When the Hamilton County Commission and the Hamilton County Board of Education are singing the same tune, it seems almost cruel to call foul.
But the love-fest at Wednesday’s county commission meeting over the $100 million-plus schools plan adopted by the school board on Oct. 19 came at the expense of the public, which had no say in the plan to – among other details – merge two schools, move another, re-open a closed school and build two more.
At that Oct. 19 meeting, the plan was not on the school board agenda, but board members brought it up, viewed a PowerPoint presentation on it and voted for it with no discussion. Earlier in the month, new Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson had said no complete version of the plan existed, though one school board member told the Times Free Press the superintendent had briefed individual school board members separately on the plan.
Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, apparently having heard about the feelings of a bruised public, said at Wednesday’s meeting that an impression existed “that this [plan] just came up one day.” But, he said, Johnson had held listening sessions in each district, made stops at civic group meetings and was able to sift through 2,500 survey responses.
But at no meeting was the public shown a plan, with specifics, and asked what it thought.