Notes from Board Meeting, 1/8/08

The televised Board Meeting will be replayed on Channel 96 on Wednesdays at 9:00 am and Sundays at 2:00 pm for your viewing enjoyment :)

The below notes are my personal notes and are not intended to be all-inclusive or official minutes for the Board of Education meetings and are provided as a request from my supporters and the general public in a personal effort to be more transparent. Although I have diligently tried to make these notes as unbiased and accurate as possible, I am only human and do make mistakes. Please follow-up for official minutes upon approval. For copies of printed reports presented visit Board Docs.

Recognition - Summary

Election of Chair

• Nominations - Wade 6; Wise 1

*Motion by Wise, seconded by Bailey to approve Wade as Chair
Unanimous
PASSED

Election of Vice-Chair

• Nominations - Wise 7

*Motion by Bailey, seconded by Cook to approve Wise as Vice-Chair
Unanimous
PASSED

Public Forum

• Female - Parent Visitation Policy; concerned with only being able to observe classroom twice in a 9-week period. Progress reports...it's too late to help. Trying to help son succeed in school.
• Female - Parent Visitation Policy. Not parent friendly. Wants a chance to observe more often. Success of North Point...will there be another similar school

Action - Approval of Minutes

• View Minutes from 12/11/07

*Motion by Wise, seconded by Carrington to accept the Minutes from 12/11/07
Unanimous
PASSED

Report – Superintendent – Jim Richmond (Given by Ron Cunningham)

• View Report
• First semester almost over
• Started annual school visits
• Richmond keynote speaker at Public Services Summit held in Stockholm Sweden
• It's Academic competition - Stone winner
• First JROTC Military Ball a success
• 1/30 appeal for school construction funding
• HS portfolio interviews

Correspondence/Board Member Updates

• Carrington - MABE Federal Relations Network Committee Meeting
• Wade - New MABE committee with Governor
• Wise - Legislation committee meeting with delegate and legislation
• Abell - Updates from board subcommittees
• Wade - Will get date for "What Counts" MABE availability
• Wise - Task Staff Committee will meet this month

Report – EACC – Meg McDonald; McMahon

• View Update
• Testing and time consumption. Asks board take a long hard look at testing especially the non-mandated ones. Need more time teaching.
• Contact legislatures and speaking points
• Drug/alcohol Policy - confidentiality of medical data is a concern
• Abell - possible rewording of policy to address issue
• McDonald - have results delivered to employee not employer; employee responsible for producing a negative result
• Pedersen - employee can present RX drugs.
• Pedersen - Testing reduction was part of her campaign and is interested in reaching a compromise
• Cook - RX abuse. Have an opportunity to list RX before being tested.
• Cook - Committed to reducing testing

Report - Student Board Member - Ashin Shah

• Met with Cunningham, Middleton, Coffey, State Farm re: teen driving
• Other passengers; cell phones; music
• Bring back Drivers Ed to school day; tougher driving laws
• Feb 4 students meet w/ Middleton to draft legislation on teen driving
• Legislative Session at Chopticon
• Wise 2/2 Shah will be filming It's Academic in DC
• Wise - impressed with CCASC meeting
• Richmond - CSM partnership to set up a drivers ed program at every high school on school grounds after school
• Pedersen - Thank you for invite. Impressed also. CSM program good. Requires parents participation a plus.
• Abell - private sector concerns about being cut-out of drivers ed partnership
• Richmond - College program not ours. Private sector will be considered. Nothing finalized
• Carrington - Same concerns
• Cunningham - Meeting with CSM and principals & staff. CSM offered their program at our facilities. Students to ride activity buses home. Process of drafting an agreement. Drivers Ed private sector is a for profit and our policy would not permit their participation. CSM is non-profit.

Report - Deputy Superintendent - Ron Cunningham, Keith Grier - Student Services - PBIS

• View Student Service PBIS; Bill in Congress
• For all students; attendance on the rise; teacher retention rising; reduction in office referrals
• State no longer provides training; CCPS trains Calvert & St. Mary's as well.
• Wise - State stop training and we are doing? Are we getting any funds?
• Grier - $1,500 and national speakers
• Cook - local sponsors - prizes? High School - awards? Concerned about quality of training if not nationally done? price per school to implement.
• Grier - Never broke down by school. Quite expensive to go to training. Better if we do it here and get the speakers to come to us.
• Dr. Valez - Partnerships like John Hopkins. Make HS part of the team. Reduced process to events or concessions.
• Carrington - Time involved per school or teacher for training
• Grier - Several days over the summer and then on location occasionally throughout the year
• Wise - How do you get other schools on board
• Grier - They come to us; need another person to help Dr. Valez
• Pedersen - Other programs working at other schools
• Dr. Valez - Other programs are incorporated with PBIS

Report – Instruction - Judy Estep - Freshman Seminar

• View Freshman Seminar Report
• 9th grade help socially and academically
• includes financial literacy; visual and media literacy; research and communication skills; abstinence workshop; stress management; Cornell note taking; work expectations; school culture
• "7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens"
• Cook - Financial literacy - tie in with college funding? and writing skills
• Estep - Yes. Journal is incorporated
• Abell - concern with "mandatory". Do parents know they can opt-out
• Estep - We do not advertise that you can opt-out because we want all to take it
• Abell - Other semester courses if opt out
• Estep - Health
• AS - Quality of course across all HS; way to measure
• Estep - Same curriculum; teachers are required to follow; students asked for input; no way to measure
• Carrington - Some things shouldn't be optional; is that the only financial literacy
• Estep - No
• Cook - How is the information presented
• Estep - Every day is different and every lesson is different
• Wise - Grade course
• Estep - Yes

Report – Supporting Services (CIP)- Chuck Wineland, Steve Hagis, Jerry Barrett

• See report CIP Update
• Neal is 65% complete
• Somers pPhase I complete; Phase II begins on 1st floor
• Craik still needs work on controls and balancing. Complete by 1/31
• Mt Hope Health Dept requested percolation test for waste water system replacement
• Diggs portable classroom modular facility almost complete
• Will have appt time for annual "beg-a-thon" by end of week
• Cook - portables with restrooms and water?
• Hagis - need sanitary lines and they are not where we need the relocateables. Very cost prohibitive
• Wise - Bulging brick at Craik? Carpet?
• Wineland - Due to leaky roof. New carpet to come.
• Pedersen - North Point usage fees email
• Wineland - Numerous out-of-county requests; Parks & Rec and government teams are still exempt

Report - Budget - Paul Balides

• View Report Budget Update
• On target
• Pedersen - What would budget cut from state do to our budget with the addition of another school. Where would we take it?
• Balides - State has not finalized cut

Action - Personnel

*Motion by Wise, seconded by Pedersen to approve Personnel
Unanimous
PASSED

Action - Drug Alcohol Testing Program Policy

• See Report Drug/Alcohol Testing Program Policy #1, #2
• Specifically a drug/alcohol test
• Cook - Training specifics
• Hettel - DOT training. Already implemented with bus drivers
• Carrington - enough personnel available to implement
• Hettel - Definitely. Only foresee possibily 2-3 per year
• Carrington - Almost every industry has a testing program in effect
• Wise - Why do we even accpet .04
• Hettel - State standard
• Pedersen - Concerned we haven't received public input, whats the rush
• Abell - Clarification...two meetings are standard if no major changes have been made. It was a report item last month and an action item this month. Same test already performed for bus drivers
• Bailey - Rules...Alford Plea and no lo contender (sp) are they the same
• Schwartz - Alford Plea means enough evidence to convict. Treated as a guilty.

*Motion by Abell, seconded by Wise to approve Drug/Alcohol Testing Program Policy
Yes = Abell, Bailey, Carrington, Pedersen, Wade, Wise; No = Cook
PASSED

Unfinished Business

• Abell - Policy 8000 - advised Board we need to revise at the November meeting
• Wade - March work session

New Business - Board Meeting Time

• Wise - Recommends Executive session at 11; lunch at 12; meeting begins at 1; recognition at 4:30; Public forum at 5:30
• Cook - 6:30 time great for commuters
• Abell - Need public forum before action items
• Cook - Accept emails and letter correspondance
• Abell - recommend postponing and receive feed back from communication advisory committee
• Pedersen - concerned with staff staying late and with changing times too quickly
• Wise - agress with Abell to get recommendations
• Carrington - Doesn't think we need to ask the community for every decision we make
• Cook - postpone
• Postponed for input from committee

New Business - Usage Fees at North Point Fields

• out of county organizations; numerous requests
• change does nothing to community service or government teams/organizations
• county budget discussion
• Carrington - Are they asking to use NP specifically; YES
• Wineland - Nothing changes for in county
• Carrington - What happens to funds collected? Life expectancy of field?
• Richmond - funds stay at NP for maintenance of field
• Wineland - Frequency of use and type of use
• Richmond - Told it would be maintenance free for 10 years and then major renovations
• Cook - How did staff come up with the fee schedule
• Wineland - Same as convocation center at NP
• Abell - Specifically...LPBK & Westlake Bulldogs are exempt from fee?
• Wineland - When they are playing in county teams under the umbrella of community services. If they hold fundraisers, they are no longer under the umbrella of community services. If they invite out-of-county teams they are no longer under the umbrella.
• Abell - Urgency of tonight over next month
• Wineland - Numerous requests from agencies
• Pedersen - Staff time charged
• Wineland - $40 per hour event supervisor
• Bailey - Cost to renovate field in 10 years
• Wineland - approx. $700,000
• Bailey - approx anticipated revenue
• Wineland - too many unknowns
• Bailey - Private schools??
• Abell - Still concerned with our in-county youth teams and their vitality. No problem charging out-of-county organizations youth and adults but concerned how this will adversely affect our youth organizations.
• Abell - If pay $1,000 fee can the agency sell concessions. Currently Boosters are required
• Wineland - No. Health department rules
• Pedersen - Other facilities they can use such as local parks.

*Motion by Bailey, seconded by Wise to accept the Superintendent's Recommendation
Yes = Bailey, Carrington, Cook, Pedersen, Wade, Wise; No = Abell
PASSED

Future Agenda Items

• Cook - Testing and teacher work load
• Abell - Clarification...lists of test, when given, work load on teachers not how or what. Possibly slim down
• Pedersen - agrees

ADJOURNED