Editorial: Making public wait, on purpose, is really, really rude

This is Sunshine Week across the country and newspapers are writing about open government and letting the sun shine into governmental affairs.
Lately, the public has been shown distain at the meetings of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education. They can’t get any answers when they are allowed to speak at meetings.
Board President Brent Mikulski, who seemed a nice-enough guy when he was elected, has turned into a stone wall. Members of the community cannot get answers from him when they ask.
He usurped the board presidency from Martha Toth in a little coup and most everyone thought that was OK because Martha was so sharp with members of the audience. Brent wasn’t sharp, he just wouldn’t share what he knew with the people who elected him. Irritating.
The board’s recent practice of opening the meeting and then immediately going into closed-door session is very, very rude. One of their recent executive sessions was two hours long. Meanwhile, the public waited and waited. On Monday, while waiting for 50 minutes, one woman wanted to set up a Euchre tournament.
Several years back, the board would post its meeting at 5 p.m. and then go into executive session and get out in time to hold the regular 7 p.m. meeting. But, since the former superintendent took over, the public be damned. Let them sit and wait.
Let the sunshine in, dear school board.