Civic Records Glossary
Civic Gallery mirrors official San José Unified School District board records and source documents.
This glossary explains the terms residents will see while browsing agendas, matters, attachments, minutes, and generated summaries.
These definitions are written for Civic Gallery readers. They are based on San José Unified public records, California open-meeting rules, and the Simbli (eBoardSolutions) board portal that publishes the District's agendas.
Always treat the official District record as authoritative.
The public notice for a board meeting. It lists the time, place, and items of business expected to be discussed or acted on. San José Unified posts regular-meeting agendas on its online board portal at least 72 hours beforehand, and special-meeting materials at least 24 hours beforehand. [1] [4]
A specific piece of board business on an agenda. Civic Gallery reads each item from the Simbli board portal, where an item can carry supporting documents, linked records, and the action the Board is asked to take. [1]
The record behind an agenda item. In Civic Gallery, a matter is the durable file for a piece of board business, such as a policy, contract, report, or resolution, that can appear on one or more agendas.
A group of routine items the Board adopts together in a single vote, unless a member asks to pull one out for separate discussion. Consent items are usually non-controversial actions such as routine contracts, warrants, and personnel actions.
A document connected to a matter, such as a staff report, board policy, agreement, presentation, or exhibit. San José Unified attaches these supporting documents to agenda items in the Simbli portal, and Civic Gallery links back to each one. [1]
The official meeting record after a meeting occurs. Minutes document what business was handled and how the Board voted.
The public entity holding the meeting. For San José Unified that is the Board of Education, the District's elected governing board. The Board has five members elected by trustee area, plus a student board member and an alternate appointed each year. [1]
The government-published record or document. Civic Gallery links back to the official Simbli board portal and source-document URLs so readers can verify information before relying on it.
A board action made, seconded, and voted on during a meeting. Most routine decisions are handled by motion.
A formal written statement of board action or position, adopted by vote and kept in the District's records. Boards use resolutions to take or commemorate formal actions.
A statement of the Board's governing intent, adopted by vote. Board Policies (BP) are paired with Administrative Regulations (AR), the procedures the Superintendent uses to carry them out. [2]
The procedure that implements a Board Policy. Administrative Regulations are developed by the Superintendent and can generally be updated as needed without a separate board vote. [2]
How most policy changes are adopted. A policy is presented at one meeting for review and public comment (first reading) and adopted at a later meeting (second reading), though a second reading is not always required by law. [2]
An opportunity for residents to address the Board. At San José Unified, speakers submit a Request to Speak card and generally have two minutes per card, and the Board may cap the total time for comment on an item. [1] [5]
A non-public portion of a meeting for limited subjects the Ralph M. Brown Act allows the Board to discuss privately, such as personnel, certain student matters, real estate, or litigation. [3]
A continued or deferred item is moved to a future meeting. A dropped item is no longer expected to be considered or acted on at that meeting.
Text that Civic Gallery extracts from an official attachment. It helps search and preview documents, but it is not a replacement for the official PDF or source file.
An AI-produced summary based on extracted text. It is assistive and may be incomplete or wrong, so the official attachment should be reviewed before relying on the summary.
A broad subject area, such as Curriculum or School Safety, that Civic Gallery assigns to a matter using AI. Themes are assistive labels to help browsing, not official classifications, and a matter can carry more than one.
The homepage view of which themes the district's bodies appear to have focused on recently. "Heating up" highlights themes appearing on more agendas this quarter than last. It is derived from AI theme tags and is a guide for discovery, not an official measure.
A stored copy of an official source payload observed during ingestion. It helps Civic Gallery keep records traceable to the public source data that produced them.
A Civic Gallery status meaning the record still appears in the latest source data. If a record disappears from the source, the app preserves the historical record while marking that source absence separately.