UPDATED, 4:44 p.m., with news from the State Board conference call.

It’s an unwritten rule around the Statehouse, especially in the early weeks of the legislative session: The meeting calendar is pretty spare on Friday afternoons.

And today is Valentine’s Day — as you probably already know, or your significant other will pointedly remind you.

But that didn’t stop the State Board of Education, which held a conference call at 4 p.m. Friday.

The State Board conference calls aren’t all that unusual; they provide the board with a chance to craft positions on bills pending in the Legislature, without waiting for one of its regularly scheduled meetings.

The board had three bills on its Friday afternoon agenda.

One was Twin Falls Republican Sen. Jim Patrick’s bill to put $604,000 into agriculture education programs; the board voted unanimously to support additional funding for professional-technical education.

Another was Meridian Republican Sen. Russ Fulcher’s bill requiring the Legislature to approve any future multistate agreements on curriculum, standards and assessment; the board voted unanimously to oppose this bill, but State Superintendent Tom Luna and Senate Education Committee Chairman John Goedde said Fulcher is rewriting the bill.

Serious matters.

But 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon?

No one could accuse State Board members of having an early valentine’s date.