As an occasional critic of the New Rochelle Board of Education I was quite surprised at how much the Board meetings have changed in the past few months under the new leadership of new BoE President Sara Richmond and Vice President Chrisanne Petrone. It would be a safe bet that Jeffrey Hastie is having an impact as well — he has been encouraging the purchase of a digital audio record so that podcasts of the meetings can be put on line shortly after each meeting and create an archive for future reference.
Signs of Progress
- The Meeting Agenda and Order of Business was published on the District web site prior to the meeting.
- There were sufficient copies of the Draft Resolutions on the table outside the meeting room at City Hall.
- The meeting was videotaped (and up on the cable access channels within a week).
- The presentations were concise and informative.
- Board members came prepared, asked insightful questions and persisted in asking following up questions until they were satisfied that they had gotten a clear answer.
- The discussions which took place were engaging, fulsome and informative.
- In the Regular Meeting, acting board chair Chrisanne Petrone even asked if anyone in the room wished to comment before they voted on the Resolutions (this also happened a few weeks and was quite a shock).
In short, the Board of Education meeting was an excellent meeting — by far the best meeting since I first began attending regularly in 2008.
Apparently the sky will not fall if the Board has open discussions about issues that impact the community.
Here is an example…
WCBS Radio: Most New York School Districts Commit to Reform Plan.
Over 800 New York school districts and charter schools have committed to participate in the state’s application for a federal grant of up to $700 million. The Board of Regents said on Sunday that 94 percent of the eligible districts and schools had signed memorandum of understanding supporting the application for the Race to the Top funding.
The Board of Education discussed the New York State application process last week.
Next steps for the board would be to broadcast the meeting live (at least when the are held at City Hall), put the “board packet” online (except for information covered under the Open Meeting Law), publish all presentations and reports made to the board. Still, this is progress. Let’s hope this is just the beginning.