A board meeting is a meeting that is held to help make decisions for an organization. The decisions are made by a committee of people who discuss issues and try to decide the best possible solutions. At a board meeting, members of the community can go and voice their opinions on the subjects to help the board make the right decision.
William S. Hart District has its own board that has five members that serve a four- year term. The current members are Bob Jensen, Joe Messina, Cherise Moore, Linda Storli, and Erin Wilson. These members discuss topics such as, educational goals and standards; curriculum; policy; district budget; appointment of personnel; and purchases of equipment, supplies, services, leases, renovation, construction, and union contracts. The last board meeting was on March 13th, 2024. Some topics discussed in the meeting included the teacher’s demand for higher pay, and whether or not to change the Hart High mascot, which are now the Hawks.
The decisions made during these meetings are very important, and heavily affect Rio and many other William S. Hart schools. It is important that if students or teachers have an opinion on something that is going to be discussed at one of these meetings, they go and voice their opinion by speaking up during a meeting. If not enough people do this, the entire district might be stuck with an unfavorable outcome. If a student doesn’t want to do this, they could, or ask their parents to, write an email to the board stating their opinion on the subject being discussed.
When interviewed on the topic, 7th grade English teacher Ms. Cabrera, who went to the last meeting, had this to say, “I think knowing the information from these meetings is important for students and adults. It can be hard to understand them sometimes, but you should still try to be an active part of the community by watching them on Youtube. It’s important that teachers have a say in what goes on because they are trained professionals. Students should too, but it should be more choice driven. These decisions do affect students here. I mean, when the board and the teacher’s union couldn’t come to a fair deal, we closed our doors at brunch and lunch, which keeps students who need it from getting extra help. There’s many states that don’t even have these meetings. The teachers have to just turn in their lesson plans at the beginning of the year which is a very unrealistic expectation. It’s utter chaos. I try to be involved in the community by being part of the Meaningful Monday Group and helping to pick the standards for the English department. In order to stick together as a community everyone has to contribute.”