Oct. 1, 2007 BOE Meeting

I was out of town and unable to attend either the Work Session on Oct 1st which dealt with the 2007-08 budget or the regular BOE meeting that followed. Then I have been so busy catching up with all the pieces of my life, that I missed taping most of it as well. I would love to hear comments from anybody out there who was in attendance at either or both of the meetings. Anybody??

My taping cut into the discussion of the Board Docs technology which is a paperless Board Governance and Communication tool that many districts across the country use. I am not an expert, but I sure thing that the ECASD needs something to share all the information upon which discussions are based and decisions are made. In addition, eliminating all the paper copies is always a good idea. The Board Docs rep was extolling the benefits and ease of being able to get all the information on an agenda posted online to share with the public 4 to 5 days in advance of the meeting. Therefore, if people are like him, they have a few days to review the material, think it over, and then come prepared. Distributing information in advance of a meeting is "HUGE" he said. I would certainly agree. Our district hardly gets paper copies to the BOE members themselves more than a day or 2 in advance and the public is left to scrounge whatever paper copies might be made when they show up for the meeting itself.

Comm. Craig had concerns that 1/3 of the EC constituents don't have computers, but, they would always be able to get paper copies by requesting them or going to the library for a copy, for example. Comm. Bollinger indicated that he is aware of a $5,000 grant underwriting this technology for the 1st year for the ECASD. Source was not disclosed. Mr. Kling asked about training for new BOE members and Administrators and was told that a rep. could stop by when they are in the region or arrange for training and just pay expenses (airfare, car, hotel) when needed. Patti Iverson asked about how the data gets into the system and it is either posted directly by the presenter or sent electronically to somebody like Patti to cut and paste into the template of the agenda.

Pres. O'Brien asked about using the technology to "communicate with" and the Board Docs rep indicated that BOE members communicating in advance of the public meetings about agenda items is strictly illegal and their in-house attorneys do not allow that feature to be part of the product for that reason. (Why do I keep getting the sense that the current BOE members do not have a very firm grasp of the Open Meetings Laws??) The communication feature is just between the BOE and Administration.

Comm. Craig reiterated her concern that the BOE should be most specific about what problem is being solved with this technology and if this is the best solution. Comm. Bollinger agreed and asked that the IT people follow up on other similar software that is out there.

Bob Scidmore from IT gave an update on the Student Information System (SIS) and the SAN (network) which are making good progress. the SIS is in transition to implementation after the summer selection process that including many, many people evaluating the components. Again, LOTS of information that was on an overhead on PACTV so I could not get everything.

The SAN will be implemented just 3 days before school starts next year and they will use a train the trainers approach for staff development. Comm. Bollinger seemed familiar with a lot of this stuff (as he should be) and asked a lot of questions and seemed happy with the answers.

The Legislative Report is again that the budget delays are hurting lots of places across the state and leaving many agencies in limbo for funding.

The Clear Vision community planning process is getting going with 150 member/stakeholders participating. My comment: WONDERFUL!!! As usual, the ECASD is being dragged along behind and maybe we can get our own planning process going in less than 2 years but I am not hopeful. Dr. Leary mentioned that he is participating as well as Comm. Cummins and Faanes and John Wallace and Blia Xiong (sp?) and others. Dr. Leary is on the Coordinating Committee and says he is not sure what it involves but he is happy to serve. Dr. Leary asked that BOE members return the newest version of the Needs Assessment to him by Oct. 8th and then the Goals and Objectives can begin to be put together after Oct. 22nd. Fred Weissenburger's staff will be reviewing and revising this information and will include the Core Values into the final document.

I will try to be better about keeping this up in the future. In the meantime, if others can share the attendance opportunities to BOE meetings, that would be great!!