Diplomacy reigned at the May 2 school board meeting as wary trustees worked out a compromise in the composition, procedures and responsibilities of an evolving board policy subcommittee.
Morgan Hill Unified School District Board President Donna Ruebusch agreed to meet with Trustees David Gerard and Gino Borgioli, both designated members of the subcommittee, to hash out the details and then bring them back at a future board meeting for approval. No action was taken at the May 2 meeting.
The board policy subcommittee is in place to review the new board policies and changes to existing policies that come in from the California School Boards Association periodically throughout the year.
Instead of a two-member committee, the policy subcommittee will have three members with it being suggested that Ruebusch join Gerard and Borgioli. However, the third trustee on the committee has yet to be named.
Superintendent Steve Betando liked the idea that one of MHUSD’s directors would get a first-read of each policy depending on the focus area and be able to make suggested edits prior to those policies going before the subcommittee. Once the body was finished reviewing, then the policies would go to the board of education for approval and/or discussion.
The subcommittee will meet a minimum of three times per year and those meetings will be scheduled around the CSBA’s quarterly release of new and changed policies.
“I do think we’re achieving a breakthrough here,” said Gerard of the subcommittee compromise between trustees. “It’s a starting point and I think we need to be flexible.”
Currently, the board members receive a packet of policies along with their agendas and approve those policies in one single vote as part of the consent calendar. Consent items are considered routine.
Ruebusch and Board Vice President Ron Woolf were reluctant to give the go-ahead for the subcommittee at two previous meetings, while Gerard and Borgioli had tried to push it forward after researching what other districts do as far as policy review.
“I have never been as frustrated with an item as I am right now,” said Borgioli, who had worked with Gerard over the last five months crafting a board policy subcommittee memorandum. “It behooves me as to why this board can’t make a decision.”
Following more than an hour discussion at the May 2 meeting, the board came to a compromise in setting the new parameters for the subcommittee that will be introduced at a future date.
The next regularly scheduled school board meeting is May 16 at the district headquarters, 15600 Concord Circle.
