executive session before the open meeting, but did not. An executive session then followed the open portion and Rivers said when the board emerged from the closed discussion of legal and personnel matters, “Action may be taken.”
Plaintalker did not wait for the board to return, but will check today on any votes taken after the closed session.
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 7:54 AM
1 Comments:
If she is "gonna get respect" she can start by using her "ing's" rather that the usual "gonna's and aint's" that are so common of people who don't comand respect.
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