William Marvel: Death by Buzzword

After four hours of sleep and a full day of work in Concord, I made it back to Conway just in time for last Thursday's SAU 9 board meeting, where I sat through a stultifying and utterly unconvincing defense of the superintendent's wasted Wednesdays. In a presentation that completely highjacked the meeting for an hour and 45 minutes, the board endured a relentless stream of buzzwords, jargon and clichés that conveyed almost nothing of importance, while covering up the most crucial information of all.

The really aggravating part was that some of the more gullible board members seemed to be lapping it up, including the board chair. Only one of them had the temerity to say what a lot of her more thoughtful colleagues must have been thinking.