Notes from Board of Education Meeting on 10/11/11

The Board Meeting on Tuesday, October 11 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, La Plata High School's JROTC unit

Superintendent's update to the Board- Read report. Click HERE.

Correspondence/Board member updates

• Abell - Student Transfer Sub-Committee has met and will be reporting its findings and presenting a recommendation at the November Work Session
• Pedersen - MABE Convention was a success.
• Wise - New Ethics forms are quite lengthy and comprehensive

Education Association of Charles County update - Read report, click HERE

Student Board member update - Read report. Click HERE

Bullying presentation - See Presentation. Click HERE

• Cook - Educating teachers and parents but the students still aren't reporting;
• Abell - Interested in our students' perspective;
• Leah (student) - Get to SGAs to present to students;
• Lukas - Read report stating it's not relative to any socioeconomic factors;
• Bowie - Article in somdnews.com on 10/7 regarding bullying;
• Taylor (student) - Look at it from the perspective of the one doing the bullying to see what the problem is that's causing them to do the bullying;
• Pedersen - Peer mediation in schools? Pamphlets in Spanish? On website?
• Wise - Upside Down Organization;
• Leah (student) - Not reported as much in high school because students are more mature and don't let it bother them as much.

CIP update - See report. Click HERE

• Abell - Commissioner Kelly referred to a "phase-in" opening of the new high school. Questions?
• Richmond - Planning on opening under capacity for 9, 10, & 11 with anticipation of the new home builds in the zone.
• Lukas - Projections for new high school enrollment based on core capacity. Now that it has changed to state rated capacity...will it change projections?
• Wineland - Rely on research and trends.
• Pedersen - Considering two family homes?
• Wineland - Transportation has software that pinpoints every child's address and name and it will be available to the redistricting committee. The name will become a number.

FY2012 independent financial audit - See report. Click HERE.

• Abell - Condensed lunches reason for loss in funds?
• Balides - Definitely. Doing time trials and trying different things at those schools to alleviate.
• Abell - Requests time trials also be done at the elementary schools based on parental complaints.
• Lukas - Ditto, Ms. Abell.

Budget update - September Financials, click HERE

STEM initiatives - See report. Click HERE

Academy of Health Professions: pharmacy technician program - See report. Click HERE

• Abell - How are the students chosen? Prerequisites? How is it advertised to the student population?
• Palko - All 10th grade classes were visited by counselor and given application. HSAs are a factor and strong Chemistry/Math background.
• Lukas - Transferable credits?
• Palko - In talks with colleges including CSM.
• Leah(Students) - Consider adding to all high schools?
• Richmond- Continue to develop in the current location at Stetham.
• Taylor - Limits on number of students per school?
• Richmond - New this year then evaluate the program and grow from there.

Recruitment and retention update - See Report. Click HERE

• Pedersen - Are we attending and trying to recruit at the black colleges?
• McDonald - Yes, we are.

Legislative update - See report. Click HERE

Unfinished business - None

New business -

• Pedersen - Everyone writing a letter to General Assembly relative to the pension?
• Consensus was to have staff write one letter for all of our signatures.

Future agenda items

• Abell - Student Transfer Subcommittee report at Work Session in November

Recognition- 4:30 p.m.

• Students - Kayla Nagle, 5th grade, Personal Responsibility, Gale-Bailey Elementary School; Michael Gill, 5th grade, Career Readiness, Mary H. Matula Elementary School; Thomas Carlyle Martin, Jr. (T.C.), 8th grade, Academic Achievement, Milton Somers Middle School; Courtney Jones, 12th grade, Academic Achievement, Maurice J. McDonough High School
• Staff - Nathan Mouli, social studies teacher, McDonough; Linda Forrest, reading resource teacher, Somers; Lauren Hoza, kindergarten teacher, Matula; Joan Matthews, media instructional assistant, Gale-Bailey
• Resolutions: American Education Week and American Freedom Week.

Public Forum- 6 p.m.

• Robin Tyler - High school drop out rate in the state of MD 3%. Invites everyone to come to a lunch at October 20, 2011, 11:30 -1:00pm at the Maryland National Guard Armory in LaPlata to discuss this issue.
• Robert Harlan - NCLB. Athletic Inelegibility. Last month's board discussions. Break down who the minorities are.

Action items

• Executive Session Minutes from 9/13/11
Motion to accept by Cook; Second by Abell
Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook, Lukas, Wade, Wise; Absent = Pedersen
• Minutes from 9/13/11
Motion to accept by Abell; Second by Lukas
Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook Lukas, Wade; Absent = Pedersen
• Minutes from Commissioner Retreat 10/4/11
Motion to accept by Cook; Second by Abell
Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook, Lukas Wise; Abstain = Wade; Absent = Pedersen
• Personnel
Motion to accept by Abell; Second by Cook
Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook, Lukas, Wade, Wise; Absent = Pedersen
• FY2012 Comprehensive Maintenance Plan

Motion to accept by Cook; Second by Lukas

Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook, Lukas, Wade, Wise; Absent = Pedersen

Adjournment