Wissahickon School Board Holds Discussion on Their Governance

On Monday night’s agenda was a discussion of “Policies in the 000 series.”

School Board member Marjorie Brown began the discussion with a statement:

Two Board meetings ago, Mr. Stanton said that Board committees have discussions, make decisions, and bring recommendations to the full Board. From my observations, there appear to be many inconsistencies in how Board committees operate. In practice, the process a committee follows seems to be defined largely by who is acting as committee chair. Some committees permit their members to raise topics for discussion; others like Policy Committee do not. Some (like Curriculum Committee) hear full presentations in the committee setting, with shortened presentations to the full Board; others have limited presentations in committee, with NO presentations to the full Board. Some meet regularly; others like Finance Committee rarely have meetings.

Richard Stanton said he believes the committee structure is very efficient and is working.

Brown made a motion to have the “Policy Committee examine how [the Board] policies on Board Governance are currently implemented, investigate how Board committees operate in other school districts and bring its findings and recommendations back to the full Board.”

Looking to Improve

Burunda Prince-Jones said if looking at the policies and policies of other school districts and help the board improve, she supported doing the investigation.

Brown added that she brought the motion because she wants to make sure that the full board is informed on all the board decisions. “I’m making sure we all know what we need to know,” she said.

Janice Singer clarified that no decisions are made at committee; all action is taken at full board meetings.

Young Park, president of the Board, said, “Unless it’s broken, we don’t want to reinvent the wheel.”

He added that without going back to meeting as a committee of the whole, he doesn’t know how to fix the issue. Everything the Board does they make public and all Board meetings and committee meetings are open to the public.

Options to Move Forward

Barbara Moyer suggested video taping all of the meetings, not just full Board meetings.

Superintendent Judith Clark told the Board that it costs the district $250 per taping. It would cost the district between $8,000 and $10,000 per year to tape all board, committee and budget meetings.

“I think it’s an extravagance that’s not necessary,” said Grant.

“I think it’s hard for people to get out in the evenings,” said Brown, who supports filming all meetings.

The board voted to film Thursday’s budget work session, with Grant dissenting.

The vote to have the Policy Committee re-evaluate the Board’s policies on governance was turned down, with three yays and six nays.