BY JEFF CHUDZINSKI
North Country This Week

MASSENA — Changes are coming to the Massena Central School District’s Board of Education after board members agreed to approve a consent agenda instead of individual action items.

The move comes as officials sought to shorten meeting lengths.

“Basically what a consent agenda does is it lumps many of the routine approvals that end up on our agenda, that typically don’t require a lot of discussion, into a single entity that we can approve at the beginning of the meeting,” Board President Paul Haggett said during the Sept. 22 meeting.

According to Haggett, the idea came after attending a board of education retreat. The move would allow for consent agenda items to be approved early in the meeting, “eliminating the need to approve them individually and saving meeting time,” he said.

Though the change appears drastic, individual items can still be pulled from the agenda for further, in-depth discussions if a board member requests it, Haggett said.

If an agenda item is pulled out for an individual vote or discussion, board members would just vote on the measure during the regular approvals later in the meeting, Haggett said.

Items that would be approved in the consent agenda would include business manager and treasurer reports, meeting minutes, donations and policy readings, officials say.

Though the consent agenda is being implemented, all agenda items will be linked to documentation on the printed agenda as they are now, allowing board members to review resolutions and changes easily.

“It’s probably even a little bit more important that we make sure that we review everything that is part of the consent agenda so we know whether or not we want to pull something out and talk about it more,” Haggett said.

According to Board Member Kevin Perretta, the Board of Cooperative Educational Services has used a consent agenda in meetings to great effect, saving valuable time.

Board Vice President Amber Baines also spoke on the matter of moving to a consent agenda, voicing support for the change.

According to Baines, shortening meetings will likely assist the board in hosting more productive meetings going forward.

“I thought if we could look into the consent agenda and having the option to pull out and board members voting separately, I thought it was a good idea,” she said.

Though considered, board members appeared to move away from the notion of including personnel actions in the consent agenda. Personnel actions have typically been considered and discussed separately during past meetings.