An hour-long executive session to consult with the school district's attorney began at 6 p.m. Wednesday, prior to the regularly scheduled school board meeting at 7 p.m. in Mary Herbert Education Center.
Board members came out of the session minutes before 7 o'clock to set an additional 30-minute executive session, which delayed the start of the regular open meeting.
The open meetings law allows board and commission members to meet in closed session for several reasons, including for consultations with attorneys on legal matters. Unless members take action as a result of the executive sessions, they cannot discuss the closed session in public.
The board invited Superintendent John Heim, Assistant Superintendent for Personnel Theresa Davidson and Assistant Superintendent for Finance Rob Scheib to join them in the executive sessions.
The open meeting began about 7:25 p.m.
The board heard a curriculum report and video-audio presentation by about eight educators and one student involved in the Migrant/English as a Second Language Summer School program.
Director of Instruction Patricia Smiley, who is in charge of that program, said that funds for this year were cut, while the number of students served continued to rise.
The program began in 2004 with 30 students, two teachers and no teacher aides, and has grown to 120 students, 17 teachers and 14 aides.
Youngsters who qualify for M/ESL summer school receive lessons in traditional subjects, supplemented with art, music, and field trips intended to help them succeed in school.
Building background knowledge that the students can carry into fall and spring semesters is a key to advancing their educations.
Smiley showed the school board a paragraph-long report about an Australian cricket game to illustrate her point.
Without background knowledge, all of the board members easily could read the text; however, the meaning of the paragraph was difficult to grasp because of the unfamiliar use of familiar words and the board's lack of experience in playing cricket.
Migrant/English as a Second Language students feel much the same as they try to read and interpret sentences about situations with which they have no base of experience.
Music and performance of "Snow White" before an audience of parents and teachers also was a part of the curriculum, according to a segment of the report presented by Riverside music teacher Nancy Robohn.
The school district is using a pilot program provided by seed money from Emporia State University that uses singing words rather than reading them to advance ESL students' reading skills.
The program is to improve fluency in English and is guaranteed to provide a one grade-level improvement in nine weeks of use.
The board gave its approval to the the Safe and Drug-Free Schools group for an application for $35,000 to finance a full-time elementary-level presention specialist for its YouthFriends program.
The program units volunteers from the community to act as mentors and companions for half-hour sessions once a week with students who could benefit from the one-on-one interaction.
The district has received grant funds for the past seven years, though the size of the grants is diminishing.
The board unaninimously approved the consent agenda. Among those items were:
-- transportation requests from Sacred Heart School and Leadership Emporia
-- a request to sell surplus property at auction
-- requests to exercise the flexibility clause in the memorandum of agreement for proessional learning time at Village and Lowther South elementary schools.
kseyetie (anonymous) says...
"The board gave its approval to the the Safe and Drug-Free Schools group for an application for $35,000 to finance a full-time elementary-level presention specialist for its YouthFriends program. The program units volunteers from the community to act as mentors and companions for half-hour sessions once a week with students who could benefit from the one-on-one interaction." === Excellent idea; good job Dr. Heim and School Board!
September 11, 2009 at 9:11 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )