Board Committees

San Francisco Unified School District and County Office of Education

Board Rule and Procedure 9130

Board Committees

This Rule and Procedure applies to the San Francisco Unified School District and the County Office of Education.

The Board of Education or the Board President may establish Board committees as necessary. The President shall determine the duties of the committee at the time of its establishment. The role of the Board’s committees is to advise and support the work of the Board, not to advise or direct District staff. When its assigned duties have been completed, the committee shall be dissolved.

No Committee may meet until the Board President has first identified the committee’s chair, determined which Board Members will serve on the committee, specified the committee’s written deliverable(s), and the date the deliverables are due. If all of these items are not provided in writing from the Board President to the committee chair, the committee is considered to have not been formed and may not meet.

Committees that fail to present their assigned deliverable to the full Board by the date due shall be disbanded. The Board President may create a new committee to accomplish the task assigned, but the former chair of the disbanded committee shall not be eligible to serve on a new committee formed for a similar purpose.

(cf. 1220 – Citizen Advisory Committees)

The President shall appoint three Board members to each committee and shall designate the chair.

A quorum for committee meetings shall consist of two of the designated members of the committee.

Committee meetings shall begin promptly at their designated starting time. If the committee Chair is not present to convene the committee meeting within fifteen minutes of the defined start time, then the meeting is canceled. Board committees shall provide public notice of their meetings and conduct these meetings in accordance with state open meeting laws.

The Superintendent or designee may serve as an advisor to any committee at the discretion of the President.

(cf. 9320 – Meetings and Notices)

(cf. 9322 – Agenda/Meeting Materials)

Agenda

The agenda of the committee meeting shall be prepared by the chair of the committee and a written copy provided to both the Superintendent and Board President at least 72 hours prior to the committee meeting. The committee agenda may only include items directly related to the clear scope of work and deliverables specified at the committee’s creation.

Every agenda for standing committee meetings shall provide members of the public with the right to address the Committee on any item of interest to the public that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of that Committee. Furthermore, the committee in its consideration of items on the agenda shall hear public comment. The committee chair shall determine if the public comment shall be made before or during the legislative body’s consideration of that item during the meeting.

Items that are approved by a majority of the committee shall be forwarded to the full Board. If committee approval is not given, the item shall be referred to the full Board without recommendation. All items returned to the Board by committee may be agendized on the first regular meeting of the Board for which adequate Brown Act notice may be given.

City and School District Select Committee

The Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco and the Board of Education of the San Francisco Unified School District have created the City and School District Select Committee for the purpose of advancing their mutual interest and problem-solving relative to policy matters that affect the City and the School District, their respective employees and departments, the District students and the families of students. Mutual policy matters of interest, include, but are not limited to: facilities; funding issues; City department, protocols and programs that directly impact the School District, its students or their families; transportation; and homelessness.

The City and School District Select Committee shall be composed of three members of the Board of Supervisors and three members of the Board of Education. The President of the Board shall appoint three of its members to serve on the City and School District Select Committee. The Board of Supervisors and the Board of Education shall share, equally, the responsibilities of staffing the meetings of this Committee, as well as any necessary expenses in support of the activities of this Committee. The City and School District Select Committee shall sunset on June 30 of each year and may be renewed by the City on an annual basis.

Augmented Committees

An Augmented Committee is a standing or an ad hoc committee to which Board members who are not committee members are invited and do attend. Augmented committee meetings are a form of full Board meetings; a quorum of the Board is present to discuss matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Board. At such meetings, however, Board action cannot be taken. Instead all Board member(s) in attendance at augmented committees shall have the right to join in the committee discussion of the agendized items, but only committee members are allowed to vote on matters before the augmented committee.

Committees shall be noticed as augmented unless the committee chair determines otherwise.

Quorum for an augmented committee is two voting members of the committee.

Legal Reference:

EDUCATION CODE

35010 Control of District; prescription and enforcement of rules

35024 Executive committee

35160 Authority of governing boards

35160.1 Broad authority of school Districts

GOVERNMENT CODE

54952 Legislative body, definition

54952.2 Definition of meeting

54954 Time and place of regular meetings; special meetings; emergencies

54954.3 Opportunity for public to address legislative body

ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINIONS

81 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 156 (1998)

80 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 308 (1997)

79 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 69 (1996)