We had three special presentations this evening. First, we recognized our District's Finance Department, under the leadership of our Associate Superintendent for Finance, Karen Wilson, for their receipt of the Outstanding Award for Financial Reporting.
Our Board held its regular monthly meeting tonight. Here's a recap of the issues discussed and actions taken on tonight's Agenda.
Our second special presentation recognized one of our State Senators, Kyle Janek, who represented a portion of Spring Branch in the Texas State Senate from 2002 until his recent retirement. The Board will vote on this Resolution honoring Senator Janek at our July Board meeting.
Our next special presentation was the presentation to the District's Administration Building of a No Place for Hate banner by the Anti-Defamation League.
Our final special presentation was by the Buffalo Creek McTappers, who did several tap dancing numbers for the audience.
Next came two surprises. First, the District recognized Bob Sharp, our long-time Director of Communications, on his impending retirement. Bob has been with the District for 20 of his 30 years. That was followed by the Board giving me this plaque as recognition for my year as the Board's President. We had one member of our community speak during Citizens Participation to thank the District for its use of the person's bank. (Sorry, I didn't write down the name of the Bank).
Next we held a public hearing on After School Child Care. This hearing is required by law, and in my time on the Board, I do not believe we have had anyone appear to speak. That was again the case tonight.
We then proceeded to our Board Member Liaison reports. Here are the materials I provided in my legislative update, and the materials Board Member Wayne Schaper provided in his Facilities Update (here, here, here, here, and here).
We then received a positive update on the status of the District's FY 2008 Audit from our external auditor, Null Lairson. The audit will be finalized by October.
We then had first readings of the following Board policies: EGA (Local) Innovative and Academy Programs, EIE (Local) Academic Achievement: Retention and Promotion, FJ (Local) Gifts and Solicitations.
Our first action items on the Agenda included the approval of the Budget Status Summary Report with Budget Amendments as of May 31, 2008, the FY 2008 Final Amended Budget and Designations of Fund Balance, and the Facilities Improvement Program Monthly Status Report with Project Detail Changes as of May 31, 2008. As we do in every monthly meeting, we also approved the awarding of a variety of contracts (part 1, and part 2).
We also approved the continuation of the Lease between Spring Branch and the Japanese Institute of Houston, and the Cooperative.
As part of the 2007 Bond Program, we will need to be able to house students from a particular campus off-site while of the campus is being reconstructed. In order to accomplish this need, the District will construct a transitional campus to be located. Tonight we approved the Schematic Design for the Transitional Campus to be located at the Spring Branch Education Center. Consideration has been given to the possibility that this campus may be used beyond the ten years of the current bond program.
We also approved architect assignments for 2007 Bond projects to be completed during the 2008-2009 Fiscal Year.
Next we considered amendments to Board/Superintendent Operating Procedures numbers 32 and 33. No new amendments were offered, and these two operating procedures will be on our Workshop agenda tomorrow night for final approval.
Our final action item tonight was the consideration of potential amendments to EIB (Local) Academic Achievement: Homework. While I respect the work of the Homework Task Force, which met for over a year, I believe that there are additional components that should be included. To be clear, I am not anti-homework. I am, however, anti-homework that is busy work, or as my fellow Trustee, Dave Converse put it, "mind-numbing." I also believe that homework, like all of the things we ask of students in school, should be focused on preparing our students to be successful in the 21st Century global workforce with all the skills necessary to do so. As a result, I proposed 14 amendments to the Policy. After much discussion tonight, and knowing that this item is on the agenda for tomorrow night for further discussion, this item was postponed for further consideration until tomorrow.
For additional articles I have posted on homework, please click here. We concluded our meeting with the approval of the items on our Consent Agenda.
Homework is a powerful education tool!
As usual, the work of the Homework Task Force isn't readily discoverable on the SBISD website, so it's hard to judge their recommendations.
However, Mike, your proposed amendments to the proposed SBISD homework policy revisions don't seem to fully exploit the potential of homework, particularly the "extension" sort.
A few observations:
While your blog cites research highlighting a purported lack of correlation between homework and student achievement, how does one explain that homework has been used consistently and extensively across centuries and societies as an education tool? Did humanity just get it wrong way back when? Normally if one sees a consistent pattern of human behavior across time and cultures then that behavior can be assumed to be beneficial to the species.
Kids will be "learning" at home whether it is school-assigned homework or other alternatives. Homework competes positively with television, video games and many forms of "hanging out". There are enough hours in the day for kids to do healthy extracurricular activities and more homework than you suggest while leaving a dose of free time (good "hanging out").
Homework provides a unique opportunity for children and parents to work together. It can be difficult for many parents to motivate their children to engage in "educational" activities unless the schools support it.
Your suggested high school homework time limits will not prepare our youth for what they will experience in college, where success is highly dependent on one's ability to learn outside the classroom.
SBISD schools demand very little reading outside the classroom, particularly of literature. Students should be required by the school to read more. We parents need the support of the schools in this effort, as teachers are often viewed by our children as more authoritative on this matter. And while students should be allowed latitude on what they want to read, teachers ought to sign off on the selections to ensure quality and challenge.
SBISD teachers do not assign enough substantive homework "extension" projects in which students are obliged to dig deeper with individual initiative. Team-based projects are particularly effective in preparing our children for "the real world".
A major barrier to effective homework is the lack of time that our teachers have to effectively review homework, on top of everything else they are required to do.
Best wishes to the Homework Task Force. This is a challenging yet vital topic. SBISD needs to do better with homework.
Posted by: Keith Little | Thursday, July 03, 2008 at 07:59 AM