Welcome to The Winnetka Public Schools! Here in the School Board section of the site you can find dates, agendas, and minutes of all Board public meetings, information on building projects, bios of all current Board members, and Board policies. We welcome ideas about how we can improve this site.

At each public School Board meeting there is a time for public comment. At times, questions are asked that cannot be answered immediately. Below you will find the follow-up responses to questions that could not be answered during the meetings. For a full list of public comments and questions, please refer to the posted Board minutes for each meeting.

Sincerely,

Nancy Fehrenbach
Board President

Public Comment Questions and Answers

October 27, 2009

Public Comment: More interaction with the Board is needed, not just during the Public Comment portion of the Board meetings. Perhaps a Public Comment portion could be added at the beginning of Board meetings.
Response: We appreciate the suggestion. We have added a 20 minute public comment section to the beginning of our regular board meeting. This will be in addition to the public comment section at the end of the business section. We hope this will balance the need to hear from the public with the need to attend to the business of the Board.

Public Comment: Legality of last Sunday’s Board meeting (10/25/09), which seemed to be a “last minute” decision to hold this meeting.
Response: Board meetings may be held on two days notice and in emergencies they may be held sooner. The meeting on 10/25/09 held to all regular standards of posting and holding a meeting.

Public Comment: The Board may want to reconsider the dissemination of survey data and release all of it instead of holding back the information.
Response: The community survey data was presented at the 10/19/09 presentation and is now posted on the district’s website. In addition, each school presented information particular to its school during the week of 11/16/09. Podcasts of these presentations are available on the district website.

Public Comment: Technology advances – other Districts provide additional information such as student attendance. Perhaps the Board could consider this practice.
Response: As Dr. Herrmann considers ways to improve communication between the schools and parents, technology advances such as those used in other districts will be considered.

November 17, 2009

All questions were answered during the board meeting.