Board Committee Meetings Explained

This page is a guide on official board committee meetings, which includes:

• The Audit Committee (Ad-hoc)
• The Policy Committee (Permanent)
• The Facilities Improvement Oversight Committee (Ad-hoc)

The PPS Board of Education has one permanent committee, two ad-hoc committees, and five board-related committees, or committees that report to the board. Official board committees report to the board directly, and are made up exclusively of Board members and a student representative (the exception to this is the Audit Committee).
According to Public Meetings Law, ORS 192.610 (3), When a quorum of a committee meets, the committee must: 1) give at least 24-hour notice of the meeting, 2) hold meetings that are open to the public, and 3) take minutes or otherwise record the meeting. Meetings must be held within the district boundaries, and must be accessible to people with disabilities. Translation/interpretation services must be made available upon request. Committees are not required to take public comment or testimony, but may choose to do so. In order to sign up for meeting notice emails, you must email the Board's Executive Assistant: kbradshaw@pps.net.
Following public meeting laws, all committees, excluding the Policy Committee, meet as needed (the schedule is posted on the Public Notice Board Page) and are streamed on the PPS YouTube page. You can find the current Board schedule with the Committee meetings on the PPS Board Calendar Page. This page is organized first by who you are seeing, then proceeds through a meeting chronologically. You can find a similar page for a Regular Board Meetings Explained and a page for Board Special Session Explained.

Who You Are Seeing

Committee board meetings are comprised of three Board members, appointed by the PPS Board of Education, one student representative, and, in the case of the Audit Committee, two community members. There is one chair per committee. In addition, the Executive Assistant and Legal Counsel are present in committee meetings. In general, either the Contracted Senior Legal Advisor and/or the Senior Legal Counsel will be present at a Board meeting, and will almost always be present during a Policy Committee meeting.

What Proceedings You Are Seeing

Call to Order / Introductions

Board chair calls meeting to order and references the links to the agenda for the meeting and the link to the livestream. The board chair will often go over some housekeeping rules during the meetings. The board requires that any signs brought to the board meeting be displayed below chin level.

Public Comment

Depending of the committee, public comment will come at the beginning or the end of a committee meeting. Some meetings will specify the number of spots open for the comment period in the agenda, typically during the Audit and Facilities Improvement Oversight Committee. Those who wish to comment during a committee meeting have a time limit of 2 minutes. The protocol for the Public Comment Period can be found in the Regular Board Meetings Explained Page.

Updates/Discussion/Next Steps

All board committees are more informal than a regular meeting, and are a series of updates, discussions, and, in the case of the policy committee, a draft revision discussion. Public comment will not be accepted on every agenda item, and is saved to the designated comment period.