Special Board Meeting/Retreat - July 22, 2011

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Proceedings of the Board of Trustees

District No. 2, Yellowstone County

High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County

Billings, Montana

 

July 22, 2011

 

 

Call to Order

 

The Special Board Meeting/Work Session of the Board of Trustees of School District No. 2, Yellowstone County and High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County, Montana was duly held at the Lincoln Center, Billings, Montana on July 22, 2011.

 

Roll Call

 

Those present included: Trustees Barbara Bryan, Connie Wardell, Pam Ellis, Teresa Stroebe, Lindy Graves, Kathy Aragon, Greta Besch Moen and Travis Smith. Also present were: Superintendent Dr. Keith Beeman, Scott Anderson, Jeff Greenfield, Josh Middleton, Jeff Weldon, Gail Surwill, Clerk Leo Hudetz, Kathy Olson, Brenda Koch, Karen Moses, and Doug Eadie. Trustee Travis Kemp was excused. Trustee Travis Smith arrived at 4:55 p.m.

 

The meeting was called to order by Chair Bryan at 4:05 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance was said.

 

Call to the Public

 

Karen Moses spoke to those present as a previous member of the Board for ten years and as a 10 year employee of the District. She encouraged openness by the Board.

 

Doug Eadie Presentation

 

Doug Eadie, Doug Eadie and Associates, addressed the Board on high-impact governance and went over his recommendations which were the result of a June 1, 2011 Board retreat. He stated that governing is a “team sport.” The governing team is made up of the Board, the Superintendent, and the Executive Team.

 

The following is a summary of Mr. Eadie’s recommendations.

 

Action V-A: Establish a temporary BPS High-Impact Governing Program Steering Committee to oversee and manage implementation of the Board’s new structure of three governing committees and to ensure that the Board’s new governing committees are adequately supported by the BPS Superintendent and the Executive Team. This would be an Ad Hoc Committee put together for a very short time to make sure there is a plan for implementing the new committees.

 

Board Action Recommendation I: Clarify the Board of Trustees governing role. These changes are fairly modest changes in terms of time and money, but result in high-impact changes.

 

Action Step I-A: Adopt by resolution a formal commitment to playing a high-impact governing role as BPS’ governing body. Everyone who sits around the Board table participates.

 

Action Step I-B: Adopt by resolution the Board of Trustees Governing Mission. This follows June 1st meeting discussions and is focused on setting clear directions. Trustee Wardell felt this was weak because it is in passive voice – “guarantees student achievement,” “acquires budget,” etc. She said it needs more strong action words. Mr. Eadie suggested the Chair appoint Trustee Wardell and a couple of others to go over this and improve language.

 

Mr. Eadie urged the Board to make sure everyone is engaged in governing process. Set performance targets: disagree but be civil. It will elevate the image of the Board in the community.

 

Action Step II-A: Adopt by resolution a structure of three board governing committees to help the Board of Trustees accomplish its governing work. The committees shall be named Board Operations, Planning & Development, and Performance Monitoring/External Relations. These are standing committees that include staff assistance but are pure trustee committees. There are two choices for committee structures: “real” or “virtual” committees. The preferred choice is “real” committees that is made Board members but is not a committee of the whole Board. The committee does the spade work for Board meetings. Board meetings should last no more than 90-120 minutes. This structure does require trust and respect for each other. You can divide the work and have reasonable chance for input. You have to let the committees do their work. Any Board member can attend any committee meeting. They have a chair and special meeting time. The other alternative, “virtual committees” don’t deliver as much benefit or as much impact. However, Mr. Eadie’s report says you might want to start here. The whole Board would meet as a committee for specific areas, i.e., planning. The benefits are that it organizes the work to be more productive but it is a weaker application.

 

The Chair stated that she wants to get a sense of what trustees are feeling with each of these structures. Trustee Wardell stated that most of the members on the Board are new, so part of it is wanting to understand, and not willing to accept what a committee did unless hearing the entire presentation as well. She feels that this requires too much staff time. Trust factors but also knowledge factors are involved in deciding which committee structure to adopt. Trustee Stroebe suggested that we have “real” committees but meet at different times to get a grasp of different subjects. This is a learning process for new Board members. Her goal is to get more done in less time. Mr. Eadie stated it is important to have good minutes taken so you can look at the minutes to get a grasp of what took place.

 

Trustee Aragon agrees with Trustee Stroebe and is interested in less time commitment. Trustee Stroebe clarified that she doesn’t want to do more but wants to get more done in less time and to be more productive.

 

Mr. Eadie stated that either approach will give that benefit.

 

Chair Bryan stated that we would eventually want to have separate committees. It might work better to have committee of the whole for a while.

 

Trustee Wardell stated that there is a real suspicion in the community of committee work. It is construed as a way of doing business outside of purview of the public.

 

All meetings would be posted, all accessible, a very transparent process.

 

Trustee Ellis stated it would be a key thing that everyone be able to attend. When committees take place in the morning or at noon, it is difficult for those who are working to attend. Mr. Eadie stated that all meetings should be easy for people to attend.

 

Trustee Stroebe asked where the agenda setting would fit in the process.

 

Jeff Greenfield asked if staff would be at the meetings. Staff is necessary to provide input. The Central Office Leadership Team would attend. If the Board wants input from the public or other employees, would it be a different structure, organized and consistent? Will this just be another meeting for these Board members to attend?

 

Mr. Eadie stated that the biggest time commitment is from staff. Advisory committees would not have any Board members. Trustee Smith questioned about how to get the correct picture by not being on the committees. Trustee Bryan used the advertising policy subcommittee as an example. It involved people from the community with an advertising background. Board members did not participate on that committee but recommendations were made and brought to the Board.

 

Trustee Ellis asked about performance monitoring. She enjoys presentations at Board meetings and asked if it would be more appropriate at committee level. Mr. Eadie stated it would be up to each committee to decide. Trustee Wardell stated that the presentations are a way to have the community involved. Mr. Eadie stated there could be a mix of approaches. The committees could decide what presentations to make to spotlight programs. Mr Eadie stated Board members need to focus on governing and be careful your time is not diluted.

 

Functions of the committees: Planning committee has two. (1)How the Board will participate the next year in planning. The Superintendent will come in with a calendar to make recommendations, via retreat. The committee has to decide how to get the Board involved. It is an oversight committee: most planning done by Superintendent and COLT. They will decide when to involve the entire Board in planning. (2)Second job of the committee is bringing things for Board approval – a processing committee. No committee takes action – only the Board takes action. Budget comes from the planning committee. Committee represents the Board in everything planning.

 

Demographic reports would go to the planning committee.

 

Trustee Graves stated that these committees would decipher all information coming in without Board doing any deep diving. Mr. Eadie stated that the retreat is deep diving – great place for enrollment projections to come in. Maybe one full day retreat, several work sessions, part of the day, per year.

 

Planning would be responsible for making sure the Board is engaged in making planning decisions with good information with some degree of ownership.

 

Trustee Graves stated these committees’ membership should be half of Board on one, half on the other with regular rotations.

 

Planning is the future committee.

 

Performance Monitoring committee is the looking committee—90% watching. One role is to reach agreement with Superintendent on what to watch/ report—spotlights. You need to have a feel for what is happening educationally. Trustee Ellis asked about Graduation Matters – both committees? Mr. Eadie stated that the plan for reducing dropout rates goes to the planning committee. Monitoring would monitor that program, looking at what is going on right now. Policy Committee—rules or policies that governs operations—would probably go through Performance Monitoring.

 

Board Operations Committee would be composed of Superintendent, Board Chair, and the two committee chairs.

 

Division of labor –Planning committee coordinates full Board involvement in planning for future; gets ready for board meetings. Monitoring committee watches financial performance, educational performance, turnover, morale, agrees with Superintendent on how it is going to watch.

 

Board Operations Committee – management of the Board and relationship with the Superintendent. It consists of two other committee chairs, Board Chair and Superintendent. This committee prepares the Board agenda, monitors Board performance not organizational performance, committee that worries about Superintendent/Board relationship, communication, typically does Superintendent evaluation. It makes sure evaluation is based on outcomes. Talks with Dr. Beeman about his own outcomes, things that are measurable, how he spends his time.

 

Mr. Eadie stated that surveys for Superintendent evaluation are not effective.

 

Trustee Stroebe stated that she is the Board person on Education Foundation Board. Mr. Eadie stated that you can report to any board but it takes time away from your major responsibility. It would be better to have representative from the Education Foundation come to a committee meeting and establish lines of communication and authority. Have a committee of our board responsible for that communication. Be careful of subcommittees – you can run out of time.

 

Trustee Bryan asked if instead of having someone from our board go to all Education Foundation meetings, would it be appropriate for Planning & Development Committee to say to Foundation “we would like you to start to think about …” Mr. Eadie stated that the Planning & Development Committee would come to the Board as part of planning process with a plan. Fit it into planning process so it is part of the normal planning process. Make a formal commitment. Trustee Ellis stated that it is hard to tell a private person how we would use their money. Mr. Eadie urged that we make sure District priorities govern allocations.

 

Trustee Ellis asked if surveying is inappropriate, how do you measure morale? Mr. Eadie stated that you plan for how to do it and remember it has its limitations. There is no good information on superintendent performance on surveys. Performance monitoring committee will design a survey to measure feelings, morale, etc. Be careful with it. Surveys invite axe-grinding, personal feelings, etc., and it is hard to use that information, invites griping. Community surveys are valuable – what the community thinks about the schools.

 

Mr. Eadie urged the Board to be very open about the idea of committee structure and the benefits will be great.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

 

Barbara Bryan, Chair

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Coe, Recorder