Yay! No School for Scoundrels Here!

Micron Pigma Ink in small Moleskine notebook
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I attended my first school board meeting tonight to join with about 70 people from my neighborhood association to speak out against the planned school for expelled students in a former elementary school in my neighborhood. Many residents, including several who are teachers and/or work with disturbed kids spoke passionately and persuasively. One of the five board members who’d attended our previous meeting spoke eloquently about why it was a bad location for these students (including the fact they’d be coming from the opposite end of the district and there’s no public transit within a quarter mile of the school).

When I first sat down a woman in the next seat who was there for another cause and was very experienced with the school board meetings told me it was a done deal–the school would be put there, period, the end. Fortunately she was very surprised and wrong — the board voted against putting it at this site. YAY!

Since my painting group was supposed to meet tonight, I invited them to attend the meeting and bring sketchbooks. Only my dear friend Judith (who I can always count on to be enthusiastic about joining me to do whatever kind of odd things I cook up) said yes. While I did the sketch above, Judith did the drawing below (I love her lines!):

Ink and watercolor pencils in large Aquabee sketchbook
Copyright Judith H.
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Except for my butt hurting from sitting in the metal folding chair for nearly two hours, it was a great night. It really felt like a miracle to have swayed the board and kept this scary, poorly planned school away from our humble but proud little neighborhood.