General Information for Board Meeting Observers and Participants - Board of Trustees for the Ohlone Community College District

MEMORANDUM

TO: Board Meeting Observers and Potential Participants

FROM: Nick Nardolillo, Board President

SUBJECT: Board Meetings

Welcome to the public meeting of the Governing Board of the Ohlone Community College District. Your interest in our proceedings is deeply appreciated.

Addressing the Board

Any person is invited to address the Board at the time provided by the Board under agenda item "Communications from the Public." Persons desiring to speak on a specific agenda item will be given the opportunity when the agenda item is being considered. On agenda items the normal order of speaking will be as follows:

1. Administration or appropriate person who has placed the item on the agenda;
2. Board members, including nonvoting Student Board Member;
3. Staff, faculty, if appropriate;
4. Others, including members of the public and/or college community.

If you wish to address the Board, stand and receive recognition from the Board President. When the Board President asks if members of the public or college community wish to address the Board, you should walk to the podium, state your name and address for our official written records, and make your statement. Your statement should be brief. You may submit printed statements with no limit on length. If possible twenty copies should be submitted for distribution to the Board and others present. Due to the Education Code and other legal requirements, however, complaints against specific employees of the College District should not be addressed to the Board of Trustees at public meetings. Such complaints must be submitted in writing to Dr. Doug Treadway, President/Superintendent of Ohlone College, who will consider the complaint, investigate as necessary, and report to the Board of Trustees regardless of the finding. Anonymous statements or complaints will not be accepted.

Board-employee relations are governed by current collective bargaining agreements.

Written communications are also welcome from the public on any subject. These may be addressed to the Board of Trustees at the college address or hand delivered to the President's Office and will be duplicated and distributed as the writer requests. A writer should state his/her name, address, and telephone number.

Meetings of the Board

Regular meetings are normally scheduled on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. The Board or the Board President may schedule additional meetings or change the regular meetings. When conditions make it appropriate, you may have your name placed on the mailing list to receive an agenda by notifying the President/Superintendent.

Ohlone College is a public, tax-financed community college serving residents of Fremont and Newark. The Board of Trustees is composed of five Fremont residents and two Newark residents elected to serve overlapping four-year terms. Effective April 25, 1986, Board elections take place in November of even-numbered years. In November, 1998, two Fremont seats and two Newark seats will be up for election; the remaining three seats will be up for election in 2000. On March 14, 1979, the Board of Trustees established a number for each seat on the Board and assigned members as indicated below. Any candidate for election to the Board shall be required to run for a particular numbered seat on the Board and be elected by the voters of the district-at-large. By recent legislation, a student who must be a resident of Fremont or Newark is a nonvoting Board member. Members of the Board are as follows:

How the Board Takes Action

Official Board action can be taken only at Board meetings and by affirmative action of at least four of the seven voting Board members. No one Board member or administrator makes official commitments for the Board. The Board has final control over college matters and policies, subject to limitations imposed by California and Federal Law, and all employees and administrators of the District are bound to abide by such policies.

If you have a request or proposal that the Board take action on a given item, you should submit it in writing to the President/Superintendent on or before Tuesday noon the week preceding the Board meeting date. The Board will decide what action, if any, it will take.

Consent Items

Items that are calendared as requiring little or no discussion by the Board or the public are listed on the agenda as "Consent" items. The Board may act on these items in one motion. If you have concerns on any Consent item, please contact the President/Superintendent before the meeting begins.

General Information

Ohlone College first offered classes in the Fall of 1967 and its present 25 million dollar, 500-acre campus as occupied in 1974. The College also offers classes on off-campus locations in both Fremont and Newark.

We appreciate your interest in Ohlone College.