OFFICIAL MINUTES FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING OF THE
The Board of Trustees for the
Present: Henrietta Williams, Chairperson; Pam Hyneman, Vice Chairperson; Beth Gray, Secretary; Andrew Tolbert, Board Member; Jim Hill, A.S.B. Superintendent; Dr. Marcella Dalla Rosa, A.S.D. Superintendent; Katie Becker, Zania Musteen, Interpreters; Amy Ford, Office of the Attorney General; Members of the Deaf Community; Members of the Blind Community
Absent: Dr. Doug Watson
Consent Items
08-B-004 Motion to Approve Personnel Items
(Minutes not ready for approval)
Ms. Williams asked for a motion to approve the Personnel Items. Ms. Gray made the motion and Mr. Tolbert seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Action Items
08-B-005 Motion to Approve Performance Evaluation Policy
Ms. Williams asked for a motion to approve the Performance Evaluation Policy. Mr. Tolbert made the motion and Mrs. Hyneman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Discussion Items
None
Superintendent Report
Prior to a recent board meeting, a professional photographer took each board member’s picture which will be used in the school yearbook. Mr. Hill gave each board member a copy of the disc for their own use.
Mr. Hill said the school is excited about the recent visit
from the Department of Education and he asked Sharon Berry to give a report on
the visit. Mrs.
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visited with Mr. Hill, Mr. Fowler and herself and they asked
questions and thoroughly looked at the school’s handbook, and they were very
pleased with the handbook. They also looked over the transcripts to make
certain the course offerings were appropriate and they looked at the K-12
curriculum to make sure it was aligned with Frameworks. Mrs. Berry said there
had to be evidence of integration of reading, writing, and math throughout the
curriculum across the curriculum integrated program and she said the monitors
were very pleased to see the school was doing that with art, music,
instrumental, and P.E., and that the school has a distance learning lab. They
were glad to learn that the school has an agreement with
Mr. Hill said the school has had a good year in athletics and the school has had in-service training through a new system. He asked Ken Fowler to report on these areas. Mr. Fowler said the school is pleased with the two coaches who were hired this year. He said they hit the ground running and they are doing a good job. He also said there are a couple of teachers who are working with the elementary who are go getters. There are more students involved in the athletic program and the school looks for the program to continue to improve. Mr. Fowler said he is pleased with how the students have done and they have placed in every activity they have participated in so far. The best showing was the girls winning the track conference. He discussed the state wrestling tournament which will be held on the weekend.
Mr. Fowler said AETN has developed the Internet Delivered Education for Arkansas Schools (IDEAS), which is basically internet based professional development. Individuals have used it and on Monday the entire teaching staff participated in a Parental Involvement in-service through this system. He said the required 60 hours of professional development is offered to the teachers on campus but if a teacher is out with an illness the day an in-service is offered, they can access AETN for one of the internet based professional development in-services. Mr. Fowler said the school will continue to explore different professional development venues because this is very important for the development of the professional staff. Mr. Fowler said one good thing about internet
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based in-service is that there is a test at the end of the professional development and if the teacher does not pass the test, they do not receive credit.
Mr. Hill said the school’s health committee has been
involved with similar activities as were mentioned by Dr. Dalla Rosa. Mr. Hill
asked James Caton to give a report on the health committee and also to talk
about the opportunity the students will have to visit with Eric Weinhmayer. Mr.
Caton gave the board background information on the health committee. He said
the committee is based on the Arkansas Legislative Act 1220 from 2003. This was
basically an effort to combat childhood obesity, and one of the components of
this was the formation of a Nutrition and Physical Activity Advisory Committee
in every school district. Mr. Caton explained the areas the A.S.B. Health
Council focuses on, which were outlined in the handout. He said the council has
scheduled an Easter health walk on March 19, which will be noncompetitive walk,
as compared to the annual
Mr. Caton said a group of A.S.B.
students are going to have the opportunity to attend a Leadership Conference in
May, which is sponsored by the Juvenile Services in
Mr. Hill talked about what the school
has to do to get special considerations for the students to take the state
tests. He said Gail Potter has been very good working with the school to make
concessions where she has the authority. He said throughout the years Mrs.
testing kit, the child cannot be tested with the same manipulative. He went on to point out
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other adaptations that are not allowed for blind and
visually impaired children. Sharon Berry explained that these are rules of the
test publishers. She said the children need to use extra scratch paper to work
math problems and the publishers are afraid this will compromise the test if
the children use anything other than the paper that is sent. Other issues of
testing were discussed in detail.
Ms. Williams mentioned that she liked the ID badges that the staff at the school are wearing.
08-B-006 Motion to Adjourn
There being no further business, Ms. Williams asked for a motion to adjourn. Ms. Gray made the motion and Mr. Tolbert seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
_______________________________
Henrietta
Williams, Chairperson
________________________________
Beth
Gray, Secretary
Board of Trustees
Meeting
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