Wayne County Board of Education changes its meeting dates
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on February 12, 2018 10:01 AM
Wayne County Board of Education meetings will now take place later in the month, after the board voted to change their meeting dates and do away with monthly work sessions.
Board meetings will now take place on the fourth Monday of each month, instead of the first Monday.
The change was made to keep the board meetings from conflicting with Goldsboro City Council meetings, so that people who want to speak at both did not have to choose or leave one meeting early.
The board also voted to eliminate its monthly work sessions, in lieu of relying on committee meetings.
The change was made after Richard Schwartz, board attorney, suggested the board streamline their meeting structure to avoid redundancy at a meeting in January. The board established its work sessions last year, but continued with its committee meetings, meaning that ---- including the monthly board meetings ---- the same topics were often covered three times.
Board members Richard Pridgen said that doing away with work sessions would free up district leadership to do their jobs.
"I feel like we're doing an injustice to the schools by occupying our staff down here, their time," he said. "We can accomplish it in committee meetings, we can accomplish the same thing and do it in a shorter amount of time."
To avoid a nearly-two month gap between meetings, the board decided to begin the new schedule in February.
Therefore, the next board meeting will take place Feb. 26, followed by meetings on March 26, April 23, May 29 and June 25.
The May meeting was pushed back to account for Labor Day.
The board meets at 3 p.m. for closed session, with open session beginning around 5 p.m.
Board meetings include a section for public comment. Anyone who wishes to speak to the board must complete an appearance request form and submit it by 5 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Forms are available to the public before the start of the meeting.