I attended the June 9th School Board meeting out of interest in the SCPS Strategic Plan – which was ultimately approved 5-2. I was one of the last holdovers in the audience, but I had to depart around 10:45PM, right as that discussion began. Some meetings are going to run long - but it appears to be a common occurrence in Spotsy. Something must change about this – and will be a priority if elected. I want students, parents, teachers, staff, and the community engaged and informed. But this is impractical when the Board is conducting business when most of the County is asleep. Separately, staff cannot be expected to remain at work until after midnight and then return to work in the morning. This is not intended to be a negative comment toward staff but most of us would be struggling to produce quality work the next day under these conditions. My understanding is some changes are in the works, and I hope those changes address this issue. The community deserves opportunities to more easily participate. As an example of this negative impact, at the June 9th meeting, no citizens showed up to speak at the Strategic Plan public hearing. This could be interpreted as the community having no opinion on this issue. I think elected officials need be very cautious with that default assumption. Having been engaging with the community for over a decade, more often people are not aware of community developments. The School Board agendas need to be laid out in a way that allow reasonable opportunities to receive public comments– a public hearing at 10:45PM is not that.