Board Briefs—November 8, 2006 In This Issue... Special Reports and Recognition Board Member Reports Highlights from Superintendent's Report EHS Internship Program Grades 6-10 International Baccalaureate Program-Preliminary Approval   CFAHS Course Approval-Academic Credit for Selected ACTS Programs Quarterly Financial Statements Consensus Items

Special Reports and Recognition 
Masonic Lodge Contribution—On behalf of the Englewood Masonic Lodge, Mr. Jim Glasscock presented the Board with a check for $7,000, which was raised for Englewood Schools libraries through the Masons' 4th annual Golf Tournament. Mr. Glasscock also announced that the Masons were starting a new program where they will give every 3rd grade student in Englewood Schools a dictionary. The dictionaries, which he shared with Board members, are written specifically for this age group.
Step Ahead Awards—Ms. Miller presented the following Step Ahead Awards:

	EHS students, Ms. Kelsey Ransick and Mr. Zachariah Anderson, were recognized for being named Commended Students in the 2007 National Merit Scholarship Program. Kelsey and Zach placed among the top 5 percent of more than 1.4 million students who entered the competition by taking the preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
	Elementary Technology Specialist, Bob Siemens, for his commitment to Englewood Schools—in not only keeping up with new hardware, software, and infrastructure—but continuing to lead and support all five elementary schools to keep them a step ahead.

Board Member Reports
CASB Delegate Assembly—Mr. Gorsky attended the CASB Fall Conference and Delegate Assembly in Pueblo on October 20 and 21. Mr. Gorsky said he was proud to represent Englewood at this conference as many of the proposed resolutions were submitted by this school board and noted that all of the resolutions submitted by this board and forwarded with recommendation were passed at the assembly. Some of the issues CASB is looking at include the restructure of CDE, K-16 education, and looking at how to create a sense of community in high schools.

Highlights from Superintendent's Report
Fall Fling—The Fall Fling, an annual fund raiser by the Englewood Education Foundation, is this Saturday night at the Cable Center, starting at 6:00 p.m. Tickets are still available.
Policy Coding—The District will be working with CASB to recode District policies according to the standard alpha coding used by CASB and the majority of school districts across the country. This will make the creation and updating of policies easier as many of these recommendations come from CASB, using their coding format. It will also make policy communications with CASB and other districts easier as everyone will be "talking the same language".
Flood Property—Since what happens with the Flood property has huge impacts on the school district and the community, administration has been looking at working with a commercial real estate consultant to help them with this process. They have asked a couple of consultants to provide them presentations on what this process would look like. Dr. McCabe invited Board members to be a part of this process.

EHS Internship Program Handout
EHS Principal, Ms. Linda Torres, gave a presentation on a proposed internship program at Englewood High School. The program consists of an internship course and internships with specific Englewood businesses. The program would be available to eligible 11th and 12th grade students and has the following goals:

	Through participation in the Englewood Internship, students will develop career specific and world of work readiness skills as an intern of a professional business.
	Through the Englewood Internship, collaborative partnerships will be developed with local businesses in support of student career readiness and placement.
	Through the Englewood Internship, attract current middle school students and students from surrounding districts to EHS as their choice for secondary education.

Board members were excited about what this type of program could offer. The EHS Internship will be on a future agenda as an action item.

Grades 6-10 International Baccalaureate Program-Preliminary Approval   
Handout 1  Handout 2  Handout 3

The Board approved allowing ELA to move forward with the application process and actively pursue IB-MYP authorization.

Ms. Vedra gave a presentation on a proposed IB Middle Year Program at Englewood Leadership Academy. The program would be an extension of the primary years program that is currently being applied for at Charles Hay Elementary. Ms. Vedra explained that the IB program consists of 3 different levels.

	the Primary Years Programme, for grades K-5 or K-6
	the Middle Years Programme, for grades 6-10
	the Diploma Programme, for grades 11 and 12

Ms. Vedra said she is passionate about what this program has to offer, noting IBO's mission "The International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect". She also noted the program's second language requirement and its sense of community involvement, both locally and worldwide.

After the presentation, there was discussion regarding size and cost of the program as well as impacts to enrollment. The proposal is to start this program at ELA, but hopefully, can expand if there is an interest in doing so. The program requires specialized training, but would be a replacement for training already offered. The program is designed to complement—not replace—existing curriculums.

Regarding enrollment, Ms. Vedra noted that students are currently leaving Englewood Schools to attend IB programs in other districts. It is hoped that, by making this middle school program available as an extension to the primary years program at Charles Hay, students exploring IB programs will stay in our District. There was some concern about what happens after 10th grade, that students may still leave our District to continue with the Diploma program. Ms. Vedra explained that if there is a need, the District could also look at offering the Diploma program, but she noted that only 5% of students continue on to the Diploma program as it is a very rigorous program. She also referred to the current Honors and AP classes at Englewood High School, which could be an alternative path.

CFAHS Course Approval-Academic Credit for Selected ACTS Programs
Ms. Vedra explained that CFAHS would like to have Board approval to offer academic credit for the following ACTS programs:

	Approve the Criminal Justice Program for Social Studies credit
	Approve the Teacher Cadet Program for Language Arts credit

Ms. Vedra explained that these classes meet the standards for the proposed credit and that allowing the academic credit would help students participate in and stay in these classes. Currently, these classes are counted only as elective credit. As some of the CFAHS students struggle to ensure they meet the academic credit requirements, they end up dropping elective courses.

Quarterly Financial Statements    
Ms. LaPlante reviewed the financial statements for the quarter ended September 30, 2006. Currently, both revenue and expenditures are on target, tracking closely to last year.

Consensus Items
The Board approved the following consensus items:
a. Personnel Recommendations & Addendum
b. Substitute Pay Increase—Bus Drivers  Handout

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