Woodland school board to return to monthly meetings

11 years ago

    WOODLAND, Maine — As another school year approaches, the Woodland school board is moving back to their regular schedule of monthly meetings.
The school board committee met on July 14 to discuss a lengthy list of agenda items, however, many of the matters were forced to be tabled until the next regular meeting, due to the fact the upcoming school budget preoccupied the board for much of the previous two meetings, and no prior discussion was afforded to Monday’s agenda items.

As the board got back in to full-swing and reconvened to prepare for the upcoming school year, one of the major decisions agreed upon during the meeting was for the school board to revert back to holding meetings every month, as opposed to their previous bi-monthly schedule.
The general consensus of the committee members was that meeting less often was not proving to be the most efficient way for the board to conduct school board business. Board member Travis Prashaw explained that meeting every other month makes it difficult to keep track of certain committee business. The schedule also leaves a major gap between opportunities for board members to all gather, especially if a member was unable to attend an earlier meeting, which could mean that member was then going close to three months without the ideal amount of communication taking place.
“I really think we should (return to monthly meetings),” said Prashaw. “It’s easy to lose track of things with the current every other month set-up.”
Board member Wanda Anderson agreed, explaining that the board had in years past always held monthly meetings, but at some point last year had decided to switch to every other month in order to work around Union 122 meetings, which were always held during the off-month of individual school board meetings.
“We always used to hold monthly meetings,” said Anderson. “Last year, we decided we would switch off and meet every other month for both school board and Union 122 meetings. I don’t know how the other towns are doing things, but I think if we decide it’s possible it might help to switch back to regular monthly meetings.”
It was decided that the board would meet on the second Monday of every month, barring any unforeseen circumstance that may cause rescheduling. Anderson later pointed out that members of the Union 122 committee would be meeting on August 21, during which they would have to decide on their regular meeting schedule, and make sure to adjust the schedule to accommodate members who may be serving on both panels.
The school board also announced they will soon be conducting interviews for first-grade and fifth-grade teaching vacancies the school currently has. There is no set date in which the interview process for these positions will begin, but they will be underway by this week.
The Woodland school board will hold their next regular meeting on Monday, August 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Woodland Consolidated School.