The public forum was held as planned. Over 25 great people attended including Board members Anne Weiland, Faith Vanderhorst, and Board President Kathy Shurilla. Dave Petroff, who has volunteered to help with School District communications, came to observe but offered valuable insight as well. A teacher came and was a great contributor to the meeting asking some tough questions and providing valuable front line information.
Thank you all for coming. There were a lot of great questions by citizens and some candid and informative responses by board members. I have invited the other attending board members to post their notes and/or thoughts on this blog when convenient. I would like to hear from those who attended as well. Here are most of the issues raised in no particular order:
What is happening with the Reconfiguration (restructuring of 9-12 High School) and how can the public get in on the process?
What are the benchmarks for measuring academic performance in our (or any) School District?
What is being done for the “middle” student who is not learning disabled or gifted but needs some type of tutoring to become proficient in a subject?
What is the real deal with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation? Do we get money from this program or is it just an unfunded mandate. Note: I think everyone in the room wanted more information about this. We need an impartial person to come to a public forum and give us the lowdown on NCLB.
What is up with the Math program? Is it working or failing? Would a public forum presented to the public from the Math department be useful? Yes! was the unanimous feeling.
How do the Chapter 220 and open enrollment programs work? How does the School District get compensated for those students? What plans do we have for these programs? How do these students impacti our test scores? Note: Statistically, very little. More on this later.
Why isn’t more effort made to retain and recruit students within the district?
What is up with all of the days and half days off?
Why are we offering the minimum amount of teaching days/hours in our school calendar?
What is the best way for the School District to communicate with parents? What is the best way for parents to communicate with the School District? Could the PTAs help with communications issues in their respective schools?
Why aren’t the children in 4K getting school information like other students?
Well, there you go. I may have unintentionally omitted some items due to the responsibilities of moderating the meeting but that is pretty much it. I love meetings like this where there is a real desire to get information, debate issues and find solutions to improve the district.
Let’s do this again. Thank you all.
