School board to discuss improving team building and communication skills—behind closed doors
The Pelham school board may be facing internal challenges with team building and communications.
At least that’s what the notice for Wednesday’s board meeting seems to indicate. A portion of a one-and-half-hour executive session the board expects to conduct will be used to discuss matters related to “interpersonal relations and improving team building/communications skills,” according to the notice released on Friday. As the board will be in private session, residents may never learn what are the communications issues among their elected representatives.
This is the second time in four months the board has held an executive session on a similar topic. “The board met in executive session for board development related to communication skills,” district spokesman Alex Wolff said of a closed session held Oct. 6.
According to the notice, the board will meet at 6 p.m. in the chorus room of the Pelham Middle School and anticipates immediately considering a motion to enter into the executive session. The other issue on the docket for the closed-door meeting is a discussion of the record of a particular student or students.
The notice said the board expects to return to open session at around 7:30 p.m. in the middle school library. That meeting is open to attendance by the public, with capacity limited to six-foot distancing and masks required.
A key item on the agenda is an overview of the proposed 2022-23 budget presented by Superintendent Dr. Cheryl Champ.
The meeting notice has been changed in terms of the information it usually provides residents on the consideration of new district policies. Up until November, notices listed how many times proposed policies had been read at board meetings. Three readings are required before trustees can vote on a policy. The number of readings for each policy was omitted from the notice for Wednesday’s meeting and for the one held Jan. 19.
For the record, the diversity, equity and inclusion policy is scheduled to receive its second reading and the bullying in the schools policy its third reading.
A spokesman was not available to explain why the change had been made to the meeting notice regarding the reading of proposed policies.
Erin Ginsburg • Feb 14, 2022 at 1:58 pm
I’m confused by this article, which is unsigned. It appears in the news section, but the lede and several parts of the following paragraph seem more along the lines of what one would write in an editorial. It isn’t a straight piece of reporting, and it’s strange for a piece of news reporting to not have a reporter attached to it–especially when all the other news stories on the site do have reporters attached to them.
John Brice • Feb 14, 2022 at 10:45 pm
I agree Erin, unfortunate lack of transparency.
natalie marrero • Feb 16, 2022 at 5:36 pm
Hi Erin – I agree that this article should have a reporter’s name attached to it. But the bigger picture here, and what I as a parent and citizen care much more about, is the actual issue the article raises of board transparency. Those of us who attend or watch the BoE meetings know that they are late and public comment happens at the end. But why is that and how does that foster involvement of the public? And why does the executive session happen before the meeting and last just as long? What is going on in those sessions and how much of it should be open for the public to see? Based on what we see after they come out of their private meeting, it feels like the BOE is doing in secret what they should be doing in public- debating issues and coming to agreement on the business before them. As it relates to this article and tonight’s meeting, what are the “team building and communication challenges” they are addressing and why is that being done in secret? I think the communications challenges of these past few years have been apparent to all of us and should be discussed in public. And if they are not a well functional board, shouldn’t we know about it? As a Mom of 3 children who is very concern about the direction of our schools, I hope the board is using their time wisely to address real problems and only using executive session to address truly confidential matters. I plan to get much more involved in this issue and many others related to the BOE….stay tuned.