Committees have been an effective and important tool for the School Board to conduct the details of business without occupying the resources of the entire Board membership and extending the duration of Board meetings.

Not only do these meetings keep the entire Board membership from having to deal with small details, but they also provide the community with the opportunity to be involved, as all the Committee meetings are open to the public. This means that the community can be involved in the process, and not just as observers, but as participants.

Over the years, I have attended meetings of each of the Committees, including Facilities, Finance, and Personnel.

Most recently, the Finance Committee was reviewing Board policies regarding fundraising by students, teachers, and extra-curricular groups. I noticed that there was language in one of the proposed policies that would keep groups from conducting a type of fundraising event. Because I was able to participate in the meeting, I could ask questions and express concerns, and the Board members and staff members that were in the meeting could ask me questions as well. This back-and-forth process made it possible for the problem to be identified, understood, and corrected before it became policy. If this had been done at a Board meeting, I would have been limited to a one-sided statement during Privilege of the Floor at the beginning of the meeting, and then when the discussion might have happened concerning this particular subject, I would not have been able to contribute to the conversation at all.

This is just one example of how the Committee process works well, and how important it is for the School Board to not only continue having Committees (which isn't guaranteed, given the reticence by some Board members), but to ensure that those Committees meeting on a regular basis, as appropriate.

I delivered the following statement during the Privilege of the Floor time at the March 28, 2022 School Board meeting.

I come to you today to congratulate you on the success of the committee process. I know that some of you do not recognize the value of having committees, but I’m here with information about how one of the policies that you are discussing tonight is better because of the committee’s unique ability to involve the public in the process.

Last year, the Finance Committee was reviewing Policy 6605, which has to do with fundraising via crowdfunding. When I read the proposed policy, my experience as President of the Eisenhower Band Booster Association gave me a perspective on the policy. If passed with that language, I was concerned that it could cause unintended consequences for booster clubs and groups in the school and limit their ability to hold fundraisers.

I attended the Finance Committee and raised my question to Ron Seidl, Amy Crosby, Krislyn Wondrachek, and CFO Patrick Miller. All were in agreement that the language I noted could have the negative consequences I mentioned, and we discussed ways to modify the language to avoid those unintended consequences. I was very happy to see future revisions of the policy included a greater effort to define crowdfunding so that it did not include acceptable activities that were already taking place.

I hope that this example will demonstrate the power of the committee structure in your operations, and also the fact that involving the public in the process made the product that you see before you tonight better than it would have been without it.

If this review process had been handled instead in the course of a School Board meeting, I would not have been allowed to be part of that process. I would have been sidelined to this Privilege of the Floor time period, where there is no interaction and no beneficial discussions between the public and the School Board and staff. My input and perspective would not have had the impact that it did.

I encourage you to keep the committee structure, and for every committee to meet as often as needed. Doing so allows the Board to provide oversight and awareness in its duty as stewards of taxpayer funds and District goals, and the transparency that comes from public proceedings.

I have seen great things in these committee meetings. They are an important element of leading our School District!

Increased public participation and greater transparency of the School Board should be the goal of everyone involved.

Facilities Committee's Failure to Meet

One of the issues that concerns me is that the Facilities Committee hasn't met since February 2021. Mitch Helmer is the chair of the committee, and Jeffrey Kurth and Kate Unger are members. Even though the School Board has finally decided to fund the School District's Long Range Plan after three years of not doing so, the Committee that would oversee how those funds are being used has not met in over 13 months. What are the priority projects? We're now more than six months after the funding has been approved, but the public is not aware of any updates to the process or what projects are being worked on. This is not transparency.

Last Updated: May 9, 2022

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