Rusty Harris lie: Teachers are given more time to speak than others

Rusty Harris charge that teachers are allowed to speak to the school board longer than non teachers is just as phoney as the rest of his error filled screed. http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/harris/harris-vista-teacher-union-stakes-out-big-win/article_6b4453cc-5ca9-508e-b897-8eb35b889d57.html

Rusty writes: "The trio took a "some are more equal than others" stance and upheld the practice of giving union representatives an unrestricted amount of time to speak."

The fact is that at each board meeting reports are made to the school board by various committees appointed by the school board. The two employee associations are also allowed to give reports. They are allowed the same amount of time that the committee reports have. This is a longer time than given to individuals, NOT ON THE AGENDA, who show up to speak to the board. The proposal of Jim Gibson was to reduce the time of the association report to the time allotted to those NOT ON THE AGENDA.

The Gibson motion was rejected by the majority for good reasons. It is important for the school board to know what their thousand plus employees are thinking. Hearing a brief report is a good way for this to happen. There had been no case of abuse by the two associations, so the majority of school board members voted not to reduce the time for association spokesman to report to the board.

Besides Gibson's motion also struck many as petty politics. Why give in to that? The majority chose not to.