Board President Speaks About Coffee and Conversations Series
On Monday, October 3, members of the Eastchester Board of Education will sit down with high school students to discuss issues facing the school district, kicking off a six-event “Coffee and Conversations” campaign that is aimed at increasing transparency and communication between elected officials and members of the community.
In addition to meeting with high schoolers on Monday, trustees will hold five meetings over the next two months in order to hear from parents with children in each of Eastchester’s five school buildings.
According to Board of Education President Chrissy Geagan, the idea to hold the discussion series sprung from a general belief among Eastchester Board of Education members that school board meetings were not necessarily the most conducive setting for dialogue between community members and their representatives.
“Parents and students will come up to the podium, they’ll have three minutes, they make a statement, and under that process, the board doesn’t respond,” said Geagan. “It’s not a dialogue and I think there needs to be that forum for students and parents to be able to ask questions and express concerns in a way that allows us to respond to them.”
Geagan believes that the unique composition of the EUFSD Board of Education—eight of the nine board members currently have children in the school district—gives them insight into some of the public’s expectations, and that the Coffee and Conversations events will allow them to hear feedback specific to each grade level and each school.
“There were so many times before I joined the board that I would take questions and concerns to a board meeting and I would leave and just feel frustrated,” said Geagan. “And the way we’re doing this one is whichever board member has a child in that school, they will be the ones running the event.”
Geagan said that scheduling the discussion with high school students first was a priority, given the number of students who attended School Board meetings last year. Geagan pointed out that, for many of those students, attending a school board meeting might have been an introduction to civic participation, something she hopes to encourage.
“I just felt bad that we didn’t have a real opportunity to have conversations with those students,” she said. “I don’t want them to think that we’re not listening or that we don’t care.“
So far, the Coffee and Conversation series has received a strong response, with 80 individuals planning to attend on at least one of the six nights.
“I’m not surprised with the turnout, but I am happy,” said Geagan. “We knew that this was something people would want.
“Sometimes we don’t always agree on everything and that’s fine; but there can sometimes be miscommunication and misunderstandings,” she added. “My hope is that we can just get everyone in a room, open those lines of communication, and turn this into a good thing.”