Moving the meat of the meeting to top of the menu
August 22, 2008
by Christine Yeres
New fall lineup
Immediately following the Board of Education’s discussion on improving interaction with the community, board President Jay Shapiro introduced a concept that may help draw people to board meetings: the “consent agenda,” the bundling of non-controversial items to be voted on and finshed with. To a certain extent the board already makes use of such groupings, as when it handles multiple appointments or retirements all together, and with a minimum of discussion. “And if we do want to make our meetings more inviting, let’s move presentations way up, to between 8:15 to 9:00,” declared Shapiro. (The public segment of Board of Education meetings typically begins at 8:15 p.m.) “I’m looking for simplicity here – the dialogue up front,” he added.
Grownups need sleep too
Most board of education agendas list a presentation on a main topic (see the board’s lineup for the year, below), usually after a fair amount of administrative matters have been gone over. But “we might open the public meeting and move right to the presentation,” Shapiro said, noting that when the board invites students to make presentations the board is careful to hear them early in the meeting and release them to study and sleep. The idea is that grownups, too, might have time constraints and sleep to catch. He continued, “We might even open with “Questions and Comments” and handle voting matters later.” Superintendent David Fleishman liked the idea too, for grownups like faculty and administrators who, he told board members, will very much appreciate not having to hang on late into the evening.
Members agree change in lineup seems wise
Board member Janet Benton weighed in, “I love the idea of the presentation first, then maybe the president’s report and the superintendent’s report. But I’d also like to see a place for policy discussion, before we’re exhausted. Then approval of financial actions.” Member Susan Haberman concurred. “I do like clustering the financial matters together later,” she said, adding that it is uncomfortable to give people only a vague idea of what time they should come to make their presentations. “We tell people, ‘Well, come around nine o’clock’” – an estimate that’s hard to pin down any better.
Board members were interested in rearranging the meetings using the “consent agenda” but reserved the right to engage in substantive discussion whenever any one of them judged it to be necessary.
What do you think of the Board’s ideas to get more people to watch their meetings? Click to tell us.
Draft school board schedule of presentations:September 22: School Report Card for 2006-7 school year
October 14: Audit approval- turf
October 28: Elementary K-5 Math
November 18: budget strategic question – Web guidelines
December 2: High school strategic question (teaching and learning with new schedule)
December 16: Instructional technology
Jan 13: To be announced
Jan 27: Chinese Studies Class Update
Feb 10: Middle School Topic (TBA)
March 3: Board Mtg-Budget work session
March 13: Board Mtg- Budget work session
March 24: Budget work session
March 31: Board Mtg- Budget work session
April 14: Budget work session mtg
April 21: Board Meeting – Adopt Budget
May 5: Budget Hearing
May 19: Budget vote
May 26: Tenured teachers – Teacher Action Research Project Update
June 2: Honor Retirees
June 16: Hail and Farewell
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