There was enough smoke surrounding the fate of Dr. Rosemary Bradley, former Jamestown High School principal, that a special meeting immediately raised suspicions that a change was coming.

It is obvious that the public is interested in what is happening at the high school given more than 100 members of the public and JHS staff attended two November meetings in the wake of a fight at Jamestown High School.

It is disappointing, then, that the Jamestown Public Schools District Board of Education chose to hold a special meeting, with the distinct thought that a major staff change was likely coming, at 7 a.m. on a Thursday. The meeting was held at a time when interested parents were busy getting their children ready for school while interested staff members would have to be in their classrooms getting ready for the school day.

We admit that the upcoming holidays certainly didn’t make scheduling the special meeting easy. We’re sure that some board members will be out of town this week as they celebrate Christmas with their families, and board members needed to have an interim principal in place when students return from winter recess.

It’s bad enough to have special meetings at 7 a.m. for things like BOCES budget votes or to nominate BOCES board candidates. It’s even worse to hold a 7 a.m. meeting about a matter that the public and staff obviously care about. There is no perfect time to hold a meeting, but 7 a.m. meetings should be an absolute last resort.