10.11.06
Schoolhouse Democracy
Today was the first parent’s meeting for Trey’s school. And at the first meeting of the year, by law, the class must elect a class representative. This person is supposed to be the liaison between the parents and the teachers. But in reality they just collect money for field trips. Apparently, there are actual laws governing the election process.
At the very beginning of the meeting, one of the teachers explained that they needed a volunteer to watch the ballots. The voting would be open from the end of the meeting until 7 PM. But one volunteer wouldn’t cut it. They needed two. The second person to volunteer ended up not being able to because she had served (at one time) as a class representative. So we waited in awkward silence for a third volunteer. Oh - and a teacher cannot watch the ballot boxes. Conflict of interest, apparently.
Then, we take nominations, and the nominees must be on the list of parents provided by the school district.
Next, we all head into the voting room, where there are three big boxes. One for each class. Sitting nearby are the two volunteers, who have everyone sign the roll next to their name (I noted that they weren’t checking ID, though there was a space on the roll sheet to check when we present our ID). Then, they hand us a secret ballot, where we write in our candidate’s name. Fold the ballot in half, put it in the box, and you’re done.
I have to confess - I really don’t have a clue who I voted for. There was so much chaos during the nomination process that the poor foreigner (me) didn’t have a chance of hearing the names. So I peeked at the ballot of the person in front of me and voted for the same person.
Tomorrow we’ll find out the nail-biting results of the neck and neck race. But since there was only one nominee, I think I can probably guess.