Your faithful education correspondent was on the story.

A email was forwarded that SFSOS was going to have rally at 6 p.m. to ask Ackerman not to resign. So I thought that I would go and see how many people from SFSOS would show up to show their support for Dr. Ackerman.

One person. SFSOS is so powerful that they can get on a three hour notice for a rally to save Dr. Ackerman-one person (Wade Randlett, the guy sending the faxes and emails. So he probably knew where it was.)

The police showed up to provide security around the rally-but there wasn’t any Arlene supporters rallying.

Since I was already hanging out at SFUSD, I hung out in the lobby with the journalists throughout the entire closed Board, waiting to hear if Dr. Ackerman was going to execute her golden parachute on the second day of school.

The action got a little exciting when around 8 p.m., several SF police officers walked in and then went straight up the elevator to the third floor. My days in journalism school were not wasted-we all sat up with attention.

When they came down about ten minutes later, the officers stayed in the lobby for about 20 minutes in the event that “they were needed.” But then it became clear that the BOE hadn’t arrive to the item on Dr. Ackerman, so the press’ attention of the police officers dwindled.

Finally at 10:20 p.m., the BOE came out. They talked about how they were working on the board, neither party agreed to the incompatiabilty clause and that the Board had decided that they would meet within a week. No news-for all of the fury that surrounded it.

But during those four hours, the journalists began to talk to each other. People new to the beat were asking veterans on the beat about the news that the Board had meet in a retreat two weeks earlier. One reporter asked, “Why didn’t they discuss this at the retreat? If Ackerman wanted something in writing, why didn’t she give it to her then?”

An excellent question-one that unfortunately was not posed to Dr. Ackerman. Why did she wait to schedule her meeting to demand a written assurance from every member of the Board on the second day of school?

I realize that her contract said that she had till August 31 to declare incompatiability with the Board and pick up her golden parachute. But like a good student who does her homework early, she could have had that all arranged during the retreat-or at a closed board session at the regularly-scheduled BOE meeting last Tuesday.

Because after all, who demands from their bosses a signed statement stating that they will be nice to her-when she is being paid $270,000, $60,000 in housing expenses and if they are not “nice” to her, she can take her $375,000 and find another district.

What did she gained demanding a meeting about the issue yesterday?

The drama of a rally that didn’t happen
A gaggle of press taking her statements before the meeting
A gaggle of press who were ready to take her statement as long as she broke the meeting up before 11:00 p.m. (which she did, giving them a half hour to edit or get back to the studio)
And perhaps in her mind, a reminder to the Board that she wants to be calling the shoots-and it would be done on her schedule, not theirs
And a perception that she is calling wolf-when there isn’t a wolf at the door (except in her own mind)