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Board approves framework for trustee community engagement meetings, aims to start by fall
Summary
Trustees approved a working framework for community engagement meetings at the June 4 work session. The plan would run meetings across trustee districts, use digital tools (QR codes/Slido) to collect questions and themes, and tie early sessions to the district strategic‑planning process; superintendent’s staff will help execute the plan.
Trustee Johnson introduced a draft proposal for trustee community engagement meetings and described the working group's development process. The group — composed of trustees and district staff including Superintendent Ebert and other administrators — revised an April draft and prepared a second version for board review.
Trustee Johnson said the aim of the session was threefold: revisit the earlier draft, share changes after staff feedback, and solicit board guidance to finalize the plan and begin execution. She said the working group and district staff had aligned the proposal to make community meetings a mechanism to gather input for the district’s next strategic plan.
Trustees debated logistical questions the draft left open: whether to host separate stakeholder‑specific sessions (staff, students, parents), how to collect and report themes from meetings, whether trustees may attend meetings hosted by other trustees, expected meeting length, and staff capacity. Trustee Stevens recommended 90‑minute meetings and suggested using a digital tool to gather questions and follow‑ups. “There is 1 in particular that I found called Slido,” she said, describing Slido’s anonymous question collection and follow‑up features.
Superintendent Ebert told trustees the district would participate in planning and staffing the meetings, and said the first set of meetings would be more structured to gather input for the strategic plan and that her office would coordinate closely with trustees. "Our team will be listening as well," she said.
Trustees discussed practical items: making meeting formats consistent across districts, a shared agenda template, how to publicize events, whether trustees should attend other trustees’ sessions as guests, and how the board should receive post‑meeting summaries. Trustee Biasotti proposed dedicating a future board agenda item to discuss major themes resulting from community meetings so trustees could deliberate publicly on what they heard.
Trustee Biasotti moved to approve agenda item 2.02 (trustee community engagement meeting proposal); Trustee Henry seconded. The motion passed 7–0. Trustees directed the working group and the superintendent’s office to proceed with next steps, including aligning final meeting materials and a timeline for roll‑out; the proposal’s appendix contains sample agendas, outreach suggestions and template forms.
Meeting participants suggested practical follow‑ups before the rollout: designate ownership for logistics and follow‑up, confirm staff capacity and scheduling to avoid overlap with district events, choose a primary digital intake tool for questions and registration and pilot meetings in the fall. Trustees also suggested opportunities to piggyback engagement sessions on existing school events to increase turnout.
The approved draft remains flexible on details and will be refined with district staff before meetings are scheduled publicly.
