The school district is governed by the school board elected by the district’s registered voters. The board is authorized to:

• Establish policies that direct the school district
• Employ and evaluate the superintendent
• Negotiate with employee groups to determine salaries and benefits
• Approve the annual budget
• Authorize elections on bond proposals and other issues
• Determine the long-range direction of the district
• Communicate with the community

The School Board acts officially only as a corporate group. An individual Board member has no authority outside of a formally called Board meeting.

The Petaluma City Schools Board of Education is invested in serving its community and welcomes public input during board meetings.  It is important, however, to remember that school board meetings are meetings of the board in public. They are not public hearings. 

Following are the procedures for speaking at a public board meeting:

• Submit a yellow public comment card to the Board President before the meeting is called to order.  Be sure to include the topic of the comment.
• The Board President will sort the comment cards into categories, so that comments can be made at the appropriate time in the meeting. 
• Comments on items not included on the agenda will occur toward the beginning of the meeting before the board conducts their official business.
• Comments related to an item included on the agenda will be heard prior to that agenda item. 
• Comments related to closed session items will be made in open session, immediately preceding the closed session.
• Public comments are limited to 4 minutes per comment, or 20 minutes per topic. The Board President may extend these time limits. 

The Board will not respond in real-time to public comments made about items not included on the agenda. The Superintendent may direct district personnel to follow-up regarding particular comments, or a public comment topic may be included in a future agenda so that it may be discussed in open session. 

Out of respect for varying opinions, please do not applauded or create a noticeable response to public comments.

The Superintendent is appointed by the School Board and functions as the chief executive officer of the school district.  As a professional resource to the Board, the Superintendent is responsible for the administration of all policies adopted by the Board, and the execution of all decisions concerning the internal operations of the school system made by the Board. The Superintendent advises the Board on the needs and programs of the schools.