Five things you didn't know about the Worcester School Committee

(because it's past time this week for a frivolous post!)

1. The School Committee votes for vice-chair (unlike City Council, where the vice-chair is the person who comes in second in the mayoral race) and the election is done during the inaugural ceremonies. But, as my eldest said, "Momma, you didn't all REALLY decide then to ALL vote for Mr. Foley, did you?" No (no fooling her!). There's a straw poll taken at the meeting fifteen minutes before the inauguration starts (close agenda watchers would have seen that here), when the original votes are cast, discussion, if any, is done, and a vice-chair is decided upon. The vote taken on stage, then, is unanimous "by custom."
2. The School Committee had five official meetings this week (and one executive session). There was the pre-inaugural meeting mentioned above (which also included seat draw), the inauguration (that has to be posted as a public meeting, as a quorum of officials are there), the post-inauguration meeting (at which the rules were approved), Tuesday's information session on Race to the Top, and last night's regularly scheduled meeting (which, incidentally, had a rare supplemental agenda. That's the School Committee equivalent of an ivory-billed woodpecker).
3. The School Committee each week gets what's termed a "Friday letter" from the superintendent (if you are a regular observer, you would have heard it referenced before). In it, the superintendent gives a list of what she's done this past week, and also passes along anything she thinks we ought to know about: upcoming events, items in the news, things we might get asked about. It means that every Saturday we get a large manila envelope in the mail (and every Saturday my kids are disappointed that it isn't for them).
4. Those numbers on the agenda mean something! For example, last night's item on signing the Race to the Top MOU was "gb#0-13"...the "gb" is for "general business," the "0" is the final digit of the year (last year's items all began with "9"), and it's the 13th general business item this year. Who knew?
   
5. Those chairs in the Council chamber aren't all that comfortable. There aren't plugs under the Council desks (alas for me!). And if you ever need to reference a city budget, you might ask Councilor Rushton. He's got them all under his desk!