Note: For a while, I’m going to be illustrating the “On the Agenda” posts with various graphs documenting achievement gaps in MMSD as revealed by the admittedly flawed and limited WSAS/WKCE results. I think regular reminders may do some good. Note also the 37% gap here between children in poverty and those more economically secure.
Only two Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education related meetings this week.
The first is the 4-Year old Kindergarten Advisory Committee meeting 9:00 A, Monday June 28 at 4C (Community Coordinated Child Care) 5 Odana Court. The agenda consists primarily of updates from the sub committees. The biggest news on this front (other than all signs continue to point to a 2011-12 start-up) is that a revised RFP for Community Providers has been issued.
The other meeting is the Ad Hoc Board Committee on Ethics, Noon, Monday June 28, Doyle Administration Bldg., Room 103. I’ve talked with Board members, heard a short discussion of this at last Monday’s Board meeting, have read the memo from legal counsel distributed at that meeting (but not a draft of the proposed revisions, if those were distributed I missed them), and am still not clear on what the intent is.
That’s it for this week. A few notes on related matters. As of now the Board schedule for July is:
July 6, Ad Hoc Board Meeting (likely more on Ethics).
July 12, Special Board Meeting and Regular Board Meeting.
July 19, Special Board Meeting.
At the June 21 organizational session no decision was reached on committee structures, so for the time being all meetings will be of the full Board, meeting as the full Board.
I hope to use this semi break to catch up with posts on what happened at the last two Board meetings and some other district developments, including a retrospective post on the budget process.
Meanwhile, there is a Board of Education Progress Report out. Note that as of the date it was distributed (June 21), the statement on SAGE: “The Board is considering how to handle this change in state funding,” was already out of date. At the June 14 meeting the Board decided to move the SAGE Block schools to an 18/1 ratio and allocate the remaining SAGE schools with “flexibility” between 15/1 and 17/1.
Thomas J. Mertz
AMPS 