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Board of Education hosts joint meeting with Commissioners
The Board of Education of Charles County is holding a joint strategic planning meeting with the Charles County Commissioners at 12 p.m., Wednesday, May 4, in the Boardroom at the Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building in La Plata.
The meeting will be aired live on Comcast Channel 96 and Verizon FiOS Channel 12, and streamed on the school system Web site at http://www2.ccboe.com/boe/live/.
I. Lunch – 11-11:45 a.m.
II. Call to Order – 12 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance
III. Strategic Planning Work Session
- Overview of county public schools in general, with emphasis on special assets or areas of importance for individual schools. (It would be nice to hear about what is noteworthy about our current schools and student populations.)
- Budget, Maintenance of Effort discussion
- Information on programs that support low income students (Title I and Judy Centers)
- After school programs - homework and tutoring programs
- Parent Outreach - various initiatives that BOE has to communicate with and involve parents.
- Security and overall safety of our schools.
- State Quality Indicators - how we rank.
- Communications Protocol - Board President to Board President; staff-to-staff.
- Two meetings per year - next meeting will be hosted by Commissioners.
3 comments:
This is rather confusing.
Apparently this meeting was cancelled. I learned from another (unofficial) source that the BoE would hold an executive session.
BoE BoardDocs shows only the Executive Session, with no agenda content except to cite State Government Article 10-503(c), which states “If a public body recesses an open session to carry out an administrative function in a meeting that is not open to the public, the minutes for the public body’s next meeting shall include: (1) a statement of the date, time, place, and persons present at the administrative function meeting; and (2) a phrase or sentence identifying the subject matter discussed at the administrative function meeting –
and 10-508(a)(7) and (9) which state that “Subject to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section, a public body may meet in closed session or adjourn an open session to a closed session only to (7) consult with counsel to obtain legal advice; (9) conduct collective bargaining negotiations or consider matters that relate to the negotiations.
[The referenced subsection (d) provisions state (1) Unless a majority of the members of a public body present and voting vote in favor of closing the session, the public body may not meet in closed session; (2) Before a public body meets in closed session, the presiding officer shall: (i) conduct a recorded vote on the closing of the session; and (ii) make a written statement of the reason for closing the meeting, including a citation of the authority under this section, and a listing of the topics to be discussed; (3) If a person objects to the closing of a session, the public body shall send a copy of the written statement required under paragraph (2) of this subsection to the Board; (4) The written statement shall be a matter of public record; (5) A public body shall keep a copy of the written statement made under paragraph (2)(ii) of this subsection for at least 1 year after the date of the session.
The BoE recessed an unannounced open session? [The press release regarding the canceled joint meeting makes no mention of a different meeting at an earlier time, for which an agenda other than the “boilerplate” reference to the Open Meeting Act citations is not provided, and that BoardDocs agenda for the May 4 session does not provide any indication of the date or time it was posted.]
There are no minutes posted in the May 10 BoE regular meeting agenda for May 4.
Staff Response:
The 7 and 9 should not have been in there ands staff is working to avoid that in the future.
We post all Board meetings on Board Docs, regardless of whether it is open or executive session. We do not usually post an agenda for an executive session prior to the meeting, as we do not always know the full scope of what is needed until that day. We announce in open session the motion to close the meeting, which includes the items to be discussed. Our legal requirement is to announce in advance that the Board is having a meeting and when and where it will be held. All meetings are open until closed by a Board motion and vote. While there is no legal requirement to post that there will be an executive session in advance or that the meeting will solely be an executive session; however, it is a best practice and our procedure.
The minutes for May 4 will be posted on the May 10 Board meeting agenda; however, we do have a number of workdays allowed by the Board to prepare and then post the minutes. The only minutes from the executive meeting that we post will be time, date, place, who was in attendance, any action taken, and the motion stating the reason for going into executive session.
"The 7 and 9 should not have been in there..."
So, what should have been? Those are the only two items that give any clue to what the topic of the meeting might have been.
"The minutes for May 4 will be posted on the May 10 Board meeting agenda;"
Not so much as referenced on the May 10 agenda or minutes, or the May 23 agenda or minutes, or the June 14 agenda.
So, you have an executive session for which you have only a posted agenda that includes 1) a legal justification that "should not have been in there" and 2) adjournment, and no minutes for it that have been approved by the Board. Is the BoE back to not printing and officially approving Executive Session minutes?
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