The District 59 Board of Education welcomes attendance by members of the public and the school staff at its meetings. A school board meeting serves several purposes: 1) an official meeting is the only means by which a board can carry out its legal duties or exercise its legal powers. Therefore, the primary purpose of a school board meeting is to transact business; 2) Board meetings also provide opportunities for creative and constructive decision-making by members of a board while attempting to reach consensus on selected topics; and 3) Board meetings offer an opportunity for the public and school staff to establish a formal dialogue with the Board of Education as board members conduct their agenda of school related topics.
School Board Meetings
Regular Board Meetings begin at 7:00 p.m. Meetings are held in the Boardroom of the Board of Education/Administration Center located at 2123 South Arlington Heights Road, Arlington Heights, Illinois 60005.
All meetings are held on a Monday unless otherwise stated. Agendas and Minutes are provided as PDF (Portable Document Format) files, which can be viewed or printed using your Web browser and Adobe's Acrobat Reader software. Macintosh and Windows versions of Acrobat Reader may be downloaded free of charge from Adobe.
The prepared agenda for a school board meeting generally proceeds as follows:
1.0 CALL TO ORDER
2.0 ROLL CALL
3.0 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
4.0 COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE
5.0 CONSENT AGENDA
6.0 SPECIAL INTEREST TOPIC
7.0 ACTION ITEMS
8.0 DISCUSSION ITEMS
9.0 NEW/OLD BUSINESS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
10.0 REPORTS TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
11.0 CLOSED SESSION
12.0 RECONVENE
13.0 ADJOURNMENT
Minutes of board meetings are recorded by the Recording Secretary.
Formal action on all items under consideration by the Board of Education must be approved during Open Session. Formal action on agenda items demands that a quorum (at least four members) be present. The President of the Board of Education is entitled to cast a motion and to vote on all issues.
All regular and special meetings are open to the public. Prior to each meeting, a board agenda is delivered to each board member, administrator, building, and members of the press (those requesting a copy). With appropriate notice and reason, a Closed Session may be called to allow the Board of Education to consider matters enumerated by the Illinois Open Meetings Act.
Citizen Involvement at School Board Meeting
Citizens are encouraged to participate in school district affairs, and a special portion of the board agenda is set aside to listen to community members. This segment of the meeting is normally scheduled within the agenda and the President of the Board will ask for citizen presentations at the proper time. When addressing the board, a community member is requested to identify him/herself by name and address. If an individual represents a group, then the group should also be identified. The Board of Education normally provides five minutes for each speaker, but will allow for a longer presentation with advance notice to the Superintendent. Such presentations may then become a formal part of the meeting agenda. Although the Board encourages citizen presentations, it must also be understood that the Board may or may not comment or take action immediately on requests. Inquiries are directed to the Superintendent who will investigate the matter and report as quickly as possible to the citizen and to the Board of Education. If action is called for, the matter will usually be placed on the agenda for a future regular meeting of the Board of Education. Agendas and minutes of previous meetings are provided for each meeting and located on the district's Home Page. The minutes represent official actions taken by the Board, but do not include verbatim transcripts of conversations and discussions from each meeting.
