Andrea Butzler Internship I Board Meeting Reflection Oct.

15, 2013

The Lebanon R-III School Board is comprised of seven members, President Robert ONeil, John Carr, Ken Eldridge, Sherry Headley, Jeremiah Hough, Kim Light, and Jason Riggs. All of the board members are community members that have a vested interest in the school district and students. Many of the board members are Lebanon Highschool Alumni and a few such as ONeil, Headley, and Riggs have children currently attending schools within the district. I can infer from this that the board members are motivated to serve on the board because of this vested interest. The Lebanon R-III School Board held its monthly meeting at the central office on October 15th, 2013. The meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. Five out of the seven board members were present. In addition to the District Superintendent, other district

administrators were present including the Assistant Superintendent (Curriculum & Instruction), Assistant Superintendent (Personnel, School Improvement), Director of Special Programs, and the Chief Financial Officer. These administrators presented on some topics including recognitions and evaluations of programs. Several building level administrators were present, some presented agenda items to the board for review and others were there simply to attend and gather information. The board meeting was held in the Board room at the district central office. This room is equipped with a Promethean Interactive White Board

and each board member has their own lap top. Most information was presented in a digital format to the board. Among the agenda items, the board heard from LEA (Lebanon Education Association) and recognized the Elks Lodge for the donation of Red Ribbon Week Ribbons. Two

program evaluations were presented to the board including a transportation report presented by Max Starnes, the director of transportation, and a review of Lebanon Technical and Career Center (LTCC) presented by director, Keith Davis. Dr. Armstrong presented information to the board on the new teacher evaluation system. Lebanon R-III school district has adopted the University of Missouris Network for Educator Effectiveness. The board asked questions regarding increased work load for principals and effectiveness of the program. Superintendent Dr. Widhelm and Chief Financial Officer, Joe Knapp presented information on tax incentives that are being used to facilitate economic development in the city of Lebanon. Dr. Widhelm asked the board if they would consider establishing a policy to guide the district representatives. The board then heard a report from Michelle Hedges, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, on the After School Tutoring program. Hedges proposed

changes used donated funds to purchases ChromeBooks rather than spend the donated funds on transportation for the After School Tutoring program. The board tabeled this proposal and asked for more information on how many students would not attend tutoring if transportation home was not provided. The board then approved serveral action items including the LEF discount card fundraiser and changes to course offerings at the high school and LTCC. The board went into closed

session to discuss legal and personelle matters. After coming out of closed session no actions were taken and the meeting adjorned at 9:53 p.m. According to district policy the Superintendent is the chief executive officer of the Board of Education and the administrative head of all divisions and departments of the school district. It is the superintendents job to enforce any board policies and to communicate board decisions to employees and students. The Superintendent, Dr. Dwayne Widhelm was present at the board meeting. He followed along as did the board members but he also chimed in an asked several presenters to give the board more information as well as asked the board their thoughts on particular topics. The superintendent was aware of what motions needed to be voted on and seemed to guide the board meeting in way. Most of the superintendent secretarys duties are done behind the scence, including compiling the information necessary to be included in the board packet. During the meeting, the superintendents secretary was responsible for calling roll has action items were voted on. The board presidents role was to call the meeting to order and ask for motions to be made as action items were presented. The board meeting ran smoothly due to the increased use of technology. I was surprised to see that on one instance the board was being presented with completely new information and was asked to make a decision without having an opportunity to gather more information or look into the matter more closely. In this case, they were not prepared to make a decision and had to table the matter in order to gather some more information. One recommendation would be to have review and action items presented in electronic format to the board several days prior to the meeting. This would allowing board members to review the presentation portion of the information prior to the meeting so that they can be

prepared with questions and concerns. Much of the time spent at the meeting was presenting information the board did not have a lot of time to process this information in order to ask questions and make informed decisions. Another recommendation would be to make board packets with presented information available to the public prior to the board meeting or at the board meeting. This could be done in an electronic format. Lastly, in attendance other than district and building level administrators were reporters from the local paper and myself. There were no other community members in attendance and no teachers or parents. In years past, the district held school board meetings in the school buildings rotating to each building so that each school hosted the board meeting once a year. My recommendation is that the district considers holding meeting in that matter to encourage others to attend the board meetings.