Notes from Board of Education Work Session, 11/28/11

The Board of Education Work Session on Monday, November 28 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.

Call to order – 6 p.m. - Pledge of Allegiance
Public Forum

• None

Work session discussions
Student transfers committee update

• Abell - review of new Superintendent's Rules #5126.
• Schwartz - reviewed in detail
• Various principals gave input
• (Sorry got involved in conversation and didn't record everything...nothing with major heartburn)
• Will return in December as a Report Item and in January as an Action Item

Goals

• Benchmark #1 - to be reworded
• Benchmark #2 - recommendation to come from staff
• Benchmark #3 - deleted
• Benchmark #4 - deleted
• Benchmark #5 - to be reworded
• Benchmark #6 - deleted
• Benchmark #7 - deleted
• Benchmark #8 - deleted
• Benchmark #9 - to be reworded
• Benchmark #10 - reworded to increase the # of courses offered w/distance learning
• Pedersen - Bullying issues; Abell recommended including it with Benchmark #5 above pertaining to Safe Schools
• Pedersen - local control; conferring with state and federal leaders - possible communication type goal
• Pedersen - academic rigor
• Pedersen - recruiting minority teachers - deleted
• Pedersen - wants goal to include ESOL curriculum - will be report item
• Wade - IB program - cost prohibitive -
• Wade - educational exchange program - possible communication type benchmark
• Wade - joint military ball - deleted as a benchmark; annual event
• Lukas - parent involvement, tutoring available at centralized locations; Abell pointed out tutoring is available at libraries; maybe under communication goal for publicizing
• Lukas - SAT issue already addressed in previous Benchmarks
• Lukas - involvement of local civic organizations - communications
• Bowie - internal board communication; retreats; possible Board administration
• Bowie - proactive in community involvement; possible board communication goal
• Abell - previous goals and benchmarks reviewed - done
• Abell - Board subcommittees - board administration goal
• Wise - Board subcommittee for Benchmarks and Goals; Lukas, Bowie, Abell. Recommendations due at the work session at the end of February

Wise advised that MABE's fee for the Superintendent Search is $24,000

Adjournment

REMINDER: Board of Education Work Session, 11/28/11

The Board of Education of Charles County is holding a work session at 6 p.m., Monday, Nov. 28, at the Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building in La Plata. The meeting will be aired live on Comcast Channel 96 and Verizon FiOS Channel 12, and streamed live on the school system Web site at http://www2.ccboe.com/boe/live/.

The agenda is as follows:

Call to order – 6 p.m.

•  Pledge of Allegiance

Public Forum

Work session discussions

• Student transfers committee update
• Goals

Adjournment

High school hazing worries educators

Michael Alison Chandler
The Washington Post
November 14, 2011

The principal of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School said she tried for years to rein in hazing during homecoming week. One day each fall, older students would shower ninth-graders with paint, pelt them with ketchup, yell “Go back to Westland!” — the local middle school — and occasionally rough them up.

Karen Lockard banned spray paint on campus. She brought in an anti-bullying expert for an assembly. She encouraged classroom discussions about values.

None of that stopped this year’s Color Day spirit event from becoming, once again, “freshman beat-down day.” One student went to a hospital after being assaulted, and many wound up plastered in paint. It got so out of hand that Lockard canceled next year’s Color Day. “It’s hard to change tradition,” she said.

The episode last month in Montgomery County underscored that hazing persists in Washington area high schools, despite efforts to stamp it out.

“Whether you call it hazing or rites of passage, I’ve seen unacceptable behavior in high schools,” said Montgomery Superintendent Joshua P. Starr. “Our older kids should be helping our younger students succeed in school, not making them feel afraid.”

Read more HERE.

On Maryland tobacco farms, turning a tradition into potential health benefits

Surprise! A positive article about tobacco!


[The 2011 Charles County Fair Queen -- Queen Nicotina LXXVI -- is Ms. Meaghan Pfeiffer, who was sponsored by La Plata HS SGA. Ms. Jacqueline James was first runner-up and Ms. Kourtney Wathen was second runner-up.]

Ann Gerhart
The Washington Post
November 14, 2011

Can tobacco, the weed with a killer reputation, be the next miracle drug?

Warning: The subject of this exploration will constrict your blood vessels, choke your windpipe and dispatch you to an early grave, 5 million of you a year. The most lucrative crop the Americas have ever seen, it kept the British at bay, kept the enslaved entrapped, kept Hollywood sexy. Until it didn’t anymore.

Stipulation: Deep bows to the great public health triumph of wrestling Big Tobacco to the mat and changing human behavior. Never before were millions persuaded to give up a highly pleasurable, relatively cheap habit because it was bad for them. And never since.

But: Tobacco itself refuses to die. It’s stubborn. It’s meant to grow here. The seeds are tiny as a flea and germinate like crazy. In less than a month, you can have a robust green crop that’s good for much more than smoking. You can grow vaccines in it. Extract protein from it. Make drugs from it.

Ten years after Maryland became the only state to use its tobacco settlement money to pay hundreds of farmers to quit growing the evil sot-weed, it’s turning out that tobacco has redemptive virtues. Nobody needed to bother exploiting them before; the stuff was so fabulously successful for 400 years as a vice. Even nicotine, the natural and highly addictive chemical in tobacco, has its benefits.

People smoked in part because a cigarette could calm you down and pep you up. Now research studies are exploring exactly how nicotine may safely halt cognitive decline and help those with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, schizophrenia and attention problems. The pure nicotine in the smoking cessation patch used in these studies is extracted from an American product that American farmers know how to grow.

Read more HERE.

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

The Board of Education Meeting on Tuesday, November 8 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- 10 a.m.
Call to order- 1 p.m. - Pledge of Allegiance

Superintendent's update to the Board - Read Report

Correspondence/Board member updates

• Wade - attended MABE Directors Retreat at BWI last week.  Survey for State Superintendent; encourages raise in board member salary
• Pedersen - Plays  & choral performances in Charles County high schools; legislative committee updates via email
• Bowie - Library is having holiday giveaway of eReaders, Nook, or Kindle; Daughters of American Revolution, citizenship contest.
• Wise - Adult graduation ceremony

Student Board member update - Read Report

Deputy Superintendent update - Results of Tell Survey.  See Report

CIP update - See report.

• Neal, Davis, and Diggs need to be redistricted.  Committee is forming and will be complete by end of this school year.

CCPS Environmental Education - See report

Substitutes - See report

• Cook - Substitutes should have at least an Associates degree.
• Pedersen - would like a report via updates on what this would do to our numbers.
• Bowie - are recent high school graduates allowed to sub in high schools?   NO, must be 21
• Lukas - clarification on requested report

Testing results - See report

Unfinished business

• Pederesen - non-residents attending schools, update.
• Richmond - 39 students were removed last year and it was a lot of work.  Still following up students.  13 students has been removed from North Point this year.

New business - None

Future agenda items - None

Recognition- 4:30 p.m.

• Students - Sydney Marohn-Johnson, fifth grade, Career Readiness, Dr. James Craik Elementary School; Katherine (Katie) Czysz, fifth grade, Personal Responsibility, Dr. Thomas Higdon Elementary School; Cole Lucia, fifth grade, Academic Achievement, Malcolm Elementary School; Isabella Glaze, eighth grade, Academic Achievement, Benjamin Stoddert Middle School
• Staff - Jillian M. Durr, elementary teacher, Craik; Mary Kate Long, Reading Resource teacher, Higdon; Lori A. Gould, Pre-School/LEEP Assistant, Malcolm, Theresa (Wanda) Proctor, school counselor, Stoddert Maryland School Counseling Association's Advocate of the Year Award: Ronald G. Cunningham, Deputy Superintendent of Schools

Public Forum- 6 p.m.

Action items

• Minutes
Motion to accept October 4th Minutes by Pedersen; Second by Bowie
Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook, Lukas, Pedersen, Wise;  Abstain = Wade
Motion to accept October 11th Minutes by Cook; Second by Pedersen
Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook, Lukas, Pedersen, Wade, Wise
Motion to accept October 24th Minutes by Cook; Second by Pedersen
Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook, Lukas, Pedersen, Wade; Abstain = Wise
• Personnel
Motion to accept by Abell; Second by Pedersen
Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook, Lukas, Pedersen, Wade, Wise
• Legislative positions 2012
Motion to accept by Pedersen; Second by Bowie
Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook, Lukas, Pedersen, Wade, Wise
• Ethics policy
Motion to accept by Lukas; Second by Pedersen
Yes = Abell, Bowie, Cook, Lukas, Pedersen, Wade, Wise

Adjournment

REMINDER: Board of Education Meeting, 11/8/11

The Board of Education's next monthly meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 8 at the Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building on Radio Station Road in La Plata. The public portion of the meeting begins at 1 p.m. and student and staff recognition starts at 4:30 p.m. The meeting is televised live on Comcast Channel 96 and Verizon FiOS 12 and is rebroadcast throughout the week. All televised Board meetings are also streamed live on the school system Web site at http://www2.ccboe.com/boe/live/.

Executive session- 10 a.m.

Call to order- 1 p.m. - Pledge of Allegiance

Superintendent's update to the Board

Correspondence/Board member updates

Education Association of Charles County update

Student Board member update

Deputy Superintendent update

CIP update

CCPS Environmental Education

Substitutes

Testing results

Unfinished business

New business

Future agenda items

Recognition- 4:30 p.m.

• Students
• Staff

Public Forum- 6 p.m.

Action items

• Minutes
• Personnel
• Legislative positions 2012
• Ethics policy

Adjournment