I updated the Ann Arbor Board of Education page here on Arborwiki [link] with direct links to the board documents page, so that I and whoever else can find it incrementally easier next time the question comes up.

That page is about two elections behind, so any other updates for it would be welcomed.

Fair enough. But once you know there’s a Google calendar for the board meetings, you can use the feature at the lower right hand corner of the calendar – the button that reads +GoogleCalendar – to simply add that calendar to your own Google calendar. Once you’ve imported the district’s calendar into your calendar, if the district changes the board’s calendar, your own calendar will automatically update. If the district adds a board meeting, that meeting will automatically show up in your calendar. If the district adds “CANCELLED” to an event, that will show up automatically in your calendar as well.

This approach – based on an icalendar feed (for the BoE, it’s automatically generated by the Google Calendar) – is one The Chronicle has adopted for our event listings: [event listings] All of those listings come from an organization that’s using a calendar system that either generates an icalendar feed or a calendar system from which an icalendar feed can be built.

So The Chronicle’s event listing now includes BoE meetings – automatically, with no additional work by anyone, beyond the data entry into the district’s Google Calendar. In our listing, clicking on the “…” will reveal more details, like the link to the BoardDocs system.

“ANN ARBOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Board of Education

MEETING SCHEDULE

Changes/Additions since last posting appear in BOLD

This notification of meeting change is posted in compliance with Michigan Open Meetings Act, Public Act No. 267 of 1976, and supersedes all previous postings regarding these dates. Notes/minutes of these meetings can be found in the Board of Education office, 2555 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.

Also go to BoardDocs at [link] for current Board Meeting Agendas, Meeting Minutes and information.”

I did not know until now that there was a direct way to access the board documents. If you go through a2schools.org and click on the “Board” area, there are “Reports to the Board” (outdated); “Board Notes” (6/23/12 is the last one); and then the area labeled “Meeting Schedule” (which has the minutes). The “Meeting Schedule” area, if you scroll down far enough, gets you to the google calendar, and if you open up a particular event (say, for example, a board meeting) then there is a link to the board documents–though it’s not generally hyper-linked, and it’s truly cumbersome to look up each meeting.

You kind of have to be “in” to know how to get there.
You have just provided a much more direct link to the AAPS board documents–and I hope that AAPS will follow suit. Thank you very much!

Ed, the AAPS analog to the city of Ann Arbor’s Legistar system is here: [link].

The link to the specific document is here: [link]

Was the draft first quarter financial report made available to the public in advance of this meeting? If it were in your hands, Ruth, I think it might be helpful. (Let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll help draft the FOIA request.)

“In appreciation of the company’s generosity, the planetarium will be renamed the Argus IMRA Planetarium for the next 25 years.”