Notes from Board of Education Meeting 5/10/11

The Board Meeting on Tuesday, May 10th 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, Henry E. Lackey High School's JROTC unit

Recognition of student liaisons

Superintendent's update  - See report

Correspondence/Board Member updates

• Pedersen - Employee Breakfast
• Wise - Ethics Panel Letter stating they found no violations or concerns

Education Association of Charles County update  - Read report

Student Board Member update - read report

Discipline update  - read report

• Suspension to the Superintendent happens within 7-10 days and is recorded.
• Abell - students possibly staying in school until appeal process plays through and then serving the suspension
• Wise - do we move students to another school like Fairfax county does.  No.
• Pedersen - bullying, student victims are still in the same school with the suspect.  Victims are offered counseling and in extreme cases could ask for a school transfer.
• Abell - Can the suspect be moved to another school or is it always the victim?
• Dr. Vaira - Yes as of 2010 Safe School Act
• Abell - Zero tolerance or gray areas?
• Cunningham - Everything goes through a hearring officer.  Disciplines are based on individual infractions.
• Bowie - Parents resource; website and principal
• Pedersen - Zero tolerance does come up on our web-site as being in the middle school handbooks.  Suggestions for possibly changing the terminology from "Zero Tolerance"
• Cunningham - Will be reviewing all of them prior to next year.
• Abell - Serious offenders, ankle bracelets; how to alleviate fear of students and parents
• Dr. Vaira - offenses that occur in the community, we can not discipline in the school and therefore they cannot be moved
• Abell - Report available for parents of infractions by school similar to Montgomery County
• Cunningham - haven't currently but suspension report by school is available on web-site
• Lukas - can we have 'ankle bracelets' sent to another school
• Dr. Vaira - on a case by case basis dependent on infraction
• Pedersen - visible presence of ankle bracelets used as bullying
• Benson - Electronic monitoring students can only go back and forth to school & will go to Cheltenham immediately for any infractions; they get better grades & attendance & have better attitudes

CIP update - see report

Educational facilities master plan - see report

Handwriting - see report

• suggests replacing D'Nealian method with Handwriting Without Tears (yay! no more monkey tails)
• Cook - parents question why students need to know cursive; correlation to academic achievement
• Bowie - website on handwriting techniques and materials for parents - Yes
• Lukas - 10 - 30% of students struggle with handwriting.  Script? Cursive? in general?; General: why did we use D'Nealian to start with?  Best program at the time.  Disparity on how cursive is taught from one school to another.
• Abell - Questions have already been answered; thankful to see monkey tails gone

FY 2012 budget - read report

Out-of-county tuition fees - read report

New policy 5118 Elementary and Secondary: gang activity - see report

Unfinished business  - none

New business - none

Future agenda items - none

Presentation of Alan Shepard Award to Superintendent Richmond

Recognition 4:30 p.m.

• Students - Ashley Eastburn, T. C. Martin Elementary; Katelyn Kluh, Walter J. Mitchell Elementary; Leilani Mason, Mary B. Neal Elementary; Teghan Simonton, Matthew Henson Middle School; Crystal Simmons,Mattawoman Middle School; Aaron Kauffman,North Point High School
• Employees - Shirley Foster, language arts teacher, Matthew Henson Middle School; Jaime Wright, physical education teacher, Indian Head Elementary School; Christine Krebeck, science teacher, Walter J. Mitchell Elementary School; Jennifer DeAtley, reading resource teacher, Mary B. Neal Elementary School; Timothy Cerutti, mathematics teacher, North Point High School; Margaret Woodley, media specialist, Mattawoman Middle School; Earl Harrod, building service assistant manager, T.C. Martin Elementary School; Kathryn Stapelson, gifted education teacher, William A. Diggs Elementary School; Maryann Bourassa, gifted education resource teacher, Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building

Public Forum 6 p.m.

• Amber Schauf - Parent.  Children have been victims of bullying both verbally and physically by students and staff.  Incidents have been reported to teachers, principals, youth officers, central office, superintendent, etc.  For ten years now they have suffered verbal, physical, sexual abuse/harassment, threats of violence including explosives and guns.  Someone do something.
• Robin Tyler - Program on Bullying and the impact to the community.  Next one is May 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the Israel Total Life Ministry in Waldorf.  (Live Taping) robintylerfoundation.org

Action items

• Minutes
Motion to accept Minutes by Cook; Second by Pedersen
Yes = Unanimous

• Personnel
Motion to accept Personnel by Pedersen; Second by Wade
Yes = Unanimous

• 2012-2013 calendar
Motion to accept 2012-2013 Calendar by Abell; Second by Cook
Yes = Unanimous

Public hearing on FY 2012 budget  - no one signed up

Adjournment