GILROY
– The Gilroy Unified School District’s goal of improving its
communication with the public could mean a change in the way school
board trustees conduct business.
GILROY – The Gilroy Unified School District’s goal of improving its communication with the public could mean a change in the way school board trustees conduct business.
Trustees and district administrators are considering holding more special workshop meetings in lieu of some regular board meetings typically slated the first and third Thursdays of each month. They say the formality and broader scope of the regular meetings limit the amount of in-depth discussion between staff, trustees and the public.
The idea was kindled last Thursday at the end of an intensive, three-and-a-half-hour special meeting where the district analyzed standardized test results, heard Gilroy High School’s plan for improving student achievement and delved into question-and-answer sessions with trustees and parents.
“Last Thursday reminded a few of us how good and how useful a study session could be,” said Trustee Bob Kraemer. “From simple customer service to letting more people in the know, we’ve heard from the community that we need to do a better job of communicating. (Special meetings) may be the way to do that.”
School board president Jim Rogers says special meetings will be useful as two deadlines approach for the school district. One is the state-mandated high school exit exam that students graduating in 2004 must pass before receiving a high school diploma. The other is a self-imposed goal of having 90 percent of Gilroy public school students at or above grade level in all subjects by the end of the 2003-04 school year.
Currently, about half of the district’s students are at grade level.
Special meetings, also called study sessions or board workshops, are conducted for a variety of reasons. Usually, the meetings focus on a small number topics and do not call for board action. Regular board meetings cover a wide variety of business and almost always require the board to vote on issues.
Special meetings, officials say, would make it easier for district staff, trustees and the public to brainstorm ideas related to, for instance, improving student performance. Such a complex issue often needs intense study before a board begins its debate and later votes.
Under California’s open meeting laws, a board cannot vote or deliberate on an issue unless it has been placed on that meeting’s agenda. That makes it difficult, Kraemer points out, for trustees to act on issues brought up by the public in a timely matter.
Holding more special meetings won’t necessarily lead to quicker board decisions. However, special meetings would give the public a forum to bring up ideas, enter into discussions with trustees and request staff to place a matter on the next regular meeting’s agenda, where it could be voted on.
Three years ago, when the troubled district began its reform efforts, special meetings were used up to twice a week, Kraemer recalled. Neither Rogers nor Kraemer elaborated on the frequency of special meetings this time around, but Rogers said that asking trustees to attend one special meeting a month in addition to the two regular monthly meetings would not “be asking too much of the board.”
Trustees also expressed an interest in televising the special sessions, as they do the regular meetings, to provide additional access for the public.
