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Post by gatormom on May 2, 2008 18:08:30 GMT -5
May 5, 2008 Crouse Education Center
5:00 – 5:30 p.m. – Executive Session 5:30 – 7:00p.m. – Region 52 of the IEA-NEA – Spring Board Dinner – Prairie Children Pre-school Multi-purpose Room Agenda – start: 7:00 p.m.
AGENDA I. Call to Order - Roll Call
II. Pledge of Allegiance
III. Board Salutes
IV. High School Student Representative Report – NVHS – Sameera Rahman
V. Minutes A. Special Meeting, Board of Education – April 7, 2008 B. Executive Session – April 14, 2008 C. Regular Meeting, Board of Education – April 14, 2008 D. Executive Session – April 21, 2008 E. Special Meeting, Board of Education – April 21, 2008 Board Action:
VI. Recognitions and Resolutions A. Students B. Staff Board Action:
VII. Consent Calendar and Superintendent’s Report (Persons requesting to address the board on specific agenda items will speak when that item is brought forward.) A. Approval to Hire New Administrators, as follows: 1. Appointment of Kristine Marchiando, Principal, Waubonsie Valley High School 2. Appointment of Latrice Buck, Assistant Principal, Springbrook Elementary School (This item recommends that the Board of Education approve the Administrative Recommendation to Hire New Administrators, as presented.) (Policies #320, #320-R) B. Approval of Middle School Schedule (This item recommends that the Board of Education approve the Middle School schedule as presented. (Policy #520.03, #610) C. Approval of Printer Service Agreement (This item recommends that the Board of Education approve the FlexPrint Vendor Agreement, as presented.) (Policy #415.02) D. Approval of Textbook Adoptions: AP Computer Science I, AP Art History, Computer Applications I, Computer Applications II, Advanced Computer Applications, Data Management, and Multimedia Presentations (This item recommends that the Board of Education approve the textbook adoptions, as presented. (Policies #620, #645.11) E. Approval of Amended Board Policy #291 (This item recommends that the Board of Education approve the update to policy #291-R.) (Policy #275) F. Approval of Special Education Pilots for the 2008-09 school year as presented for the following schools: Cowlishaw Elementary, McCarty Elementary, Steck Elementary, Welch Elementary, Granger Middle School and Hill Middle School (This item recommends that the Board of Education approve the Special Education Pilots as presented.) (Policy #630.01R) G. Business & Financial Items (This item recommends that the Board of Education approve the Schedule of Bills, Treasurer’s Report, and the Other Fund Reports as presented and authorizes the Treasurer to pay the bills.) (Policy #415.01) H. Personnel Report 1. Personnel Matters 2. Leaves (Policies #521.01, #525, #540.11) 3. Resignations (Policies #520.15) 4. Employment (Policies #500.01, #500.24, #500.29, #500.28, #520.02, #520.02-R, #540.01) Board Action:
VIII. Action Items
IX. Discussion Items (no board action taken) A. High School Common Assessments – Kathy Duncan, Patrick Nolten B. Planning Calendar C. Proposed 2008-2009 Board of Education Meeting Calendar X. Board Reports/Requests
XI.Persons Requesting to Address the Board on Non-Agenda Items
XII. Executive Session (if needed)
XIII. Adjournment
Upcoming Dates/Events May 19 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education – 7:00 p.m. – CEC June 9 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education – 7:00 p.m. – CEC June 23 Regular Meeting of the Board of Education – 7:00 p.m. – CEC 4/30/08
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Post by title1parent on May 2, 2008 18:15:48 GMT -5
F. Approval of Special Education Pilots for the 2008-09 school year as presented for the following schools: Cowlishaw Elementary, McCarty Elementary, Steck Elementary, Welch Elementary, Granger Middle School and Hill Middle School (This item recommends that the Board of Education approve the Special Education Pilots as presented.) (Policy #630.01R) Does anyone know about this part of the agenda ?
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Post by lorip on May 2, 2008 18:43:25 GMT -5
On March 24, the School Board had a working session in which this Special Ed pilot program was presented by Sharon Tate, Asst. Supt. of Student Services and others within her office, to the board. Basically, 2 ES and 2 MS have been chosen as pilot schools. As part of the pilot, these schools will have more autonomy to design a delivery model that is more specific to their student special ed population. The reason behind this is because the biggest gap within this district exists between the gen ed kids and the spec ed kids in regards to test stores (those who can take the standard ISAT tests, with minimal or no modifications, so you are comparing apples to apples, so to speak). This gap ranges from a 27 point gap to a 57 point gap district wide . Dr. Daeschner has looked at this data and questions why the gap is so great. A gap will always exist, but he would ideally like to get the gap to somewhere around 15. Obviously, some schools (Cowlishaw being one of the best, according to their score) do a very good job with their delivery models while others do not do as good of a job. I was surprised to learn that my son's school, Owen, had the largest delta in the district and I consider this school to be pretty good in regard to services. However, these kids are not learning the same curriculum or are relying on the aides to modify the curriculum, when it is the special ed teacher or classroom teacher in some case, that should shoulder that responsibility. Under the new plan, that will happen a lot more.
This does not mean that aides are going away. In fact, you will see more certified teachers as a result of this initiative. However, those children who truly need an aide will have one. It will be up to the school and parents to determine the need, much as they do now with an IEP.
My interpretation is that this is a good thing for our kids with special needs. It won't be a "cookie cutter" delivery model, but one more tailored to the needs of that school's population. The schools are very excited, from what I've heard and those I've talked to so far. Some schools not even involved in the pilot are already taking their ideas and running with them. It's a very exciting time in Special Ed.
Some, of course, will question these changes. That is to be expected, especially within the special needs population. We, as special needs, parents go on alert when anyone starts making changes to special ed. We will just have to see what improvements come of it. But the fact the district is taking a good hard look at how these kids are being educated is better than doing nothing, IMO. I think people will be pleasantly surprised. I'm very hopeful and excited about it.
Lori Price IPSN PTA President
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Post by title1parent on May 2, 2008 18:49:53 GMT -5
Thank you for that information. Greatly appreciated.
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Post by lorip on May 5, 2008 22:58:46 GMT -5
I went to the meeting tonight because of the special education issues in particular. Here's what I took notes of: Board salutes: the usual salutes and recognitions of the high school students who participated in various events, competitions, etc. Bruce Glawe also saluted Mark Metzger for being named to the National School Board. Bruce went on to say that this is the first time in D204 history that a school board member has been appointed to sit on the National Board. Not only does Mr. Metzger sit on the IL school board, but now the national board as well. Sameera Rahman gave her NVHS report - only 8 days until the seniors are done! Minutes of the board meetings and special board meetings for the dates on the agenda were approved. Christine Vickers wanted it noted in the minutes that she was abstaining during the vote at the April 14 (I think that was the one) meeting. Superintendent's Report - Dave Holm talked briefly about the tax bills that recently came out and how this played into their projected numbers. Basically, they are ahead of the game by a little bit. I sort of glazed over this part - sorry There was discussion on beginning to name the new middle school in terms of board policy, etc. Kathy Birkett reviewed the policy on naming schools and suggested that they open the nominations for naming right away. Information will be made to the public on how to nominate a name, including a special website, email through 204 Enews, etc. They expect nominations to be taken for 2 weeks and will close nominations at the May 19 board meeting. They hope to have the school named sometime in June, perhaps at the June 9 board meeting, but that date is not certain. Items A, C, D, E, G, and H were all approved . Items B, C, and F were pulled out for discussion. Item B: Questions arose regarding parent correspondence and communication to parents/students, how P/A will be affected. This is slated for 2009-10 school year. Item E: FOIA updates - basically this is the same but updating it. Because of the number of inquiries in the last few years, it was time to update it. Much is the same. The only change were changing Prairie Preschool from the elementary to it's own site and Indian Plains high school to be included in "high schools" instead of "other sites". Apparently this only affects counts of the schools, not much else from what I was able to determine. Everything will be on letterhead so there is no question to the validity of the document, also. Item F: Lots of discussion here. Jeanette Clark was worried about replacing aides with certified teachers. Most schools will see a reduction in about 4 aides, but will be replaced with 1.9 certified teachers. This means that some schools might have more than one certified teacher, depending on the spec ed demographics of the school. She wants to keep abreast of the progress of this pilot and wants to see the actual reporting on these pilot schools. Sharon Tate emphasized that they will be looking deeper into the needs of their certified staff and doing more professional development. A big piece of this will also include insuring that the district provide the T/A's with the needed skills and training to do their job. John Stephens also had some concerns with the numbers of aides/cert. teachers. Bruce Glawe pointed out that if the goal of the program is educational inprovement, then why should the district remain cost neutral? If more money is needed to get these kids to desired performance level in which they can be productive citizens after they have graduated, then the board would consider more money given to the program. Something to consider if the pilots are not successful. He was very adamant about not letting the pilots determine the success or failure of our spec. ed kids. If there are other way to improve the situation with more funding, then they will look at that. (Yeah, BG!) Christine Vickers looked at the data and saw stable progress, nothing earth shattering. Her point was that it might not mean that more T/A's mean they are doing a better job, but to have more qualified teachers might make an improvement, so why NOT try it? There was more discussion about the particulars of the pilots, but overall, it was unanimously approved, with JC giving (in her words) a "very weighted 'Aye'". This item clearly had the most discussion of the agenda items. Discussion Items: Patrick Nolten talked about the HS common assessments and making those tests across all HS more standardized. Basically, this will prepare all kids to go from term to term with the same assessments and going into the next term being tested on the same material. For example, the teacher who gets a child in the next term won't be able to say "Oh you had Mrs. X or you had Mr. Y for algebra." It will be standard across the board and there will be a level playing field in terms of what the kids will tested on. (I hope I got that right - after the special ed stuff, I was fading). That's it. Let me be clear that these are MY notes. I don't claim to be perfect in my notetaking and I was trying to keep up. Again, I was mostly there for the special ed piece, so forgive me if I've left some other important details out. And please...don't shoot the messenger. I'll try to answer questions if you have them. If I don't know the answer, I'm simply going to give an honest "I don't know."
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Post by 3woodgal on May 6, 2008 4:07:40 GMT -5
Metzger on the National Board? I am so impressed since it is so well deserved? NOT!
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Post by gatormom on May 6, 2008 6:32:39 GMT -5
Metzger on the National Board? I am so impressed since it is so well deserved? NOT! Nice. This is quite an honor for D204 but go ahead, slam it. Do you know what the qualifications are? Any idea how M2 was named to the National Board? I get the impression that you are only thinking of your own personal opinion of Metzger. Apparently, others think highly of him.
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Post by whiteeaglewarrior on May 6, 2008 7:10:30 GMT -5
Metzger on the National Board? I am so impressed since it is so well deserved? NOT! Nice. This is quite an honor for D204 but go ahead, slam it. Do you know what the qualifications are? Any idea how M2 was named to the National Board? I get the impression that you are only thinking of your own personal opinion of Metzger. Apparently, others think highly of him. He has gotten alot of personal honors within the last two years. I believe quite a few people support him.
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Post by eb204 on May 6, 2008 7:27:48 GMT -5
Metzger on the National Board? I am so impressed since it is so well deserved? NOT! you know, when I was reading this, and got to the part about M2, I knew people would only latch onto that part of the notes. And then slam it, of course. Your personal feelings aside, woodgal, this is quite an achievement. Obviously, there are people at the national level that appreciate his efforts. He's made some mistakes, no doubt, but he's also served this district for 16 years doing much good for this disrict. A bigger person would see past their own dislike of someone and offer congratulations anyway, despite their own personal dislike. This just shows what type of person you are. I also saw that this was posted on the blue board as well, and so far, even no one over there has managed to slam it. I'm sure it's only a matter of time, though. I hope I'm wrong. Why not go over there and start something? It's really getting old over here.
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Post by 3woodgal on May 6, 2008 7:33:11 GMT -5
Metzger on the National Board? I am so impressed since it is so well deserved? NOT! you know, when I was reading this, and got to the part about M2, I knew people would only latch onto that part of the notes. And then slam it, of course. Your personal feelings aside, woodgal, this is quite an achievement. Obviously, there are people at the national level that appreciate his efforts. He's made some mistakes, no doubt, but he's also served this district for 16 years doing much good for this disrict. A bigger person would see past their own dislike of someone and offer congratulations anyway, despite their own personal dislike. This just shows what type of person you are. I also saw that this was posted on the blue board as well, and so far, even no one over there has managed to slam it. I'm sure it's only a matter of time, though. I hope I'm wrong. Why not go over there and start something? It's really getting old over here. Not starting anything at all. I am entitled to my opinion as so are you. You would be quite surprised to learn that "type of person I am" as it relates to my child's education and as a matter of fact over all. Oh, and good morning. Interesting how reading some comments on green that it is ok to slam Collins because you (meaning some people on this board) may not agree with him (yet he is a respectable attorney) but speaking poorly of M2 is starting something! Double standards I see. No response needed because it is going nowhere. Have a nice day.
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Post by WeNeed3 on May 6, 2008 10:17:59 GMT -5
That's interesting. I just used the search feature and looked at the last 30 posts with Collins' name in it. I saw nothing derogative and actually, there were very respectful posters with regards to him.
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