Good Morning, Plymouth-Canton! ~ PCCS Board of Education

At a Saturday workshop, members of the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools' board of education -- the three current members and four incoming members -- met to do their homework. The biggest assignment: setting ground rules for how to work as a team.

The 6-hour session, organized by Adrienne Davis, who has been in office for nearly two years, comes on the heels of a difficult election cycle and at a time when the district faces big challenges

The group met with interim superintendent Jeremy Hughes, with Karen Cross  -- director of leadership for the Michigan Association of School Boards -- leading the conversation.

Cross laid out basic facts of board functions, using examples from her own experience as a former member of the Ann Arbor school board as well as examples from other communities. She reviewed key points of the Open Meetings Act (also known as the Sunshine Law, which is the foundation for government transparency).

Despite some initial nervousness on the part of existing board members Davis, Judy Mardigian, Barry Simescu and incoming trustees Mike Maloney, Sheila Paton, Mark Horvath and John Barrett, the day proceeded in a largelly congenial manner.

In January, when the board meets officially for the first time, members will review notes from Saturday's session and elected officers for the year.