How Miami schools board members’ personal proposals distract from district business
Each month, school boards from across the state, including Miami-Dade County’s, meet to discuss policy and approve routine updates brought forward by district staff. They approve issues such as personnel changes, monthly financial reports and new policies to ensure compliance with the state.
But in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the school board also sets aside time monthly to discuss items individual board members propose, called H items — something not all other districts in the state do.
H items — often a mixed bag — allow for members to propose things like possible initiatives to reaffirm the district’s “commitment to addressing the digital divide;” encourage the superintendent to “utilize the district’s communication resources to raise parental and community awareness of Florida’s Back-to-School first sales tax holiday;” “establish a school construction task force;” and an effort to “recognize Thursday, May 4, 2023, as the National Day of Prayer.”
This past calendar year, from January to December, school board members in Miami proposed a combined 124 H items. More than half of those, however — 72, or about 58% — had no direct relation to classrooms or district students, a Miami Herald analysis found. Just 13 were directly related to classroom changes that would impact students, while 39 were partially related.
READ MORE: As DeSantis injects politics into school boards, parents are getting more influence
These items “are a waste,” said former school board member Marta Perez. Board members in other districts don’t propose as many items, she said. But in Miami-Dade, board members “put it up for political purposes to make it sound like they’re encouraging this or that.” (While a board member, Perez advocated to do away with board member initiatives while on the dais and proposed meeting once at the start of the year to approve all recognitions and endorsements for the entire year.)
The Herald’s review highlights what some have argued is a misguided effort that often occupies the majority of a multiple-hour meeting, interferes with staff’s ability to be as efficient as possible and, in some cases, offers a platform for politicking while on the dais. Others, though, see the analysis as an opportunity to bolster community input and possibly reshape how board member priorities are considered.
The Herald reached out to Chairwoman Mari Tere Rojas to discuss the analysis and board member priorities, but did not receive a response. In 2023, Rojas proposed the most H items of any board member.
‘Initiatives that may not directly address students’ needs’
According to district staff, it wasn’t until the early to mid 2010s that monthly board meeting agendas started to include a section dedicated to board member priorities — H items — that often reflect personal priorities for board members. Before then, staff said, members added priorities to any section of the agenda, whether it be academics or purchasing sections.
But in the years that followed, as the H item section became increasingly bloated with recognitions and endorsements, some, including Perez, saw them as increasingly time consuming and a poor use of taxpayer dollars.
“When you have a school board meeting, [the superintendent’s cabinet] has to be there and stay until the meeting is over. It’s very costly” because of the overtime and a waste of taxpayer dollars, she explained to the Herald. Moreover, she said, determining whether something is feasible “doesn’t mean anything. It’s just to say, ‘I put up an item and it sounds good.’”
More than 50 items proposed by members last year set out to “explore the feasibility” of implementing a new program or creating new focus groups, for example, or “conduct a review” of existing programs or policies to possibly then amend or update, the Herald’s analysis found.
READ MORE: Classical education may be rolled out at Miami-Dade school — first for conservative model
For Mina Hosseini, executive director of P.S. 305, a nonprofit organization that engages families with the school district, the number of items that set out to explore the possibility of or review existing policies is a good example of how H items often aren’t the best use of district staff’s time or limited resources — especially because many don’t seem to address the immediate needs of the community.
“The overarching issue is that we have a district that is not going to be able to sustain itself from a budgetary perspective and yet, we are continuing to ask staff to explore initiatives that may not directly address students’ needs,” she told the Herald. She questioned what framework members were using to bring an item forward, or if it was a personal idea that’s tested through the district’s resources.
The Herald’s analysis categorized items into three buckets: directly related to students, partially related and not related.
Items that were directly related proposed a change to how a student operates in school on a day-to-day basis, whether it be changes to how they learn or the type of curriculum offered: a proposal to consider the implementation of a classical education curriculum model constituted a direct relation to students, for example.
Partial relation was determined to be an initiative that didn’t have an immediate impact on students’ days inside school, but rather, an eventual impact or initiative they could choose to be a part of.
Those proposals ranged from creating a task force to review current practices that could help the district recruit temporary or substitute teachers, conducting a review of the district’s transportation guidelines while students are riding the bus and exploring whether the district could partner with local municipalities and the county to have an emergency rescue vehicle at sporting events. A proposal to require schools to alert board members and district staff when a complaint results in the reassignment or removal of a book or title was also considered a partial relation.
Most safety and security initiatives were determined to be partially related because they often focused on reviewing or enhancing existing policies. A proposal that set out to review current policies governing weapons on campuses and “ensure employees are aware of relevant and required policies” was considered a partial relation.
Items that had no relation to students or classrooms were determined to be those that focused on how the district or board conducts business, as well as endorsements and recognition that often serve as a symbolic gesture rather than a tangible change. Both a proposal to “strengthen” meeting notice requirements and another to recognize March 2, 2023 as “Read Across America Day” fell into the “no relation” category.
Still, 35, or about 28%, of H items in 2023 proposed recognizing or endorsing a month, day or period of time, according to the analysis — initiatives that were often the most contentious and took up many hours of already lengthy meetings.
In 2022, for example, a proposal by then board member and current Doral Mayor Christi Fraga proposed recognizing National Day of Prayer led droves of community members to speak out on the issue, with the item occupying a large portion of a nearly 13-hour meeting that ended at midnight. (Board meetings begin at 11 a.m.)
In September 2023, 10 hours of the monthly meeting were dedicated to an H item that sought to recognize October as LGBTQ History Month — a proposal that failed for the second year in a row — while the board spent just about an hour discussing the district’s budget for the year with little to no commentary from either the public or board members.
Improvements to H items
Though he didn’t comment on whether H items should be removed entirely — or the overarching history of board priorities — Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi, said he can “certainly say” the board agenda has been used for politicking from the dais for initiatives that often underscore culture war issues.
In December 2022, the board approved an H item that aimed to ensure the American and Florida flags are properly displayed in classrooms and district buildings, in addition to “federally protected flags and classes.” One month later, the board walked that back and amended the policy to prohibit any flags unrelated to the curriculum, such as flags from another country or a Black Lives Matter flag, for example, from being displayed throughout the year.
The perception of increased politicking, in addition to the amount of time district staff are required to spend seeing board members’ requests through, are among some reasons Hosseini has come to agree with Perez’s stance on removing H items entirely from the agenda.
But in the event that H items “can be meaningful,” she hopes the board can develop “some sort of rubric” members can follow to ensure every item aligns with the strategic plan and ensure community needs are met.
Another way to better streamline proposals could be expanding community input on proposals before they reach the board’s agenda, whether that be via district-organized task forces or subcommittees, said NAACP President Daniella Pierre.
Doing so, she argued, could help further ensure initiatives are “equitable and student-centric.” Plus, she said, there’s likely already a task force or subcommittee in place that could provide a community perspective on ideas before district staff is tasked with determining what is or isn’t possible.
