New Board Of Ed Called 'Unavailable, Inaccessible'

We're only three meetings in, but the new appointed Hawaii State Board of Education is already being accused of discouraging public participation in its meetings.

Maralyn Kurshals, the Leeward representative on the former elected board, told Gov. Neil Abercrombie's appointees at a Tuesday board meeting that she believes the board's policies have made it harder for people to be involved in the policymaking process. She cited three reasons:

1. Holding meetings only at the downtown Honolulu board offices isolates the board from what is happening in schools.
2. Scheduling meetings early in the day makes it difficult for students and the working public to attend and submit testimony.
3. Restricting public testimony to only items that are on the meeting agenda makes it difficult for the community to raise concerns about issues the board may not know about.

"One piece we as the elected board did that was very significant was to be in schools for some of our public meetings," Kurshals told the board. "Eliminating those visits to schools is a serious detriment to (Board of Education) itself and to the schools."

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