Thank you!
Thank you for reaching out to me as member of the Board of School Directors for the Richland School District. Your concerns are important to me, my colleagues on the Board, and the administrative team.
As noted in the disclaimer, emails to an individual member of the Board of School Directors will be automatically forwarded to all Richland School District Board members and the Superintendent since the law does not convey any power or authority upon individual School Board Directors to act on their own merely by virtue of their election to a school board.
In an attempt to be thorough and concise about our roles, responsibility, the law, and our policies, I am including the following information in my reply.
- The Pennsylvania General Assembly, in compliance with the Constitution of Pennsylvania Article III Section 14, provides school boards the authority to maintain and support a thorough and efficient system of public education. School districts are corporate bodies with the necessary powers to enable them to carry out the provisions of the School Code. See, 24 P.S. §2-211.
- The law, as intended, does not convey any power or authority upon individual School Directors to act on their own merely by virtue of their election to the school board or through committee assignments, if applicable. School Directors only have the authority to govern during a legally advertised and convened public meeting.
- The School Board is the governing authority of the school district, elected by its citizens, which oversees the functioning of the district and takes official action as required by federal and state law, regulations, and local Board policy such as reviewing and adopting the district’s annual budget, levying and assessing local taxes, officially approving the hiring and compensation of personnel, adopting planned instruction and appointing a district Superintendent to serve as the Chief School Administrator to lead and manage the day-to-day operations of the district.
- The Superintendent is a non-voting Board member and serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Board as per the provisions of Sections 508, 1071, and 1073 of the Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949, as amended (24 P.S. § 1-101 et seq.).
- In accordance with long-established Board policy and through a legally binding contract, the Board, individually and collectively, shall promptly refer all criticisms, complaints, and suggestions called to its attention to the Superintendent for study and recommendation. Thus, the reason the Superintendent is included in the emails.
- As Chief Executive Officer of the Board and as Chief School Administrator, it is the Superintendent’s responsibility to lead and manage the district by implementing approved Board decisions that are within their authority and through a majority affirmative vote. As such, the Superintendent or his designee may respond to you to offer advice or provide you with policies and procedures on How to Communicate Questions or Concerns.
I am also including Board Policy 903- Public Participation in a Board Meeting and Board Policy 906 – Public Complaints and the Administrative Regulation – How to Communicate a Question or Concern in my response. This will assist you with the proper procedures, methods, and chain of command to begin resolving your concerns.
There are times when a parent, resident, taxpayer, volunteer, or employee may have a question, concern, complaint, suggestion, or request and is uncertain as to the procedure to follow in contacting the school district. Many questions are easily and completely answered by communicating directly with the educator in charge of the class or program. The single most important thing to remember is when you have a concern, you should always take a moment to think through the process, be proactive, and state the facts and not opinions or feelings. Most importantly, use a “cool down” period before contacting someone in anger. Cooler heads always prevail.
It is the intent of the Board through Board Policy 906, Public Complaint Procedures, that complaints, concerns, and suggestions be addressed and/or resolved at the lowest appropriate level.
Listed below is a Parent and Community Communication Process Flow Chart/Chain of Command that will be of assistance when addressing each situation. Each situation needs to first be addressed at whatever level the initial action was taken with appeals moving on to the next level on the chain of command. While this Flow Chart/Chain of Command Procedure is not all-inclusive to every concern or issue that may come to light, it serves as a guide to carry out the Board’s intent and is not designed to be restrictive or limit appeals if one disagrees with the decision at any one level. Contact information for staff members is available on the district website at www.richlandsd.com
Occasionally, a parent, resident, or taxpayer will contact an individual school board director in an attempt to obtain an answer to their questions or concerns. Upon receiving such a call, the board director notifies the district superintendent as per Board policy. The district superintendent must then call the building principal to inform him or her of the problem or concern. The principal will then research the concern and communicate with the parent. Therefore, it is wise that you first call the teacher, counselor, principal, etc., so that he or she can respond without any undue delay. Under the law, individual Board members have no authority or power to direct staff. The Board of School Directors, as a whole Board, only has authority at a legally advertised and convened public meeting. The Board as a whole directs the school administration to handle matters on their behalf via established policy or a majority vote.