YOUT350-D01
Campus Ministry
School Board Meeting Reaction Paper
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Submitted to Dr. Steve Vandergriff
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
I attended the local school board meeting on April the 8th 2019. The agenda from that
meeting has been copied and pasted to the end of this report. I chose this date because this is our
last regularly scheduled meeting before the called meeting immediately before graduation to
certify all diplomas. I attend all of the school board meetings in Whitney, because I am an elected
trustee to the board and have been for four years now. I ran for the position shortly after retiring
from the Marine Corps and becoming heavily involved in Youth Ministries.
As per the usual, the meeting starts with all of the standard items following the call to
order and only gets to be anything unrehearsed beginning with “presentations.” Every month our
district recognizes a special employee who made an impact. They are always recommended by
the administrator on that campus. This time it was the middle school nurse who was recognized
for her compassion and caring and willingness to go above and beyond her prescribed role. The
Audience Participation portion can be intense at times because this is when grievances are
brought to the board via individuals in the audience. However, most of the time it goes like it did
at this meeting and no one was there in attendance beyond the board and administrators, so no
comments were made.
All of the action items are distributed via email as early as possible before the meeting to
the board. Often, we get them two weeks in advance along with an explanation of the pro’s and
con’s behind each decision. Because of this preparation the votes go fairly quickly, except for the
property bids which have to be kept in sealed envelopes and read aloud at the time of the
meeting. Our board has an agreement that any bid that meets the minimum of covering the back-
tax rolls, plus our legal fees will generally be accepted. This only benefits the community in
getting those funds back on the rolls for the future.
Many of the items like announcing the boards continuing education hours are just state
mandated action items. The administrators report is where all the real information comes out.
Each campus gives a report as well as facilities, IT, athletics and curriculum. This was certainly
the most information filled part of the meeting and because it’s a small-town environment,
questions about items in the reports are addressed from the board and answered in a informal low
key manner. Additionally, this is where you get a snapshot of things that are going on that will
affect campus ministries. You certainly wouldn’t want to try to schedule something, even a
campus visits if you knew testing or safety drill were to be going on. The superintendents report
wraps up the publicly open par of the meeting with mainly financial and legislative issues that
the board needs to be aware of.
Lastly, during closed session we discuss all of the personnel issues. Often there is lots of
talk about who is quitting and the superintendent briefs the board on the new hires. Because
these teachers’ names float around the mouths of my own kids as well as the kids in my youth
group, I am generally well aware of who they are and often exactly why it is they are getting non
renewed. Some of the names concern me because I have seen them in the congregation and hope
that they are moving on to bigger and better things. I also try to make myself available for letters
of recommendation for those who are moving on.
Most of these items although they affect the students somewhere down the line but they
don’t directly involve or affect students. In general, I could see as an outsider looking in why
most people don’t come to school board meetings. It is not an exciting process but it is definitely
an informative one. Attending at least a few meetings a year as someone involved in youth
ministry could serve well to help schedule and to gain report with the administrators at each
campus. Additionally, if problems with student ministries you are involved with, specific
campus’ or even specific individuals come up you can see exactly what it is the board and those
administrators involved are talking about. Because the meeting is recorded and on public record
you can always review the minutes of meetings after the fact, but the payoff of attending an hour
or two once a month makes it more than worth the time to attend.
WHITNEY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
REGULAR MEETING
APRIL 8, 2019
6:00 PM
TO THE BOARD MEMBER ADDRESSED AND THE MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC:
There will be a Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees on Monday, April 8, 2019 in the
Whitney ISD Administration Board Room.
AGENDA
1. Call to order, Pledge of Allegiance, Opening Prayer, Welcome and Recognition of Visitors.
2. Roll Call, Establish Quorum
3. Acceptance of Agenda
4. Approval of Minutes
5. Presentations: A. Staff Member of the Month
6. Audience Participation
7. Action Items.
A. Consider and take possible action to approve Agreement with Whitney Police
Dept for Canine Services.
B. Consider and take possible action to approve Appraisal Calendar for the 2019-
20 school year.
C. Consider and take possible action to approve Property Bids.
D. Consider and take possible action to approve budget amendment.
E. Consider and take possible action to approve TREC (Technology Resources
Education Consortium)
F. Consider and take possible action to approve the second (2) two-term
Depository Contract Agreement.
8. Information Items:
A. Announce Board Continuing Education Hours
B. Administrator Reports
9. Superintendent's Report:
A. Financial Statement
B. Payment of bills
C. Tax Report
D. Enrollment 1446
E. Resignations/Retire: Jennifer Hardgrave, Magan Jones, Sunshine Johnson,
Trish Overton, Angie Rateike, Lindsey Lyles, Kati Tibbits, John Ondrej and Wayne
Redding
F. Legislative Update
G. Correspondence
12. ADJOURN
10. Closed Session: The Board of Trustees will convene in Closed Session pursuant to Texas
Government Code, Chapter 551 as amended, in accordance with the following sub section(s) :
551.074 and 551.076
A. Deliberation of personnel or personnel matters.
1. Hire Personnel
2. Support Personnel
11. Action Items/Open Session
A. Consider and take possible action to approve personnel or personnel matters.
1. Consider and take possible action to hire personnel.
2. Consider and take possible action to approve Support Personnel.
