Late nights for followers of the Morgan Hill School Board are
likely to be a thing of the past after trustees on Monday decided
to move up start times for regular meetings from 7pm to 6pm.
Trustees will meet for the closed session portion of the meeting at
4:30 or 5pm, depending on the number and complexity of issues to be
discussed.
Late nights for followers of the Morgan Hill School Board are likely to be a thing of the past after trustees on Monday decided to move up start times for regular meetings from 7pm to 6pm.
Trustees will meet for the closed session portion of the meeting at 4:30 or 5pm, depending on the number and complexity of issues to be discussed.
The time change will take effect for the board’s next regular meeting on Feb. 14.
“Most of you have jobs or otherwise busy and full days before you even come through the door for meetings, so you end up having 12, even 16 hour days,” Superintendent Carolyn McKennan said.
Board policy sets meeting guidelines, and states that the length of the meetings “shall not exceed three and one-half hours in public session.”
But with difficult discussions sometimes drawing the meetings out, trustees can vote to extend the public session beyond the time limit. When meetings begin at 7pm, they can continue until 10:30, or later if trustees vote to extend, which does not lead to productive discussion, Board President Shellé Thomas said.
“I think we’d all like to be finished earlier,” she said. “I don’t think we’re as fresh and focused when it becomes later.”
Some trustees expressed a concern that the earlier start time might make it difficult for some members of the public to attend.
Thomas pointed out that the location of the public comment section on the agenda should make it possible for people interested in speaking to trustees to do so. The public comment section is near the middle of the agenda, following introductions/presentations and the action items.
Trustees will next meet Monday, Jan. 31, 4:30-6:30pm, at the District Office, 15600 Concord Circle. The purpose of the special meeting is to approve the recruitment brochure created by RJ Associates, the search firm hired to find a new superintendent, and appoint members of the advisory committee that will interview candidates for the position. Details: 201-6000.
