That's Reassuring

The Secret Fayetteville High School Select Committee 2, the group charged with making a recommendation on the very important question of the future location of FHS, held their first formal meeting last night, and the signs are not good.

The public was allowed to observe only the first 20 minutes of the meeting, when Board of Education President Steve Percival and Superintendent Bobby New gave their opinion about the committee’s charge before walking out. Steve Percival warned the committee that many people felt very strongly about the issue and would be advocating their position, but the committee members should just ignore them, realize that they'll be mad, and then do whatever you want to do.

School board member Tim Hudson then closed the rest of the meeting, preventing the media or school district patrons from knowing what was going on. They claimed that the meeting wasn’t subject to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act provisions on open meetings after Percival left because in the absence of two school board members, it constituted only an appointed committee and was none of our business.

That's no way to build public consensus or pass a millage.