So order at 5:07 p.m..
If you could just do a quick roll call around the room to state your name
and whether you are a board member or citizen advisor,
since the meeting is audio recorded.
So Lindsay Drew School Board chair, Current Chair of the committee.
Tricia Steiner School Board Member.
Dan Frank representing the Administration.
Melinda Curran Citizen Advisor and Citizen Advisor.
Donna Cronin School Board Member.
Ashley Ms.. Young Citizen.
Citizen Advisor.
Thank you and
since this is actually our first meeting of the New Year, even though we're almost
to the end of March, the way that things fell, we actually
just for purposes of
formality, need to elect a committee chairperson
for the beginning of the year forward.
So I always forget how these
how this
works as criteria if I just pass it to you for a minute, Dan,
if it matters with the committee level, okay, So then I would
if I can do it, as Tricia says from I guess, other policy experience,
then I would just ask if there are any nominations
for chair member for one of the board members
who would like to chair the committee going forward.
I nominate Lindsay. True for chair.
I second.
Hi John.
John We were just going through the process of electing a committee
chairperson.
There was just a motion and second, for me to remain.
Chairperson Do you have any nominations that you would like to make?
Do you have any nominations that you would like to make?
The nominees should be? No.
All right.
Well, then, with just one nomination,
I would ask all those in favor say I, I
and anyone opposed.
Thank you for your confidence in me to day.
Jefferson.
Next item is Oh, I lost the.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I didn't really get to putting the agenda up for.
Oh so my half of mine.
I can put you back on.
I didn't realize you had agenda Manager open.
Yeah, I.
May kick you often ask for another quote.
I apologize for that.
Good.
Okay, so next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes
from our last meeting, which were emailed to you
from our December 17th meeting and are also attached.
If everyone had a chance to review those.
And are there any changes
to that?
Can I think can I please have a motion to approve the summary minutes so moved.
Second,
Tricia and Donna, all those in favor say I
oppose.
Okay.
Minutes are approved moving into unfinished business.
The first item that we're going to discuss is the Citizen
Advisor Program Document review for all of the committee members.
I emailed to you the attachment versions of the Google Docs,
which incorporated the two different documents.
And just as you'll recall, we looked at
what the goal of this is, is with the Citizen Advisor program.
We want to create what Roll Call a Citizen Advisor reference guide,
and that is going to combine two documents
that have lived in existence as unapproved board documents
since the inception of the Citizen Advisor program.
This was somewhat
precipitated from
the start of applications for Citizen Advisor in the fall
when some questions came up about the application.
The application language lived inside of one of these documents.
And so we wanted to take a look at this and then realize maybe we could
dig a little deeper and create a reference guide
that could be provided to new citizen advisors
and maybe even expand to an orientation so that we would be able
to bring all citizen advisors together when they're appointed
and get everyone onboarded in the same way
to try and enhance the overall citizen advisor experience.
Because the involvement and participation
and information shared with citizen advisors in each committee varies.
So these documents,
the Citizen Advisor Orientation document and then the Citizen Advisor
to Standing Committees Program document have lived in the Google Docs.
And last time we noted some changes that a few of us had
suggested making.
I've incorporated those because there wasn't any opposition to them.
And what we're looking for now is to
kind of merge these together.
And so what we'd be what I'm looking for in discussion today
is if there are any areas of information that we feel
have not been addressed in either document
because we'll merge it together between now and the next committee meeting
and then present the reference guide as it will now be known.
And then the committee will be able to recommend that up to the full board
for consideration and adoption to be used in the next school year
when we bring in the next round of citizen advisors.
So with that,
I'm going to we can start with the
let's start with the Citizen Advisors, two standing committees program.
This one I had updated to
remove some information that was no longer relevant.
There were a couple of items such as under implementation procedures.
Number seven,
it said applicants will be considered for advisory positions with h.r.
Committee.
They have to updated that to say will not be because
for confidentiality reasons, we don't have citizen advisors inside of that.
And it's a closed committee.
And then looking at the implementation procedures,
it references the attachment a the application form
which is attached, as
i highlighted on that document, to see the updated
because they had a separate attachment that we use
from the SurveyMonkey application process, because what we actually had used
last year was actually a little different than what was in here.
And it's like, who's on first and what are we doing?
So you have the
the current Citizen advisor application as well.
So when you're making comments for this document, if you can use this one
as the reference, the current one is the reference guide,
any questions or any comments or changes.
So I just want to clarify.
So, so currently there's a monkey survey for applicants to use.
Yeah, it's through SurveyMonkey, which is an online tool
for administering surveys.
So the link to that survey is made available
at the opening of that and it collects all the information,
all the applications are then exported from there
and are provided to the Human Resources Committee
to review when we're going through the process of selecting
and recommending appointments to the different citizen advisor roles.
But it looks basically like this.
So that's there.
The questions that are asked in a dropdown fashion or entry.
Yeah, there's opportunity to upload or use, right?
You can either copy and paste and so what I actually did was go back
and look at one of the applications we had received
and pulled the questions from there.
Since the link is no longer active,
so then
it's still beneficial probably to have this somewhere though, so people
can see what information is required before they access
the survey online.
Right.
So this portion of it, as I see it, is that the reference
document would be available maybe even on the website.
It's under the citizen Advisor area that could be on there.
And then that way it could be referenced and used
when the link becomes live when we're collecting applications.
So. Dan Yeah.
And what we would do under those circumstances,
you know, we do put out a press release at that point in time which we also post
on social meaning on the website and on the website.
We of course then build a link from the general description of what
the program's about, what we're looking for
to the actual application that we can see and put a related link on there
that references over to this document once it's received final board approval.
For those who want to delve even a little bit deeper.
And I wonder to Dan, just for the purpose of making
sure people can easily access is if
we have the link to the application
live on the website and not give that direct URL out
for it.
So if we direct everyone to the Citizen Advisor page of the district website
and then they click to apply from there to go to the SurveyMonkey,
just so that we make sure that everyone has the opportunity
to see the descriptions and any relevant information.
Yeah, and because it does become a unique URL
every time that if someone were to bookmark or save that they would
if they were to try and go back to that at a later time,
if they'd saved it, they would see that basically the survey is closed.
So we do need to do a new one every time and it just makes sense
to updated on the website end of it, versus
trying to publish one every time.
Right.
So you see this.
So the link on the website is only active when we're actively seeking somebody
correct it there and it actually doesn't go into the citizen
like if you go to the during
the time that the application is available or if you go to the citizen
Advisor page underneath the school board committee part,
the link actually wasn't there.
It was in the headlines
section of the website.
And so if we would be using it
on the Citizen Advisor page, then it could kind of live there.
Yeah.
In past, in our iterations
in the press release that we put out to the local media,
the instructions are go to the district, go to the headline section
of the district website, and then from there
that had the information and there was a button
and it says Apply now and then that would be what took folks
out of our website into the actual online application form on SurveyMonkey.
One thing just to mention to
for the sake of the conversation is last year
because we were not receiving
a high number of applications, we had the discussion and asked
for the link to be sent out by email to the One Call Now program
and we did notice a surge in applications and interest.
So I think that that's something that we should incorporate
into the overall process of seeking applicants
or applications for that, because
sometimes you worry that folks aren't going to see
the Facebook post or the, you know, the press release.
However, it's determined to share that information.
And I'm a realist, too.
I know that people don't come home at the end of the long day and say, Hmm,
I want to what to do on the school district website
and make that their top priority to go look for it.
So it's not like people are doing it for their kids.
So anything we can do to push that information out
rather than relying on folks coming to us and pulling it down is beneficial.
Right?
And I think any time we can put the information out in as many fashions
as possible to to solicit that
and offer inclusion for everyone, you know, is really just a bonus.
So what is the what is the final resting place of this going to be like?
Right now, it's under school board, but you have to search for it.
So if you go to school board
and section under standing committees,
yeah, there's a citizen, a page that's just for citizen advisors, right?
Is that going to be the home of it? Is it going to stay there?
Because it's all of it. That's where it would be.
So I'll stay there.
And then when we're actually actively looking, then you put it on the banner.
Well, I think that it could go to both.
I think the link could be there for applying now.
Right. And also still be a headline, Right.
The same headline when we write down, we could put it in multiple places.
That's the beauty of web.
It's all circular rather than linear. So.
So is it beneficial
then to continue to have two documents, one for orientation
and one is a description for people or should we merge them?
That's a good thought.
I think, you know, we were always talking about merging them, but perhaps that
the orientation guide is just enhanced and revamped as the reference guide
and then this is really the information
that's out there about what the program
is and how to apply.
I think that makes the most sense to have them separate
because that way people are coming, especially if you decide to do something
as an introduction to all the citizen advisors or a committee,
it'll be a special packet that's either handed out or someone made
via email or something like that.
And the only the only comment then is like under the description of the standing
committees, it's a lot more simple here than it is in the orientation.
And I don't know if it's necessary to have more details here.
I don't know if we want them to
to match and be consistent so people know
exactly what they're signing up for before they sign up for it
rather than just a brief description.
So making the descriptions match, right?
This could be what's on the website as I would, you mean?
Well, and perhaps that with the more expanded definitions.
Right.
Because this standing committee overview is different than this
rationale implementation.
It'd be nice if this document was pretty much
what you saw when you came to standing committees.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, I'm just like, I'm just talking about like the
the document and this with the Citizen Advisor orientation document.
All right.
And then the document that we're currently talking about now, which is the Citizen
Advisors, the Standing Committees program, which,
which is more informational.
And then the orientation one is, is, you know, after you've already applied,
you're on that committee and then this is what the chair would send out.
Just as more details.
And I think too, that under the board operating guidelines
that there is an operating guideline for
standing committees and citizen advisors inside of it.
So we would be able to recommend this to be
updated inside of the board operating guidelines
so that there was consistency in the description of the citizen advisor,
the nature of the citizen advisor position in all documents.
So make the descriptions consistent.
And then should we reference like for the attachment
A just information, Should we say something referencing,
you know, this is if you're interested,
this is the information rubric that would be required for you
to fill out on the survey monkey once you access it or something like that.
Or do we want to just keep it as a standard form?
But, but they're not actually ever going to use this form, Right?
Right, right. Because it's electronic, right.
But you can make a link to that form.
So they could
could we in essence, almost have this as that standing committee page?
And then the link for
this and a link for all to give us an overview,
a link to the overview, the link and apply now button,
which is when is when that's active, that's when you go right to SurveyMonkey.
Dan, would you be comfortable with that if we were to provide some language
around the Citizen
Advisor program for Under Overview and then have a document attachment
that give the description and the application criteria?
Yeah, I mean, the certainly no, none of this is secret
so that there's no harm in putting it out there.
The only thing I would we have to give some thought is, is we do want to confuse
folks.
And so I want to make sure you understand that we're not talking
about putting a copy of the copy of the actual application.
Well, I think part of that inside of the the program document
is an attachment that is reference, that is the application.
I think that we could change that to just reference the application criteria
so that folks know what they should be ready to provide once they go to the link.
So yeah.
Let's face so it's not an exhaustive application.
We're basically asking for your contact information, your area of interest
and then yeah, so there's no problem with with have listing that criteria.
I just would I prefer to be listed as criteria
rather than it appearing that it's the actual applications.
Right.
Because we want to make to only submit the application via the.
Right since it's not an.
Application to be the active.
But it'd be nice to just like you were saying, consolidate forms.
Like I don't see any purpose for this form if it's basically right.
So the form
committee program, right the attachment A
that had the C updated with the highlight that would essentially go away.
We'd no longer, you know, necessarily have that reference link, but
we could just include something in there that says that you'll be selecting
in order of preference the appointment committee that you're seeking appointment
on or appointment to, and then, you know,
providing your resumé and information
and then even for attachment B, which is the job description,
you know, the qualifications are duplicated
on the first page under the implementation procedures.
So I wonder if we can just say, yeah, just get rid of the attachment B
and just include, you know, whatever language
we want to put from this first couple of paragraphs into.
It's actually the exact same thing as the rationale.
Yeah.
So is it done going back to the start of this program, which is I think 2013 or 14
perhaps
applications where it was not always unbiased.
Everything I think it goes know it goes well back before my time which.
Has form right here is what we filled out.
So it was in actual paper form.
We've since moved to collecting electronic so.
Correct.
Since why this even live to begin with, correct.
Yeah, but.
We can get rid of it.
Yeah.
The the, the Citizen Advisor program predates my time here in 2007,
I think it was prior around 2000, 2013, we moved from a paper application
to the electronic one. So that's probably why there's that.
I think that I also am remembering that I went back and listened to a board
meeting from like 2013 or 14 trying to understand that like the way
the Citizen Advisor program was done and there was not a lot of
consistency.
It was,
you know, sometimes the application period wasn't open because the existing people
just wanted to stay.
And sometimes it was in January and sometimes in September.
And so this was an effort to try and put some parameters around it.
Correct.
Make it more uniform, because some committees have
Citizen Advisor stepped down for whatever reason,
left that position vacant until the next round of applications.
Others want to fill it right away.
So we were just trying to get some uniformity
so that particularly because we were asking folks now,
you know, to to list a number of committees
that they might want to be on,
we want to have uniformity from committee to committee to committee.
Right?
So now we're just trying to take it really a step further
and make it as simple and accessible as possible.
So I think that this committee,
you know, Citizen
Advisory Standing committees, program document,
doesn't even need to necessarily live as a document in itself.
We can use this as the guideline for what information lives on the website for you
so that it's not another document to track existing trust.
Right?
Because basically the last page, the job description is already in there.
This the attachment A is the application which is SurveyMonkey.
And then you're just left with this page and a half which would be
what would be the website.
So we're this is no longer needed as a paper.
Okay.
Lindsay
how does it work if someone does step down?
Are all applications kept together in like the runners up pile?
So if you do have it because you want them to be filled.
Yeah, so that's a great question.
And I believe we do not go back to the previous applicants.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Dan, Historically,
there have not been enough applicants to fill all vacant spots.
It wasn't until this year that we actually received
like 20 some applications for half that many
positions.
So I know that, for example, before I was on the board,
I had applied and was appointed as a citizen advisor to this committee,
but I was elected to the board before I ever became
the citizen advisor or attended the first meeting.
So that position
was vacant and we put the application
back out there to fill that spot on this committee for last year.
But we didn't get any applicants
at that time until we redid it
in August or September.
So Dan, how do you think
would it be set up that we would go back to the previous applicant pool
because there were actually more applicants?
So yeah, we've we've it's varied wildly in the past and we've usually had enough
when we have the general call in the fall for applicants.
We generally have have enough
when it's gotten a little tricky is when folks have stepped down midterm.
And the other thing that we find is we ask people to indicate
and we started asking people
to indicate a number of committees that they were interested in because
some, frankly, are more
engaging than others in terms of public interest.
I know finance was one that we had a lot of applicants for policy curriculum.
Those are more of the.
So that was the reason we started, because sometimes we would get ten applicants
for ten positions, but six of those said they wanted to be on finance.
And that's when we would go back to those folks and say,
Hey, we can we can't have all of you on finance.
Are you willing to consider these other committees?
But other than that, I don't both.
I'm not aware of any time.
But we've gone back after the fact and asked previous applicants
or made an appointment that way. We've just reopened,
reopened the call.
And that's that's happened a number of times where we've had two
or three vacancies and we've just done sort of an interim call in between them.
And I think we could even see to because of the process,
if a board vacancy becomes available that we go through.
You know,
if we're comparing it in that way, we wouldn't go back to
someone that received like the next amount of votes in an election.
It would be kind of a restart.
So it could probably it would probably make sense to just
open that up if it's at a certain period of time,
because since we since they're rolling,
unless someone
vacated the citizen adviser role in October,
like if it was done in March, it would at this point
just make sense to hold the vacancy until we did
the general call for them because there would only be one meeting.
So do you think there should be some reference
there to how vacancies are addressed?
I think, you know, if you get someone who says they're interested
in being a citizen advisor, that that should be a valued application.
And it's different from filling a school board vacancy.
You're just a citizen, so you don't want to discourage someone
if if they were willing and able to serve and they were okay.
You just had too many applicants.
I think that maybe you should they should be reconsidered
if if the opening was opened early, like you referenced.
Okay.
Because I wanted to see, didn't I read somewhere and perhaps it's in
the orientation document that it talks to.
If you miss
two meetings in a row without notification,
it is assumed that you're relinquishing your seat, your position.
Where did I see them?
I mean, that's crazy.
Number four.
Number six on the second page.
Yeah.
So is it is it represented as absent from three consecutive meetings
or for nine consecutive meetings
about reasons during the period of one year will be considered having resigned.
So I think that that would probably
do you want to put a line in that
something like all ability is it we have a yearly cycle for some
so every year that we're feeling some right.
Because those are the two year positions.
Yeah, we have a call every year but the positions are two year position.
So half the citizen advisors are cycling off right every year.
So that was another reason for trying to.
Stand unless there's a vacancy and then we're filling a one year.
Right.
So would it be reasonable. Right.
So like this year actually and Corey
were the two of the two year and then but
we had to bring three in to this committee because we had a vacancy to fill.
Right when Lindsay moved from
potential citizen advisor appointed sit as an advisor to elected board member,
that left us with a one year term then for this committee.
So it'd be reasonable to add a bullet in there.
That said, upon a vacancy prior to the end of the term
that those applicants on file will be reconsidered
rather than have opening up another off cycle.
Yeah.
Or for a vacancy occurring prior to the calendar year.
And we would do that.
Frankly, I would advocate for reopening the call because you may
get other folks who weren't interested at the time who may be interested now.
I'd rather have a wider talent pool.
Yeah. Than just say, Hey, you know,
you applied once you have.
To reset, but maybe we could just make it a good practice
to reach out to folks who had applied previously and say, Hey, they don't.
We just want to let you know that this application process is
redone, is is reopening for that committee
so that they would have the
opportunity to apply again, because I think that is important to note.
And again, it's it's not an onerous application process that.
Right.
It's pretty much just letting folks and letting us know of your interest.
Okay.
So I'll include something in that
for the next update.
Does anyone else have anything about this particular document
or can we look at the orientation one?
Because I think that that's really
where the meat of it is and making sure that everyone feels it's laid out
appropriately to help on board
again.
Okay, So with that one.
So then the citizen adviser orientation document, this is what was
created to
9 to 19, sorry,
eight.
This is the one that was created to
use for onboarding citizen advisors.
And so this year
we use it and just updated and handed it to each committee chair.
The thought process in the future is that when we appoint citizen advisors
that we will have an orientation time set up, which is, you know,
like a period of an hour meeting that when the appointment letter goes out,
that that's included, there's typically a board meeting in the fall
right after that time that there is not a four or 5 p.m.
committee meeting for that day.
So you could utilize that time
and bring folks in to go through all this information
and make sure you can get signed in and know who the contacts and all of that are.
So really for this document, we just want to
see is the information relevant
and are we missing anything
to be able to use
as a guide for citizen advisors
to know what to do?
And this document
would be updated on an annual basis.
So my thought is, is that the committee goes through the applications and
makes the recommendations for appointment and then that's approved by the board.
I think once it would be approved by the board,
then we get incorporated into that's where it becomes
the ownership of the Communications and Community Engagement Committee to
welcome in on board those individuals and including updating this document
and making sure the chair of each standing committee has that to provide
and welcome their citizen advisors.
So the document just, you know, obviously gives the
the names of the board members, the description
of each one of the committees, again, for, you know, reinforcement there
and then the role and responsibility.
And I think that that's probably
the most important part is understanding their own responsibility
and how it relates to voting
and being non-voting members
in each one of the committees, except for curriculum council,
where those citizen advisors are voting members of the committees
and then with this document live online, or would it just be made
available to the system advisors every billable out appointment?
Okay. Gotcha.
Okay. Or at the orientation meet.
Right, right.
So the committee chairs would be provided
with that in case the citizen either couldn't make the orientation.
But really this is what we would be going over
and kind of like the take away piece for
new citizen advisors to have a news
ongoing
which would address
parking, where to sit.
Lankford The meetings questions, you know, where to go for help.
If you have trouble with logging in.
Yeah, I like it.
The only suggestion I would have and maybe it's here, is that if you're unable
to attend a meeting to please contact
your chairperson of that meeting.
You had two things in yellow that we have to fill in, right?
Oh, yeah.
I was curious, Dan, with the words of the district's
wife, I guess is not required password.
Now that there's that's a security certificate,
does everyone need to do that
to access the guest WI fi?
That's a good question.
To which I don't have an equally great answer.
I think you get requested to download it, but I don't think you're required.
Okay. I just want to make sure that we didn't get that part of it.
You know, like I had to re download the certificate today to get on the I.
I'm not positive.
So rather than speak out of turn off on that.
The other highlight I had was Linda
Larian is retiring at the end of this year.
So obviously that contact information will be changing.
And so I guess a big part of this is
I'd love to hear from the citizen advisors currently
what you feel from an onboarding and then, you know, the expectations maybe
that you had of what a citizen advisor is and does versus what your experiences.
I did read through the document and I thought it was pretty thorough.
It answered, I think all of especially in the roles and responsibilities
and the meeting protocol, it answered all of the basic questions that I had
upon accessing this role. So
I didn't
I couldn't think of anything else that I would have wanted to add.
So I thought it was pretty thorough.
Okay, this is in reverse.
I think this is such a great idea getting everyone together.
You feel like more part of the team
than just the people who are kind of sitting here filling in and not voting and
meeting the other citizen advisors
and just finding out more what you're going to be doing.
Then just come that first meeting and kind of being a deer in headlights.
I think this is just excellent, really good idea.
The only thing that I had to add was mentioned earlier.
I do think that
the question of who to contact, if you have any questions
and I know that I bother you and I know you
personally, but and coincidentally you are the chair here.
But otherwise I don't know
that I would have known had reached out to if I had a problem with this meeting.
Yeah, I think that's helpful.
And I think for me and
we can very easily go down the road of like
making this so much more cumbersome than it needs to be.
But I look
at the citizen advisor program, and one of the reasons
that I as we started having, you know, discussions about this inside of the h.R.
Committee and I'm like, well, communications could grab this and own it
is because they feel that if we're going to have a program,
first of all, we're not required as a board on our standing committees
to have citizen advisors.
That's not something that comes through
your school code or that, but it's something that Derry Township
School District School Board determined years ago was a valuable addition to it.
And I agree with that.
My concern and some feedback that I've heard from folks
who were previously citizen advisors is that they didn't always feel
that at the end of their term that it was a big
that they were a value add or that it was worthwhile of their time.
And I think it's hard to address that inside of each
one of the different committees
because it's always going to be dependent on the current board
and who's on the current board and who's currently chairing each
one of those committees to really define what that experience like.
But I feel like if we can create the opportunity
to include citizens and show the
the value and appreciation we have for input from citizen advisors
and provide everyone with a uniform orientation
so that everyone has access in the same way, then that is a way
to make sure that we are being inclusive
and fair to everyone.
What's the orientation look like right now?
There isn't one, There isn't one.
And up until this year we didn't even have this document living
as a standard protocol for that.
So we're trying to change that.
And so we gave a quick version of this to all the committee
chairs this year and to said like this isn't an approved document.
We're like, hopefully we didn't miss all of it.
But here's something you can give.
Our goal is
to get this to the board
by the end of the school year so that we could approve it as a document
for everyone, and then we would start the orientation process and kind of move this
into a PowerPoint presentation to do for next year.
Right.
The reason I ask because,
I mean, was basically a rhetorical question,
because what I wanted to point out is that it would be
the whole feeling of inclusion.
I don't know if it's possible because you have more people
and more numbers, but it would be nice if there was a
orientation that was everybody together separately,
not just their committee, or is that we already said it would be also
pointed across four committees.
So regardless of what committee you are, you're a newly appointed citizen advisor.
You would attend this right orientation.
I think I was in the first class of Citizen Advisors.
Was it that long ago? 27.
That's about. I'm old.
It predates me here and I came in 2007, so it's at least I think.
I was in the because my name is in the record books.
Yeah.
And I was on two committees and I don't know why
I think they didn't have enough people.
But yeah, you kind of felt like you weren't.
What did I do?
I mean, I was really grateful
to have the input, but not quite sure what my role meant or that kind of thing.
So I think this is just perfect as well.
And I think it harkens to, you know, several years ago, the board
deliberately decided to redirect this committee as in just communications.
It's community engagement as well.
And I think this speaks volumes to that part of the committee's mission.
And so I was glad that the committee
took ownership of this particular aspect because it isn't just an h.r.
Application review thing.
It is an opportunity to to engage our citizens in the governance of the schools.
You know,
having served as a citizen advisor and curriculum,
i think it's a wonderful idea because you kind of walk into this room
and you really don't know the ground rules of the engagement
that you're on the mic, and there's an agenda and all that type of stuff.
You don't know where to sit down.
I don't think it would be helpful and I don't think that
the committee is too writing,
but that I would foresee myself personally,
that each committee then would have maybe their own mini orientation.
I know for curriculum it would be helpful to know, you know, like at this committee
or, you know, the kind of things this committee will examine
communications as our website or our other outreaches.
I don't know what curriculum it would be helpful to know
that whole program where they announced that the curriculum change
and it has to go through another reading so that.
They could kind of like, what's the process?
Be. You know, athletics and activities here, the kind of things that this group
has looked at before.
Here's what we possibly may be confronting in the future.
But this is all this is, I think, a wonderful, wonderful step.
And we had a baseline conversation about that.
Cathy Seger and I when we first talked about this coming to communications,
you know, I think when I was proposing that we should have an orientation
and everyone's like, Oh, who's going to be responsible?
And so we said, Well, we'll kind of do something.
That's the blanket standard orientation that applies to everyone.
And then each committee chair will be responsible for having that.
So I don't think that because it's usually only two people per committee
in a normal cycle that it would warrant
a scheduled, you know, orientation.
But it's something that should be probably set as the expectation
that the individual committee chair will make sure to elaborate
on information that's relevant to their particular committee.
In an ideal world, you'd have the orientation
with everyone there and then they'd break off at the very end,
the last half hour and meet with their committee chairs to have.
Okay, now this is what your piece of the world looks like,
assuming everyone can be scheduled that same day.
Right.
Because you know it's going to be or in case that someone couldn't make that
that orientation meeting that the committee chair would then,
you know be able to
or your staff committee chair give a phone call.
And that's what I did with my new citizen advisors.
I just called them and talked to them on the phone
personally just to give them an overview and answer any questions that they had.
And I think that was really helpful.
Or at least, well, I don't know.
I felt like it was helpful.
I hope that they thought it was helpful.
I can't speak for them.
And so once this is created and, you know, we we would pilot it, you know, through
next year and do that is that that becomes a long term function of this committee.
And one of the things that
this committee in perpetuity would be responsible
for managing.
So any other in the interest of time, that's 3549
Finance Committee still in our minutes.
Does anyone have any other information
from this document?
Okay.
So what I'll do is put together kind of our final draft version
that we'll review at our next meeting
and then be and I'll get that emailed out ahead of time
so that we would be able to recommend that that move to the full board
for their consideration to adopt for the next school year.
So moving on
the Meet the school board director event last time Diane we had talked about that
and we were going, the followup was looking at the scheduling
and logistics for how we could make that happen for next year.
Yeah, because we've had a couple different schools
of thought about whether it should be a freestanding event
or whether it should be tied in with some sort of
other activity.
And my recollection is there were
we had some discussion about the pros and cons of both, and I don't know
that I have a strong recommendation in one way
or the other based on the conversation that we had here.
So I don't know that I have any new insights
to add to the conversation we had last time.
I think tying to an
event is, yeah, and I'm sorry I didn't go back and listen
to the and it's hard when we only meet every few months here, right?
Because trying to remember what happened on December 17th is like a lifetime ago.
But my recollection is that our takeaway was we were going to look at
would there be this space and time available to incorporate us into?
Because one of the things that came up as
if we were doing the back to school event,
there's so many things happening, you know, inside of all that.
Would we be able to do it
in a way that allowed everyone, anyone interested in
attending the opportunity to get there and then
also holding maybe a session
earlier before the start of back to school
to allow community members who were not having students
associate with back to school attend
so that we weren't excluding them, but either.
In either case, we were
thinking about piggybacking to an event even if we were there earlier.
Right? Yeah, that's my recollection.
The concern was the particular back to school night is frankly logistics
between the buildings too, but also parking.
For those of you who have come to your children know that
get her early or prepare to to walk in my concern that's the back to school
is for those folks who would be community members at large and other words folks
who didn't necessarily have a student in the in the building anymore.
That might be a little overwhelming.
And I'm not sure that that's the best venue.
I'd love to see school board
presence at those, and I think we can incorporate them
and it's going to look different in every building,
because every building does back to school a little bit differently.
But I
don't know that that particular event is the best one to get community
members who don't have students in that building out, right?
So I think they made it in time
sufficiently enough that they can get in and get out before the mad rush.
In essence, like, in fact, the school night was 6 to 730.
You'd want to have maybe 5 to 6 or four for community members
potentially.
So I think that the takeaway on this is from
the discussions at the full board level through committee updates
has been willing to participate in something like this.
I think what's important is that we get it
locked in as to when that's going to be, because that's where
then it can turn into how do we promote it and how do we frame it.
So Dan, if you would be able to help with
coordinating with the individual buildings,
if there is
a space and time inside of each one of the back
to school nights for the next school year, that we would be able to do that.
And then
we can address the community member
one separately
so that for our next meeting we can have those there
and start focusing more on the content and promotion.
And we think in one time per year to do this.
Hi, I have a quick question and this is Henry's.
I apologize.
I wasn't at the last meeting some kind of coming in at the end of the discussion.
I share Dan's concerns about having a connected
to back to school night because, you know, after 27 years,
I might add, back to school and anymore and nor do you want to be.
I don't want to be.
So, you know,
I am more than willing to help Dan or whatever.
You guys have so much on you right now, but if you wanted to have a little bit
angry, greeted the library.
I'm more than willing to help organize it or whatever you need to do.
But you know, if you wanted to do
the first one are back to school and see how it goes.
Maybe you guys are right. Maybe people would come.
But I can't.
I think there's a lot of people who don't have kids in the district
who are still very interested in what's going on with you guys.
As a school board member, it's hard because I think it can go
in so many directions, right?
Like the idea and concept of this, I'd love to be able to have,
you know, that interaction.
But we play timing wise into making sure that there isn't
any like political election related influence on it.
And then obviously, you know, the logistics
and adding one more thing to a calendar.
And so if we were to do
like a night or two at the, you know, library and consolidate
and not do the back to school, we could certainly try that.
I'm just not sure what the turnout would be.
I think we were trying to appeal to, you know, getting
making ourselves available.
And people are already in that school mindset.
Are there any events that you that you think
parents who have graduated, everyone would come back to?
I mean, I'm thinking like when you're musical,
you know, people are thinking about school board race events.
Well, no, but it's already going to be there.
We kind of like to, you know,
like what's an event that that graduates come to that we could homecoming?
I don't know. I don't know.
That's basically asking like I'm
thinking of things that I would come back to after I'm out of here and
the things I think of, as are Winter Musical.
You always see people that are long gone come back
for that event or, you know, an old basketball game.
You know, you don't have to have a kid here
to come to that or the beginning of the fall,
the cocoa beans, pep rally type thing,
you get a lot of community members that aren't necessarily parents.
I don't know if there are the right
three ones, but there's, you know, something like that
that maybe won't be as threatening as a back to school night,
which you're right, once
you're done, like you're like, yeah, I'm not doing that again, you know,
or even like something like international fair, which is gone.
But you know, that also draws some community members that are that are gone.
Or maybe we do it too, from the perspective of
it's not
called Meet the School Board Director event,
but maybe it's understanding the role of a school board director.
And so it's not how to run for school board director, it's not meet and Grill.
The current school board director is like, let's make sure you understand,
you know, kind of what we do.
And if it's framed like that from an educational perspective,
and then allows the opportunity to interact and maybe
it's a, you know, panel, maybe it's understanding
the the process
and what school board does and doesn't do.
Maybe reframing it in that way
would allow for it to be a standalone thing
that that could have some appeal for people who want to know,
you know, and I'm thinking about committee members where like I'll get
a random phone call from someone saying, well, because you're in school board,
I'm calling you because they don't know where else.
Like, I don't know where to go with this. Right.
And maybe if we had it, take that focus
in addition to the you know,
it's is so hard to get people out like I was at that the
you know, the vaping
talk last month and I was like, wow, this can be great
to have so many people here.
Everyone, everyone's concerned about it.
They talk about it.
There might have been 20 people there, which we thought was a good turnout.
But you know, next door on in the cafeteria,
every single lacrosse parent was there because that was a mandatory meeting.
And they're all there like, you know, 40 people or 80 people.
And we're like, they're going to get 20 people
to talk about something that's really important.
So I worry that as matter how we frame it,
there needs to be a hope because people just don't come.
And that's the habitual struggle.
You may recall in your particular Dr.
Krantz, you've been on the board at different times throughout your career.
We attempted to do stand alone and budget presentations
for the public at about the only time we had significant
turnout was when there was big concerns that programs were going to be cut.
After that, we
started seeing fewer, fewer and fewer turn out to the point
where we just said, we're just going to incorporate this
as a special presentation in the regular the board meeting.
So I hate to say it, but sometimes unless there's
an issue or a perceived issue,
folks tend to kind of vote with their feet.
And so in some ways, not having a whole lot of folks
turn up kind of means things are going pretty well.
You know, one thing that does come to mind, if we are looking
for a way to incorporate it as a standalone sort of thing,
you know, January is across the nation School Board appreciation month.
So I think there are some natural ties.
If we wanted to do something that was separate from some other event
that we maybe look at it January because there are materials that go out
at that point in time that talk about the importance of school board members,
and maybe that's a chance for some school community members to come
and express their appreciation and and get a better sense of what's going on.
So there might be a tie in with with that.
And that's a less busy time, as you say.
Yeah. Okay.
So I think maybe if there's a takeaway for this that we can
all kind of think on it and get a feel for it.
I don't want to keep delaying it,
but I also want to make sure that we're doing it in a thoughtful,
strategic way
and we'll circle back around to it
at the next meeting as we're discussing our goals for next year
and how we want to reshape and and launch that.
This is worth doing.
A survey I hate doing that, but it's so much so easy these days to somehow
push out a survey of the community saying when what venue would this work?
What what would work for?
You know, I it's mostly the school community. I don't know.
What would we have?
What would that take ten to be able to say?
You know, the Communications and Community Engagement Committee
is exploring this type of event.
Would you be interested like a survey, click here.
It's open for a week. It sent out by email.
You can do polls on Facebook like you can just give them like.
Yes, but you could just ask it and click yes or no.
I don't know how much interaction you have on on the Facebook page,
but I know I usually see stuff there and it's super simple.
You just ask the question, right? People can say yes or no.
The only thing is you don't know if they're from Derry Township,
right?
Yeah, I'm I'll be honest, I'm not sure
what information we get out of that.
I kind of think we need to decide as a group that we're going to either
do it or not do it right to do it and see what happens.
So maybe let's think about it and we'll table it for this moment
and try to wrap our arms around it or move one way or the other
at our next meeting, because we only have like a minute left
and the the district website review portion of this.
I really enjoyed our conversation from last time.
And Dan, I think there were some things you had is,
you know, takeaways from that that hopefully were helpful.
So because the school
board members we can make those suggestions
you know anytime
citizen advisors first and foremost, was there anything
in the school board section of the website when you were reviewing that
that you wanted to comment or make suggestions on?
My the main thing that I noticed was when I went to the page,
there's a wealth of information that I actually wasn't aware of.
So that was great.
But I would love to see it.
And if there's a reason not to do this, but just some short bios
of the school board members, there was a picture,
no political affiliation, anything like that, but just a
you know, this is sad, just so that, you know,
I think it would maybe encourage some interaction and communication
and maybe make those citizens that might want to come to a school board meeting,
have something to share that they feel a little more familiar with this person.
I can address them.
What do you even see are the breadth of
experiences that there's not one thing that qualifies you as a board member.
It would be nice to get more people
realizing, Hey, you can be a board member, anything.
Nobody.
You know, on some other districts, they do have
individual bios sections for each one of the school board directors.
Is that something that we could do?
Oh, that's easy to do.
I just I think that's easy for me to do.
It's you and your colleagues giving me the information and having some template.
So everyone's going to make it right.
You know, a couple of questions.
And many years have
and children and experiences on the board but just basics career, whatever.
Right. Okay.
I like that area.
I just had like two quick things
when I looked at the
the main school board page,
there are two links.
It says related links and the SBA and the National School Board
Association are right there.
Yes, those go to like error pages.
Oh, yeah.
So thank you for catching that. We'll have to get that fixed.
So there's that.
And then the other thing was there are like contact us links
throughout like some of the texts, but I thought it would be nice
if we could put that some place more like up top and in the center
so that if people want to contact the board, they could.
It's like it's just visually you could put
like another version of the link to the community feedback form
right on the school board page so that if someone wants to send communication.
And as she mentioned,
you know, it's kind of textually linked and couple of places like
but we can, you know, add a button or something
along those lines that makes it a little more upfront.
Because some people go like,
you know, you go to a page and you're looking for something specific like that
and like you want to see it right there.
You don't want to see it in the cause.
Like right now it says found on the contact page,
which when you go to the contact page,
then you have to get your down and get into that form.
So if we can have a link for the complete form right there with it.
Yeah.
And I love Ashley's idea of putting just like a short bio.
I think it just gives constituents like a, like a more personal connection
with people. So I think that's a really good idea.
And Mrs.
Drew, what I would suggest is if if you could pick, let's say,
go to the high school for a second, if you're able to do that
and go into our school for administration
that gives example
what we do with our building administrators.
So now obviously, a lot of that focuses on their their professional background.
But I'm thinking something of that length.
Yeah. Yeah. It's very easy to do.
Yeah.
Even Yeah I love pictures of possible Yeah.
Well again I defer to the board members as to.
Just what about.
To what photographs they might want.
Well during the committee report tonight at the meeting,
I will reference that and say that, that the
has been made and see if we
wouldn't have folks being willing to do that.
I'm fine with that as long as I get to
approve the photo.
I believe I will take the position of asking folks
to provide a photo of their choosing. Oh, there you go.
I am.
We are not set up to be a professional portrait studio.
Okay.
Anything else?
All right.
Well, unfortunately, we are out of time.
And Dan, we had already put out the review of the new survey highlights
for the next time,
but it looks like we're out of it.
606 So we're going to push it to the next time
because we have to go for that.
And that's that's not a problem.
If I can just since this is unfinished business,
if you have not recently gone to the community section, we did implement
most, if not all of the suggestions that that came through
with the exception of one.
And that's not that we're ignoring it,
but it's one that I'm actually going to give folks some homework on.
One of the suggestions was that we add links to community resources and venues
and things of like so brainstormed a couple of things and started that page.
It's inactive right now, so you can't see it.
But here just a quick
coming around is a quick list of things that I've brainstormed on.
I know it is not exhaustive,
which is why I'm turning to you for for help as community members.
If you would take a look at that.
And if you have ideas or other things that should be on there, and I am 100%
certain there are many things that should be on there that aren't yet let me know.
And then probably by the next meeting, what I'll do is
we'll have that go live and we'll of I'll probably break
that list up because even just what I have is fairly long.
So we'll try and break it up into different segments like community
services or athletics and sports or that sort of thing.
So I just want to follow up from the last minute,
let you know that we did take to heart the ideas that were generated here
and consolidated a lot of the things that were sort of very short
quick pages and moved some things around and linked them from different areas.
And I said this task in terms of the link library, if you will, for community
programs and resources is one of the things that we started on.
But I need your help on.
So would that be under the community?
The Blue Community tab would be a community links.
Correct or something on there.
We logged off, but if you go to the community page
now, you'll see there's a left in this, there's a left hand navigation bar now.
And so one of
the options under there would be this particular set of links.
So it actually lives there.
Now it's just not active that you can link to it really.
Links.
I'm sorry, but is there any criteria for
an organization to be in the community?
Links
or do they?
There is not a defined criteria
and then that's probably something that we should
kicker kick around because
yeah, I think not everyone's a registered five or 1c3,
but they still provide a service that's useful.
Perhaps anyone that fit inside the parameters
of like use of school facilities.
So you want us to make up a list of things we think
and then bring them to the next meeting?
Or just I don't even need to wait to go to the next meeting.
I think the.
Hershey Food Bank, the Derry Township Food Bank.
Perfect.
So if you would just email those to me and as soon as they come to you,
I said I want to wait another couple of months.
So yeah, to get that moving. So just.
For implementing those changes. Absolutely.
So okay,
anybody have anything else?
All right then I it's 605, so I'd like to turn
and I will see you in June for our next meeting.
And the date is completely slipping my mind at this moment.
But I think it's May.
Is it May 26?
May I want to say that it was my confusing May 13.
May 13. Oh, well, we'll see you May 13th.
That's even sooner.
You know, whatever.
At the end of June, I think you and Melinda
are there June 30th of this year
because and Ashley will have one more.
Yes. Yeah.
And hopefully you are one to because we value your input.
So. All right. Thank you so much.