This week's meeting agenda can be found here.
Discussions of note include the Monona Grade Configuration Study Committee and a report from the Ad Hoc Athletic Field Use Committee.
The Field Use Committee has been investigating the installation of artificial turf for the High school stadium, including the possibility of asking the voters to fund this investment. There clearly is a problem with the condition of the football field due to the high number of events that take place on the grass and artificial turf is seen as one solution to this problem.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
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16 comments:
Peter,
I strongly agree with your previous statments about this matter.
Having a referendum to fund this would be a big, big mistake. Huge. Don't do it.
When will the supporting materials for agenda items be available to the public before the meetings? Making these materials available to the public is standard procedure for many elected bodies these days. It's quick to scan and post pdf files. There's really no excuse for not making materials that are a matter of public record easily available to the public. Not doing it makes it look like the board is trying to hide things. That is not to say that you are, but it makes it appear that way.
"Having a referendum to fund this would be a big, big mistake. Huge. Don't do it."
Agreed.
If it is so easy, why don't you volunteer to do it?
The City of Monona posts their packet materials. My guess is they have far less staff than the school district and a much smaller budget. Like most things, this is a matter of prioritizing the work load. I would say that posting the supporting documents for board meetings electronically should be a high priority as agenda items are often very vague.
Ok, if it is so important, why don't you volunteer to do it?
anonymous is right. Lots of people volunteer their time on a regular basis to the school district for all sorts of things they find important. If this is important to you, then why don't you volunteer the small amount of time you think it will take to do it?
Hopefully the new superintendent will hear that this is important to parents and other constituents.
It is not rocket science, nor does it take an inordinant amount of time.
Frankly, this is what we pay district employees to do. As technology changes, so should a person's job description.
And then there would be no more excuses, unanswered voice mails, and secretaries who stonewall constituents by saying that they don't have permissiion to release agenda information or supporting documentation.
Volunteers should be in the classrooms.
And can you imagine the liability should a mistake be committed by a volunteer? Such as the accidental posting of material not meant for posting?
Wouldn't that be something.......
Actually, can you tell me what "all sorts of things" people volunteer for? Volunteers work with students and sometimes on committees. I am not aware that we have volunteers for the administrative staff for doing day to day work, nor do I believe that would be appropriate. I think the yearly budget of the district is close to 30 million dollars. I suspect a couple of hours a month can be squeezed out of that to make sure the public has access to the same information that the school board has. Again, if the City of Monona can do it with their small staff, surely the school district can manage.
Just as I thought- people like to complain, but when asked to help they make a bunch of excuses and expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab.
There is some cost to this, the question must always be whether the public benefit exceeds the cost. I will check how often we get requests for the packet information and if that information is generally available at the time of the request.
I am curious to know if there is something specific that was of interest in this case or if this was just a general comment.
Was there a specific piece of information were you after?
"I will check how often we get requests for the packet information and if that information is generally available at the time of the request."
Historically, these packets have NOT been made available to the public until the time of the meeting. This was still the case last year-as I recall.
So, being able to get a board packet before the meeting would be progress.
Good grief. Why is it such a big deal for the school board to embrace what is becoming common pratice for many other school boards, county boards, city councils, etc? In fact, many of these have gone completely electronic. To say that somehow there is something so unique about MG that this would be such a burden is ridiculous. As mentioned above, it looks bad. Like you really don't want the public to have the same information you have. I'm gonna give the benefit of the doubt that this isn't why this doesn't appear to be a no brainer to the school board, but I don't understand what the real issue is here. As for asking how many people request this stuff, many people aren't going to call and ask,but they would access it online if you put it there. With all the misunderstandings, suspicions, etc. over the years, why wouldn't you leap at the chance to get as much info out as possible as to why you make the decisions you do? Especially when it's so easy to do nowadays?
Say, Can you explain why in God's name I had to write 13 checks for my students' school registration the other day?
No Kidding - I had to write a dozen too.
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