SCHOOL BOARD UPDATE

The school Board meeting tonight tonight was rather uplifting. They actually had a discussion! The superintendent even got mad when a board member suggested that some teachers may not want to teach the new "Health Enhancement Curriculum"- he asked the board member menacingly who the teacher was. Thank goodness the board member refused to give up the name. Two other board members were concerned that the "Health Enhancement" curriculum would replace art. Interesting. No concern at all for what the effects of this graphic material will have on young minds, just that they will miss art! Well, Obama did a study apparently and guess what? It's art that will keep at risk youngsters in school!


So I guess we have the answer to our drop out problem - just do lots of art. There was an update on doing away with four days of instruction.  Apparently (according to the superintendent) the parents just love the idea because now all their children will get out at 3:15 and they won't have to wait that pesky ten minutes. Does no one care about teaching and learning anymore? They never discuss how best to improve our low math scores or how to get more time for teaching so we won't be ranked at the bottom in our middle and high schools. There's never a discussion about failing programs (like DARE} that take away from class time while not performing their intended mission. In fact- they only praise programs never evaluate them.

I wonder what their process is for evaluating programs so they can eliminate those that don't reach their stated goal? Where is the scale? Is their any ending time for these programs or do they just go on indefinitely? When they add a new program do they get rid of others? The only program I can ever remember seeing an end to is the recent coaches program (math not sports) because the stimulus money went away.