There were two main topics of discussion at last night’s meeting:
High School Curriculum
The administration presented the most substantial revisions to the high school’s Program of Studies in many years. These revisions include the many curriculum changes presented at the last meeting, as well as additional revisions in the art department and several other areas. Discussion centered on the School Within a School pilot program, which is a part of the proposed revisions and will be voted on at the next meeting. Some board members, myself included, also asked the administration to look at revisions to the foreign language offerings that might allow the district to offer courses in things like Mandarin, American Sign Language, etc. Watch the discussion here; text of the Program of Studies revisions available here.
School Safety and Security Policies
The board began the process of revising a number of district policies related to school safety and security. Most of these revisions simply reflect changes to state law in these areas, though I raised some concerns about minimizing the anxiety caused by the increasingly frequent school safety drills as well as insuring the promise of anonymity of the statewide Safe2Say tipline program. Watch the discussion here; text of the proposed policy revisions available here.
