Wallingford board committee debates agenda-timing change amid concerns about late-Friday packets

Missus Reyes, a member of the Board of Education's policy committee, urged the Instructional Committee on Feb. 18 to revise the board's agenda-timing rules to give members "a little bit of wiggle room" so errors or omissions discovered after Friday packet distribution can be corrected before Monday meetings.

Her proposal focused on full-board Monday meetings, when agendas often arrive late on Fridays and town offices are closed over the weekend. "There might be a situation where an agenda may need to be amended for whatever the reason, and there's no way logistically for it to be amended in time for it to post and for it to be publicly available for the meeting," Reyes said.

The committee's discussion highlighted two procedural constraints. Missus Regan noted that the district's bylaw already requires distribution of agendas and supporting materials to board members at least 48 hours before a meeting and that agendas must be posted 24 hours before a meeting. "So there are two deadlines," Regan said. Superintendent Belizzi explained that the town posts agendas during its business hours and that district staff rely on the town for public posting, which makes weekend edits infeasible. "It has to get posted through the town during business hours," Belizzi said.

Several board members said they are sympathetic to giving members more time to review materials but worried a stricter timetable could produce more last-minute errors if staff rushed to meet an earlier deadline. Mister Dearing said he supports sending materials earlier when possible but is "hesitant to lock us into a policy" that would force earlier distribution in situations with moving operational pieces.

The superintendent and central office staff described current practices intended to reduce late surprises: draft agendas are circulated in advance to the chair and vice chair, and heavy instructional packets (school improvement plans, curriculum) are often sent well ahead of the 48-hour posting requirement. Belizzi said central office would "look to see if there's any possibility for us to change that and to do it a little earlier on Friday" but cautioned that earlier releases can increase the number of revisions and repostings.

Missus Reyes said she remains concerned that relying on adding items at the meeting or trusting officers to act in good faith does not solve situations where politics or oversight prevent a late correction. "If it's a really hot topic or hot button issue, it might not happen," she said.

The committee did not vote to change policy at the meeting. The chair proposed continuing open communication among board members, the chair and central office; no member asked to return the question to policy committee for revision at this time.

What happens next: central office staff said they will review whether packet distribution can be moved earlier on Fridays; the board did not schedule a policy change during this meeting.