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School board meetings have been pushed to the second Thursday of the month with open session meetings alternating between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Meetings will continue to be held in the Performing Arts Center.
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School board changes times of meetings

RANCHO SANTA FE — The Rancho Santa Fe School District wants to remind parents and stakeholders in the community that it has made a change to its regular monthly board meeting times.

Previously, most regular school board open session meetings were held the first Thursday of the month at 5 p.m.

Meetings have now been pushed to the second Thursday of the month with open session meetings alternating between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Meetings will continue to be held in the Performing Arts Center. 

According to Superintendent David Jaffe, the board chose to alternate meeting times between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to provide both morning and early evening option.

There were two primary reasons for a shift to the second Thursday of each month.

“The district is able to provide the board with the most recent monthly fiscal reports that are generated through the County Office of Education,” Jaffe said of the meeting date changes. “The county runs the monthly reports after the previous month has ended.”

Jaffe added, “Depending on how close the board meeting was to the end of the month, there were times when the fiscal reports were not available, thus the board would be reviewing fiscal information from the previous month.”

Jaffe also noted that moving the meetings to the second week allows the district the time necessary to prepare and publicly report the budget information with the most timely and accurate information. “The second week of the month will ensure board members are provided the most up-to-date fiscal information,” Jaffe said.

Jaffe said he believed that rotating times could be beneficial as well.

“Moving to alternating times does provide options for the public to attend the meeting with the thinking being that morning meetings may be more convenient for many of our parents who might choose to attend right after the start of school,” he said.

According to Jaffe, the idea to make the open session monthly board meeting changes started when the district presented a proposed calendar in November 2017 for the board to discuss.

Jaffe said that it was through this discussion that the board requested the district present an alternating times option.

“Both options were presented at the December meeting where they ultimately voted to approve calendar with alternating times,” Jaffe said.

To confirm future meeting times, call the Rancho Santa Fe School District at (858) 756-1141 or visit the district website at http://rsfschool.net/.