Attendance at the meetings has increased dramatically. I recall attending some in past years where there were only 15 or so people in attendance. Now it is not uncommon to see over 100 people show up. Meetings generally did not last longer than an hour. The last two meetings ran over four hours long. My colleagues and I who attend joke about making the meetings a potluck.
In my opinion, our district needs improvement in the area of communication with us, the employees. This is my main reason for attending the meetings. However, when the president conducts the meeting, it sounds like a secret code. Items discussed are referred to by number, not names. I don't know if that is the norm for other school board meetings, but it is in East Chicago. Perhaps I should attend school boards meetings in other districts just to have a base for comparison. The public forum section of the school board meetings provide the most eye-opening glimpses into the community's concerns. There are times that I hear about concerns for the first time. For example, I did not know one of my colleagues had been suspended until I attended a meeting. I also did not know about our school's not hosting an evening showing of our holiday program until a parent voiced a comment about it.
After East Chicago's former mayor was convicted on charges of conspiracy and theft charges, the current mayor made strides for televising local meetings (council, library board, school board) on both the local cable channel and on youtube. I am grateful for the youtube videos since I no longer live in East Chicago and have access to the local cable channel.
These are links to a couple of school board meetings, if you have hours of free time to devote to watching them. I believe that ECTV News will be uploading more of the meetings, but in the meantime...
I will be in attendance for the upcoming March 24 meeting.
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