Tuesday, July 2, 2024, Jacksonville, Florida. It’s 6:00 PM, the published time for the monthly school board meeting. But it’s delayed. It starts 25 minutes late.

This is not the first board meeting in recent weeks to start late. I’m retired now, but if in my working days as a teacher, I started class 10, 15, or in tonight’s case, 25 minutes late, I would be immediately placed on an improvement plan, monitored daily, and terminated soon thereafter if I didn’t get my backside in gear.

But we had a superintendent to swear in notwithstanding the fact that said action had already taken place three and a half hours earlier in the day. Note the time on the original posting.

Instead of a Board meeting, we got a presser. The Chair, Darryl Willie, talked. He recognized every elected politician in the room, a process that was as wearying as a Ron DeSantis whine about the latest hair-up-his-behind issue of the day and all the assembled state officials doing obeisance at the mike.

The applause was not spontaneous. It only came in reaction to Chair Willie’s requests from the half-filled room in attendance.

Then came the oath in office. The new superintendent, Dr. Bernier, took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, the Florida Constitution … and then to be a faithful superintendent. Were we swearing in Biden’s replacement or a new Superintendent?

Next, Dr. Bernier made a few remarks. I’m going to skip over that because I’m getting to the point of this post. Willie wrapped up the presser by directing everyone out to the lobby for a reception: we have food and drinks! Let’s mingle!

What a terrible way to begin a new era in Duval County (FL) education. We have issues, urgent issues: a $1.4 billion dollar budget gap, declining enrollment as parents bail on the public school system, an inability to fulfill the promises of the plan to rebuild crumbling school buildings, the list goes on.

And what does the school board do? Let’s have a party. PAR-TAY people like it’s 1999.

Or maybe Marie Antoinette better sums it up.

To the queen: Ma’am, the people have no bread.

Marie: Then let them eat cake!

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PS: It’s now more than an hour and a half two hours past the published meeting time. Must be a good party, the meeting has not commenced.

PPS: In Marie A’s time, cake was not the sugary confection that we know. It referred to a flour and water paste that bakers used to coat the sooty sides of their ovens so the bread would not be ruined. Afterward, they would scrape it off, place it in refuse buckets, and put it by the side of the street for pickup by sanitation services.

PPPS: In his brief remarks, Dr. Bernier said he would like to prolong the moment for family pictures, but it was time to tend to business. Let’s get the meeting underway. Willie took over with free food and drinks!

PPPPS: now we’re told “We are experiencing technical difficulties with the stream for the July 2 School Board meeting.  We are working to resolve these issues, and we will join the meeting in progress if possible. The meeting is being recorded and will be posted tomorrow.” Yeah, right, @duvalschools.org. I’m not interested in buying the Brooklyn Bridge.

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Follow-up piece: https://grumpyoldteacher.com/2024/07/03/correction-to-last-nights-post/