Board considers committee overhaul and stretches curriculum-adoption timeline amid budget cuts

Speaker 6 proposed revising rule 88-50 to change committee structure: merge gender-review items into standing committees, increase committee meetings so each committee reviews agenda items for the next two board meetings, and recruit committee members before launching the new schedule in December. The intent, Speaker 6 said, is to make committee time more purposeful and to provide a clearer place to refer items.

"I think this is worth a shot, to help streamline our work and and to make give our committees more purpose," Speaker 6 said. The plan would begin with six committee meetings and could expand if needed; staff proposed a one-year review of the new process to assess what worked and what did not.

Board members discussed curriculum review cycles. Speaker 3 suggested revisiting the district's 2014 curriculum audit; Speaker 5 described an ongoing curriculum-review cycle covering ELA, math, social studies and science and said district coordinators review state standards as part of each adoption. Speaker 5 also said the district's adoption budget has been sharply reduced from about $2,300,000 to $500,000, requiring the district to elongate adoption schedules and make phased rollouts of new materials.

Speaker 6 also said the Harborside charter governance board voted to move to a district-choice model effective in the second semester, and recommended removing charter-review from the planning and facilities committee's work. Staff pointed board members to the WASB policy-resource guide (PRG) for background on policy options and legal reasoning.

Next steps: staff will recruit committee members, finalize the committee calendar and bring the proposed rule change to the board for formal consideration; the district will also adjust curriculum-adoption timelines to reflect the smaller budget.