NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The New Hanover County School Board announced on Wednesday it will hold agenda review meetings one week prior to its regular monthly meetings.
The meetings will be open to public and livestreamed, but no call to the audience will be included.
The board’s next regular meeting is on Feb. 7, indicating the first agenda review will take place on Jan. 31. The NHCS district has yet to release an official notice with the date and time.
The NHCS press release stated the move is “aimed at increasing transparency and streamlining the meeting process.”
At its December retreat, new school board members said one of their first-100-days priorities was to make meetings — which often go on for more than five hours — more efficient.
One idea was to change the meeting layout, notably moving closed session to the end of the meeting, like New Hanover County Commissioners have done, to avoid keeping the public waiting over an hour for their return to open discussion.
Also taking note from the commissioner meetings, board members broached hosting agenda meetings to discuss agenda items and information before regular meetings. Doing so could reduce regular meeting discussion, and therefore, meeting runtime. Agenda previews would also allow the public to witness how the regular meeting topics come together before the night-of when board members take action on items.
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