School Board Decides It’s Time for a Change

THOUSAND OAKS —  Don’t show up for the Conejo Valley school board meeting at 7:30 p.m. anymore.

If you do, you will be an hour late.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District Board of Education voted 3 to 2 Thursday night to start its meetings earlier on a trial basis, probably until December.

Until further notice, the board’s closed session now will meet at 5:30 p.m. and the open session will begin at 6:30 p.m.

The point of the time change is to make it easier on administrators and staff members, who already work a long day, said board member Dolores Didio. She added that starting earlier also would be easier for students who want to come, as they have to get home to do their homework.

“The bottom line is, if you start earlier you finish earlier,” Didio said before the meeting. “There’s no hidden agenda.”

Didio said the time change would be easier for her too, because she has other ceremonies and meetings to attend. “Although my board meetings come first, if you have something else to do that night, it gives you an opportunity to do both.”

Board member Elaine McKearn has been the most vocal opponent of starting meetings earlier, mainly because the change, she said, “cuts into family time.”

“The people I’ve talked to can’t come [at 6:30 p.m.]. They’re either on the soccer fields, or they need to be there for their kids, helping with dinner or homework. It’s taking a toll on my youngest daughter. Twice already I’ve had to hire a baby sitter. I’m a board member and that’s my responsibility but I owe it to the parents in the community to give them a time when they can come.”

McKearn’s solution would have been to keep the board’s meeting schedule intact and only change it to an earlier time when there is a citywide event such as a football game, a festival or a musical event.

Out of fewer than 20 people who attended Thursday night’s meeting, only one person argued for the later time.

Board member Richard Newman said sarcastically that if there is “an uproar of all the people flocking to get in,” the board could restore the previous policy. “It’s not appropriate to have issues get inflated when they really shouldn’t be,” he said.