Our first Agenda item was an update and discussion of the recommendations from the Academies and Pathways Task Force. (For more information, please see this prior post).
Our Board held its monthly workshop meeting tonight. Here's a recap of the issues discussed and actions taken on tonight's Agenda.
We followed that discussion with a discussion about the proposed Board Policy concerning implementation of the Academies, EGA (Local) Innovative and Academy Programs. Consensus was reached that the Board believes the District should proceed cautiously with implementation of Academies. The Board had many questions about implementation, cost, and the possible campus selection criteria. I reiterated the concerns I raised during our April 28, 2008, Board Meeting about the sustainability of the programs given our budgetary pressures and my strong belief in the need to maintain the integrity of our neighborhood schools.
Our next agenda item was a continuation of the discussion from last night's Board meeting about the proposed new homework policy (EIB (Local) Academic Achievement: Homework). The discussion continued to be very robust around this controversial issue. In the end, the Board voted to reconstitute the Homework Task Force, provided a great deal of consensus-based guidance, and referred the 14 amendments I proposed to the Task Force for consideration. The Task Force will be asked to provide the Board with a final recommendation at our December Board meeting so that, once voted on in January, the District will have sufficient time to provide the necessary staff development to ensure successful implementation.
Our final agenda item tonight was very simple (which we needed after the extensive discussion on the 2 items above). We approved minor revisions to Board/Superintendent Operating Procedures numbers 32 and 33.
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