News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Alpena Public Schools Board Member Anna Meinhardt, Secretary Summer Seigler, Superintendent Dave Rabbideau, Board President Eric Lawson, and Board member Monica Dziesinski, discussed new board member orientation at an ad hoc committee meeting on Monday morning.

ALPENA — An Alpena Public Schools Board of Education ad hoc committee met Monday morning to discuss changes to new board member orientation to get an early start on it before the November 2026 election where four seats will be up for re-election.

The committee members include board members Anna Meinhardt and Monica Dziesinski, and Board President Eric Lawson.

Superintendent Dave Rabbideau read board bylaw 142.7 which states that “the board believes that the preparation of each board member for the performance of board duties is essential to the effective functioning of the board.”

The current process for new members of the APS board of education includes giving them a packet with a checklist of tasks that need to be completed, access to the board policy manual through the Neola website, a copy of the current negotiated agreements, the current budget statement, and most recent audit report.

Dziesinski read a list of items that she thought should be added to the orientation process, like providing a Chromebook for new board members.

Other suggestions she had included receiving the last two or three months worth of superintendent updates, sitting down with Superintendent for Business and Operations Mary Lyon to discuss the budget, and a 30-90 day check-in/follow up.

Meinhardt suggested cleaning up the language of bylaw 142.7, to which Dziesinski added that it needs to be clarified that the negotiated agreements refers to union contracts, since that term could be used for other kinds of agreements.

Rabbideau proposed that there should be an official board orientation meeting where new board members go through the whole checklist and make sure they can check everything off. He also added that the check list should be categorized to highlight the important items over housekeeping items, like obtaining an APS name badge.

Lawson said that new board members should have access to Robert’s Rules or Order so they can get a sense of board governance and suggested having a copy available to “check out” like at a library.

Meinhardt said that the board of education page on the APS website needs to be updated so it is easier to find and access. She used the Traverse City Area Public Schools board of education page as a point of reference.

The committee will plan to meet again in January or February to solidify changes.