Wendy Tellone wants to allow residents to attend some advisory committee meetings from which they were excluded in the past.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published April 8, 2004
BROOKSVILLE - School superintendent Wendy Tellone wants to make her district's operations more transparent.
To that end, Tellone has decided to open the meetings of all committees that have memberships extending beyond district employees. Her move came less than four months after disputes with the Times over whether two separate committees should conduct their business privately or publicly.
"We don't need to be fighting," Tellone said. The new procedure "just made sense to me. It's not appropriate to keep (deliberations) in the shade."
She announced her position Tuesday during School Board debate about proposed changes to its policy governing the review of challenged books.
That rule came up for reconsideration after the Times challenged district plans to allow an advisory committee to meet behind closed doors to determine whether the Judy Blume novel Deenie was appropriate for elementary school shelves.
Board members had asked their lawyer, Karen Gaffney, to rewrite the policy to limit public participation on book evaluations. On Tuesday, they instead instructed Gaffney to revise the rule to make clear that the public will be involved every step of the way - including the school-level committee review.
"There is no way to conduct that kind of request out of the public eye," board member Gail David said of possible book removals. "It is so serious."
St. Petersburg lawyer Penelope Bryan represented the newspaper in its opposition to keeping the Deenie review and the district attendance zone review committees closed. She praised Tellone and the board for their shift to increased openness.
"I think it is going to be of significant benefit to the public," Bryan said Wednesday. "The public is affected by action at lower levels. The things that committees do affect their kids."
She acknowledged Tellone's effort to draw a line separating staff meetings from other committees and focus groups. If residents tried to get into every conversation between employees, the district would get no work done, Bryan said.
But when it comes to advisory committees, she added, the district cannot go wrong by acting in plain view.
"This is (the public's) government," Bryan said. "We should be allowed to participate to see what's going on and know what's going on, in real time."
The change means that residents will be allowed to attend many meetings from which they were excluded in the past. Some schools removed books from their shelves in the past, for instance, without any open meetings.
School-based administrators will be responsible for advising the general public about these sessions in advance, Tellone said. The district is still working out an advertising system, she said.
State law might not require such steps, Tellone said, "but it is our way of doing business now."
Gaffney agreed that, if the district handles its committees in this way, it should state its policy up front. That way, everyone who might sit on a committee, make a complaint or desire to attend sessions will know that the public will be watching, she said.
The board's discussion almost did not take place.
Tellone had removed the challenged materials policy from the agenda, stating it needed more review and possible revisions from what was presented. Gaffney had given the board a new rule that would have removed the public from the book review process, until the question reached the board.
Board member Jim Malcolm objected. Malcolm said he had changed his mind about the need to limit public participation after watching the policy in practice during the Deenie review.
"Everything I was concerned would happen didn't happen," Malcolm said.
The board unanimously returned the item to the agenda and then began a lengthy discussion during which most agreed to clarify the policy by adding openness rather than permanently deleting it.
Board member John Druzbick was most hesitant. He worried that a parent might not file a complaint for fear of becoming publicized.
"I really don't want this to have the opposite, chilling effect on parents that want to challenge," he said.
David said the solution is simple. If parents exert parental authority over their own children and tell them what not to read, the problem is over.
"Should a parent decide they don't want other children to read the book, that's when it has to come out in the public eye," she insisted.
Gaffney further noted that complainant names likely will become public in any event, because of all the public documents that are created in the review process. That's especially true, she said, if the matter comes to the School Board.
Mary Dysart, media specialist at Nature Coast Technical High School, added another wrinkle. She noted that some parents might object to a book being required for class reading, but they might support leaving the book available for voluntary reading lists.
Tellone said the policy needed more work before she could recommend it for approval. The board agreed, and scheduled a new hearing for May 18.
