Deepti Manepalli, Board member

Q: Thanks, Deepti, for your time and for your involvement with RVC. For those who don’t know, what do parent board members do?

DM: Parent board members have the same role as other board members. We suggest agenda items, monitor and adopt the budget (our consultant from EdTech makes it easy to understand), develop and/or adopt school policies, evaluate our school’s director, elect other board members. We also take an online training in the Brown Act.

Q: How did you get involved with the RVC board?

DM: When I decided to enroll Ari (currently in his 4th year, Grade 3) into RVC, I wanted to know all about this charter school and how it worked. I was blown away by this school on the tour, I decided to just trust my gut and enroll my kid here and commit to volunteering to learn more about the school. Around the same time, the board was looking for a parent member to replace an outgoing member. I emailed Sharon to know more about this position, spoke to her and Cheryl Flick about what being a board member meant and thought this was the best way to know about RVC and contribute to a school my kids were beginning to love. I attended my induction meeting (which was the then director Luke’s last one, June 2021?) and met all the board members (3 of them were soon to be outgoing) The first few meetings were longer (than the time mentioned on the agenda) as Sharon and Conn patiently explained each and every agenda item in detail and made sure I (and the other 2 new community members) knew what we were voting for. The meetings then started at 7:30 pm and ended well after 10 pm, thankfully the timing has been changed to 6:30 pm.

Q: What has been the most rewarding part of being a board member?

DM: To get the chance to know what goes into the decision making of this school. To be in a room with staff (Ms. Chris), then board officer (Elizabeth), other parent/ community members and discuss all things school.

Q: What advice do you have for parents who might be running for board seats this year?

DM: Understand the importance of your role and the time commitment it takes (I spent time during my first 4-5 months (2-3 hours each week during some weeks, prior to the meeting) as a board member understanding all the terminology, especially the finance and audit aspects (not my background), making notes, writing questions to ask during the meeting). It got easy by the second half of the first year. Unless there are long documents that need to be read, I now spend an hour prior to each meeting reading all the agenda item documents. Now, this is just what I did, other board members might not have had to spend so much time understanding the agenda items, just do not want to deter you from applying! Read through the Charter Petition that is on our school website . Do not hesitate to ask questions, a lot of questions (even when considering to apply and after you are on the board) The Brown Act training (online) is about 2 hours, you just have to sit through it!! Do expect to set aside 3 to 3.5 hours for each meeting, some meetings are shorter, some longer, depending on what ends up being on the agenda. The board is looking for interested, passionate parents with fresh ideas. Those with a finance or special education background would be a plus! Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any further questions: deepti.manepalli@rossvalleycharter.org If you find me at school, feel free to stop me and chat.