Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Notes from the Board of Education Meeting, 3/8/11

The Board Meeting on Tuesday, March 8th will be re-broadcast on Comcast Channel 96, Verizon FIOS Channel 12 and is available via webstream at http://www.ccboe.com/ . 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, North Point High School's JROTC unit

Superintendent's update - See report

Legislative audit report, pupil transportation follow up

  • See Report
  • Public vs. Private transportation
  • No compelling reason to undergo conversion at this time.
Correspondence/Board Member updates - Maryland Commission on Education Effectiveness
  • Abell - MABE Budget Committee Meetings scheduled for 7/11/11 & 7/26/11
  • Bowie - Westlake Senior Portfolio
  • Lukas - Chess Tournament
  • Pedersen - Maryland Council of Education Effect (see attached report)
Education Association of Charles County update  - see report

Student Board Member update - see report

Assistant Superintendent Update
  • Maryland Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning Survey (TELL)
  • Athletic eligibility recommendations - see report...residency issues and requirements; task force/committee working on.  Future superintendent rule change would require students to actually be living in the residence (as opposed to a home in the process of being built) before being eligible for athletics
CIP update
  • Wise was invited by Commissioner President Kelly to attend a meeting with herself and Dr. Lever on March 3.  Ms. Wise also invited Mr. Richmond, Ms. Cook, Mr. Wineland.
  • Dr. Lever said, if the high school is delayed, a plan is needed and a protection for the already prepared land.
  • Budget Director for the County suggests we put CIP items on hold for 5 years & build the school and let it sit for one year
  • Richmond concerned about safety issues regarding postponing CIP items for 5 years and also about the operating costs for this new high school.
  • Wineland - met with county staff for follow-up.  How would we pay for emergencies like Jenifer Elementary roof? 
  • If we delay the project one year, due to the economy it would increase the cost of the school by approximately 10 million dollars, which the state will NOT pay.
  • Open bids on the school next week. 
Motion to hold a work session on 3/21/11 to discuss by Pedersen; Second by Lukas
Unanimous


Motion to go into executive session by Pedersen; Second by Cook
Unanimous

Mathematics programs and Charles County Public Schools Educational Showcase
  • See report - PLEASE LOOK AT THIS, VERY INFORMATIVE ON NEW MATH
  • Abell - asked about Computer Science no longer counting as a Tech Ed credit mandated by the state.  Anne Arundel was able to file a waiver by altering the curriculum. Possible for us to look into this?
  • Estep - They are exploring this and other possibilities/courses
  • CCPS Educational Showcase, Saturday April 2, 2011 at North Point High School from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.  Free and open to the public.  64 workshops, etc.; transportation can be provided
School calendar 2012-2013
  • will be available online soon. 
  • One consensus was to use President's Day as a make-up snow day, leaving the spring break intact.  This can be enacted for the coming school year also.
Legislative update
  • The sky is falling
  • No really, it's falling
  • Hail & sleet (is anyone reading this?)
  • Looks as though the pension funding is going to get pushed local
  • House Bill 858 -supply concussion information to students and parents and would disallow students to return to activity without a medical note
  • House Bill 977 - allows students to attend any school in the county with open seats (baa haa haa)
  • Bakare - Students are supporting Bill 858
Unfinished business - none

New business -none

Future agenda items
  • Abell - Discipline Policy
  • Pedersen - board to talk about vision and goals
  • Lukas - Guidelines/policy in place for funding new schools obviously doesn't work; possibility of discussing ways to fund new schools
  • Wade - Update on breathing apparatus' put in schools a few years ago.  (defibrillators)
Recognition 4:30 p.m.
Students
Madison French, Academic Achievement, Mudd
Kyle Smith, Personal Responsibility, Middleton
Marshe Hill, Personal Responsibility, Smallwood
Ciara Albrittain, Career Readiness, Piccowaxen
Kinsey Polk, Academic Achievement, Diggs
Jennifer DeMarco, Academic Achievement, Stone

Employees
Jason R. Peer, school counselor, Mudd

Carey L. Rohrbaugh, teacher, Diggs
Anne K. Ward, English teacher, Stone
Nina M. Capuano, teacher, Middleton
William Marchione, counselor, Piccowaxen
Jennifer A. Kelley, instructional assistant, Smallwood
Daniel Meltsner, Charles County's Outstanding Educator for Use of Technology

Resolutions
Month of the Young Child
National Student Leadership Week

Public Forum 6 p.m.

Action items
Minutes

Motion to accept by Abell; Second by Pedersen
Unanimous
Personnel
Motion to accept by Abell; Second by Pedersen
Unanimous

Adjournment

5 comments:

LegalBeaglette said...

The sky is not falling. It did not hail, and there was no sleet; it was a perfectly beautiful day. :)

Anonymous said...

Legal--please explain your comments. Is there not a financial crisis in this county? Is education not having significant cuts? Does the shifting of pensions to local boes not have a dramatic impact on the boe budgets and teacher's take home pay? Are you mocking this situation?

Jennifer Abell said...

Anonymous,
Don't be so quick to jump or assume the worse. LegalBeaglette was actually referring to a comment I made in my notes. Look under Legislative Update and I embedded a few questions to just see if anyone actually read the notes. Evidently, LegalBeaglette does :)

Anonymous said...

INCLEMENT WEATHER - The sky is ALWAYS falling at Radio Station Road when budget time rolls around. Can't remember a year in the past 15 or more years when the budget boogey man wasn't on the prowl, making it "the worst year ever!" Puhleeze. "Significant cuts" gee, never heard that phrase before. [Not!] Please explain why you need more than $11,000 a year to educate my son. Can the school board spell r-e-p-r-i-o-r-i-t-i-z-e?

TEACHER PENSION - Our LOCAL commissioners, school board members, delegation, and EACC members were pushing hard for that cushy pension they got a few years back. The push came from the LOCAL level, let the locals pay for it! Maybe at some point in time they will learn to look farther ahead than the tips of their noses when they push legislation. My pension and other benefits affects my take home pay. Why should teachers be any different?

Anonymous said...

I find it very interesting that Ms. Transparency Peterson (that was her campaign promise wasn't it?)made a motion to go into executive session in the middle of a public board meeting. The lady bats a thousand.