North East PA Online

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It’s Time for Earlier Publication of the School Board Agenda and Backup Documents – UPDATED

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Last month I suggested publishing the school board agenda and backup documents online earlier than 24 hours prior to the meeting, so the public would have an opportunity to look it over, to give everyone a chance to study the information presented and to make arrangements to attend if something important to them was going to be discussed or voted on. You can read the earlier article here. It explains the many reasons this idea makes a lot of sense.

What do other school districts do?

Another community member, Jeffrey Buchholz, thought that was a good idea, too, and left several comments, but he did more than that. He sent an email to every member of the school board as well as the superintendent and business manager asking them to consider the idea and then he followed that with a survey of the other school districts in Erie County to see when they published their agendas. He commented again with the results.

It turns out a few districts do the same as North East publishing 24 hours prior to the meeting, but many more have a 48 to 72 hour pre-meeting publication schedule.

    24-HOUR MEETING NOTICE

  • North East
  • Iroquois
  • General McLane
  • Fort Lebouf
    LONGER NOTICES

  • Corry-Thursday afternoon for a Monday meeting
  • Fairview-Friday for a Monday meeting
  • Girard-Thursday for a Monday meeting
  • Harborcreek-1:00 on Monday for a Thursday meeting
  • Millcreek-Always at least 48 hours online. Sooner (up to 72 hours) if available, they can be
    picked up at the main office
  • Northwestern-Friday for a Monday meeting
  • Seneca-Friday for a Monday meeting

It appears many districts are able to manage publishing their agenda earlier than the North East School District and they’re also able to handle whatever problems that may present.

I think Jeff’s initiative in finding out what other districts do is very helpful. Perhaps the board can take this information into consideration and change the schedule for agenda publication so members of the public will be better able to see what the board is doing and to offer informed comments during the meeting.

What do you think?

UPDATE:
Jeff Buchholz forwarded me the list of reasons why the superintendent feels earlier publication is not possible. These were sent to him in response to his first email. The reasons are listed below:

Time-Intensive Preparation Process: Assembling the agenda, along with all required attachments, is a meticulous and resource-intensive process. Compiling materials too early could reduce completeness, as some relevant information is/may not yet be available. Additionally, due to the new Sunshine Law, the ability to add an agenda item during a meeting is now limited.

Compliance with the Law: We have up to 24 hours prior to the Board meeting to add items and post the agenda. We frequently add items up to the time we post, which is usually no later than 1:00 p.m., which is compliant with the law. Additionally, we do not want to post a draft agenda, add items, and then get accused of not being transparent and/or tie our hands.

Volume and Complexity of District Business: There is no comparison given the difference in scope and scale between the school district’s responsibilities and those of smaller governing bodies.

As noted above, other and larger school districts seem to be able to address these same issues. One would think, the NE School District should be able to as well.

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Filed Under: North East School District Tagged With: ,

  1. Everyone has the right to know what their government is doing.
  2. Transparency is expected in all government meetings and daily operations.
  3. Everyone working in the government works for, and is answerable to, you and me.
  4. All laws, regulations, ordinances, budgets, audits and other public records should be freely available, preferably online, for citizens to examine without special fees and paperwork before they can do so.
  5. When municipalities seek bids for contract work, all bid documents should be available online, free of charge. Printed copies, if requested, should be offered at cost.
  6. Agendas should be posted online a minimum of 3 days before public meetings take place allowing interested citizens an opportunity to hear discussions and offer input on matters important to them.


Comments

  1. If I’m not mistaken this was brought up in a motion and Tabled. This was the past board.

  2. I couldn’t agree more! There is always the opportunity for agenda revisions at the beginning of the meeting z

  3. The entire schoolboard along with the superintendent received the results of the survey of the other county schools regarding the time frame allotted community members for access to meeting agendas. 70% of those schools allot about 72 hours for the public to access the agenda and supporting materials.

    Despite this rather significant information and my request that the board at least discuss it publicly, it was not brought up.

    There is no question that the superintendent favors the 24-hour notice. The community has no way to gage the view of the board members since the issue was not added to the agenda.