Lauren Skinner

Mr. Hawkins

Government P. /Period 1

24 September 2016

School Board Meeting Response

When I entered the School Board meeting on September 15, the setting and every

member were very professional and formal. Many Buckingham students attended and

filled half of the seats present. Many school board members, audience members, and

student representatives presented their ideas, concerns, and proposals. The school board

members were very inclusive with the Buckingham students, and made the experience

one not to forget. Their decisions were made democratically, and each member respected

the other's decisions responsibly. There were no inappropriate remarks, but many

responsive remarks, discussing each issue thoroughly. There were more positives of the

meeting, than negatives. Some of the positives included: the including of audience

members, the issues discussed, the reports of student representatives, and the school

board members generosity. The members didnt think of themselves as higher-up

citizens, but the same as the audience members, and tried to include them as often as they

could. There was one instance where one of the members, Jane Shamieh, passed out

muffins to the members from a previous engagement. Interestingly, later I found out I

was related to her! One more positive was that the school board was involved with the

Vacaville P.D., and visited the schools regularly. There was only one negative, which was

the meeting process. It was a meeting of which I was not used to, so how the board went

through the meeting was a little confusing to me. The citizens were definitely allotted
enough time to express their opinions thoroughly. Each citizen was given enough time,

and if they went over the given time, the members graciously told them to finish their

sentence. The issues presented and discussed were Evaluation of CA Transitional

Programs, Reappointment Commissions, W.C.W Stadium, Career Tech Edu, Project

Inspire, Education of Special Need Students, and Academic Research. The Evaluation of

CA Transitional Programs was the least interesting for me because of how the issues were

presented. The Reappointment Commissions were interesting because it stated the new

members of some of the groups. The W.C.W Stadium discussion was very interesting to

me because I got to see the future plans of the high school. The Career Tech Edu was

interesting to me as well. It described how education and technology are being taught

today and in their future programs. In Buckingham, the curriculum went from film

production to STEM. My personal opinion is that I am more interested in film, but

supportive of the direction the school is taking the students. STEM is important. Project

Inspire was very influential and how they talked about the proposals of inspiring schools

was inspiring in many ways. Education of Special Need Students was very inspirational

because the speakers were very passionate about the subject. The last issue, Academic

Research, was very interesting as well because they talked about kindergarten programs

and reading intervention programs, which inspired me. All of the issues presented were

very interesting and informed me about the current issues and ideas in the school district.

This experience was very uplifting and informed me of how the process works of settling

issues and promoting ideas for the schools in Vacaville.