Geneva Schools Look at Open Meetings on Finance, More '2-Way' Dialogue

said Friday that Geneva School District 304 is hoping to continue and "enhance" the practice of listening to community members on issues of school finance.

Grosso said the Monday School Board agenda would include discussion of the creation of a restructured Finance Committee, which would meet opening and create a greater opportunity for citizen input.

"We’re certainly in tough economic times right now, and I think we’ve tried to be open and available to the public at our meetings," Grosso said. "I wanted to continue and enhance that a little bit so that we have more of a two-way dialogue."

Grosso emphasized that he's "only one vote," but he hopes the rest of the board will be in favor of re-creating the Finance Committee, which would be made up of three School Board members and hold regularly scheduled meetings that are open to the public.

The Finance Committee presently is made up of two board members and is not obliged to hold public meetings based on the criteria of the Open Meetings Act. Since three members make a quorum, the restructured committee would be required to hold meetings in public and provide regular notice of those meetings and their agendas.

"On Monday, we're going to vote on whether to form this committee," Grosso said. "If we do, we will appoint a third board member and pick a chair, and they (the committee chairman) will conduct meetings regarding the budget or debt.

"We’ve talked about it for some time," he added. "It’s one of the things we just haven’t been able to bring to the forefront."

Grosso said he's optimistic that the board will move in that direction.

"It appears to be something everyone is in favor of," he said. "But we need to discuss it and vote on it."