Ed221-sch Bd Meeting

Liz Heil ED221 4/17/09 School Board Meeting On April 2, 2009, I attended the Dallastown Area School District school board meeting at 7:30 pm. According to the agenda, the main items to be discussed were a solar energy proposal, school reports, and an issue with the recordings of the school board meetings. Before the meeting and during the meeting one of the main concerns voiced by the public was the “Pay to Play” proposal, which called for parents to pay money for their children to participate in sports programs. Before the meeting started, the board briefly discussed the costs of a child’s education. The board heard some members of the public, as there was some confusion over the differences in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, when they related to the “Pay to Play” proposal. The public all expressed opposition to the “Pay to Play” proposal. One person actually made a graph to show the negative cost effects of the “Pay to Play” proposal. When the meeting officially started, the public continued to oppose the “Pay to Play” proposal. Almost every adult in the room, who was not a board member, had a story about the positive experiences with sports in their own and their children’s childhoods, and the fact that their parents, as well as themselves, would be unable to afford to enroll their children in sports if the proposal were to be approved. After the portion of the meeting for public comments, the board moved onto the main points. The first point was the discussion of the vote to approve or deny the Solar Energy Proposal, and to go ahead and receive estimations for what the proposal would cost the school district. After an in depth explanation, by Dr. Weinberg, of what voting to move on to the next step in the proposal would involve, specifically how much money it would involve, the board agreed to move ahead

with the proposal, which cost a grand total of one dollar. The subsequent time was spent going over the progress in the building of the new intermediate school, as well as reports on the progress and budgets of two other schools. The other main topic was if the tape recordings of the school board meetings were considered public record. There was a long discussion trying to determine whether the tapes were considered public record, and therefore could not be destroyed, or if they were simply for the use of the woman who recorded the minutes. After the announcement of the next board meeting and some other important events, the board members adjourned when no one wanted to comment on anything else. When I first arrived at the meeting, the board members were the only ones talking. However, the members seemed tense and almost uncomfortable when talking to each other. Some of the members didn’t seem to talk at all, and when they did talk it was very quiet, like they were afraid to speak up. When the meeting started and the parents started to speak, they seemed the exact opposite of the board members. The parents were extremely comfortable expressing their opinions. During the meeting, the procedures seemed a mix of formality and informality. When the board members and parents were talking it seemed like any normal conversation. The only signs that the meeting showed formality were when the board made motions and the discussion of the recorded minutes. The only bad interaction I observed was between a man and one of the board members. The man expressed a view about the schools budget for the sports. When a board member politely disagreed with his view the man became quite offended and started to interrupt the board member, in a rude way. When the meeting started, the first thing that surprised me was that the Pledge of Allegiance was said. I was surprised because with so many parents there it would seem logical not to say the P. of A., because of some of the controversy over it. The next thing that shocked

me was the fact that the most time spent was on an issue, the “Pay to Play” proposal, that wasn’t even on the agenda for the meeting. The parents were also quite surprising, when it came time to continue the meeting the parents continued to make, quite snide, remarks about the opinions and comments of the board members. I just expected to see a little more maturity from the parents. I was also shocked to see that many parents brought their children to the meeting. A school board meeting didn’t seem like a likely place that a child would like to be, and due to the meeting running quite late, it didn’t seem like an appropriate place for children on a school night. In the end, it was shocking to hear just how much a school district spends on certain areas, like sports. The monetary figures of millions of dollars, spent on just one area, are probably what was the most surprising. Overall, the school board meeting was a lot less threatening then I thought it would be. While observing, I realized that an actual school board meeting was quite different than what I had imagined one would be. The whole feel of the meeting was a lot more nonchalant than I expected, and I was comfortable with the atmosphere. The board members weren’t the imposing high society people that I thought they would be. It was good to see that, if parents and teachers have concerns or opinions about a certain subject or proposal, they will be heard and their concerns can be listened to instead of just brushed off. This experience will definitely help me when I start my career in teaching.