Busy for a Summer Week...

So as I had already known it would be, this week was a little busier with meetings than it had been from the beginning of the summer.  I need to keep this short and sweet since I still have a houseful so I will just give you the Reader’s Digest version of it all.  To tell you the truth, I never realized how much work a blog can be!!

Monday I met with members of CALE (Center for Adult Learning Enrichment) for the first time as the Board Liaison.  Afterwards, the Board met for the opportunity to interview the candidate for the High School Principal position. 

Also, this week we had a Communications Committee Meeting…I personally believe that out of all the Board committees we meet the most often.  There is so much work to do and we have been making good progress…At this particular meeting we did a lot of updating for the new school year and we continue to work on two new policies that we just want to get right!  Afterwards, we had a Special Meeting to vote on the appointment of the new High School Principal.  It was nice to see several members of the community, including students, at this meeting.  By way of explanation, since you may not know, Special Meetings of the board are sometimes held between regular meetings to conduct business that cannot wait until the next regularly scheduled Board Meeting.  In compliance with the Open Meetings Law, these meetings open to the public just as Work Meetings and Regular Meetings are.  If there is a need to go into an Executive Session at any of these meetings, including a Special Meeting, that particular part of the meeting is not open to the public. Executive Sessions are only allowed for very specific purposes and the purpose is stated before going in to that Executive Session.  The notion of a private conversation for board members may seem contrary to the ethos of transparency, however, Executive Sessions are sometimes necessary in order to deal with certain kinds of issues (provided that they are called for the right reasons and handled appropriately).  Feel free to go to the District Website and look up our Board Policy 2330 which deals with Executive Sessions.  At this particular Special Meeting we did go into Executive Session (legally and ethically, I cannot and will not share what was discussed) and then returned to the Special Meeting to unanimously vote to appoint the new High School Principal.

I then spent the last portion of the week trying to decide if I should go to the NYSSBA Board Officers Academy.  I went last year and it was very useful…but then again, I needed to learn EVERYTHING last year!  This one coming up seemed like it may be a little redundant to the Law Conference but after speaking to our NYSSBA Area Director and another woman from NYSSBA who is actually running the Conference, I decided that I should definitely go.  You can be sure that I will tell you about that one too.  It is not until the middle of the month and next week we have our Work Meeting so that will be next week’s topic.  And hey, instead of reading about it…come join us Tuesday at 5 PM at WEC!