Review of Oct 15 Regular Board Meeting

I was treated to quite a surprise when I arrived at the Mellon Center today; hundreds and hundreds of teachers will spilling out of the board room. I don’t see how they all could possibly fit inside there.

Meg Dickinson already spilled the beans: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/education/2012-10-15/updated-champaign-teachers-reach-contract-agreement.html – CFT reached a tentative agreement with the Board. I overhead pretty much the same thing while wandering around with the teachers and listening to a CFT rep (I always forget his name, but I see him at every board meeting). The folks outside were very excited to hear this, a very jolly feeling in the crowd. 🙂

[Download the video here: I got it off TiVo again, hence all the extra black nothingness for that last 30 minutes or so]

The Board meeting tonight was actually rather short. Which is always a good thing. I didn’t have my handy dandy notebook with me, so I am trying to get this down as soon as I can. The first part of the Agenda (Recognitions) actually took a bit of the time; a technical glitch with the Academic Spotlight on Centennial (not online, yet), but when we did see it I was very curious about the Instructional Coaching and the two clubs (African-American Club and Social Justice Club). Lots of cool things going on there. The other part of Recognitions was a long list of excelling students and faculty, most of which had an opportunity to shake hands with the board; National Merit Scholar semifinalists and commendations, National Achievement Outstanding Participants, and Those Who Excel, including one volunteer who is a Chemistry prof at the University (wow!).

I spoke during Public Comment (I wish I had rehearsed, I sounded like a fool); thanked the administration and the board for all their hard work, then urged them on two points. 1) take further steps to gather community input, especially in light of the upcoming “Futures Conference” with DeJong and the need to actually go out to people, not just wait for them to come to the Board, and 2) push the SES program (Supplemental Education Services – private and semi-private mentor/tutor services for those under Title I (free or reduced lunch) struggling academically) a whole lot more, as it is going very underutilized and it is such an awesome opportunity. I am kicking myself for not mentioning anything about an urban planner! Especially in light of some of the conversations that developed a little later during the meeting. I also wanted to thank the board for the “Adopt a school” idea, but alas…..