Board Briefs—August 1, 2006 In This Issue... Board Member Reports Highlights from Superintendent's Report Current Recess Practices Consensus Items

Board Member Reports
Parks and Recreation—Ms. Miller reported on recent and upcoming happenings at Englewood Parks and Recreation, including the following:
- 08/12-Grand Opening for Englewood Canine Corral, Englewood's new Dog Park
- 08/26-Fun Run/Fun Fest at Belleview Park
- 09/09-Englewood Days Car Show
Englewood Education Foundation—Ms. Thompson reported that the foundation is in its rebuilding phase and that this process is going well. Upcoming fundraisers include a car raffle and the Fall Fling, which is planned for November 11, with a USO theme.

Highlights from Superintendent's Report
District Financial Committee—This committee will submit it's recommendation to Dr. McCabe next week. Dr. McCabe will come to the Board on August 15th with his recommendation, which will be a discussion item at this meeting. Dr. McCabe said the committee did a great job.
State Audit—Yesterday, the District received the first draft of the CDE audit, which shows the District owing $977,219.93. Dr. McCabe explained that the District is audited on student count every three years. Three years ago, CDE told the District they were doing the count correctly, but this year, because of a new group of auditors and a different interpretation, there is this large discrepancy. This is not a final amount. The process involves verifying data and the option of multiple appeals.
CDE Accreditation On-Site Review—This review was done on July 31 at the administration building with Ms. Mary Vedra as the presenter. The review was very positive and they received good feedback from CDE.
ECE—Qualistat Early Learning has rated Englewood's Early Childhood program as a 4-star preschool, which is the highest rating available.

Current Recess Practices  Handout  
Ms. LaPlante provided the Board with information on current recess practices from each of the District schools. Next year, three elementary schools and one middle school will offer recess before lunch. Last year, two elementary schools offered this schedule and it worked well. Students do not rush through eating to go outside and having lunch after recess provides students the opportunity to settle down before going back to the classroom. Ms. Thompson asked what the cons would be if elementary schools offered a 15 minute recess separate from the lunch/recess period. She said that she has heard from many parents that they would like to see an additional recess time offered. Cons included less "time on task", which has been proven to work, and questions around loss of planning time and who would supervise. Mrs. Scaggiari suggested that another option might be offering shorter stretch breaks throughout the day. There was discussion around whether additional recess time helped or hurt student achievement as there seems to be research supporting both sides. Ms. Hunt suggested that the Board/administration survey the elementary schools—teachers, principals, and parent committees—to gather their input regarding additional recess time. Dr. McCabe agreed this was a good idea and something they should pursue once school has been back in session for a while.

Consensus Items
The Board approved the following consensus items:
a. Personnel Recommendations
b. Board of Education Regular Meeting Schedule—2006-07 Calendar Year  Handout

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