P0275  REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION - BOARD OF EDUCATION

BOARD POLICY

The Superintendent, administration, and Board must maintain open lines of communication. The Board and Superintendent agree that the Board has a responsibility and a right to be informed. The Board must decide how much information it expects the Superintendent and/or administration to provide, how the information will be provided, the way it will be provided, and the time frame in which it should be provided.

Implemental Procedures:

1.     All individual Board request for reports, analysis, or research generally should be made in writing during a regular or special-called Board meeting, or a committee of the whole.

a.    Unless a Board Request Form is completed by an individual Board member, no request for reports, analysis, or research shall be provided by staff.

2.    If the Superintendent reviews a request with staff and estimates it will take more than two hours to complete, the Superintendent will communicate with the Board member who made the request about the amount of time estimated to complete the request. This will allow the Board member the opportunity to revise the request so it will take less than two hours to complete, or to withdraw the request. If the request is not revised or withdrawn, the Superintendent will bring the request back to the Board at its next business meeting for the Board’s consensus or a vote.

3.     Once a response has been prepared to any Board request, all Board members shall be offered a copy of the information at the same time.

4.     Board members shall not bypass the Superintendent to request reports, analysis or research from staff. While a Board member may on occasion discuss issues with other staff members, it is important each member understand these discussions are brief and shall be limited only to information gathering. In order to achieve equitable access to information, any staff prepared documents will be offered to all Board members.

5.    Following each Board meeting, the Superintendent will confirm each new request with the administrator and/or Board member responsible for fulfilling the request and a tentative date for completion. All Board members and Executive Council members will receive an updated BOE Requests file and BOE Agenda Planner file. The BOE Agenda Planner lists agenda items and reports.

Board counsel has approved this policy as to legal form and content.

Administrative Responsibility: Board of Education

Latest Revision Date: July 2008  P0275
New Policy: July 2002