Policy 5.012

Advisory Boundary Committee

1. Purpose.-- The Board recognizes the importance of community input into the attendance boundary process and values the comments of communities potentially impacted by attendance boundary adjustments. The Advisory Boundary Committee ("ABC") is a citizens advisory committee established to assist District staff in working with the community to develop recommendations for establishment or adjustments to attendance boundaries that accommodate the opening of new schools, to ensure optimal facility utilization, and/or to accommodate space needs for program changes.

2. Function.--The ABC is an advisory committee reporting to the Superintendent, and its meetings are subject to Florida's Sunshine Law. The ABC utilizes the attendance-zone criteria in Policy 5.01(1) & (2), "Student Assignment," in making boundary recommendations to the Superintendent, who in turn makes final recommendations to the School Board under Policy 5.01(4). The Board has final authority in the establishment of boundaries.

3. Membership Composition and Duration.

   1. The ABC shall be comprised of nineteen (19) voting members appointed as follows:

      1. seven (7) by the School Board (one (1) by each member of the Board);

      2. three (3) by the Superintendent;

      3. one (1) by the County Council of PTAs;

      4. two (2) by the NAACP;

      5. Among the members, at least one (1) member should represent the Haitian Citizen's United Task Force, Inc. and two (2) by the Hispanic Council;

      6. one (1) by the District's ESE Task Force; and

      7. two (2) by the Palm Beach County League of Cities.

   2. Except as provided in subsections (6)(a) or (b) below, members are appointed to serve throughout a period of time in which attendance zone changes are considered, recommended, and adopted for the next or subsequent school year (boundary cycle). Appropriate staff shall maintain centralized records of appointment and termination dates of voting members and their attendance.

4. Membership Criteria

   1. Members must be residents of Palm Beach County.

   2. The membership should be representative of the entire community and geographic areas of the District.

   3. Members should be committed to serve throughout the boundary cycle for which they were appointed, until final adoption of attendance boundaries for the next school year.

   4. Members must have the ability to maintain a global view of the District, its students, and the issues and policies impacting and guiding the setting of school attendance boundaries.

   5. Members should have the flexibility in their personal and professional schedules to meet during work hours, evenings, or weekends, as necessary, to complete tasks within appropriate timelines.

5. Committee Leadership.-- At the first regular meeting of the ABC each boundary cycle, a chair and vice-chair shall be elected by a majority vote. If a vacancy occurs in one of those positions during the boundary cycle, the position shall be filled by majority vote in a new election.

   1. The chair's duties shall include presiding over meetings, assisting staff in developing the agenda for each meeting, keeping the ABC on task and within appropriate timelines, and speaking on behalf of the ABC at public functions including Board meetings.

   2. The vice-chair's duties shall include acting in the chair's capacity when the chair is absent, and such other duties as the chair or ABC may assign.

6. Service Criteria

   1. Continuation of appointees as ABC members is subject to the discretion of their appointers or, if appropriate, their appointing position at any time during their appointed terms.

   2. ABC members shall not miss more than two (2) regular meetings in a row without justifiable cause. In the event an ABC member should miss two (2) consecutive regular ABC meetings without justifiable cause, appropriate staff shall diligently attempt to contact the member for an explanation and a reminder concerning this provision. Failure of the ABC member to attend the next regular ABC meeting without justifiable cause shall result in the automatic removal of the individual from ABC membership. Appropriate staff shall then notify in a timely manner the appointer of the vacancy and the need for a replacement ABC member. This attendance policy will be strictly enforced.

   3. New ABC members are appointed, trained, and provided information relevant to the ABC and its operations.

7. ABC Meeting Procedures

   1. For meetings of the entire ABC, the quorum shall be five (5) physically-present currently-appointed members. (For meetings of smaller regional sub-committees of the ABC, to facilitate the development of attendance boundary recommendations, the quorum shall be two (2) physically-present ABC sub-committee members.)

   2. All ABC members are eligible to vote if physically present at the meeting, except that a newly appointed voting member must have attended a training session before being eligible to vote.

   3. Whenever a vote is taken at any ABC meeting, the minutes shall reflect the names of those voting for the motion, those against, and any abstentions due to potential or actual conflict of interest.

   4. Written minutes shall be taken of all ABC meetings. Minutes of each regular ABC meeting shall be promptly typed and delivered by District staff to each ABC member in sufficient time for a review before the next regular ABC meeting. At the next regular meeting, ABC members may propose revisions or changes to more accurately reflect the events of the meeting. The ABC may vote to accept or reject those proposed changes upon a vote on a motion. The ABC shall vote at that meeting whether to approve the minutes, as amended. Prior to approval, the ABC may decide which, if any, of its previous meetings' minutes it wishes to revise and/or approve.

   5. All actions of the ABC which are related to boundary change proposals and are recorded in the minutes, shall be indexed by staff, if possible, by subject matter and meeting date for easy access.

   6. The entire length of the meetings shall be tape-recorded; and the tapes, which are public records, shall be provided promptly, upon a request, to a member of the public (pursuant to Policy 2.041) or to any ABC member.

   7. Consistent with District needs, the agenda will be set by the ABC and District staff at the current regular meeting for the next regular meeting, although staff will prepare the agenda for the first meeting of the boundary cycle.

   8. Notices of any ABC meeting shall be submitted by the appropriate District staff person to the District's Office of Public Affairs in a timely manner. If at the time the notice is submitted, the major subject matter(s) are known, or the agenda is available, these shall be included within the notice. The Office of Public Affairs, upon receipt of the notice, posts it on the District's Public Affairs Web site, which is available to the public and news media. If the subject matter or agenda is not included in the initial notice of the meeting at the time the agenda is prepared, the agenda should similarly beprovided online via the ABC Calendar to the general public and through links to the Office of Public Affairs when it becomes available, and this agenda is then available for public inspection and copying upon request.

   9. All meetings of ABC will be conducted in compliance with the current edition of Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised, unless otherwise stated in this Policy or other Board policies.

   10. Agendas for each ABC meeting, in addition to available proposals, growth projections and other backup data and information to be discussed at the upcoming meeting, should be made available online to each ABC member at least two (2) days prior to the meeting.

       1. Each agenda shall contain a statement informing the public that the ABC is an advisory committee which makes recommendations to the Superintendent.

       2. Absent consent from the ABC, no more than a total of thirty (30) minutes of each regular ABC meeting shall be set aside for public comments speaking to the meeting's agenda items. The person chairing the meeting may exercise discretion to set the time allotted for each speaker, considering the total number of speakers signed up (although the time shall in no case exceed three (3) minutes per person, absent special consent of the ABC).

   11. Communications, prepared by District staff on behalf of the ABC, shall be reviewed and approved by the ABC before such communications are distributed. If time does not allow for such a review by the ABC at a meeting, the Chair may review the communication to ensure that it accurately reflects the ABC's action.

   12. An ABC member requesting any information to be included in the member's information packet for the next meeting must make this request within five (5) business days after the previous meeting.

   13. If an ABC member is absent for any portion of an ABC meeting at which handouts are presented and has not received the handouts, after the meeting any and all handout materials shall be delivered to the absent members by e-mail or mail upon request.

   14. If an ABC member is unable to attend a regular ABC meeting, it is that member's responsibility to notify the relevant staff of that individual's inability to attend. Under normal circumstances, this notice should be given forty-eight (48) hours prior to the scheduled meeting.

   15. When addressing a public forum (other than ABC, regional subcommittee, or community informational meetings) or the School Board regarding ABC issues, such ABC members must first state whether they are speaking as an individual or as a representative of the ABC. Unless authorized by the ABC by a vote, no ABC member shall purport to speak on behalf of the ABC. Knowing violation of this subsection shall subject the ABC member to removal from the ABC by vote of the ABC.

   16. If, during a School Board meeting or workshop on boundary changes that the ABC has recommended to the Superintendent, an ABC member is asked to state the rationale for the ABC's recommendation, the ABC member may briefly explain the rationale but may not present any materials that were not included in the ABC's deliberation process (unless this member has been designated by the ABC to present such additional materials).

   17. District staff shall be reasonably available to assist during, or outside of, ABC meetings in the training of new ABC members.

   18. If an ABC member feels that any of these internal ABC procedures have not been followed, the member should notify appropriate District staff in a timely manner to assert any objection and allow for correction.

8. Evaluation of the ABC Committee Process.-- After completion of the boundary process, appropriate District staff and the ABC shall evaluate the ABC's operation to determine if it should be recommended that the structure and process be modified.