School Board Agenda and Board Chair rule

[Guest James]

Can a borad chair of a school board remove an item from consideration from an agenda based on a lack of information or for further clarification for consideration?  The agenda has been published publicly, however, the agenda has not been offically adopted at a open voting meeting.  Is it in order to remove prior to consideration for approval. 

[Edgar Guest]

See FAQ #14. As always, your rules (and any applicable laws) may vary.

[Guest Bower]

In relationship to this issue, I think, should clarification from the local board on agenda issues take place before the meeting is called to order, or after the meetings is called to order, and prior to approving the agenda?

[Kim Goldsworthy]

On 10/20/2014 at 8:31 AM, Guest James said:

Q1.) Can a board chair of a school board remove an item from consideration from an agenda based on a lack of information or for further clarification for consideration? 

The agenda has been published publicly, however, the agenda has not been officially adopted at a open voting meeting. 

Q2.) Is it in order to remove prior to consideration for approval?

A1.) No individual controls the agenda. The agenda belongs to the body which is meeting. So, in that regard, no chair can unilaterally prevent an item from being entertained, if the body wishes the item to be entertained.

Whatever your "chair" removed is not a binding act of the board, who may agree or disagree with the chair's act of removal, and may even add the item back on. The chair is not a censor.

A2.) Since no agenda is official until adopted, it is unclear about adding/subtracting anything from an agenda, prior to the opening gavel.

***

Just because an agenda was pre-circulated, that does not imply that the body must deliberate on any given item. The body may defer most anything.

If a chair erred and removed an item from a pre-circulated agenda, the body is free to correct the error, and add the item back on.

If you are asking, "Is there anything in Robert's Rules which implies that a chair gets to re-edit an agenda which has already been published to the public?", then the answer is easy. -- "No."

***

I must ask you now:

Q. "From where did this mysterious pre-circulated agenda arrive?

Q. "Who was responsible for ADDING all the items which are so listed?"

If the source was not authentic, then the adding or subtracting of anything is moot.

 

[Richard Brown]

The original question in this two-year-old thread was about a school board. We don't know if it was a public or private school board. If it was a public school board, it is almost certainly subject to open meetings laws. It has been my experience that such public bodies, especially school boards, frequently grant the chairman great latitude in setting the agenda.

Guest Bowler has tacked his question onto this two-year-old thread.

Based on RONR,  the chairman does not have the authority to control the agenda. However, if this is a public school board, controlling laws and rules may well grant him more authority than does RONR.

[Gary Novosielski]

Agreeing with Mr. Brown:

Having served as president on a local public school board (in NJ), I had statutory authority, along with the Superintendent, to set the agenda, which did not need to be approved at the beginning of the meeting.  As a practical matter, since a majority of the business either arose out of committee reports or was routine, standard, and repetitive, a draft of the agenda was compiled by the Board Secretary/Business Administrator, and distributed by packet about four days before the meeting.  Members who had questions about the agenda might contact me or the Superintendent, or the BA with questions, and addenda were sometimes distributed at the meeting, but once the meeting began, the agenda was considered set.

[Guest Bower]

I appreciate the response to my guest Bower question regarding RONR. The responses understandably also went outside the domain of that material. As a matter of information the Agenda Policy reads in closing; " Items of business not on the tentative agenda may be placed on the final agenda adopted for discussion and/or action at the same meeting upon an affirmative vote of the majority of the Board members present. Roberts' Rules of Order shall be used as a general guideline for the conduct of business proceedings of the meeting." The chair of the board and the superintendent have asserted that items can not appear on the agenda once the agenda has been published. They have also asserted veto powers concerning what gets put on the agenda. This contradicts policy. What I was seeking was feedback as to when a board member can address that issue: a) prior to approving the agenda, b ) after approving the agenda, c) not at all because the item is not on the agenda? 

[Joshua Katz]

EIther a or b.  The member can move to amend the agenda prior to its adoption.  Presumably, the chair will rule them out of order, and the member can then appeal.  Alternatively, the member can move to amend the agenda after its adoption, presumably with the same outcome.  The main difference is that the latter requires a higher vote threshold for amending the agenda.