At last night's meeting, the board self-admitted a mistake and corrected it by following the committee election policy outlined in their policy manual. The board chair nominated and the board voted in 2 members into the oversight committee - Jocelyn O'Quinn and Jennifer Rief. The vote was 6-1 with David Taylor opposing it citing that the two board members did not promote the diversity on this committee. Jocelyn quickly defended the position in that she does not have a education background and Jennifer does. In any case, they both got elected anyway.

So, ORCSD community, why the rants and raves over this 20 member committee? In the past years, there hasn't been this level of anxiety over choosing people to be on other committees. Why choose this one?

Over the past couple of meetings, there has been a push to make the committee diversified. In my opinion, if we can 8 people that want to volunteer from the community, that is great. More than 8 is even better! The diversity will not only come from this community (the topic where 2 board members are stalling the process) but from the teachers and administration as well.

Another topic that is never discussed is weighted diversity. Should more members come from Durham vs. Madbury? There is a much larger pool that live in Durham so if a majority come from there, someone should speak up on that.

Finally, for all the Anonymous comments from my video below, please offer your opinion here. The board chair publicly made a mistake and said that they will revert to follow the policy and do what is right. I cannot say the same for what happened with the last board chair. Why bash her? What fruitful end will it produce. Bottom line is we have no long term direction. This plan is going to solve that and by the way, how much more transparent can this board be. There is already a huge change in the communication and the level of openness this board is now showing!