Committee Recommends Changes to Delegate Assembly

Legislators Discuss Moving School Elections

Bill Would Require Public Comment at Board Meetings

Solar Power Is Popular in School Construction Questions

Listening to Middle Schoolers

Study: Alternate Route Teaching Benefits Districts, Needs Improvement

Deadline Extended for Workshop Proposals

NJSBA Resolutions Subcommittee to Meet

Education by the Numbers

Calendar

Click here for a pdf version of this issue of School Board Notes

Holding NJSBA’s Delegate Assembly once a year and adding an advocacy session are just two of the recommended changes in NJSBA governance that school board members will decide in May.

In December 2007, President Kevin E. Ciak established the ad hoc Committee on the Delegate Assembly to recommend ways to improve attendance, preparation and the quality of debate at NJSBA’s Delegate Assembly meetings.

The committee will make the following recommendations at the Delegate Assembly on May 17:

• NJSBA should have only one Delegate Assembly a year. The committee found that 80 percent of other state school boards associations surveyed have only one delegates’ meeting a year and have attendance rates greater than 50 percent. The past 10 Delegate Assemblies have been attended by an average of 137 board representatives out of a possible 603.
  
  
• The NJSBA Board of Directors should set the date of the annual Delegate Assembly at a time of year that will enable the greatest delegate attendance.
  
  
• The Association should add an advocacy session on the same day as the Delegate Assembly, which would allow the members to hear about the latest news and initiatives of NJSBA. In addition, the session would provide an opportunity for the delegates to discuss pressing issues with their NJSBA Officers.
  
  
• The committee also recommended that NJSBA increase its promotional and outreach efforts to encourage boards to attend the Delegate Assembly.

To give boards the opportunity to discuss the recommendations prior to the May Delegate Assembly, NJSBA has posted the ad hoc committee's report online. Also, members of the ad hoc committee and NJSBA Officers will speak about the report at county association meetings through May.