A Student Board Representative For My School District

Local school board meetings are a venue that allows the public to attend and be a part of the educational process. These meetings provide community members with important information about upcoming events so that they are able to be well informed of the happenings that are taking place within the school system in which their child attends. Along with being able to learn about what is taking place within the school, it also allows parents and parent groups the opportunity to express their opinions and concerns about matters that could likely affect their children. Monthly school board meetings are a way to help establish and maintain open lines of communication between the school and community members. By allowing the community members the opportunity to be heard, it further enhances the relationship between the school and the community.

Having discovered my calling to work with nontraditional students, I took a position with St. Charles Youth and Family Services as a Teacher of Experiential Education. This position allowed me to interact with urban students from MPS who were expelled, court ordered or Special Education students who were deemed best suited to self-contained program. I loved the challenge every day. Every student was so different, but they all wanted and craved the same thing… acceptance and unconditional love. I wanted more.

The Hallsville Independent School District board meeting was very conductive. An agenda was handed out to everyone present, and it had every point to be made at the meeting neat and organized for everyone to follow. The meeting is mostly open to the public which provides a great way for everyone to feel up to date with what is going on in the school district, and be able to help in any way they can when problems arise. Once the superintendent had finished speaking about who was being recognized, the updated itinerary, and the HISD Education Foundation Report, he closed the meeting from the public. School board meetings benefit the community by letting the people not associated with a job through the school know what is going on in the district.

I went to the San Bernardino City Unified School District Board meeting that took place on October 3, 2017. In this board meeting, there were a lot of interesting topics that that were discussed. The board members voted on various topics throughout the board meeting, the community could see the members’ votes. This board meeting focused more on High School students rather than on Elementary students.

All board members/trustees, Interim superintendent, assistant superintendents, executive assistant, and the principals were in attendance. Although, the vice principal for Sunny Hills was proxy for the principal and the student board member was not present at the meeting.

The meeting was held at the Glenwood Landing School Auditorium. It was hosted by the North Shore Schools Board of Education. It convened at six- thirty p.m. on Thursday October 6th, 2016 at 60 Cody Avenue, Glen Head, NY 11545. This meeting discussed issues, concerns, and matters that addressed the needs of the schools, students and community. The purpose of the North Shore Board of Education is to serve as a liaison between the community and the Board regarding legislative matters that have a direct bearing on fiscal or educational aspects of the North Shore Central School District. The Board of Education consists of seven individuals whose primary responsibilities include: establishing general policies consistent with the laws of New York State and the rules and regulations of the State Education Department.

On November 9th 2015, a town hall meeting took place in my political science class. This meeting was a chance for students of the school to bring up concerns, or issues regarding there education. For their voice to be heard directly to the faculty that runs the school, the students could finally have a chance to get a valid answer. There was questions about safety, mathematics, community college education, and typical student issues.

Discussion of local government is a subject where eyes glaze over and information floats in one ear and right out the other. Most citizens know in greater depth about national politics rather than local, even if the city government has a greater influence and impact on daily life. With the permission of Professor Duckworth, I watched Frisco Independent School District’s board meeting online (link provided, pg. 4). The school board meeting explained a lot about the process, organization, and the structure of local politics.

The meeting started at 7:00 p.m. and lasted about 45 minutes. The bored member were five fourth females and two males. Lakota School District Board of Education meetings are held twice a month on the second and the fourth on Monday of each month.

Parent involvement is key to a child’s academic success; this can be accomplished through the parent’s participation in an advisory council. A parent-teacher organization meets regularly to discuss the workings of the school and the parents that take part in the meeting are rewarded with a voice to make suggestions and give active feedback to the school. This enables parents and teachers to discuss matters dealing with the education of their child. Another council that advocates the voice of parents is the Mississippi Read

The school board meeting I attended was the Norris School District. The meeting was located at Norris Middle School in the Mary Louise Robinson Library. The address was 6940 Calloway Dr. at seven PM. The Norris school district contains four elementary schools and one middle school. Total number of elected board members are five. The board president is Cy Silver. They meet once a month on the second Wednesday. The board is required to address the reports from superintendent and staff. Such as enrollment, district proposition 39 California clean energy job acts funding, district cafeteria report, local control accountability plan progress report. They also discuss new business such as approving budgets and achievements. The general format of the meeting is the board members sit in the front of the general attendees and the president sits in the middle of all the board members. Staff members sit to the right and left of the board members. The atmosphere was very welcoming, and they spoke of the business like they actually cared.

For this online course, I was required to attend and observe a school board meeting. I completed my requirement on Monday May 23rd, 2016 at the Clearfield Area Board of School Directors Regular Meeting from 6:00 pm until 9:15 pm. The current Clearfield Area School Board is composed of five male and four female members. The five male members of this school board are: Mr. Larry A. Putt, Mr. Phillip E. Carr, Mr. Tim N. Morgan, Mr. Randy Pataky, and Dr. Michael Spencer. The four female members of this school board include: Mrs. Mary Anne Jackson, Mrs. Susan E. Mikesell, Mrs. Gail Ralston, and Mrs. Jennifer Wallace.

I currently work for West Point Public Schools, I will be starting my seventh year with in the district. During my time at West Point, I have been involved in several different roles. I have been a sixth grade teacher where I taught the lower level reading, and language arts classes. All of the sixth grade United States History, along with being the sixth grade special education case manager, and served as one of the upper elementary reading coaches along with being a special education behavior teacher.

I teach in the Westside Consolidated Number Five School District in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The school district is a consolidation of three small rural town school districts Bono, Egypt, and Cash, Arkansas in 1968. I met with my mentor Mr. Scott Gaunt the school district superintendent on January 18, 2017 between meetings with district leaders and countywide superintendents. We met and discussed the community relations plan and identified the two most important issues for our district as identified in the poll by the Phi Delta Kappan and the Gallop poll. The issues were the lack of financial support for the school district to provide an adequate education for students and the testing and regulations imposed on school districts that lower educational time for students while in school.

Every school district has board meetings throughout the school year. Unfortunately, many parents, community members, & school personnel do not attend such important meetings because they don’t realize or understand the importance of such board meetings or how informative they can be. According to Kankakee School District (2017), the Kankakee School District Board of Education is composed of seven elected members, who were elected by the citizens of Kankakee to serve a four-year term that do not receive no salary for they services, are committed to ensuring a quality of educational excellence that will enhance the opportunities and challenges facing today’s student and additional responsibilities that board members include are selection of the District superintendent, developing general polices according to wishes of the community and requirements of law, hiring school personnel based upon recommendation of the Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent of Personnel, adopts salary schedules, approves funds to finance school operations, must adopt and review the annual operating budget for the District, and setting the property tax levy to produce adequate funds to meet the District’s financial needs ranks among the responsibilities of the Board of Education (Retrieved from https://www.ksd111.org/domain/68). For this paper, the Kankakee School District board meeting will be used, information learned from board meeting, use of