I have split this edition up by the same categories they utilize in the board agenda.
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SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS
- Congrats to all the teachers obtaining their National Board Certification or Recertification — having great teachers requires continued professional development and these teachers have shown a great commitment to their profession.
- A big thank you to Donnie McCloud a FHHS student that worked to help those affected by the recent tornado — I know he has a Facebook page if anyone wants to give him words of encouragement for the good work.
BEST PRACTICE
MAC Scholars Program — FHC
This is a program to “inspire a historically underrepresented student populations by encouraging good academic standing and strong character. The goal is to help ensure these students to be college and career ready upon graduation.”
There were many great aspects to this program, and definitely something I would like to learn more about. Anything we can do to help students achieve results and be prepared for their next stages in life should be celebrated. There were many pieces of this program that I though could apply to all High School students, particular their ‘visioning’ work that was completed as a new student about what they wanted to get out of their educational experience. This type of work, which I like to call ‘Future Authoring’ is amazing at keeping people on track because they have defined goals. I would like to see similar work being done for all Seniors prior to graduation, to help them define what they want to get out of life.
If you want to learn more:
https://fhc.fhsdschools.org/activities/clubs__activities/m_a_c_scholars
PUBLIC COMMENTS
My comments to the board:
CONSENT AGENDA
All items passed with little or no debate/questions and full support of the board.
PULLED FROM CONSENT
Janet Stiglich had an Policy item pulled from consent prior to the meeting, this policy update removes the need for religious exemptions to be updated annually to remain active.
Janet Stiglich and Patrick Lane voted against the update.
INDIVIDUAL ITEMS
These are only the most interesting:
- Demographer Services — approved (7-0), the district recommendation we pay almost $57k for a demography report on the district. As reference the board already approved the continued licensing of Forecast5 software at the December meeting, which seems to allow for this type of work to be completed in house. See for yourself at: https://www.forecast5analytics.com/
- Renovations for 801 Corporate Dr. — approved (7-0), $4.2 Million in cost to renovate the newly purchased office building. During discussion Mr. Supple mentioned that the building was going to house Union High School because the cost of renovation on the current building wasn’t worth it, the plan from Prop S is to demolish this building located on the FHHS campus. By this logic — if my house needs to be remodeled, I should tear it down, buy a new house, and then remodel the new one instead. There has been no cost savings justification that I have seen or been able to locate to show the financial benefit of this decision — I can only assume this is just about making thing ‘nicer and newer’.
- Prop S “Audit” — approved (6-1), as the district misrepresented this request to mean tracking savings going forward and recommended our current project manager to do this, as it’s part of their agreement. Seems the current board is not interested in learning why we are in the current situation and putting changes in place.
- Covid Update — approved (6-1), the board modified the motion to require two more weeks of full masks before going to the district recommendation of a 3% threshold per building for masks.