Those in attendance gave the Board of Trustees a standing ovation when they decided to restore the director for continuing education during their Feb. 24 meeting.

The meeting gathered many opinionated students to the seats in the Administration Building—Room 211. Several of them had brought posters and signs that they held up once agenda item 5.2 came up. The signs all showed a single message on how the Trustee’s should vote: Yes to a director for vocational courses.

A total of seven people all came up to speak, via the interpreter, and explained to the board members what education meant for them and their family and why they should vote yes.

And so they did, as all present board members voted yes.

Some of those who spoke also wanted positions and classes to be added, but this was not brought up in the voting. They were thanked by Board President Dr. Peter Haslund, who thought their ideas of how education is important not just for the students themselves but for their entire family were inspiring to hear.

Other items discussed included, once again, the decision to hire attorney Michael Price, as well as creating a subcommittee for public relations. In both cases there was a clear line between the four newest board members and the three veterans.

Marcia Croninger couldn’t understand why there have been so many discussions about hiring Price, saying that he is just “one of many lawyers” the board uses. Other board members were concerned about how he was hired.

“It’s not a good process when board members can go out like this,” Joan Livingston said.

The fact that these items have been brought up so many times itself became a discussion topic.

“We’ve probably beaten this one to death,” Croninger said, referring to the question of hiring Price. “For me it’s a mystery how this is getting so much attention.”

This was also used in the discussion about the new subcommittee when Luis Villegas said he wasn’t looking forward to even more meetings.

Several times during the meeting, trustee Marty Blum mentioned how slow she thought the process of decision making in the Board is.

“I have problem with all this bureaucracy,” Blum said.

“Luria always said there were too many meetings,” Morris Jurkowitz said, referring to the former Trustee Eli Luria who sat on the board for 27 years. “If he was around now, he would see that he was right.”