Special interests pack school board meeting.

The teachers and school union workers packed the school board meeting to make sure that your child gets charged for things you probably believe you already paid for and gets less education.

The teachers and union refused to take a cut in pay or in their car allowances this year. They are even still demanding, so far, that their pay be raised this year! To make up for their demands for raises, they insist that your child pay an extra fee of $153 to play sports (on top of all other expenses), eliminated the guidance counselors, senior projects, and demanded an extra $20 payment for the bus to "science camp."

Look at the number in that room (and the shirts)! And the surprising thing is that very few were traditional "parents" or other "stakeholders." Most were workers, employees, union members there trying to protect their jobs. They knew about the meeting but the general public really wasn't given much of an opportunity to express their opinions.

For example, the agenda item simply said: 1. Consider Budget Presentation. That's all. It should have said "1. Consider budget cuts." That would have been clear. In theory they weren't even authorized to do any cuts. They were only authorized to consider a presentation. It's a Brown Act thing. But it's also a slap in the face to the public.

You might think that's nitpicking, but look at the other agenda items. They can be clear when they want to be. The other items are things like consider the process to be used for the selection of a district superintendent and Recognition of district spelling bee winners -- perfectly clear English.

From the photo, does it look like there's not much interest in school board meetings? That was the reason they decided they don't need to televise the meetings on cable TV or even make a video. No one really cares, they said. No, they don't want people seeing what they are cutting and why -- and last night's meeting was perfect proof of that.