Community Corner

Letter: Nobody Attends Board of Education Meetings

Patch reader Robert Foster weighs in on the sparse attendance at recent Board of Education meetings.

*Local and frequent speaker at Board of Education meetings Robert Foster emailed this letter to Patch discussing the lack of community members at the Board of Education meetings.

What if no one was there?

On August 28th I had a very unique experience.   I was the only member of the community at the scheduled school board meeting.  After the meet I realized that if I did not go no one would have been there.  It just struck me that with the thousands of residents in the community only one person was there to hear about the ongoing efforts to both reduce costs and improve the level of services to the students.  In addition, with have a new superintendent, I would think some people would like to see what we are getting for that investment.   

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Why did this happen?  Was it the “back to school annual scavenger hunt”.  That is the annual exercise  where every family with students in the school is out in force with their must have lists for opening day running from store to store, or maybe too many of us have decided that our being there makes no difference.   Just last year when there was something causing stress in the community such as a reduction in bus service or the need to close a school the room gets packed.  I guess there is nothing to motivate anyone to come out on a warm summer evening.

There is some good news when the attendance gets that small the meetings get moved to the executive meeting room were the seats are comfortable, the air conditioning works great, there is no need for the old audio system and I see a lot more interaction taking place as members sit around the meeting table instead of being spread out over the front of a large room.  But with all those pluses I would rather see the community coming out hearing what is going on and maybe, if they have something to share, add their thoughts to the discussion.  

Find out what's happening in Smithtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

– Robert Foster 


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