Above is the August 14, 2023 school board agenda, with my highlights in yellow.
Below are my comments regarding this agenda - Supt. Moore's first agenda as superintendent:
At last, there is relief from the language prohibiting an attack on character of board members and employees that I argued was unsupportable here and here. In its place is a reference to "Policy BED". Here are the links to the local BED policy and its legal framework. I enjoy reading such policies, but you might find them tedious. I would boil it down to these 3 things: a public speaker in open forum needs to not incite a riot or be violent; the presiding officer needs to give at least one warning that the policy is not being complied with; and, staff and board members need to have thick skin and check their feelings at the door - democracy is not a spectator sport. And, of course, everyone needs to remember these are the days of bountiful ink. A trigger happy errant superintendent or presiding officer who wants to shut down public comment runs the risk that the public speaker will respond with, yes, a web site in protest.
Not to bury the lede here, but the most significant part of this meeting will be the presentation by Irion County Tax Assessor Collector Joyce Gray at agenda item 2. This will be the third year I've listened to her tax rate presentation to the District (and I've listened to her for 3 years at the City), and she really is excellent at boiling down the latest tax law changes to an understandable form. Her presentation is part 1 of the board (not Assessor Collector Gray) setting the tax rate for next year, so if you intend to complain about high taxes this is the meeting where you would lodge your first protest. This should also be the first public presentation about the potential impact on school finance if the November 7 2023 constitutional amendment is approved by voters. See Proposition 4 here at the Texas Secretary of State site.
The introduction of a "consent agenda" at agenda item 5 is a great tool, so long as the board members come to the meeting prepared. It has been painful to watch board members review financial documents for the first time at the meeting and fail to have substantive questions for the CFO. If they are diligent and come prepared they can pull something off of consent to discuss separately, if need be. But, if they have "checked out" they will regretfully use the consent agenda to speed through the meeting without any prior preparation. Consent agendas can be both good and bad tools.
The itemized topics in executive session at item 7 are a good way to keep both the board and public focused on what will be discussed. Executive sessions must be tightly controlled, and one that lasts for 2 to 3 hours (as this board does sometimes) is a sure sign the board is off agenda. Also new is some of the language in the next to last paragraph, including a reference to their policy on what is permitted in closed session. See the BEC Legal policy here. It was my experience after serving as counsel in quite number of executive sessions that board members were inclined to treat the laws limiting what was permitted in closed session as only guidelines, not the law, unless the presiding officer and executive director were strong leaders and knew the seriousness of a violation.
Watch for audio of a portion of this meeting to be posted on this site a few days after the meeting.