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Board debate over late agenda items, new positions and coordinator MOA highlights transparency concerns
Summary
Board members pressed district leaders about late additions to the special meeting agenda, whether the board should pre-approve new job titles before hiring, and a memorandum of agreement to place newly created coordinator positions under the IRBA contract.
Board members pressed district leaders about late additions to the special meeting agenda, whether the board should pre-approve new job titles before hiring, and a proposed memorandum of agreement to place newly created coordinator positions under the IRBA contract.
A board member said multiple items were added to the agenda as late as 6 p.m. on the day of the meeting and cited the New York State Open Meetings Law's requirement that agendas and related documents be made available 24 hours in advance "to the extent practicable." The superintendent's office said much of the hiring paperwork was uploaded on Friday and that HR had continued adding certificated and noncertificated appointments during the summer to staff schools for the start of the year.
Board members asked that future new titles be presented to the board for prior approval. District staff said many of the new positions were budgeted and that if a position is budgeted there is no additional fiscal impact to creating the title; an organizational chart requested by several board members is being prepared and will be shared in the coming weeks.
The meeting included a detailed discussion of a proposed MOA to include 24 coordinators under the IRBA contract (eight multilingual education coordinators, eight literacy coordinators and eight STEM coordinators). The administration told the board the coordinator positions are year-round (12-month) and that the adopted coordinator salary schedule begins at about $130,000 for a 12-month coordinator. "The coordinator salary schedule was developed in consideration of regional salary schedules," a district official said. The MOA was presented simultaneously with appointments so hired coordinators would have defined terms and conditions of employment, the administration said.
Board members also asked for clearer job-title language in the MOA because earlier budget materials had referred to "deans." The district said it had changed the title to "coordinator" and proposed to strike the word "dean" from the exhibit.
No policy or employment action was invalidated at the meeting; the board approved multiple consent and action items after discussion and amended the exhibit to remove the word "dean." Several board members said they would like future hiring and new-title approvals to be more visible to the public and to the full board in advance.
