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Policy committee weighs renaming and committee structure; board members push for immigration/refugee advisory committee
Summary
The board’s policy committee reported recommended language changes to advisory and committee policies, discussed possible term limits for chair and vice chair, and several members urged a fast‑track special advisory committee on immigrant and refugee student concerns with a preliminary work session planned for Feb. 4.
Members of the School Board’s policy committee on Wednesday described proposals to rename and consolidate standing committees and debated forming a special advisory group to advise the division on immigrant and refugee student issues.
Policy Committee Chair Miss Stevens told the board the committee recommended renaming the EL advisory group to the English Learners Parent Advisory Committee (EPAC) and removing a defunct fine arts advisory board from policy BCF. The committee also proposed merging the educational support committee and the finance committee and renaming the personnel committee to the board development committee to avoid confusion about the scope of “personnel.”
“...we realized that the finance committee doesn't meet as a committee whenever there are financial discussions concerning finance. Those are held before the full board as opposed to the committee and then sent to the full board. So we chose to merge the educational support committee and the finance committee,” Stevens said.
Committee members reported an initial conversation about term limits for the chair and vice chair and said that work will continue. Any recommendation would be brought to the full board for formal discussion and vote.
Several board members urged faster action on an advisory body focused on immigrant and refugee families. The suggestion—advanced by Miss Brezha and supported by multiple members—was to start with a special advisory committee or superintendent‑led short‑term effort so the district can move quickly while permanent policy changes are considered. Board members emphasized member selection, family privacy protections and involvement of ESL teachers, translators and parent liaisons.
Board members agreed informally to pursue planning work and to aim for an early work session to define committee goals, membership and meeting logistics; staff was asked to find a date and the board discussed February 4 as a target date for an initial meeting.
The discussion also included procedural housekeeping: the committee reported it will not change policy BCB (Board Officers) at this time and will continue to draft language about term limits and committee membership for future consideration.
