Editor:
Our Laguna Beach School noard members and Superintendent Sherine Smith state that parents should attend school board meetings if they want to get up to speed.
Unfortunately, these meetings are held at 6 p.m., which is probably the most difficult hour to attend, as parents are coming home from work, trying to get dinner on the table, and jockeying homework supervision.
Parents have continuously asked that the agenda for the school board meetings be posted online, but are told to drive to the school district office and look for a paper that is posted on a wall. Really? In this day and age of click and point?
Check out other school districts. Their agenda’s are posted online 72 hours in advance.
Parents have also asked that the school board tape, broadcast or podcast their meetings so that both students and parents can watch the proceedings together. Some school districts even air their meetings on YouTube. What a wonderful opportunity for one of our high school’s students to earn extra credit and at no cost to the school district.
After years of requesting this, the Laguna Beach school board finally, this month, has put the words “pod cast” on their website. But when you click on that, there is nothing.
The last posted minutes of the school board meetings are from November of 2012. Since then there have been three meetings, but nothing is available for parents or students to view.
If our school board members are asking for parents to participate, then why are they not participating themselves?
No wonder parents are questioning our school board’s lack of openness.
Dan Keely, Laguna Beach
