What about school board travel?

OK, I want to try something here. I'm curious to see whether the school board takes action on a blog entry. I doubt it, but I wonder if it gets back to them.

I'm not going to report about it – I don't cover the school system. But I can ramble right here.

Anyway, awhile back I wrote a story about how much the county spends on gas. It's a lot. Click right smack here for the masterpiece.

But county Mayor Tim Burchett – when he took office – eliminated pretty much all of the travel allowance for officials who operate under his purview. Well, in his proposed budget he also axed the county commission's travel allowance.

Initially, I thought they'd complain about it. But it looks like a majority will go along with the mayor's proposal and fill out the travel reimbursement forms instead of collecting the $300 a month. Now, I don't know which one really saves the most money. I'd be willing to bet, though, that you spend more on allowances, if only because folks don't want to go through the hassle of recording every mile and submitting a form.

But, whatever.

Anyway, part of the story talked about the major coin paid out to school employees. A small part of that – very minor – goes to the school board members. They each get $300 a month.

Now, I'm sure board Chairwoman Indya Kincannon forgot about this, but I still got my handy dandy notes where she said if the commission was willing to get rid of its travel allowance, then maybe the school board should look into it, too.

“It's not anything the (school) board approved,” she said at the time. “The county commission approved it for themselves and because of the charter we get the same identical compensation.”

OK, well, it looks like the commissioners are doing away with it.

Will the school board talk about getting rid of their travel allowances, too?

Naw, probably not.

It would probably go over about as well as their plan to limit the public from speaking.