BoE FAQs

The school board consists of lay representatives – people who live in the community and are elected by both Killingworth and Haddam respectively. They’re your neighbors: parents, grandparents, local business owners, retirees – ordinary citizens. They are non-partisan and they receive no pay or benefits for their public service. Each member of the board serves a four year term. Every two years, a number of seats are up for election. 

The school board has a dual role: To represent the concerns of the citizens, taxpayers and parents to the school administrators, and to represent the needs of the students and school district to the citizens, taxpayers and parents of the community. The school board does not operate the district on a day-to-day basis; that is the job of the superintendent, who is the district’s chief executive. Rather, the school board sets the policies, goals and objectives for the district – and it holds the superintendent responsible for implementing the policies and achieving the goals. 

We recommend working up the chain of command. For instance, if a parent has a question or issue the parent should first address it with the teacher and, if the issue is not resolved, the parent should turn to the principal or supervisor, and then the superintendent.The school board should be the “court of last resort.” Many times citizens can get answers to their questions simply by calling the appropriate person in the school district (i.e., principal, school board secretary or superintendent). However, if needed, you can contact the Board of Education by sending an email to boe@rsd17.org.

Although not required, many boards do allow a public comment period at board meetings. Boards are allowed to establish reasonable restrictions on the time, place and manner of public comment. For instance, school boards typically set guidelines on the length of an individual’s comment (e.g., a certain amount of time per person), so no one person dominates the meeting. There is no required format for public comment; some boards have one public-comment period in the middle of the meeting, some have two public-comment sessions during a board meeting.

Comments from citizens generally go through the chair at the board meeting, usually the board president. Boards use the public comment period as an opportunity to listen to citizen concerns, but not to debate issues or enter into a question-and-answer session or a “cross examination” between the public and individual members. Be aware that rarely issues brought before a board meeting will be resolved that evening or at the board level; boards may respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or his/her designee. While public education can be an emotional issue, and understandably so, the board will strive to maintain a certain level of decorum at the meeting. Many meetings are recorded or televised, and students often attend or participate in the meetings. As such, citizens are expected to maintain a tone of courtesy and civility.

A local school board’s parliamentary procedure is a matter of local policy. Most boards follow Roberts Rules of Order, which describes how meetings are run, how motions and votes are taken and other procedures. The school board’s clerk can inform citizens on rules of order and other issues of board policy.

Connecticut Open Meetings Law (also known as the Sunshine Law) specifies nine areas that are to be discussed in “executive” or closed-door sessions. Among the most common are privacy issues (including employee privacy as well as matters dealing with individual students and student discipline); anticipated litigation and issues involving attorney-client privilege; negotiations with labor unions and negotiating strategy; matters involving the purchase of property; and any issues dealing with security that could undermine safety if made public. Sometimes, citizens will want to know why a school board took a vote regarding a particular staff member (e.g., not re-hiring a teacher or principal). However, anything discussed in executive session is confidential and cannot be spoke about in public. However, any votes made by the board must be made in public.

School boards must publicly post an annual notice describing the date and location of meeting. All meetings must have an agenda. The agenda must reasonably reflect the matters to be discussed. However, a member can ask for an additional issue to be added to the agenda. This request will then be voted on and must receive two/thirds of the votes to be included in the agenda. Additionally, a “special meeting” for a specific purpose can be announced. However, the agenda cannot be modified during the meeting.

School boards sometimes have a “workshop” meeting where they discuss issues in greater detail, but don’t vote on the issues. In addition, boards may utilize a committee structure, where certain members of the board, often working with the superintendent or key administrators, study a specific issue and make recommendations to the full board for a vote. By the time the board has a regular “agenda” or “business” meeting where it votes on issues, the agenda items have usually been vetted or studied already. 

Statutes are the laws that are enacted by legislators in Hartford. Usually the law will contain broad language on an issue, and it will authorize the appropriate state agency to write regulations, also called “administrative code,” that detail how the law will be carried out. Local public schools must adhere to state statute and regulations. There are many aspects of school management that the state does not manage. Those are covered by the local school board’s policies, which are the school board’s rules and guidelines that detail how the district will operate. Policies address many issues ranging from student discipline and dress codes to whether the district will rent the gym to community groups after school hours. The state generally does not delve into the oversight of local board policies unless there is a specific law requiring boards to have policies on an issue (such as school bullying), or if the local board’s policies are found to be arbitrary or capricious, or have otherwise run afoul of state laws and regulations.