January 2009 Board Meeting

On January 21, 2009, the Earlham Community School Board met for their monthly meeting at 6:00 PM in the high school library. During the meeting, the Board was presented information from the Middle School and High School Science teachers and the Middle School/High School Dean of Students and High School At-Risk Coordinator.

The presentation from the science teachers included information relative to curriculum taught to students in grades 7-12 in the area of science. Curriculum units included biomes, genetics, virus, bacteria, mass, density, populations, communities, ecosystems and many others. In addition, Mrs. Anne Mendoza presented information on how she is now better able to use the Chemistry classroom for hands-on student experiments due to the remodeling project completed last summer. Students and teachers can now safely perform a wide variety of experiments that were not available in recent years.

The other presentation focused on informing the Board relative to a trend being tracked by the Dean of Students and At-Risk Coordinator showing an increase in the percentage of students who are not completing their education or receiving their diploma at alternative sites. The district allows students to utilize the Youth-At-Risk Credit Recovery program through DMACC, the Winterset Alternative High School program known as “Bridges”, and General Education Diploma or GED through DMACC if the student is struggling to accumulate the required credits toward a traditional diploma. During the presentation, the Board was presented with new requirements related to the “No Child Left Behind” federal legislation. This requirement forces districts to count students who receive their diploma through these alternative ways be counted as drop outs for the local district. The Board asked the Dean of Students and the At-Risk Coordinator to bring a proposal to them in February on how the district can address this issue.

In other business, the Board approved:
An agreement with Prairie Meadows relative to the $5,000 grant awarded the district to offset costs related to the remodeling of the high school science rooms.
Board Policies in the first 1/3 of the 400 Section of the Policy Manual. The entire 400 Section will be reviewed and revised where necessary during the 2008-09 school year.

The next regular Earlham Community School Board meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 18th at 6:00 p.m. at the school library. The School Board is also planning a special meeting/work session for February 2nd at 6:00 PM in the school library.