Marathon Portsmouth school committee session yields no action on Supt. Krizic

The Portsmouth School Committee met in executive session for 3.5 hours tonight, and the 20-or-so citizens who were still hanging on at 10pm learned only that a new subcommittee would be formed to support the Superintendent. The two votes taken during the exec reportedly had to do with process — one to affirm their personnel review approach and the other, which failed, to suspend the rules. The minutes were then sealed, and the committee adjourned without taking up the regular agenda.

If this sounds confusing and incomplete, well, yeah, it was.

Everyone I talked to at the meeting — we had so much time that I was talking with people I *never* talk to — admitted they knew a tiny piece of the story. People said they knew it was about Superintendent Krizic (which was also apparently in Saturday's edition of the dead-tree news organ from the southern part of the island) but beyond that peg, the stories diverged like a game of telephone being played in a Kurosawa film.

I clearly don't know, and I'm not speculating.

The first two hours of the meeting, the school committee was closeted with their lawyers, leaving Krizic out with the public. Then came a brief break, people headed for bathrooms, still not talking to anyone, then they disappeared back into the little room.

But this time, it was *with* the Superintendent and *without* the attorneys.

That left an odd mix of constituencies waiting in the PHS library — a contingent from the Portsmouth Public Education Foundation, several from NEA Portsmouth, a big bloc of PCC types, and three of the Town Council (Robicheau, Kesson, and Staven) who stopped by after their meeting ended. PHS Principal Bob Littlefield was seen slipping in and out. There were a couple of parents, and, of course, the usual reporters. All waiting for what seemed oddly anticlimactic.

I mean, okay, we've now got a new subcommittee to help the Superintendent. Or something. (Guide? Monitor? Evaluate? Remains to be seen who's on it and what their actual charge is.) Seems like you might have been able to get to a result like that without all the secrecy, angst, and drama. Whatever went on for those first two hours with the lawyers on the clock must have been pretty interesting stuff.

And I thought I was taking this week off from blogging....