By Michelle McKenna
Staff Writer
An open session Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees workshop was held on Wednesday, May 9, to discuss school board policies and plan for the May 30 workshop.
The workshop was primarily focused on discussing and planning how to address Board Policies and Administrative Regulations 6141 and 6141.5, which state the responsibilities of the school board in terms of curriculum development and evaluation, and advanced placement prerequisites. In addition to observers from the community, the entire MBUSD Board of Trustees was present and will attend the May 30 workshop.
“Basically, we planned for the additional board workshop on the 30th because at the moment it includes as many as 6 or 7 different areas of discussion and frankly it’s too much,” MBUSD Board of Trustees President Ellen Rosenberg said. “We need to kind of scope down what we want to discuss and who would be valuable to have in that discussion.”
The primary concern that will be discussed in the May 30 workshop is in regards to Board Policy 6141.5, specifically its focus on prerequisites for AP classes.
“Questions arose out of our advanced placement classes and our honors classes because of some of the waivers and prerequisites that are sometimes required for those,” Rosenberg said. “Then it kind of expanded into a bigger topic about the prerequisites and the past ways we dealt with AP and honors classes.”
Like all school boards, the Board of Trustees is subject to the Brown Act, which means all members must have a public discussion to evaluate any topic relating to the school district. Workshops such as the May 9 one and the one planned for the end of the month provide the Board with the chance for discussion.
“When we’re at a point in a topic but we’re not really ready to make a decision, we have workshops like this because they allow for us to work as a group and talk through a topic and decide what we need in order to proceed,” Rosenberg said.
A board workshop is similar to a regular, scheduled board meeting. However, there are no votes taken; therefore, no decisions are made. Workshops are held when the board wants to have a dialogue and input on a topic or a number of topics. These can be more interactive than a regular board meeting because there is also a dialogue with the public.
“I look forward to a good positive meeting,” Superintendent Michael Matthews said. “It was a good workshop that we had planning it and there will be some interesting discussions as we move forward.”
It remains to be seen how the May 9 discussion will affect Mira Costa because the board is still currently in the information-gathering and discussion portion of their decision-making timeline. The effects may be more clear following the next workshop.
“I hope that we can gather even more data for the following workshop and be able to take a look at how we can make our already fantastic programs even better,” Executive Director of Educational Services Carolyn Seaton said. “If it’s appropriate and after we talk to staff and really look at the data, there might be ways that we can help even more students be prepared to be successful in honors and AP classes so I think that would be great to make those available to even more students. But, again, we want to make sure that kids are able to be successful, so I think that’s what we’re looking for; ‘can we make these classes to even more students but ensure that they’ll be successful?’”
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