Don't look for the Wake County school board to spend a lot of time on Tuesday going over board member Kevin Hill's consensus-building approach to developing a new student assignment plan.
The agenda for Tuesday's work session calls for spending 30 minutes discussing Hill's proposal. School board chairman Ron Margiotta said now that standing committees are being restored, he expects a discussion about whether Hill's proposal will be sent to a committee.
The rest of the agenda is packed with the longest amount, 60 minutes, set aside for a discussion of the details of next year's student assignment plan.
Laura Evans, senior director for growth and planning, had told the board that she'll show them what suggested changes have been received so far. It's a warmup for the Dec. 7 presentation of the revised plan to the board.
The first agenda topic will be on the Title I program.
The second topic is on student accountability gateways. Interim Superintendent Donna Hargens has told the board they'll want to discuss whether to join the state in dropping the requirement that students need to pass the end-of-grade exams in third-, fifth- and eighth-grades to be promoted.
The state has dropped the requirement because so much discretion was given to principals on promotions that most students who failed the EOGs were still advanced to the next grade level.
The next topic is a comparison of Wake achievement data with other districts. Margiotta said school board member Anne McLaurin made the request.
Chief Business Officer David Neter will then present a budget update.
Next comes the annual presentation of the facilities utilization report. The report shows crowding levels at each school.
Next comes a talk about planning assumptions for the next school construction program and bond referendum.
After a break, the board will hear the two student assignment items.
Then comes a cost comparison of the H-6 project, which is now Rolesville High after having been Forest Ridge High, with high schools in other districts.
Last up on the work session is a discussion of the school district's gang policy.
Once the work session ends, a special called board meeting has been scheduled so the board can meet in closed session with attorney Ann Majestic.
The work session starts at 1 p.m. in the board conference room, 3600 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.
Comments
Bureaucracy in action
Mon, 11/15/2010 - 09:33 — Dove314Here we have the full BoE with an opportunity to set up the framework for the SAC. What do they do? They decide to skip defining terms in such a way that everyone agrees up front and send creation of the framework to the SAC or some other committee for their own fun. Because that worked so well the first time.
Then, in an ironic twist, they'll spend twice as long discussing individual/nodes for student assignments, seemingly something which on the surface would be the mandate of the SAC.
Perhaps that is because they
Mon, 11/15/2010 - 10:13 — CaryCurmudgeonPerhaps that is because they see the "framework" for what it is, a 12-18 month process with no guarantee of building any more consensus than they have now. Given Goldman no longer has the stomach to support a new approach to assignment, it is far better for them to focus on implementing the policy changes they approved using the existing node system. While using the node system may not result in an optimized assignment plan, there is still much good they can do for 2011/2012 regarding reasonable YR opt out choices, synchronizing calendar tracks, eliminating spot nodes and eliminating long bus rides.
Love the irony there too
Mon, 11/15/2010 - 14:24 — Dove314For kids currently having long bus rides (which is apparently disproportionately minorities and free and reduced lunch kids), they can choose stability in assignment (via grandfathering) but only if they can provide their own transportation.
...which is exactly why
Mon, 11/15/2010 - 15:37 — CaryCurmudgeon...which is exactly why Barbor, GWIS and the rest should not have fought so hard against the zone plan, or at least shown some willingness to work with the assignment committee.
Policy6200 has been changed. Done.
In the absence of a zone assignment plan, the board is compelled to assign nodes in compliance with their own policy. They have an AdvanceEd review coming up, and the last thing we want is for our schools to lose accreditation because we are not following our established assignment policy.
And we can thank the same people who waged war against the zone plan for inviting AdvanceEd here to do their review. I doubt they thought through how doing those things might impact students.
"Policy6200 has been
Mon, 11/15/2010 - 15:46 — danofnc"Policy6200 has been changed. Done."
The new 6200 calls for assignment areas, not zones.
Also, when I read it, I get the impression that assignments will be made, not that everyone will be entering a big lottery.
Correct, there was a board
Mon, 11/15/2010 - 15:54 — CaryCurmudgeonCorrect, there was a board resolution approved 5-4 to develop a zone-based plan, and it is safe to assume that policy 6200 would have been updated had a plan been adopted. In the absence of such a plan, the default is node-based assignment within policy 6200 guidelines.
Don't look for the Wake
Sun, 11/14/2010 - 10:44 — user12345Don't look for the Wake County school board to spend a lot of time on Tuesday going over board member Kevin Hill's consensus-building approach to developing a new student assignment plan.
"he expects a discussion
Fri, 11/12/2010 - 17:40 — CaryCurmudgeonWhich is where...
Sat, 11/13/2010 - 07:32 — bpuli9999RM & JT seem to be getting most of their ideas from, anyway. What better place.