Some ideas for Bangor School Committee

The contentious debate about the recent Bangor School Committee election is indicative, we believe, of deeper pent-up frustration with the general modus operandi of this committee.

We would like to move beyond recrimination and offer some constructive suggestions that, if adopted, might go a long way toward restoring public confidence and giving the public a more complete and accurate picture of the quality of our schools.

Contact information: The city of Bangor Web site lists each member of the City Council by name with a color photo, a brief biographical sketch, the year of term expiration, an e-mail address and a phone number. The School Committee, which is, like the council, an elected body, should do likewise. A statement along the lines of “Please contact one or more members of the School Committee with your questions, comments, or concerns” should be included. At present, the only online information about the School Committee is a list of the names of its members.

Web site, agenda reports: The agenda of each meeting should be posted on the school department Web site at least 72 hours before each meeting. The agenda should include a brief synopsis of each agenda item. (At the last meeting the agenda had not been posted at noon on the day of the meeting.) All reports given to the board members before the meeting should also be posted accordingly.

Public comment: At present, the School Committee reserves a few minutes at the beginning of its meetings for public comment. The City Council, on the other hand, solicits public comment on each agenda item (other than routine housekeeping matters) as it is being considered. The School Committee, which oversees a $38 million budget funded by tax monies, should do likewise.

Consent agenda: The school board should adopt the use of a consent agenda similar to that of our City Council. Based on the discussion of parliamentary procedure that took place in a recent council meeting, our city attorney may be a good source of information on how to expedite school board meetings by using Roberts Rules of Order. (At a recent meeting, the committee actually took a vote to formally notify the state Department of Education that Bangor indeed has a superintendent of schools.)

Conduct of meetings: The preceding suggestions would allow the elimination of lengthy monologues and reading aloud of reports, thereby holding meetings to a reasonable length. This would permit discussion of important, sometimes controversial, topics by members of the committee with input from members of the public. The superintendent and staff should be there to answer questions on or to provide executive summaries of reports and clarify points when asked to do so by a member of the committee or the public.

Use of statistics: Comparisons of the Bangor schools, school system, or quality of schools should be expanded. Reports should include information on comparisons to national and state averages. They should also include comparisons to school systems with similar social and economic demographics such as spending per student, median income, median education level of the population, etc.

Staff attendance: A representative from the Bangor High School Student Council and the president of the teachers’ union should be invited to attend meetings and sit at the table as ex-officio (non-voting) members of the committee. Principals and other administrators should not be required to attend unless an agenda item applies to them. Elementary and secondary teachers should be encouraged to attend School Committee meetings.

Perhaps each of the several schools in the city should choose a representative to attend the meetings.

The success of this last recommendation is contingent upon adoption of the other recommendations above, which we feel would make the meetings worth attending.

At present, teachers, staff and the public are voting with their feet by staying away.

We realize that we are proposing some substantial changes in the way the Bangor School Committee has conducted business in the past.

We believe it’s time for a change.

Nick Bearce and Phil Locke live in Bangor.