July 15, 2024 Summary

KEY TAKEAWAYS: The only item on the school board agenda was approval of the consent agenda which included the personnel report and the financial reports.

Agenda with links to board documents

TOPIC TIMESTAMPS (Youtube Recording Link)

• 0:46 Consent agenda with personnel report approved

The following is my summary of the public school board meeting, not the official meeting minutes. My personal thoughts and opinions are given in italics and represent my own views which do not necessarily reflect those of any other member of the school board. I identify myself as Mumford in the summary but use first person when describing my personal thoughts and opinions.

0:35 There were no special recognitions and no communication from the audience (those who had signed up before the meeting began).

0:46 The board was asked to approve the consent agenda items: 

• Agenda for the July 15, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of School Trustees
• Minutes of the June 10, 2024 Work Session of the Board of School Trustees
• Minutes of the June 10, 2024 Regular Meeting of the Board of School Trustees
• Field Trip: Robotics
• Personnel Report
• Accounts Payable WLCSC, Accounts Payable WVEC, Credit Card Statement, Object Breakdown

Voted 7 out of 7

A consent agenda is an item on the agenda that includes more than one document that needs to be approved. The idea is that these documents are routine and don’t need discussion. It makes the meeting more efficient to vote on them all at once. Most school districts allow any school board member to remove any item that the board president has listed on the consent agenda. A removed item is then considered a regular agenda item which allows for discussion. Unfortunately, our school district’s policy requires requests from at least two board members in order to remove an item from the consent agenda (policy 0166.1). With the current board composition, this hasn’t been an issue. For example, last month Wang motioned to remove the personnel report from the consent agenda so he could ask a question and Yin seconded the motion (1:25:08). However, during the 2 years when Yin was the only non-PAC member of the school board, as well 2016-2020 when Melissa Prochnau was the only non-PAC member, the board president at times used a consent agenda to block them from being able to ask questions (June 2021 and August 2019 are examples of a consent agenda being misused in not allowing discussion on various issues). This policy has been used in our school district to silence board members. I want our district to revise the policy and allow any school board member to remove an item from the consent agenda.

Scheduling and organization have been difficult during Austin’s time as board president. For example, the policy revision process has been chaotic and unorganized. Austin continues to be unwilling to inform board members or list on the agenda which policies are up for discussion or for a vote. She commented at the April board meeting that she could schedule a Saturday when we would meet in a work session to discuss a large set of policies, but this has not been done (1:31:50). We have been working on the policies since February and only 5 have been approved. Another example is the date of this school board meeting, which was scheduled for July 8. I planned my summer travel around that date to make sure I could attend. At the June meeting, Austin announced that she was postponing the next meeting by one week to July 15. Her explanation was that delaying one week was essential in order to approve newly hired teachers. This was not a very convincing explanation; the school district has continued hiring additional teachers after July 15 and it isn’t clear that the one extra week made any difference. The real reason seems to be that Austin was out of town on July 8.

Location: Happy Hollow Building, LGI Room

Future Meetings (calendar link)

• Public Policy Work Session – Monday, August 12th at 5:00pm at Happy Hollow LGI Room 
• Public School Board Regular Meeting – Monday, August 12th at 6:00pm at Happy Hollow LGI Room

This document is my summary of the public school board meeting, not the official meeting minutes. My personal thoughts and opinions are given in italics and represent my own views which do not necessarily reflect those of any other member of the school board. I identify myself as Mumford in the summary but use first person when describing my personal thoughts and opinions. Previous agendas, minutes, and audio recordings can be found at the WLCSC website.