Scheduling conflicts keep Windham rep away from Salem School Board meetings
July 28, 2008
Eagle Tribune
SALEM — Windham School Board member Michael Hatem is lucky he’s not being graded on attendance.
Hatem is Windham’s representative to the Salem School Board but has attended just one of Salem’s meetings since he took on the role in March.
Hatem said Wednesday he can’t attend Salem’s meetings because the Windham School Board is meeting twice as often as it usually does — and those extra meetings are being scheduled on the same day as Salem’s meetings.
“It’s strictly been a conflict of schedules,” he said. “We used to meet twice a month (in Windham), but since April we’ve been meeting almost every week.”
Windham students have attended Salem’s high school since 1994 — and that’s the same year a representative from Windham was invited to join the Salem School Board. As a representative, the Windham member doesn’t vote, but is invited to give input on matters that involve Salem High School and affect both towns.
But Hatem hasn’t given much input.
He’s only attended one of 11 meetings — and that one was two months after taking the job. Hatem was elected to the Windham School Board in March. That meeting was in May and was held immediately after a biannual joint meeting that the entire Windham School Board attended.
While Hatem’s attendance record is strong on the Windham School Board, he said he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to attend more meetings in Salem.
He said the Windham School Board hasn’t discussed changing its meeting date from Tuesday to another day, and it doesn’t look like his Windham schedule is going to slow down.
“I’m hoping once we get done with the next couple of weeks and we get the capital improvement project agenda done, (the Windham schedule) will lessen up,” he said. “But once that’s done, there’s the warrants, so I don’t know.”
The Salem School Board will continue to have a Windham representative on the board until all Windham students transition into Windham’s new high school in the fall of 2011.