Speaking of “uncharacteristic,” last night’s meeting of the Special Advisory Board of the Transitional School District of the City of St. Louis (try saying that three times fast), was different not only because of the free cookies and coffee, but because of the presence of something not seen in the St. Louis Public Schools in a very long time — PR savvy.

Many came to the meeting, billed as the public’s first opportunity to address the new appointed board, not just to listen to the comments, but to watch a bloodbath.

Vocal opponents of the state takeover had waited for weeks to speak directly to the man from Chesterfield now in charge of their kids and their jobs. But like a smaller, faster fighter using political Judo to disable his larger opponents, District CEO Rick Sullivan and his team of (as yet unpaid) Vandiver Group PR consultants, divided and conquered.

Sullivan spread the crowd across the large meeting room in the lower level of the St. Louis Science Center, seating them at tables of seven. The parents, staff, and teachers union members were forced to deal with the SAB members one-on-one. No microphones. No clapping or applauding in agreement with angry speakers. No booing at laments about how the old system wasn’t working.

Perhaps it was all smoke and mirrors, but it worked. What was supposed to be a three-hour battle among vocal opponents and supporters of the change in leadership turned into more of a town hall meeting, which winded down after only little more than an hour with people leaving, either satisfied (or pacified) or tired of waiting for one of the three to get to their table.

Strictly from a political strategy perspective… brilliant.

Sure, there were definitely complaints delivered forcefully and directly to the SAB members. The first thirty minutes were the hardest.

“If you want to help the children, then resign,” one Local 420 member told Richard Gaines.

But when the dust cleared and everyone had gone home, it was Sullivan and Gaines who were the last one’s standing and the last to leave the building (the third member, Melanie Adams, had left earlier).

In fact, even Gaines, who had complained about the format at the start of the meeting, told one of the last parents still in the building, “I kind of liked this tonight. We got to really talk to people.”