The Fairbanks Board of Education approved a replacement to its business advisory council policy at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Fairbanks Superintendent Bob Humble said this policy replacement is a way for the district to have access to a larger business advisory council in Central Ohio via the Educational Service Center (ESC) of Central Ohio. He said a business advisory council helps communicate the needs of businesses to school districts so the schools can better prepare students for the job force.
“We’ll have a lot more people to be able to be involved and to pull information from,” Humble said. “The good thing about being on the ESC is we can pull and work together with all businesses in Central Ohio.”
With this partnership into a larger business advisory council, he said the district will be better able use the services of a business advisory council without having to establish its own.
He said it was difficult for the district to assemble a committee because of the lack of local businesses that would be involved.
“For one thing, the rules of what the committee is supposed to be doing are not real clear yet,” he said. “Because of the limited number of businesses that are actually in our district, it’s sometimes hard for people to be on a committee like that and to attend regularly.”
According to the agenda for Wednesday night’s meeting, the district’s policy will now make sure the superintendent, treasurer and “other appropriate administrators” will provide information to the ESC and to assist it with “recommendation and advice.”
The policy also states the superintendent or a designee will attend ESC meetings to keep the Fairbanks Board of Education updated on advice or recommendations from the council.
The board also approved to host its regulars meetings at their normal times this year, which will be the third Monday of each month, starting at 7 p.m. There is an exception for two meetings this year, however. Rather than meet on the third Monday of February and June, the board will instead meet on Feb. 20 and June 25.