Action items simply ‘rubber stamped’
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Editor,
The Jan. 22 edition of your paper included an article about the attendance of Debra Silk, an employee of the Montana Association of School Boards, at the January meeting of the Ronan school board. Silk presented information to the board on how effective school boards operate and added that from her perspective, “the Ronan board appears to be operating effectively.”
I would like to present a very different perspective on how the Ronan board and superintendent are operating. The superintendent has effectively stifled any meaningful discussion of district issues by controlling what items get placed on the agenda. Indicative of this is the number of unanimous votes recorded by the trustees. In calendar year 2013, trustees voted on 228 agenda action items and 222 of those votes were unanimous, a rate of 97.3 percent. In her presentation, Ms. Silk mentioned that it should not be the policy of the board to simply be a “rubber stamp” for action items submitted by the superintendent at meetings; 97.3 percent appears to meet the definition of “rubber stamp.”
Due to a lack of discussion of anything of importance in the district, there is little attendance by members of the public at monthly board meetings. The January meeting was attended by a newspaper reporter, 11 administrators in the district who are required to attend board meetings, four staff members in the district, two people being considered for hire, and three community members. A new district “Strategic Plan” was unveiled a year ago, and the plan has in the “Statement of Intended Outcomes, ” that the district has “effectively engaged parents, business leaders and the community … and we have a greater level of involvement of parents, business leaders and the community,” in the operation of the district. After a year, is the district really making progress to reach this goal?
Gale Decker
Ronan
