NOTES: Board Meeting, 10/14/08

The Board Meeting Tuesday, October 14th will be re-broadcast on Channel 96 on Wednesdays at 6 p.m.; Fridays at 9 a.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. . To view the full agenda and the various reports, please visit BoardDocs.

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.

Executive session - 12 p.m.
Call to order - 1 p.m.

• Pledge of Allegiance, Maurice J. McDonough High School's JROTC unit

REPORT - Superintendent's Update to the Board

• CISCO - telepresence
• 5th graders to visit CSM
• CSM Board of Trustees Meeting
• Parent@ School- looking for replacement

REPORT - Board Member Updates (no report available)

• Wise - Re-creation of rainforest
• Wise - Phone call from Connie Graves re: recycling
• Carrington - recommends CC Government to supply bins
• Pedersen - what counts results have been emailed
• Berringer - sporting events recycling
• Abell - Q & A Meeting. Than k you to Carrington and Wade for attending. Topics discussed included recycling, hand washing, school zones, school lunches
• Cook - Suggests all BOE members to conduct meetings
• Pedersen - great idea but more than one member at a time
• Carrington - visiting schools
• Wade - MABE committees

REPORT - Education Association of Charles County Update

• Read report
• Pedersen - will forward What Counts results
• (BTW, since these were mentioned throughout the board meeting, I have since requested they be posted for the public viewing...still waiting)

REPORT - Student Board Member Update

• Thanks to Wise and Cook for attending
• Safe driving

REPORT - Deputy Superintendent Update - School Recognitions (no report available)

• Enrollment 26,731 students...up 557 from last year
• 3,192 students new to Charles County
• Out of the 3,192 students new to Charles County, 1,436 are attending school for the first time
• Changes in County Recognition program - wants to change to one per semester instead of quarterly and hold one at each high school on all the same night..
• Abell - concern with parents no getting to see both children if at different high schools
• Richmond - trying to increase parent participation and attendance; no way not to conflict with some other event
• Wise - What if we did only three high schools
• Pedersen - Talked about personal experiences
• Abell - suggests six different dates
• Richmond - won't work; trying for one year

REPORT - Finance Update - FY2008 Audit Presentation; Audit Report; Budget Update

• Met 9/30 deadline
• All is good
• Read report

REPORT - Supporting Service Update - CIP update

• All schools have recycle dumpsters and blue bins but not enough for every classroom
• Read report
• Security system - remotely monitoring from all over the country regarding alarms. Not a physical body at the building monitoring systems on nights, weekends, and holidays.

REPORT - Instruction Update - Student Service Learning; PowerPoint

• See report and power point
• Abell - pointed out that an organization does NOT have to be a member of the United Way in order to qualify for this

REPORT - Instruction Update - Title I Parent Involvement Policy; CCPS Policy

• See report

REPORT - Instruction Update - Testing

• See report (all 8,455 pages; jk) ...covers MSA's, SAT''s, and AP's...lots of information
• Abell - Asked for numbers of graduating seniors "predicting" they will be attending universities, 2-year colleges, vocational, military, etc.
• Eichel - That information is in the graduation programs
• Abell - unfortunately didn't save them from all the graduations for the last three years
• Eichel - will compile data and forward
• Abell - asked for AP scores by high school, by course
• Eichel - already on the CCBOE website
• Abell - reason for not including in this report
• Eichel - didn't want to make the report to lengthy
• Abell - ROFLOL

REPORT - Instruction Update - New Health Curriculum - (Moved to November)

REPORT - Human Resources Update - Teacher Retention

• See report
• Abell - student teachers...o we still have; haven't seen any in my visits to schools over the last few years
• Hettel - not as many; University of Maryland students stay around campus; occasionally we will get some that live in this area

UNFINISHED BUSINESS -

• Carrington - National Conference, thinks we should go, it's in the budget
• Cook - agreed; most MABE members are going
• Wise - FEA sponsors can't go to their conference?
• Cunningham - Talking to the principals tomorrow about this. Also, parents have to fund their students. In this economic turmoil, there may not be as many attending anyway.

NEW BUSINESS - Contract Award for Full-Day Kindergarten

Motion by Wise; Second by Pedersen
Accept Superintendent's recommendation
Unanimous
PASSED

FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS -

• Wade - thank you to board members for participating and attending all that you do
• Wade - New high school briefing paper
• Wade - 10/27 forum; no work session this month
• Pedersen - what counts information; November work session
• Abell - school lunch program from start to finish; where do we get the food, who decides the food, which schools prepare on-site; nutritional value; costs, etc.

RECOGNITION - 4:30 p.m. - October Recognitions

PUBLIC FORUM - 6 p.m. (Rules)

• Male - "Drive to Survive"; teaches officers how to respond to emergencies safely. Program to minimize panic behind the wheel. Sheriff Coffey endorsement. Wants to offer to all students. Offer twice a month. Eight hour program for 15 students and awareness clinic for parents
• (I just wanted to add here...this gentleman brought the car simulator and I had a chance to try it out after the meeting...I was impressed. You wear goggles that has a video while your actually sitting in a car and using the pedals and steering wheels. Similar to a video game. I don't know how useful this would be in actually letting the students FEEL a car sliding across ice or how not to over correct when you drop of the edge of the road)

ACTION - Minutes September 9, 2008; Motions September 9; Minutes September 30, 2008

Motion by Carrington; Second by Wise
Accept the Minutes
Unanimous
PASSED

ACTION - Personnel

Motion by Wise; Second by Pedersen
Accept Superintendent's recommendation
Unanimous
PASSED

ACTION - FY 2009 Comprehensive Maintenance Plan

Motion by Wise; Second by Cook
Accept Superintendent's recommendation
Unanimous
PASSED