After all the fuss over the budget, this School Board meeting seemed quiet and peaceful. The highlights of this meeting were a proclamation on school desegregation and a briefing on the Autism Program.
I am afraid the school’s web site tends to generate certificate errors. If you are concerned about web security and want to be certain you are linking to the PWC School Division’s web site, go here. Then check out the Electronic Agenda and click on April 11.
Desegregation Proclamation
The School Board celebrated the 40th anniversary of the integration of the PWC Public Schools by passing a resolution and presenting it to the Human Rights Commission. The resolution (here) was a nice gesture.
Autism Audit Program Results Presentation
Here is a link to the primary presentation. The presenter was a Ph.D who was unable to depart from the gobbledygook jargon of her profession. Lot of nice words. The presenter definitely liked the words model and outcome. As near as I can tell, she recommended more strategic planning, more administrative support, more staff, and a flexible calendar for training staff personnel (more opportunities to focus on training related to instructing autistic children).
Perhaps this criticism is unfair, but I seriously doubt the worth of this study. Maybe the only problem is that the presenter has difficulty speaking plain language, but she is suppose to be a teacher. In any case, the recommendations in the presentation lacked detail. Moreover, instead of an objective observer, the lady came across as an ineffective mouthpiece for the stakeholders (another favorite term). She criticized the lack of resources without specifically criticizing anyone and anything the school system is doing.
It seemed to me that the School Board was equally confused. Johns asked for an explanation of some of gobbledygook. He got more gobbledygook. The presentation does not make it clear what was recommended. Lucas asked for a list of the recommendations.
Covington seemed particularly interested in this program. She had questions for the staff that brought out the problems finding qualified special ed teachers and the need for an exceptionally high teacher/student ratio.
Lattin seemed nervous that the recommendations would result in the bureaucracy forcing special ed teachers to adopt methods that might not be appropriate for some students.
Walts like the presentation. Well, it least he took the opportunity to use the presentation to say what he is doing to improve things. As a practical matter, I think this study merely provides additional cover for Walts to spend this portion of his budget as wishes.
Safe Schools Advisory Council
Here is the list of approved nominees.
