The September 9, 2019 special Board of Eduation meeting was held on-site at Jefferson School. The special meeting was preceded by a closed session [5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(1)]. Highlights from the special meeting include:
- Superintendent outlines first steps in strategic plan process - Superintendent Eric Olson presented an overview of the process for the district’s next strategic plan. The current five-year strategic plan, 2020 Vision, will end in 2020. Dr. Olson said he would like to develop a list of the important issues by gathering feedback from community members, staff members and parents. This list would be used to develop the School Board’s top goals in developing the plan. The process for the new plan, which would direct the District during the next five-six years, could start as early as January. The Board agreed with Dr. Olson’s direction and will work with him to further develop the process.
- Board discusses, then tables changes to operating principles - The Board suggested a few specific language changes in its review of its Operating Principles, before tabling the matter until the suggested changes could be reviewed by legal counsel. Regarding the use of social media among Board members, the discussion centered on one sentence: “Individual Board members may use social media in a positive way only to express individual (not entire Board) citizen views.” They agreed to change the sentence to read: “Individual Board members may not use social media to express entire Board views.” Lastly, the Board agreed to change the statement “We will support the decisions and their effective implementation, regardless of individual Board member votes.” Instead of using the phrase “will support…,” Board members agreed to change it to “will abide by…”