The Albany School District Board completed its yearly organizational items Tuesday, approving organizational resolutions and the consent agenda and conducting nominations for leadership positions.

Board members nominated and seconded candidates for chair and vice chair during the meeting. The chair called for a voice vote on organizational resolutions and the vote passed. The board also approved the consent agenda by voice vote after a member moved and another seconded the motion.

During the organizational discussion board members raised the recurring question of whether to continue off-site public listening sessions that are held in school buildings. Staff and board members said off-site meetings were intended to increase public participation, but one board member said "we haven't noticed any correlation between people attending public listening sessions and the school that we're having [the listening session] in." Another board member said the setup required a large amount of staff time and that turnout did not justify the effort.

The board discussed an alternative of holding all regular board meetings at the district office, which several members said they would support so long as the public comment format that allows longer, in-person exchanges remains. One member emphasized the value of extended two-way conversations with constituents, saying some issues cannot be addressed in a three-minute public comment and that an eight-minute back-and-forth can be necessary.

The board directed staff to continue bringing consent-agenda items as a batch and to let any board member pull individual items for separate discussion. Staff also said financial items will not be hidden in the consent agenda going forward.

No formal action was recorded to eliminate off-site listening sessions; the item remained a policy discussion for future meetings.