Surprise! A School Board Retreat Tomorrow!

Wasn’t in the week ahead because it wasn’t posted until Wednesday of this week.  And I didn’t notice til TJ Mertz pointed it out to me this morning.  Thanks TJ!!!I wish there was some way to get alerts from Board Docs or the School Board.  I’ve signed up for the newsletter, but I don’t get it.  I asked to be on the media list, but haven’t received anything.  I struggle so much with the school board and trying to follow it.  Insiders know some of the tips and tricks, but as a quasi-follower, I haven’t cracked the code yet.

I ALWAYS miss the retreats.  Unless someone points it out to me.  Looks like they amended the legal notice twice this week, they also amended it on Tuesday to add the School Forest Advisory Board.

SCHOOL BOARD RETREATS

I never mention them in the week ahead because they aren’t posted with the regular legal notice.  In 2019 it looks like they had retreats on the following dates:

Looks like this year they have the following dates:

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Saturday, May 9, 2020

WHAT TIME DOES THE MEETING START TOMRROW?

This is confusing – the legal notice says this.

9:00 a.m. Special Board of Education Retreat in Open Session WORKSHOP Spark Building 821 East Washington Avenue Madison, WI 53703 8th Floor Learning Lab
1. Call to Order – Opening Comments
2. Referendum: Board Ways of Working for Phase II
3. Review District Work and Provide Guidance for Responding to Racial Incidents
4. Superintendent Transition Planning
5. Closing Remarks
6. Adjournment

The agenda says

January 11, 2019, Board of Education Retreat (Special Meeting in Open Session – WORKSHOP)

8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Spark Building  821 E. Washington Ave., 8th Floor Learning Lab  (Note:   I’m sure this is 2020, not 2019)

So, does the meeting start at 8:30 or 9:00?

The agenda says: 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. Breakfast, Coffee and Visiting – so shouldn’t the legal notice be for 8:30 as well?  You can’t tell me that they won’t be potentially discussing items to come up later in the meeting and breaking open meetings laws.

WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA?

This is a link to the link to the agenda linked in board docs which is a separate document that has different information than the agenda you see when you just rely on board docs.

Confused?  Me too.

Board Doc Agenda

Here’s the agenda items as they would appear on Forward Lookout Week Ahead had I had the information when I posted that post.

So, you have to go to board docs to get the links to the documents that will be reviewed.  You have to go to the linked agenda to find out what is really happening.

Paper Agenda

WHAT’S REALLY ON THE AGENDA?

My estimation of the true agenda – merging the two agendas with the different information

8:30 – 9:00 a.m. Breakfast, Coffee and Visiting

9:00-9:10 a.m. Gloria & Jane
● Welcome
● Review outcomes and agenda

9:10-10:35 a.m. Referendum – Board’s way of working together for Phase II – Referendum Team

BREAK

10:35-11:45 a.m. Review District Work: Guidance for Responding to Racial Incidents

LUNCH

12:15 -1:45 p.m. Superintendent Transition– Dr. Debra Hill

      • Day in the District – final details
      • Interviews – preparation
      • Transition planning

1:45-2:00 p.m. Gloria & Jane

      • Closing remarks

This is why sometimes I just don’t try with the school board – its a constant exercise in “discovering” and guessing game as to what is actually going on.  I think I’m a fairly intelligent person with a pretty good understanding of local government processes and still after all these years I’m constantly learning about how the school board “works”.  And I almost always need an interpreter.

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