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Caroline Grannan was an editor at the San Jose Mercury News for 12 years. Currently she contributes to a number of Internet sites dealing with education and schools. She is a San Francisco public school parent, advocate, and volunteer and has followed education politics locally and nationwide.

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SF Education Examiner

Anti-JROTC proposal resurfaces on stealth meeting agenda Thursday

June 25, 11:14 PM

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The SFUSD Board of Ed, apparently applying a whole new procedural concept, has declared that an anti-JROTC resolution that lacked the votes to pass at last Tuesday’s (June 17) meeting is still on the table, and has quietly called a hasty meeting for 4 p.m. today (June 26) to take another vote.

The motion would have disallowed P.E. credit for the JROTC program, which is being phased out of SFUSD schools. If students couldn’t get P.E. credit, it would be well-nigh impossible for them to schedule JROTC into their day, which would effectively kill the program abruptly.

But the resolution got a split 3-3 vote on June 17, which based on standard procedure and past practice means it failed. According to board member Jill Wynns, however, board President Mark Sanchez declared that failure to get enough votes to pass leaves the resolution still on the table, and called today's meeting, at an unusual time of day, with the minimum 24 hours’ notice. (Board member Jane Kim, a co-sponsor of the resolution, was absent at that meeting and is expected to be present at today's meeting, while the Chronicle reports that two opponents of the resolution, Hydra Mendoza and Kim-Shree Maufas, are expected to be absent.)

Wynns, a supporter of keeping JROTC, says she has asked the board’s lawyer to rule on the claim that failure to pass leaves a motion on the table, and to go over past meeting agendas to identify past votes that are still on the table under that policy. Sanchez’ interpretation is inconsistent with the longstanding view of the board’s parliamentarian, who routinely declares “motion fails” when a proposal lacks enough votes to pass, Wynns notes.

If the board’s legal counsel upholds the new interpretation, the board may be too busy addressing the past motions that are now still on the table to deal further with the JROTC controversy, let alone any other current issues facing the school district.

Today's meeting will be held at 4 p.m. in the board room at school district headquarters, 555 Franklin St. at McAllister.

Author: Caroline Grannan