Board Briefs—February 4 , 2008 In This Issue... Special Reports and Recognitions Public Comments Board Member Reports Highlights from Superintendent's Report Communication Plan Policy JRA/JRC Student Records/Release of Information on Students Policy KBB Parents Rights and Responsibilities       Policy JLDAC Screening/Testing of Students District Authority to Approve Charter Schools District Focus on Achievement Board Discussion of Superintendent Search Interview Process Consensus

Special Reports and Recognitions
Kirsten Litchfield and Krista Niederjohn, EHS students who attended the 2007 National League of Cities, Congressional City Conference in Washington D.C., presented a PowerPoint that highlighted the events of their trip. The two students accompanied members of the Englewood City Council to this conference. Kirsten and Krista met other student delegates from across the United States and learned of action taken by students regarding youth participation in government. They had the opportunity to meet Colorado Representative Diana DeGette and Senators Allard and Salazar and ask questions about various topics, such as reducing the deficit and identity theft. The girls were very impressed by Senator Salazar's and Representative DeGette's knowledge. Diana DeGette came to visit EHS as a result of meeting Krista and Kirsten at the conference. While in Washington D.C., the students attended a General Session of Congress and heard Hillary Clinton speak on health care and Iraq. Students attending the conference also toured museums and monuments in Washington D.C. Kirsten and Krista stated this was an amazing trip that provided learning and discovery about the Capitol city and the functioning of government.

Public Comments
A community member addressed the Board asking that every possible step be taken to assure the sale and redevelopment of the Flood property be done to enhance Englewood. She stated that the property development should be in accordance to what community members would find beneficial to their community.

Another community member also spoke on the importance of citizen input as to what type of development should take place on the Flood property. The Board and Administrators gave the citizens assurance that residents' ideas will be sought and considered regarding the Flood property. Information on meetings regarding Flood will be more widely advertised to include, not just neighbors of Flood, but the community as a whole. The Board stated, that the goal is to have the property improve the community.

Board Member Reports
Mr. Gorsky recently met with the student government group at EHS. The students would like student government to be a class to allow more time for leadership opportunities. A survey of students has been suggested to see if enough students would be interested in taking the class.
Ms. Thompson thanked everyone who participated in the screening of superintendent applications on Saturday. There were 24 applications to review with six excellent applicants being sent forward for further consideration. The Board plans to interview three or four candidates.
Ms. Miller attended a recent Education Foundation meeting at which she agreed to be in-charge of the Major Savers fundraising activity.
Ms. Hunt attended a meeting with guest speaker John Barelle, an expert on inquiry instruction. She thought the meetings were very informative and hoped the teachers will benefit from his ideas.

Highlights from Superintendent's Report
Dr. McCabe mentioned several honors and awards. Scott Wallace, Teacher at EMS, received a grant called "Transforming Experiences" a part of the Rocky Mountain Middle School Science Partnership. The grant will pay $30,000 each for two interns who will work for one year at EMS in math and science. This program is part of the National Science Foundation. Congratulations to Tony Raymond, EMS Teacher, for being awarded a 2007-08 Classroom Connection Disseminator Grant from Xcel Energy. Mr. Raymond has received this award for several consecutive years and will be recognized by Xcel for his continued success. Charles Hay Elementary will have an intern from Korea for a full twelve months. This fits with the International Baccalaureate program perfectly. Mr. Kwang Eun Choi is 24 years old and will be helping teachers, tutoring students and will add international culture to the school program. Mr. Choi is expected to arrive soon. Mr. Jon Fore and Ms. Linda McCaslin presented "The Challenges and Rewards of Art Education" on January 29th, at the Denver Foundation Arts Education Colloquium.

Communication Plan
Ms. Shelley Thompson, Board Member, presented information and recommendations from the communication study that she did on Englewood Schools. Ms. Thompson thanked the staff and community members who helped organize and provide information for her study. The goal of district communications is to support academic excellence through a positive communication environment. Communication must be used to create a positive impression of the schools. Of several types of communication media the schools community most effectively uses print and word of mouth. Parents prefer receiving communications by school newsletters and the phone blaster system. The community relies on the district newsletter for information, however, many who receive the district newsletter do not read it. The study also indicated that few people access the district web site for information. The conclusion is that the communication system is fractured with no defined communication center. The recommendation is to focus on print media and word of mouth giving less attention, for the immediate future, to electronic and media communications. The need is to increase readership of print materials and build ambassadors for the district who will promote positive communications. Employing a part-time communications specialist was recommended. The Board will consider this during the budget process.

Policy JRA/JRC Student Records/Release of Information on Students  
As part of the on-going process to change district policies from a numerical system to the more universally used alpha system, the Board approved, for a 1st Reading, this policy change that included some minor wording changes and eliminates policies 5710 and 5731.

Policy KBB Parents Rights and Responsibilities    
Also part of the on-going process to change district policies from a numerical system to the more universally used alpha system, the Board approved, for a 1st Reading, this policy change that contains wording from Policy 5401 I, with no changes.

Policy JLDAC Screening/Testing of Students
The Board approved combining several numerical policies into this one policy for a 1st Reading. Policies will soon, be available on the web site.

District Authority to Approve Charter Schools
To continue to maintain district control of approval of charter schools in the Englewood District, the Board approved a resolution to renew Exclusive Authority to Authorize Charter Schools.

District Focus on Achievement
Ms. Mary Vedra provided an update on the progress to date, toward the achievement of the district-wide Focus of A Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum. The district teachers are working on defining essential learning and developing assessments that will measure the students success in learning these skills. In professional development sessions, the teachers are doing the important work of developing essential learning targets, based on state standards, for all district schools.

Board Discussion of Superintendent Search and Interview Process
The Board discussed the process to be used to select the interview committee for the superintendent of schools. District and community involvement is being sought to help the Board choose the next superintendent. Also discussed were the details of the interview, planned activities for the candidates, and dates.

Consensus Items
The Board approved the following consensus items:
a. Personnel Recommendations & Addendum
b. appointment of Negotiation Team—Gail Neubert, Mandy Braun, Jon Fore, Adele Reester

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