C & I Meeting this afternoon

Oh Boy! The Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee meeting this afternoon is going to be good! I'm going to be there for sure. Just check out this list of discussion items from the agenda:

Committee Discussion Items
a. BAR for Yearbook Contract (Shauna/Kathleen/Misa)
b. Policy 3130, Student Assignment (Shauna/Ronald/Janet B.)
c. Policy 2415, High School Graduation Requirement (Michael/Janet B.)
d. Career and Technical Education Annual Report (Mary)
e. BAR for RTTT Project 4 (Clover, Eric C., Anna)
f. Equitable Access Annual Report (Michael/Misa)
g. Math Adoption Progress Report (Shauna/Eric/Adam/Shawn)
h. Policy 2090, Program Evaluation and Assessment (Marty/Shauna)

Nevermind the yearbook contract (how is that even a C&I issue), nearly everything else is a hot topic - or could be.

Student Assignment policy 3130. First, this is a policy, which is what the Board should be talking about. Honestly, though, that policy is nearly perfect. I can't imagine what they have to discuss. That said, any talk about student assignment is packed with high emotion.

High School Graduation Requirement policy 2415. Again the Board is talking about policy. How wonderful! The Board doing their job. I love to see this. The State Board of Education is pushing for a 24 credit graduation requirement - as they have been for some time. The State Legislature, however, doesn't fund that so it has been deferred until the legislature comes up with the money to pay for it. Everyone says that will happen soon, but no one is foolish enough to hold their breath. The existing policy is very good and doesn't appear to need any revisions. I wonder if Mr. Tolley and his secretive High School Steering Committee are looking to remove or lower the GPA requirements again. This, too, is a highly charged topic.

CTE Annual Report. Wouldn't it be nice if the Board actually required an annual report to contain all of the elements that are required by the policy that calls for the annual report?

RTTT Project BAR. I fully expect some talk here about student data, the issue of the year for public education.

Equitable Access Annual Report. I am looking forward to this more than anything else at the meeting. The Board policy that calls for this annual report (2200) requires that the report:

shall be an annual report that provides detail about all the decisions that were made in the prior year and how those decisions relate to the eight decision making criteria outlined in this policy.

The Board has made requirements of the superintendent like this for years and no superintendent has ever complied. Mr. Banda's report last year was woefully inadequate but he used the excuse that he didn't make the decisions and didn't know their basis. He doesn't have that excuse this year. I fully expect another woefully inadequate report. I would be delighted to get a good one, but that just isn't my expectation. If yet another inadequate report is submitted - and this is my real hope - the Board can demand one that meets the requirements of the policy. That would be the best possible outcome. That would be the culmination of a lot of advocacy on my part. I don't expect it, but even the slim possibility of it is enough to bring me to the meeting to witness it.

Math Adoption Progress Report. Another hot topic.

Policy 2090, Program Evaluation and Assessment. Again, the Board talking about policy. Wonderful! The Board just got the annual report for this, so wouldn't it be nice if the topic of conversation was about how the report they received utterly failed to meet the requirements set out in the policy? Wouldn't that be great! I would cry with joy to hear something like that, and this is where I expect I would hear it. Not at a full Board meeting, but in a Committee meeting like this.