The Wake County school board's student achievement committee will also not be meeting this month.
School board member Deborah Prickett, the new chairwoman of the student achievement committee, wants the group to meet in the early evening hours. Previously, it has met from 11 a.m to 1 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month.
Prickett is looking at a 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. time slot to reduce time conflicts with her day job as character education consultant for the state Department of Public Instruction.
But the second and fourth Tuesdays of February coincide with two of the community engagement meetings, including the one at Leesville Road High on Feb. 23.
Prickett said she decided it would just be better to wait until March for the first meeting of her committee.
The hours won't be fun for staff, who will have to stay later for the committee meetings. But Prickett said some parents who can't get to the meetings in the daytime because of work might appreciate the new hours.
Prickett said she's still in the process of determining the agenda for the first meetings. But she said she definitely wants to discuss the SAS EVAAS report and see what can be done to improve student participation in Algebra I.
Donna Hargens, Wake's chief academic officer, wrote an op-ed piece last month on how the district is trying to get more minority students to take Algebra I in middle school. The op-ed piece came after Tony Gurley, chairman of the board of commissioners, suggested that school officials were deliberately suppressing Algebra I participation to raise test scores.
Comments
good move
Tue, 02/09/2010 - 13:02 — tc_apexA step in the right direction. I agree that school board meetings should be held in the evenings so more people can attend. A suggestion might be to start by having one board meeting a month in the evening for a while and then evaluate it and see how it works.
What a nice gesture on her
Mon, 02/08/2010 - 13:32 — changewcpssWhat a nice gesture on her part to include participants who work during the day. More inclusive changes right off the bat. Next should be bi-monthly school board meetings as suggested by Bob.
More!
Mon, 02/08/2010 - 12:19 — Bob_SconceThey should also move school board meetings into the evening. Would allow more people to go, AND might possibly allow others to run for school board whose jobs prevented attending all these during-the-day meetings. Evening school board meetings are the norm in many districts.