TO: EVOC 502/3 Instructor Dr. Joe Scarcella
FROM: Phil Fournier
DATE: 1/4/2005
RE: 503, WA6, Fournier
The purpose of EVOC
503 WA6 was to attend and report upon what happened at a local school board
meeting. The following six criteria were specified:
The following sources of
information were used relative to this assignment:
I believe that the attached
proposal meets all six of above listed criteria and respectfully request full
credit: one point for meeting each of the above listed criteria.
WA6 report on the
1/4/2005 meeting of the Governing
Board of the
The governing board meets first in
closed session to discuss matters not open to public comment. I notice among those items some things that
surprised me, namely, the question of the expulsion of two students. These students were noted on the agenda only
by a number, not by a name. I was not
aware that such a matter would be decided at the level of the school board. The board also approved the hiring of a long
list of substitute teachers and other non-classified staff during the closed
session.
The open session began at 6:30pm. It was opened with the flag salute led by a
young girl that appeared to be about 10 years old. I gathered she was selected by her teacher,
who was also present, for this honor.
The next agenda item was a presentation by another young girl of about
16 who was a student at
The one item that was of the most
interest the whole meeting was a presentation by Target stores to the Hemet/San
Jacinto PTA council. The president of
the PTA had applied for this grant of $1500 and received it. The PTA president accepted the grant from
Target and gave a brief synopsis of the ways in which the PTA intended to spend
the money on art supplies, photography supplies, and awards for a contest
planned by the PTA.
The board asked for any comments
from the public, but there were none.
The agenda had a long list of items on it (46 in all) but the public
session seemed to be basically a rubber-stamp formality. There were minor comments made on a couple of
items on this agenda, one of which had to do with the performance of the school
district regarding English language learners.
But I only figured this out by asking questions afterward as the
discussion was between one of the board members and a district employee who was
present.
Indicate
what locality (geographic area) the school board has jurisdiction in and where
and when the meeting was held.
The Hemet Unified school district covers a
large area which includes all of the city of
Indicate
the full name of each school board member and his or her occupational
background.
Gisela Gosch Marilyn Forst Mike Cook Charlotte Jones Phyllis Petri
President Vice President President Board Member Board Member
Bill Sanborn David Peters
(new member, no picture)
Board Member
Gisela Gosch is a business owner of La Casa Interiors, commercial
interior designs. She holds a Masters in
Business Administration,
Marilyn Forst is a retired teacher, with a BA from
Mike Cook is a
former president of the school board.
His e-mail address is mcookhemet@earthlink.net
Bill Sanborn is
the owner and operator of Sanborn Engineering in
Charlotte Jones and
her husband Nick own Miller-Jones Mortuary and
Phyllis Petri
along with her husband has owned and operated Sunny Hills Towing since 1987. She has been on the school board since
1990. Her e-mail address is plpetri@yahoo.com.
David Peters is the
brand new board member. No background
information was given. His e-mail
address is govboard@hemetusd.k12.ca.us.
Indicate
what the major topic of discussion was and what was, or was not, resolved as a
result of the discussion.
As indicated above, this was a pretty boring
meeting. There was very little
discussion that went on and the meeting was concluded inside of one half
hour. The only item of any interest at
all was the discussion regarding the relative scoring of the district in what
was called “Title III Accountability Report” and since the district had a
passing score, there was no need for any action.
Indicate
what personal value was derived from attending the meeting.
This was unfortunately a meeting with very
little interest or action. I learned
more from talking with Nancy Divine, one of the district employees before and
after the session. She gave me insight
into how the board functions in open and closed sessions. I also asked about the long tenure of some of
the board members since I recognized that two of them went clear back to my
last board meeting attended in 1990 for an education class at UCR. She was of the opinion that experience is a
good thing in general. To me it seemed
they had been converted into professionals, and the idea behind school boards
seems to be that they should be ordinary citizens, not professionals. Perhaps term limits might be a good idea.