Running Header: School Board Assignment

An Interesting Night with Some Trustees

Madison Smith
College of Southern Nevada EDU 210-1001
December 6, 2014

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Initially I was not looking forward to watching a board meeting for most of the semester,
mainly because I knew how long they could be (I had to go to one with my dad, who is a teacher,
once when I was little) and how boring it could be. However, it was actually quite interesting,
although it was still difficult to watch all four hours, even at different times. The topics were
pretty interesting to listen to, there was some drama during the public comment period, and of
course there were still some boring times.
When the board meeting started they opened up with student reports, about the schools
achievements, given by student body presidents of various high schools. During this time was the
start of many periods of when the microphone stopped working so, there was times I had no idea
what was going on, but it stopped after a while and never lasted too long. Anyways, students
talked about changing the time of school and overcrowding of schools. I was excited to see
Super Intendant Skorkowsky, which was my very first principal! He talked about how they are
trying to increase achievement in the student male body of color. It was then opened to public
comment, where all of the madness began. People were not following the rules that one of the
trustees had given, not even a minute before, someone came and broke them. That was resolved
and it went on with no problems. They voted on more funding for a scholarship and the changing
of the name of a school (which was not even a big change). They had a few more votes on
subjects, they had the trustees monthly debriefing, they had one final public comment, and they
ended the school board meeting.
During the board meeting they asked to leave out names, so I will just act as if I am in the
board meeting, and will also leave out names of schools and people.

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Relating topics to what I have learned this past semester starts with the first women in the
public comment period, where all the drama started. She started stating her comments and was
using specific names, which was against the rules. They confronted her and while they figured
out if she could continue, they asked her to let someone else go, and before she did she said, I
feel that you guys are infringing on my rights, which the First Amendment and freedom of
expression were two big topic throughout this whole semester. In most, if not all, of my essays I
had to argue whether a person was with in or out of the bounds of their first amendment right. I
actually got to see this put into action, someone feeling that they were not getting to express that
right.
The next topic was the same women her second time around where she actually gets to
her comments, without using certain names. She then described that employees who were being
investigated were treated differently if they were colored than to whites. She said that the colored
people were being convicted without evidence; whites got off Scott free, while they are guilty.
This is covered mostly under chapter ten in the text book. Specifically with the Fourteenth
Amendment, everyone shall be treated equally under the protection of the law (Webb, 2006). She
was a Hispanic lady and she was not the one under investigation, but she obviously felt the need
to make this known to the board.
The third topic in the school board meeting that relates back to what I have learned this
semester is that there was an elementary school being investigated based on an irregularity of a
proficiency exam and due to that they lost their grant. Which, is all the way back to chapter one,
Schools that fail to make AYP, termed schools in need of improvement, and are subject to
increasingly serious consequences (Webb, School Law For Teachers , 2006). This school did

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face serious consequences such as losing that grant and being labeled as cheaters in the publics
eyes.
The final topic from the text book that showed up in the board meeting had to do with the
school stated in the last paragraph, but it was during the public comments. Many people were
talking about religion, praying, and saying that the church should be able to help with reading
and English. I honestly thought they got a little off topic, but also it is against the law to have
religion in the schools. This came up in the last portfolio, the women would not celebrate any
holidays in school because of her religion. It is also outlined in chapter 11, however since this
technically was not in school I am not one-hundred percent sure if this is allowed or not. For
instance in chapter 11 it talks about how there is a fine line between breaking that rule or not.
Watching this was definitely more interesting than expected. Sometimes it did not feel
like three hours went by some times I could not make it through fifteen minutes. While it was
interesting, I do not think I will willingly watch another one.

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References
Webb, J. U. (2006). School Law For Teachers. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.
Webb, J. U. (2006). School Law For Teachers . Upper Saddle River : Pearson Education, Inc. .