- It was exciting to see a fairly large number of people there for the first time. The usual folks who follow the Board were there, but also a number of people I didn't know, and that's a good thing. The Board needs to hear from lots of people.
- It was hard to hear in that particular setting, primarily because of the size of the crowd. Easy to fix.
- Some people were frustrated, because they thought this would be a chance for them to bring THEIR issue to the Board and get an answer. This was not going to happen because of the Open Meetings Act ("OMA"), but perhaps we'll get closer as The Exchange initiative progresses. As I listened at my table, I realized some of the people there didn't understand what the OMA is, so here is an explanation, and a request that you hang in there:
The Open Meeting Act is NOT a district policy or a marketing name for these meetings. It is a state law that dictates how a governmental body can talk to "the people". The intent behind the law is to make sure that if a quorum of a governmental body is present and talking about something, that topic is disclosed to the rest of the world so that anyone else interested in hearing the conversation can show up and listen to it. That's why the Board had to frustrate some folks this evening-- they came to hear what the Board had to say, but the Board could not comment on specifics that had not been posted. For instance, one of the ladies at my table wanted to talk about specific books used in 12th grade at a particular high school. The Board could listen to her concerns (everyone has Free Speech rights) but could not comment on them because it wasn't posted so that my absent friend Jan, who is VERY passionate about books, could be there to hear what the Board has to say about the topic.
That disclosure happens by "posting" 72 hours ahead of the meeting, meaning the topics to be discussed are literally tacked up in a public place so that people can plan to attend and listen to any discussion that interests them. Nowadays, the posting also appears on the website, so you don't actually have to drive down to the ESC to check out the bulletin board outside, to see the topics to be discussed. Of course, there are exceptions, but this is the general intent of the law.
Speaking of the topics, they have to be posted with some specificity. Since the entire Board was expected to be present, tonight's discussion had to be posted, so the Board chose the topic "Governance and The Role of The Board." The Trustees were able to talk about how they decide policy, the difference between oversight and management (this is their role under the Texas Education Code), etc. That was frustrating because people wanted to talk about lots of specific topics. The Board handled this by telling people to write the topic they wanted to discuss on a piece of paper, all those papers were gathered and posted on the wall, and then everyone was given three dots to "vote" for topics they want to discuss next time. This way, the School Board can post some specific topics to discuss at the next Exchange meeting. It's a compromise, but it is does prioritize the topics that those present want to hear about from the Board in upcoming meetings, and then gives those who were unable to attend tonight a chance to be sure to be present when topics they are passionate about come up for discussion. Hopefully, those who were frustrated tonight will hang in there until their topics gets to come up for discussion. The really GREAT news is that even when the Board was unable to comment on something, they were LISTENING to what people were saying.
Thank you for hanging in there with me. I look forward to "musing" some more with you...
I am glad I was able to go. Though it was frustraing to not be able to hear a lot of what was being said.
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