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Schools

New School Board Gets Right to Work

The school board reorganizes itself and holds its first monthly meeting.

The newly elected members, Ledyard Hakes, and , took their oath of office and got right down to business on Thursday night. They elected new officers, modified and approved the board's governing protocols and meeting dates for the coming year, and conducted the first monthly meeting.

Shepherd was re-elected as president of the board. He was nominated by Dawn Ovrom. She nominated him, she said, because of his "stellar ability to lead." Seconded by , the vote was unanimous. Metz then nominated Ovrom for vice president. She was also elected unanimously, as was Kracht, who will serve as clerk.

This will be Shepherd's third term on the board. He was first elected in 1998. He left the board in 2002, but ran again in 2006 and was re-elected.

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After electing its officers, Shepherd asked the board to consider protocol changes that would allow more public participation by starting the meetings earlier and limiting the time spent discussing issues.

"Long meetings inhibit public participation," he said. He suggested beginning meetings at 4:30 p.m. and limiting questions to three minutes and comments to two minutes, allowing that there would occasions when a board member would need more time. He stressed that the time limits were guidelines and said there would be an "opportunity to ask for adjustments."

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As to the content of what is said, he pointed to a need to stay focused and not to waste time. "We have a duty to not repeat each others comments," he said. "If a comment has already been made, you can pass or simply say that you agree with the previous comment."

Warming to this time wise approach, Superintendent Jeffery Felix said he would "work with staff to shorten their presentations and ask them to adjust their reports to three minutes" as well. The meeting ended on time—save a few minutes, give or take.

During the regular board meeting that followed, Shepherd noted when the meeting was ahead of schedule and when it had fallen behind. It ran about 15 minutes longer than scheduled.

The board listened to a number of reports, including a strategic plan from , which heralded a radical shift in the district's approach to high school education. It was presented by Palm's principal and principal Karl Mueller, who crafted the plan after attending a technology seminar in Arizona.

Still in its infancy, the plan calls for merging the two schools together and taking advantage of virtual education afforded by the Internet.

"Right now we have two boxes—Palm and CHS," Nicolls explained. Not all students fall into either box. For example, "a student at Palm might benefit from taking an advanced physics class at Coronado High School, while a student at CHS might enjoy taking a culinary arts class at Palm," he said. "Right now they can't."

Under the current structure, students may only attend one school or the other. Nicolls and Mueller hope to change that. The full details of the plan will be worked out and discussed at a strategic planning meeting set for January.

The board's response verged on the ecstatic. "This is what public education should be," Ovrom said. "I couldn't be happier with this. You have 125 percent of my support."

Also at the meeting Felix announced he had brokered a deal with the San Diego County Board of Education to house the district's data on the county's computers. Felix said he hoped it would serve as a model for other small districts. By moving the data to the county servers, the district will "save thousands of dollars," Felix said.

Stressing the district's commitment to fiscal responsibility, Felix reminded everyone that district offices would be closed over the holidays and that all staff, including himself, would be furloughed. "No one will be here to answer the phones," he said

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