Community meetings offer us a meaningful opportunity to participate in the development of school programs and policy. Most members of the faculty, administration, and board will normally attend. Community meetings normally begin with all present agreeing on the topics that they would like to address. One member of the community will be selected to facilitate the meeting, ensuring that everyone is heard and helping the group maintain its focus. A recorder will prepare a summary of what was discussed, and a list of any topics to be addressed at the next scheduled meeting.
Community meetings are process oriented .
Their value comes from personal attendance and participation. The goal of each community meeting is to provide a forum for the open exchange of ideas, not necessarily to produce answers or proposals. Many school related issues can not be appropriately addressed and resolved in a large group problem solving setting. In the normal course of discussion, the group may identify issues that should be addressed by the faculty, administration, or trustees. At times, they may ask the school to make a more formal presentation on a given topic of interest.