Monadnock School Board Ought to Tape Itself
Sentinel Source
January 21, 2010
Most school boards are operating in pressure cookers, thanks to the poor economy and increasing requirements that schools account for the performance of their students, among other demands.
But nowhere does the pressure seem as intense as in the Monadnock Regional School District, where at a recent board meeting one member called another a “jerk.”
Actually, that’s par for the course at Monadnock’s school board, where rude behavior is commonplace. A year or so ago civility presented itself for a brief spell, like the eye of a storm, and then was gone.
The cause of that interlude of respectful and productive behavior was a videotaping project undertaken by students at Monadnock Community Connections School, a unit of the school system that has a nontraditional curriculum.
Said one teacher who witnessed the students’ videotaping of school board meetings, there was a distinct change in tone when the cameras were on: “It was like night and day.”