Snow Tries to Stifle Contributions of Newest FAC Member

Some people just never learn. Gee, even Bongo's pup only touched a hot stove burner once before learning his lesson.

The censorship monster reared its ugly head again Thursday night when the board appointed a new member to the Financial Advisory Committee (FAC).

After four years of trying to halt the publication of student newspaper editorials, trying to remove literary classics from classrooms and trying to limit the board president's ability to share information with staff members, wouldn't you humans think that Larry Snow would come to the realization that censorship is a no-no?

Evidently he hasn't.

Huntley resident Michael Laird applied for a vacancy on the FAC, and board member Tony Quagliano recommended that the board approve the appointment. Mr. Laird is a CPA who happens to be the spouse of a teacher. As soon as his name was mentioned for the post, Snow tried to amend the motion to exclude Laird from participating in any FAC discussions that related to teacher salaries or contracts. And Bongo will give you a bone if you can guess who quickly provided a "second" to Snow's motion... Yup. the (not really) independent thinking Aileen Seedorf.

The other five board members disagreed with Sowdorf's attempt to limit Laird's ability to participate and learn, and they voted down Snowdorf's attempt at censorship 5-2.

Isn't board member Snow the guy who advocated for David and Linda Moore when they had a $250,000+ snow removal contract with the district and then who refused to recuse himself from further discussions and votes on snow removal? Ah. Just checking.
(See "Do as I Say, Not as I Do" post from the other day)

Did Bongo mention that the "A" in FAC stands for ADVISORY? As in, they are an advisory board with no voting authority? And did Bongo mention that the sole purpose of the FAC is to put financially savvy district residents from varying backgrounds together to serve as a sounding board for financial ideas and as another group of eyes to check numbers?

Those who have served on the FAC have told Bongo that they have learned a lot about the intricacies of school finance from serving on that advisory committee.

So Bongo's question to Snowdorf is this:

If by serving on the FAC, the spouse of a teacher could gain a much better understanding of how school district finance differs from finance in the private sector of business, why would you not encourage this learning opportunity?

And who knows... Maybe the others can learn something from Mr. Laird too.