News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Board members AJ MacArthur, Sarah Costain, and Monica Dziesinski are pictured in discussion at the Alpena Public Schools board workshop meeting on Monday.

ALPENA — The Alpena Public Schools board of education is working to streamline meetings, with one idea being to offer one public comment period rather than two.

The APS board of education met Monday night for their workshop meeting, discussing a couple of board bylaws.

Policy 0167.3 Public Comment was on the agenda. Board President Eric Lawson suggested eliminating portion E from that policy.

Portion E reads as follows: “During the portion of the meeting designated for public participation, no participant may speak more than once on the same topic unless all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard.”

Lawson and Superintendent Dave Rabbideau met with a Michigan Association of School Boards representative to discuss the matter. That representative said that the board is under no obligation to offer people multiple opportunities to speak.

“Everybody gets their three minutes and that’s it,” Lawson said. “That would also eliminate maybe some of the grandstanding and retorts that just go on for a long time. Which is not really often that interesting to the board, it’s just people working their things out amongst each other.”

The policy change will be on the agenda at the next meeting for a second reading.

The board also discussed Policy 0166 Agenda. Board Member Sarah Fritz expressed concern that the part of the policy stating that individual Board members may submit items for the agenda no later than seven calendar days prior to the monthly workshop meeting to be included upon the concurrence of the Board President was not being adhered to. Fritz was surprised by an added agenda item at a recent meeting and wants to be prepared for the topics of discussion at each meeting.

Further discussion about adding a section to the policy where a majority vote of the board can add an item to the agenda followed.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

*Rabbideau summarized the EmpowerED Fall Conference professional development day that school staff from across the Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District participated in last Monday.

*Briefly discussed club handbook approval for two new clubs at the high school, Environmentalist Club , and Family Career and Community Leaders of America.

*The level of membership in the Alpena Chamber of Commerce that APS has was discussed by the board.

*Policy 7544 Use of Social Media was discussed briefly.

*Board member Monica Dziesinski volunteered to participate in the board orientation work group to help create an orientation process for new board members. Board member Anna Meinhardt will be asked to be a part of that work group, although she was not present at Monday night’s meeting.

*The pay and retention of Instructional Assistants was discussed. Human Resources Director Michele Vilas said that she is working on improving the orientation process for new hires, making sure there are regular check-ins early on, and establishing a mentorship system.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.