8-21-06 Nazareth School Board Meeting

The Nazareth Area School District, School Board Meeting was held on Monday, August 21, 2006. I was not in attendance and as of Tuesday morning, the only information available by the press was from the Express-Times' Courtney Lomax who wrote, "Parents Nervous in Nazareth" (read it here) in which the public comment period was primarily consumed by a pair of parents who wanted more information on the potential for a teachers' strike.

As was noted on newsovercoffee.com earlier, there is little the district can say.

In reviewing the School Board Agenda, it appeared to be fairly standard, the only item of interest would be the Citizens Tax Commission, and it could not be determined from the agenda the stage of this process.

If you've been following the posts on the PSSA, you know that Upper St. Clair had some of the top scores in the state and was rated the top school by the Pittsburgh Business Times. I decided to visit their web site to learn more. The first thing that struck me on Upper St. Clair's web site (visit it here) is the openness.

Along the left sidebar it is noted that school board meetings have been recorded and are shown on cable tv. Under the documents link and board link, are found budget summaries for every year going back to 2001, the tentative 2006-07 budget, the Act 93 and collective bargaining agreement, which is the administrators' and teachers' contracts.

Committee meeting minutes are posted in PDF format and include not only the agenda item, but a summary of the discussion. I was also impressed that attendance, non-attendees, and who arrived late was also noted.

Board meeting minutes are posted in PDF format and are fairly comprehensive with resolutions included in full, roll call votes noted by name, and some summary of public comment and discussions.

While I only reviewed the agenda from Nazareth last night and this morning, it would be nice if the district put some more effort into providing substance to the reports it posts on line in the area of board meeting minutes, contracts, and committee meetings or administrator reports which are often noted but not posted.

The more information the district can legally share, the better informed we will all be, not to mention the better off.

What do you think? Should the district provide more detail in its meeting minutes? Should committee reports and administrators reports be available online? What about teachers' and administrator contracts? These are public records that are often available at the office, but should they be put online - or is that too public?