Agenda - 09-05-2013 - 5a - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

11 1 Superintendent Forcella reviewed the positive impacts of financial support and said that 2 there is still room for improvement in the achievement gap. He stressed the need for long term 3 planning and professional development in achieving this. He said the FPG Dual-Language 4 School is a first in the district, and this is almost like opening a second new school. 5 He said that a task force has been set up to address safety plans for facilities and 6 classrooms. He said the other piece of safety is to address the mental health piece of the 7 puzzle, and to provide assistance to children who need help and might go unnoticed. 8 Referring to the slide on Setting Priorities, Superintendent Forcella said that the goal is 9 to continue the literacy coaching into the middle school to create a K-12 continuum. He said 10 that when adding this, something has to be cut, and in this case it is In-school suspension and 11 Middle School Teacher Assistants (TAs). He said efficiency reduction has to do with using staff 12 more efficiently. He said examples of this include creating larger classes, combining classes, 13 or having teachers teaching classes at multiple schools. 14 Commissioner porosin referenced the slide on setting priorities and asked how many 15 Literacy Coaches would be hired and how many TA's would be reduced? 16 Todd LoFriese said that 4 coaches will be hired, and 8 teaching assistant positions will 17 be lost. 18 Commissioner Gordon asked about the new teaching models of interaction versus 19 lectures and how this helps the lower achieving students. 20 Superintendent Forcella said the students are engaged and involved in the learning 21 process and this creates a much deeper level of thinking. He said not everyone is comfortable 22 memorizing information and this model gives clear expectations and gives a better 23 understanding of the context of the learning. 24 Commissioner porosin asked if the literacy coaches are trainers for other teachers and 25 Tom Forcella said yes, these coaches are training adult teachers in this teaching model. 26 Todd LoFriese picked up the PowerPoint presentation on page 3 with the slide on 2013- 27 14 Budget Drivers and reviewed the remaining slides. 28 Commissioner McKee said the sequestration rates were different between the two 29 school systems. 30 Todd LoFriese said the there has been a lot of discussion about the class sizes in 31 grades 4 and 5, where there are some classes with 30-31 students. He said this is a direct 32 result of discretionary reductions from the state. He said the district reduction of$3 million 33 equates to 50 teaching positions that the schools would otherwise have. 34 Todd Lofriese reviewed the Continuation Budget Requests and said CHCCS are in the 35 same position as Orange County in terms of the impact of sequestration, and there is an 36 estimated 8% reduction reflected in the budget. He noted the last line on the Projected Local 37 Budget Balance slide and said that this is based on the Board continuing to assign the fund 38 balance at an increased level of$3.2 million. He said this is likely the last year that this will be 39 possible. He said it is unknown how the Teacher Tenure/School Reform will affect the ability to 40 recruit teachers. He noted that NC is currently 47th in the nation in teacher pay, trailing the 41 average by nearly $10,000. He noted that experienced teachers make $5000 per year less 42 than 4 years ago. 43 Commissioner McKee noted that the sequestration rates were different between the two 44 school systems. 45 Todd Lofriese said the CHCCS number was recommended by the finance officer and 46 Superintendent Rhodes said OCS based this number on an estimate average of districts that 47 ranged from 4% to 11%; and a middle ground was chosen. 48 Commissioner McKee noted the OCS $17,000 item under exceptional children and 49 asked for elaboration on the status of computers in the classrooms.