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September 18, 2006
The school board be open to communicate with the
patrons who voted them into office.
Currently only when an topic is on the agenda, can a
person present their question to the board. If it is
not on the agenda, good luck trying to get it added.
Is it reasonable to expect a patron to hope that a topic
will be on the agenda so that they can address the school
board?
To have ample time to present school related concerns
to the board.
Currently a person is allowed 3 minutes to present to
the board. Ordinarily 3 minutes is snug but enough time;
however, when a person makes the effort to come to the
school board meeting to address the board and needs
more time, shouldn't the school board hear them out?
If you do have a concern, we recommend contacting the
school directly before the board meeting. Have a special
meeting or ask if it is okay to address the issue at
the end of a meeting. Both of these are in the guidelines
that the state mandates for school board meetings.
When soliciting patrons to be on committees, that
the board will follow through on the long range plans
resulting from those committees.
The current safety concerns that arose at Prairie Vale
were all addressed in the last long range plan. The
plan that was developed five years ago was not implemented
until a recent group of parents had enough. Five years
ago, the technology committee made recommendations that
were only implemented this year after newly hired technology
person reiterated the very same needs. Were the recommendations
put forth five years ago by the planning committees
not considered valuable? It seems it was important enough
for the board to ask people to give up their time and
share their knowledge but not important enough to act
on. It is an insult to those volunteers to share expert
knowledge and precious time, to only be ignored. If
the board had acted on their information, maybe the
school computer system would have been operational when
the school opened instead of several weeks into the
school year.
To be taken seriously and if need be see action
taken on concerns.
People do go to the school with concerns. Volunteers
provide valuable advice to the school. Often times concerns
are met with resistance and advice ignored or poorly
implemented. The safety concerns at Prairie Vale are
a perfect example. Five years ago, safety was identified
as an area where we could improved. Nothing was done.
Recently parents contacted the school expressing concerns
about open doors, anyone being able to pick on their
children, etc. The school did not do anything until,
through the DCS Post, the parents came together, set
up a meeting and pushed the items through. Unfortunately,
the safety concerns cover all the schools. The school
district only focused on Prairie Vale and did not follow
through an audit the other schools.
People’s actions will tell you what is important
to them.
The board is speaking loud and clear on what they
feel, or don't feel is important.
- They make it difficult if not impossible to speak
to a topic at board meetings.
- They do not act on committee recommendations.
- Commonly enough they only act when on a concern
when parents are forces to band to together and the
actions are minimal at best.
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Board Part IV - What Next? >>
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