Hey IHS! This year, as your student reps to the board, we’ll try our best to bring you information on Board of Education decisions. Let’s have a great year.
The September 24 meeting started off with an opportunity for community members to bring up issues and concerns. One woman noticed a drop in ELA and Math scores at Enfield, even with updates to the school and curriculum. She proposed the integration of other sources for education, like the Math books series and Singapore Math, and brought up the importance of inclusion in the scores of the children. A few of the board members responded, but no clear solution was presented. Eldred Harris, one of the members, said he had recently talked with math professionals about a low floor, high-ceiling curriculum. He also mentioned that the math curriculum has been detracked and is now in a confusing situation. However, he largely agreed with her stance, bringing up the point that the ELA and Math tests aren’t the be-all, end-all regarding a student’s progress, but that progress has to be tracked somehow. The curriculum committee is currently focused on the middle school math curriculum so that everybody would be ready for Algebra I by eighth grade; this was one of the reasons cited for potential math curriculum neglect at the elementary schools.
On June 13, 2019, New York State passed a new legislation that removed non-medical exemptions from school vaccination requirements for children. Prior to this legislation, New York State had several communities with unacceptably low vaccination rates because of this exemption. Now that it has been removed, however, students who have not met the immunization requirements are allowed to be excluded from school. As a result, thirty-seven ICSD students are currently unable to attend school. Homeschooled students with needs for special education services are also suffering, because the special education services are currently only offered within schools. There seemed to be conflict on the right path forward in terms of offering these kids services, but no specific plan was put into action at this meeting.
The meeting wrapped up with a presentation by an employee from Tetra Tech regarding Phase 1 of the Capital Project. He discussed plans to renovate the track, baseball field, pool, and bleachers. Additionally, internal improvement plans for IHS were reviewed.