Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for December 24, 2005 PALATINE SCHOOL DISTRICT

A wide open district!

From the Palatine Daily Herald...

Dist. 15 public documents can be seen online

http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=135603

By Nadia Malik
Daily Herald Staff Writer

Everything from the teacher salary schedule to lunch menus to a full account of the budget can now be found on Palatine Township Elementary District 15's Web site.

Ever since a discussion in October about disclosing more public information on the Web, the district has been working to rearrange its site.

"Anything that anybody could want to know on the district is up there," school board President Scott Boucher said.

That includes negotiated agreements with the three unions the district works with, under the new "documents" tab on the home page, and information on improvement plans for each of the district's 20 schools.

Much of the material has also been cross-referenced at various places on the Web site.

The same information has also been distributed to the Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Barrington libraries.

At the October board meeting, there was a dispute about whether the items should be put online, but board members eventually agreed the documents are worthy public information.

Although district officials can't monitor who is looking at the materials, as they could when interested residents had to file a Freedom of Information request, Boucher said they still have the capability to track how many people view a certain section.

"It's just so we know, so we can get a better feel for what people are looking at and if we need to make modifications," Boucher said.

The district's Web site, www.ccsd15.net, will also soon start including the complete packet board members receive before their meetings.

The modifications are all small steps the board has been taking this past year to change the way it does some of its business.

School board meetings are now videotaped and aired on public access channels in three towns.

The tapes are played at 5 p.m. Saturdays and 7 p.m. Thursdays in Palatine, 3 p.m. Mondays in Rolling Meadows and 8 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays in Hoffman Estates.

"It'll be interesting if we can see what kind of traffic we have and how many people actually sit and watch (the board meetings)," Boucher said.

The board also recently decided to have two meetings a month, with one slated for just discussion items.

"We've decided that there's a lot of issues out there right now," Boucher said. "To get a full airing of the issues, the best way to do that is to break this into two meetings."

The first meeting of the month will be mostly votes on issues and recognition of awards.

"The other meeting will have no action taken whatsoever," Boucher said. "Those meetings will strictly be discussion."

Boucher said the board still has to decide what format the discussion sessions will take and if residents will have to follow the same rules in the public comments section. As it stands now, residents can talk for only three minutes each, and the board holds a policy of not engaging in direct discussion with commentators.

"It's a new idea for us," Boucher said. "We've always had formal meetings, so it'll be interesting to see how this will work."