The Emporia Gazette

February 13, 2012

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Emporia board of education members faced a short, but time-consuming, agenda Wednesday evening when they met at Mary Herbert Learning Center.

Members heard curriculum reports from teaching teams at Lowther South Intermediate Schooll, Lowther North Intermediate School, Emporia Middle School and Emporia High School.

A group of teachers presented a program about "Challenge Day," which they plan to bring to the district in April. The teachers asked the board to allow them to accept donations that have been offered to finance the $12,000 program.

District patrons Karen and Jeff Cope talked to the board early in the meeting, during a time set aside for comments from the public.

Karen Cope told members that seventh- and eighth-graders at EMS did not have science or literature books at the beginning of the year. She contacted George Abel, Associate Superintendent of Learning and Teaching, and was told that the books had been ordered and should be in soon. Cope said the literature books did not arrive until about mid-September, and the eighth-grade science books came in about Oct. 1st.

She said she understood why budget constraints and curriculum requirements may have caused the books to be ordered in June. Cope said she did not understand why, when the 28 cases of books arrived at the district office on a Wednesday, they still had not been taken to the school by Friday.

She told the board that for the first nine weeks of school, eighth-graders had been doing laboratory classes in science.

"Labs are supposed to reinforce what they're learning," she said. "And those pooor teachers. ... They have been doing the best that they can with what they have.

"Shame on us. Shame on the system for not getting the teachers the tools that they need. I'm not sure that the seventh-graders have their science books yet. I guess I'm just really frustrated as a parent that my child wouldn't have a book."

Cope's husband, Jeff, said he believed the publisher should guarantee a delivery date for the books.

"If we have a construction project going on, we tell them, 'Hey, you're going to have it done by this date and if you don't have it done by this date we're going to punish you on the contract,'" Jeff Cope said.

He mentioned that other schools have implemented a financial penalty against publishers who do not meet the delivery dates.

"Why we're not doing that with our educational materials just kind of shocked me," he said, remarking that the fitness and weight room construction projects were finished on time.

"Can you imagine trying to do a job if you were a carpenter, if you didn't have a hammer or saw?" Karen Cope asked.

Board president Grant Riles told the Copes that there had been some complicating factors that affected the book delivery and that the board appreciated the Copes' concern.

A contingent of adults and teen-aged supporters of Challenge Day talked to the board about their view of the program, which is intended to discourage bullying and give students tools for combatting bullying.

After a 15-minute video about the program, Member Glen Strickland asked Barbara Clark, EMS teacher and Challenge Day group spokesman whether there had been any long-term studies to show that the program had been beneficial.

"There's probably no great big study that I know of, but the schools have seen a difference," Clark said. "I've talked to other schools."

Clark said that about 100 Emporia High School and 100 EMS students would participate in the two days the program will be offered in April. Parents and educators also will be allowed to come. The youngsters will be screened to ensure they are not forced to participate, and parental permission will be required.

"We choose students that are in a variety of different social groups," she said. "We want leaders who will be able to bring it back into our school rooms."

She said that prior to April, the group will have other projects to discouraging bullying.

"I've seen things like this done ... but I've never seen a follow-up study that shows an overall impact," said Strickland, who mentioned that he was involved in similar programs when he taught at the University of Denver.

One parent described the suffering of her two children at the hands of bullies.

"It impacted my eighth grader so bad that it was -- it almost became tragic, let's just put it that way," she said.

Board member Homer Garza gave support to the proposal.

"I was probably the kid that bullied those kids," Garza said. "If there was a program like this out there, it would have opened my eyes up. You know why I bullied? Because of my color. ... If there's a program out there that's going to help us cross that line, then we should have it. Let us be the leaders, not the followers."

Mike Crouch agreed, saying he would like to try the program, monitor it, and make adjustments if necessary.

"Honestly, I think more adults in this town probably need to go through this."

Strickland said he was not against an anti-bullying program; however, he wanted the district to use a program proven to be successful.

"Let's try something that works," Strickland said. "... I asked for the proof of it and didn't get it."

Another board member, Mike Helbert, questioned whether the emotional upheavals shown in the documentary might be dangerous to the students.

"I'm not saying this program is a bad thing. ... Would we have enough community resources available to adequately handle this type of problem?"

Proponents said that resources would be there and had interceded when a participant seemed overwrought at a Challenge Day workshop sponsored recently by the Flint Hills Girl Scout Council.

Crouch moved that the board accept the donation to proceed with the program; Garza seconded the motion, which passed 5-1. Board member Mary Helmer was not present at the meeting.

Earlier in the meeting, Abel had prefaced the curriculum reports with information about the Professional Learning Communities that have been implemented at the four schools that made presentations.

Abel said that about 100 educators had been trained in the PLC process, which is used to improve schools over time. The PLCs, he said, are "an umbrella over the District Improvement Plan" and that responses to intervention and differentiated construction are part of PLC.

"It really is a way of thinking," Abel said. "It is a focus where we are focused on learning. That is what it's really about."

He termed PLCs a collaborative effort among the professionals in each building. If some teachers achieve different or better results than others on the three- to five-member teams, then the PLC team gets together and discusses ways that better results can be achieved. The PLCs are an intensvely cooperative effort.

"It allows them to share with their colleagues what their successes were and then, hopefully, we can duplicate that across the group of teachers," he said. "It really is about doing what's the best practice, based on what's working with our kids in our community. ... We can get a much bigger bang for our buck."

Teachers and principals from LSIS, LNIS, EMS and EHS explained in further detail how the PLCs were being utilized successfully in their respective buildings this school year.