Board Meeting Information
2010-11 Regular Board Meeting Schedule
Board of Education Meeting Etiquette
The board is a policy-setting body. Because education is a state function, once board members are elected to office, they become officers of the state. Locally, the board is a legislative body responsible for establishing local policy ensuring that the schools are properly run in accordance with federal law, state law, and regulations. Copies of the policy manual are available in the library, the superintendent’s office, and the town hall.
The board hires an administrative staff to oversee all of the daily operations in the schools and to do the staff work necessary for the board both to act on policy matters and evaluate, in a general sense, the overall functioning of the school system.
Thus, the board asks the administrative staff to do a variety of tasks involving data collection and analysis and to make recommendations where appropriate. In many instances, the law requires from the superintendent a recommendation upon which the board can act.
This is an official business meeting of the school board conducted under a prepared and limited agenda distributed to the board, town hall, and school offices several days ahead of time.
The policy of the board with respect to public participation during this meeting of the South Windsor Board of Education states:
“All regular meetings of the board shall be open to the public”… “Time shall be reserved at each regular meeting of the board for hearing of visitors and citizens groups.”
Visitors who address the board should be mindful of the following:
A fifteen-minute period will customarily be provided for public presentations at the beginning and end of the meeting.
In both instances, participants may present written or oral statements or requests. The board would appreciate receiving copies of any written statements. These statements or requests must be limited to three minutes. Unless an answer to a question is provided in the board’s written policies, established regulations, or procedures, the board will not respond to the request at the same meeting, nor will it take action on a proposed recommendation, but may defer the item to a later meeting.
The board suggests some guidelines that may be helpful:
- Each person wishing to speak should limit his remarks to three (3) minutes.
- If there are many citizens desiring to speak on the same subject, they will be asked to limit their presentation so that each different subject may be given fair presentation time.
- Citizens should not expect an immediate reply from the board since this is the time for citizens to be heard and not the time for decisions to be made. If the board feels there is need to discuss the citizen’s matter of interest further, it may place the matter on the agenda for a future meeting.
The school board appreciates your assistance in helping it discharge its duties properly.
