Early start times for two Red Hook meetings

RED HOOK - Two Board of Education meetings have been scheduled for early morning this week in an effort to conduct school district business while avoiding conflicts with trustees' personal schedules.

The sessions will be at 7 a.m. Monday and Thursday in the district office on U.S. Route 9 in the village.

The Monday meeting is being held for the sole purpose of receiving an update on roofing projects at the district's three schools. Trustee Johanna Moore said the session will allow building contractors to keep the roofing projects on schedule.

"That way, the architect can go to their building meetings that they need to do with their contractors and progress with the day," she said.

Trustee Frank Knobloch said scheduling the meetings for 7 a.m. was a "combination of it being summer and three people with really tough schedules."

The Thursday meeting is a scheduled regular session - the kind that traditionally is held in the late afternoon during the summer and the evening during the school year.

"It works for everybody," Moore said of the 7 a.m. start time. "Up until last week, I was (working) at the (town) rec park, and I had to be there by quarter of nine, so I would leave at 8:30 (a.m.) because I had kids coming."

Moore said trustees have not received complaints about early start times this summer, though an Aug. 4 meeting that began at 8 a.m. was attended by only one member of the public.

"She (teaches), and said it sure beat late night," Moore said.

"We're not trying to do anything sneaky," Moore added. "It's just that it works with everybody's schedule, and then we go along with the day, and we're not there until midnight."