Trustees begin rewrite of Socorro ISD board operating procedures and committee rules

At a Jan. 7 workshop, Socorro ISD trustees and facilitator Ben Mackey extensively reviewed the district’s board operating procedures (BOPs), identifying redundancies between local policy, legal (TEA) requirements and the BOP document. Mackey told the board that many local bullet points ‘‘are actually not in your policy’’ and recommended streamlining the BOPs to be a concise, user‑friendly quick reference for trustees.

Trustees debated whether long local descriptions of superintendent duties (BJA local) should remain in the BOPs. Some said the detail reads like a job posting and duplicates TEA legal policy; others argued a short local summary and an exhibit job description that can be updated with each superintendent search would provide transparency while avoiding conflicts. Mackey suggested pointing trustees and the public to the legal policy and using local policy only for additive, district‑specific expectations.

The board also discussed committee structure. Mackey recommended limiting perpetual standing committees and instead creating task‑oriented, time‑limited committees that expire unless reauthorized. Trustees supported requiring clear charges, sunset dates (six months to one year suggested), and making explicit whether a committee is doing board governance work or superintendent/administrative work. One trustee noted recent action to eliminate certain internal committees and move more work into workshops.

On meeting procedures, the facilitator urged reorganizing the BOPs into topical sections (handling complaints, communications, conflicts of interest, onboarding) to make the document a practical operating manual for new members. Trustees asked the facilitator to redline the BOPs based on this feedback and return a revised draft for review and adoption through the board’s regular policy process.