March 11, 2008 Regular Board of Education Meeting

B O A R D S U M M A R Y March 11, 2008 Regular Board of Education Meeting

Board of Education 2007-08 President - Edward J. Gawlik Jr.; Vice President - Paul C. Knott; Secretary - Joel D. Bergeron; Treasurer - Sue Murray; Trustees - Timothy S. Kachinski, Kimber L. Labadie, Paul E. Sander

PRESENTATIONS - NORTH POINTE 5TH GRADE TEACHERS, WEB CAST - Ms. Ann Marie Rickman, 5th grade teacher, reported on a learning experience all 5th grade students participated in that involved Alvin and the Chipmunks. Ms. Rickman contacted the Chipmunks group by email that lead to an interview with Ross Bagdasarian and his wife, producers of the movie. The technology department arranged the web cast where students asked questions live.

Two students, Jazmyn Sherman and Brendan Damron, gave a report on this learning experience. Jasmine read the biography she wrote on herself and Brendon read a story he wrote about the chipmunks.

Ms. Rickman said this was a lifelong experience and students will never forget it. She thanked the other fifth grade teachers who worked on this project, Ms. Tamara Nagy and Mr. Andy Garden.

Scott Piestrak, Technology Department, said this was a flawless video chat and he continues to be in contact with the company. He thanked Mike Ball, Tom Petrosky, Patrick Huff for their cooperation in editing and putting together a two-minute slide presentation of the web cast that he showed.

CHANNEL 4 REPORT ON ASHER ATHLETICS - Katrina Hancock, Channel 4 reporter for the Sports Final Edition, attended one of the Asher's Panthers Basketball games and reported on that game in a newscast. The video of that report was shown for the audience.

Judy Cock, Director of the Asher programs, said she was very proud of the team, staff and all programs at Asher. The basketball coach, Sandy McKenzie, is a graduate of the Asher program and does a great job with the team.

DISCUSSION NEW TEXT ADOPTION - Ms. Nagle explained the request for the new textbooks. She is recommending the purchase of American History Beginnings to 1914 ® 2008 from McDougal Littell for the 8th grade social studies classes. The current textbooks are outdated and do not follow the guidelines for the content expectations. The cost for 400 new books would be $29,240 and we would receive $10,500 in free resource materials. She also recommends the adoption of the text for the new Forensic Science classes, Fundamentals and Investigations ® 2009 from Cengate Learning. We will purchase 38 texts for a total cost of $2,618 and will receive $417 worth of resources at no cost to the district.

Another recommendation is to purchase and adopt the Physics Principles and Problems for the Physics course at the high school. The total cost for 90 texts would be $6,700 and we would receive resources worth $10,307.76 at no cost to the district.

Ms. Nagle said we are following the seven-year review and adoption cycle and these purchases have been planned.

SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT - Mr. Peden reminded everyone that the Board would meet again next Tuesday, March 18.

He congratulated Ms. Judy Cock and all staff at Asher. Our Athletic Director, Ruth Kemp, was instrumental in having Channel 4 come to our basketball game and they may return in the spring and tape a segment on our Asher golf program.

This is a busy month with the MME and ACT testing. Spring vacation begins next Thursday afternoon.

Athletically our teams have done well: Our competitive cheerleaders were 6th in the State, our swim team made it to the States and they have not been there in many years, four of our wrestlers competed at the Palace in the finals, and our girls' varsity basketball team set a number of records this year making it to the quarterfinals.

Mr. Peden and President Gawlik went to the MACUL Conference in Grand Rapids and saw the presentation by Wendy Nowak, Theresa Kassuba and Scott Piestrak on eCampus. This will be presented at a future board meeting. The Story Book Program at the high school received one of the five $15,000 grants given at the conference.

Wendy Nowak received the State of Michigan Technical Using Instructor of the Year and received $15,000 worth of equipment.

The 2008-09 calendar should be finalized next week and the information will be available that will include the trimester schedules, half days for conferences, etc.

Joel D. Bergeron, Secretary Board of Education