While I was at the city school board meeting last night, my colleague (and former partner in crime on the schools beat) Brent Jones went to the "town hall meeting" at Morgan State about the downfall of the Baltimore City Council of PTAs. Many thanks to Brent for penning the following guest blog entry about the drama that ensued there:

Last night’s public meeting was called to brainstorm ideas on what to do now that the state has revoked the charter of the Baltimore City Council of PTAs. Instead, the majority of the more than two-hour session rehashed how the city PTA got into this predicament, with the bickering sides (city and state PTA leaders) at one point shouting their respective platforms at each other.

It made for good theater, but who knows what will come of it? Debbie Ritchie, the Maryland PTA president, made a surprise appearance at the meeting and defended the state's decision to strip the city PTA council of the authority to operate. She reiterated points she'd made before (including earlier in the evening at the city school board meeting). The PTA council failed to provide required documents such as budgets and meeting minutes, and it was operating without a secretary or a treasurer as required. A representative from the national PTA also spoke at the meeting and backed the state’s decision.

Eric White, the president of the city’s PTA council, and the first vice president, LaV’ernee Curley, were joined by Sen. Joan Carter Conway and Del. Cheryl D. Glenn in their crusade. All agreed the city’s PTA had made mistakes, but none of those miscues warranted such a harsh penalty. It wasn’t like they embezzled money, they said. At one point, those four also argued with Ritchie about documents that the state organization might or might not have sent informing the city PTA that it was in jeopardy.

The whole debate was probably a little bit too much inside baseball for the 40 or so people in the audience, but it was fascinating watching both sides speak so passionately.

As for what happens going forward, a couple of suggestions came out of the public comments following the debate. The local NAACP president, Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, said the national PTA should mediate a truce between the state and city branch. Another person rallied the city to take the state to court. Neither seems likely. And it may turn out that the city PTA has to go the same route as the Prince George’s County Council of PTAs, which also had its authority stripped by the state. A past president of that organization was there last night and admitted that, after fighting the suspension for months, eventually, he had to give up, and just focus on getting the group ready to come back after two years, when it is eligible to be re-instated.