The Hampton City School Board Meeting

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.

The Wilson School District Board of Directors meets on the first and third Monday of each month to guide the operations of the district through six strategic vision planks. These planks seek to: improve upon or expand Wilson’s portfolio, grow Wilson regionally and nationally, increase organizational agility and capacity, engage in creative development of new and existing infrastructure, create a flatter organizational structure, and control for fiscal accountability. The following is a summary of the meeting which occurred on September 18, 2017, along with observations and conclusions from the perspective of a future district administrator.

According to SMBGC’s website, SMBGC’s mission is to “inspire and enable young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential” (smbgc.org). “Those who need us must” refers definitely to the miracles of our lives: the children. SMBGC’s child focused mission is a value for the community, which is important and relevant to consider. It was the significant reason that I wanted to participate at this site.

Bureau Valley’s school board is comprised of seven members. Each member represents a section of the district. These board members are very prominent figures in our communities; they have much of the communities support. Although popularity, may not be what is best for the students. Looking at the Bureau Valley school board mandates, they are ultimately only required to do 4 hours of training and attend a few meetings when elected (Bureau Valley 2013, 120). Unfortunately, it is 2016 and the board member with the most recent training of any sort happened in March of 2014, almost two years ago. David E. Lee and Daniel W. Eadens, authors of “The Problem: Low-Achieving Districts and Low-Performance Boards,” find that school boards like Bureau Valley’s are not uncommon. Lee and Eadens find that most school board members only receive about “six hours of training per year,” compared to Bureau Valley’s four per election, our board is severely undereducated (Lee and Eadens 2014, 3).

The Chicago Board of Education meets once a month to discuss issues relevant to Chicago Public Schools, entertain public comments, and make policy and fiscal decisions. Often times the Board meeting is held at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) central office at 10 a.m. However, both the timing and location of the meeting on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 differed. The meeting was held at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy High School at 4:30 p.m. Gwendolyn Brooks is located on the far south side of Chicago. Hosting the meeting at a CPS school has both positives and negatives. By bolding the meeting at a school it allows for a less formal atmosphere in addition to providing the opportunity to showcase some of the beautiful properties CPS possesses. However, this particular school is not easily accessible by public transportation. This may cause a problem for some stakeholders that would like to participate in the school board meeting. Furthermore, 4:30 in the afternoon is an awkward time for a meeting as it is more difficult to find childcare during the evening hours. Additionally, finding details regarding this meeting was not easy. After a search was conducted on the CPS website, there was no mention of the board meeting. Once redirected to the Chicago Board of Education Site, information regarding the location of the meeting was supplied. However there wasn’t a visible start time or information regarding if the meeting was being broadcasted on a local

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.

The Englewood Board of Education meeting took place at the Grieco Elementary School in Englewood, NJ. On March 17, 2016 and began promptly at 6:30 p.m. in the Cafeteria. The board is made up of nine board members all sitting at a long table with the President of the board, Mr. Devry Pazant who sat at the center of the table beside the newly appointed Superintendent, Mr. Robert Kravitz.

The Board of Education dates back to 1842. According to the New York City Department of Records, the Board of Education was known as the Board of Education of the City of Brooklyn from 1853 – 1897 (www.nyc.gov). During that time period, records documented educational policy, and school system administration. The Board of Education underwent several transformations. Although the school system as stated by the Department of Records (www.nyc.gov) was known as the Board of Education of the city of Brooklyn, there were also boards in the borough of Manhattan, Bronx, Queens and Richmond.

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.

1. To be healthy(this include growing and development as well as emotional and physical wellbeing).

A description of the group purpose and setting, providing enough information to let the instructor understand the group set-up.

I attended the IPS school board meeting on February 23, 2016 at 6pm. The meeting took place at 120 East Walnut Street. There was about 60-70 people there. There were people who was helping to conduct the meeting. They also had tables set up close to the front to where people were sitting. They also had rows for anyone who wanted to listen to the meeting. Police officers were also by the door. There were a variety of topics discussed last night. The topics that was discussed were bus tracking, increasing teacher’s salary, treatment of black kids and segregation in education, shortage of teachers and kids acting out, a group of parent’s helping improve reading scores, and a new system called naviance.

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

The ways in which the aims of this mission are going to be achieved will be specifically outlined in the vision statement provided. The importance of hitting our mark is paramount, for our children are our future, and making sure that they are successful, competitive citizens should be our highest concern.  Sometimes this process can be more challenging when put into practice.

The meeting began when the school board members entered the large group instruction room and took their seats at a panel table angled to the side of the audience. The school board consists of nine elected members from the community. The members are as follows: Paul Ridley (President), Pat Vigliotta (Vice President), Helen Cumminskey