DOWNIEVILLE — Much to the consternation of Sierra County’s students, it appears that the County’s schools will remain open. That fact was to be discerned from the Plumas Sierra Joint Unified School District’s Board meeting this past Tuesday evening in Downieville. There were other discernments to be perceived also, as well as observing the terminally predictable behavior of those charged with overseeing our school system. Those worthies share at least one trait of the students: they loathe homework. The disinterested observer might hope board members had read the background information offered by the administration. That would streamline the meetings by relieving administrators of the duty to reiterate what they had already put on paper. It is not inconceivable that meetings would take less than the three hours Tuesday’s confab consumed. We have a theory why this hope will not likely be realized. It seems board members are given fairly generous healthcare benefits. We suspect they feel somewhat guilty about this perq and so prolong the monthly meetings to publicly appear “involved” and “committed.” There is also the human condition that members of that species very much like the sound of their own voices. We offer as substantiation what the school board did not do: six state-mandated policy matters were postponed until next month’s meeting. The actual issues at hand should have taken some five minutes to thrash out some options the State left open. The State is the big dog in matters educational. There are no options. However, by delaying the obvious necessities, board members will have an opportunity to grandstand and pontificate, guaranteeing the next meeting in Loyalton will be as tedious as ever. The actual necessities disposed of at Tuesday’s meetings were to appoint Loyalton’s Richard Jaquez to fill a vacancy on the board and to agree with raises previously negotiated with school staff. The vacancy was created when board member Dorie Gayner was required to resign as a result of a conflict of office: she was also involved with Loyalton’s governance. She has since cleared that conflict and offered, again, her service to the school board, Both Gayner and Jaquez have considerable experience in the school business. Gayner was an educator in Colorado before moving to Loyalton, while Jaquez retired from maintaining the physical Loyalton plant. The decision was tough: both were very attractive candidates. In matters fiscal, the board agreed to give staff a two percent raise, retroactive to the beginning of this fiscal year, and a one-time $4,000 bonus based on a full-time equivalency. The board was naturally interested in the State budget, and heard at length of the governor’s initial proposal. This is actually of only speculative interest, as the final budget will be hacked, mashed and carved by the legislature. Suffice it to say the glory days of California’s fiscal health, credited to Governor Jerry Brown, are over.