3 minutes

Last night was the Briefing Session for February.  Dr. White was out of town, so Dr. Giles stepped in for him.  We had several important items on the agenda.  We also had one person signed up to address the Board.  Anyone can sign up to speak at the Briefing or the Action Session.  You must call the Board Secretary to do so.
I have complained several times that the delegation section of the meeting is at the end of the meeting.  We are a district with a majority of single parents.  Poor families.  How many of our parents have the time to come downtown, wait for an hour or two, with their children, to address the Board?  I have felt that we are excluding them by doing this and making it difficult for them to speak.  We have had someone leave in the middle of the meeting because they could no longer wait.
Last night we had a parent wait to speak. This person waited an hour and twenty minutes.  Speaking at a meeting is not easy.  I know, I have done it.  For one thing, by the time you are addressing the Board one is usually emotional.  Two, there is a big camera in your face the entire time.  Three, you are being timed.
Even if you time yourself at home and you stay in that three minute window, once you are there it is more difficult.  Last night, the alarm beeped, and the parent was stopped.
I requested that we let him continue, and pointed out that he waited an hour and twenty minutes, and he was almost done.  The Board President said no to this request, stating that he knew he only had three minutes.  I couldn't believe it.  Why do we treat our parents like this?  If something goes wrong in the system the parents are blamed.  Blamed for not being involved.  And yet when they try, like last night, we treat them with such disrespect.
During my time for comments I shared my frustration and disappointment.  IPS has to stop keeping parents at arms length.