Saturday, January 12, 2008

More on schools in advance of a double-bill meeting on Sunday

After we scheduled our Sunday, 2 pm at Blvd of the Allies Panera meeting, we learned that there is a board meeting on Sunday as well scheduled from 2-7 pm. We will still meet at Panera --it won't be a 5 hour meeting, so you can always go to the other one as well.

The meeting at the board is open to the public for viewing (not for speaking). Our understanding is that the administration will lay out in greater detail (at the board's request) their plans and overall goals for reforming the district. They will also provide the names of people on various task forces that have been formed. The format for the meeting is that the administration will present for 15 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of questions or discussions from board members.

If you have friends that feel that decisions being made now don't affect them because their kids don't go to Schenley or are in different programs, let them know that this meeting will begin to outline some of the changes coming for everyone else, as well. Now is the time to be informed if you want to have a say!

It's an incredibly long meeting (and I believe there are more to follow), but if you can go even just for an hour, please report back -- the more info we can get the better. Some of the administration's ideas are really exciting; getting support for them now seems like the best way to help the good ideas succeed (and to nip the bad ideas before money is spent on them).

Public Hearing at the board meeting is this MONDAY, JANUARY 14th, 7 PM Board of Ed building. Sign-up through noon, written testimony taken until 5 pm. If you hear anything you really liked or didn't like at the big meeting Sunday, talk about it on Monday -- or just thank the board for requesting more information about the coming changes.

Jen Lakin

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If the article in today's PG is a sample of the topics discussed at the Sunday board meeting, I have a hard time getting excited. Oh, an e-portfolio is a tremendous idea, for sure. Chances are my kids will have graduated before it is implemented, so good luck with that. It does remind me of another technological advance I heard of about 4 year and two or three superintendents ago. Distance Based Learning. For example, a high level math class would be taught in a classroom and fed to two or more other classrooms where those students could also participate in the class. Is this being done anywhere in PPS?