More SBNC Shenanigans

The School Board Nominating Commission process is so screwed up that they are now changing the rules as they go:

County Executive John R. Leopold's appointee to the School Board Nominating Commission successfully pushed through a rule change that limits the power of the governor's five appointees. Each candidate, even the five appointed by the governor, now needs approval from eight of the 11 commissioners to have their name sent to the governor, who appoints new school board members from among those names.

Before the commission changed the rule last night, candidates had needed only six votes - easy to get if Gov. Martin O'Malley's five appointees voted as a bloc.

Of course, the change is likely cosmetic as the O'Malley/Leopold/Union liberal block is pretty likely to be in line on candidates. But does this not serve as a wonderful display of the absurdity of this kangaroo court system?

And speaking of the absurdity of this system, the same School Board Nominating Commission doesn't think the Board of Education should be involved in school system operations. So explain this:

The county Board of Education plans to discuss raising school lunch prices at its meeting tomorrow.

Meal prices haven't gone up for four years, said Jodi Risse, supervisor of the school system's Food and Nutrition Services.

She said the combination of federal and state money and revenue from the lunches isn't enough to cover expenses of the county's school lunch program.

Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell is recommending the board raise school lunch prices by the following amounts:

Milk, ½ pint, up 5 cents from 45 to 50 cents

Breakfast up 25 cents from $1 to $1.25

Elementary school lunch up 25 cents from $1.75 to $2

Secondary school lunch up 25 cents from $2 to $2.25

This isn't a knock on the decision to raise prices, because if you gotta do it, you gotta do it. But isn't this the kind of thing that the Commission believes School Board nominees should not be vetted for (i.e., their thoughts on operations) before the Commission passes the buck on to the Governor's office?

The school lunch price decision, no matter how minor, just goes to show out of touch and poorly planned the Nominating Commission concept is....