"Same Night" Decision to Finalize the 2010-11 Budget Coming?

The jungle drums tell us that--even though you won't find it listed on the School Board's "BoardDocs" site, that September 13th will be THE night.

Normally, on the 2nd Monday of the month,  there would be an FTT meeting, a Finance Committee meeting, and then a School Board meeting.

We hear that the FTT meeting has been postponed and it will be just be Finance followed by the School Board.  The Finance agenda will be to "approve" and forward the budget to the full school Board, who will take it up and vote for final "approval" of the budget virtually minutes later at it's own meeting.

Whatever happened to letting a pot simmer to infuse flavor before serving a dish?  Or the krausening process for a fine beer?
The school board used to call these actions "same night decisions" and, while never formally banned, the board's "practice" has been that "same night decisions" are only made in "emergency situations" where immediate action is required.

There is no emergency here.  THREE WEEKS will have passed since the last school board meeting.  Surely an impromptu meeting could have been called to discuss the budget.  After all...a lot of new money has come into the equation.  Or does the district just want to continue to stash the cash and work within the shadows?  We've even heard from citizens who have requested additional budget hearings, yet those requests have not even been given the courtesy of a response.

Clearly the plan is not to incorporate any feedback from the Sept.13th Finance Committee in the "final" budget.  How could they possibly make changes in the scant minutes between the end of the Finance Committee meeting and the start of the School Board meeting?

Why can't the board hear comments at the Finance meeting, and then allow some time to make changes and bring it before the board for approval on September 27?  That would still provide two weeks before the annual meeting.

Talk about tossing open government and transparency out the window.
Shame on the school board, YET again.
All we can say is...
Beware the Ides of October!