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Torre: We need help staying on track.
The Board of Education is looking to create a committee to discuss … the Board of Education.
At the board’s Tuesday night public meeting, members discussed a plan to create a new Governance Committee that would “guide and prioritize the focus of the NHPS board,” according to a handout.
“This is a committee that will regularly look at and make sure the Board of Ed is prioritizing its time appropriately, looking at the right data, following up on the right issues, and making sure that we’re having the discussion that are of greatest import to the direction of the board,” said Superintendent Garth Harries (pictured with Mayor Toni Harp at Tuesday night’s meeting).
Board Chair Carlos Torre said that he believes this could become one of the board’s “more important committees.” The current suggestion is to have three people on the committee, all members of the regular Board of Ed; Torre said that the committee could have more depending on interest. All meetings would be public.
The committee would determine future Board of Ed agendas and topics of discussion (currently a one-person job), review and consider longer-term changes in the board’s by-laws, and ensure the board follows up on issues and stays on track.
“This committee would help make sure that we’re following through on things,” said Torre. Right now, without the committee, he said, “we’ll talk about something important ‚but then two meetings later it’ll fall to the wayside because we’re inundated with so many other things.”
The new committee will not determine changes to educational vision or policy. The board agreed to set up an ad hoc meeting of the Governance Committee in the coming weeks. Torre said he envisions the committee meeting once a month or maybe more. Depending on how the first ad hoc meeting goes, the Governance Committee may be written into the bylaws for the 2014 – 2015 academic year.