I attended the Oneida School Board meeting tonight. I came at 7pm, but the meeting had started at 6, and because of the web site update I hadn’t seen the change. As is often the case, I was the only person not associated with the District at the meeting. There were several interesting things at the meeting. Here are my observations:
- New Superintendent. I was very impressed with the way the new Superintendent, Mary-Margaret Zehr, carried herself and how she approached the meeting. She radiated gregariousness, competence and enthusiasm for her new job, and seemed to have a mastery of the situation at all times. She also made it clear that she worked for the Board on several occasions in both word and material covered.
- State Audit and Grade Changes. There was an extensive discussion of the State’s Comptroller’s audit and the District’s and Board’s understanding of the issues. After extensive discussion, it sounded like there were reasonable explanations for the changes (e.g. lots of grades: 7 classes x 10 grades/year x 700 students x 1.5 years = 70,000 grades total; AP courses all change, transfer students’ grades count as changes, tests have errors, tests are retaken, etc). The consensus conclusion was that the State Auditor played “Gotcha” the school. It sounded very plausible. (My kids have received more than their share of grade changes under explanations listed by School Representatives). District Representatives said that they only received the report last Friday, in spite of the Oneida Distpatch Article published on July 11. The temporary Assistant Superintendent made a presentation with a two page summary on the topic and came to a more diplomatic, but consistent conclusion. It was not made part of the Agenda. I’ve FOILed it, along with the actual report and the response and will post it when I get it.
- Board Concern over Public Concern over Comptroller’s report. After the discussion above, Mr. Elberson stated “The four people who read the Dispatch are now wondering “what the hell’s going on in this school district, and they may never get the benefit of the explanation you [various members of the Administration]”. Now that you’ve read this far, you are better informed than “the four people”.
- Social Promotion & Grading. As part of the grade discussion, School representatives pointed out that:
- Mr. Widrick stated that in the middle school, grades aren’t changed, because they don’t matter, citing state regulations on . In fact, when parents want to know why their child fails a class but doesn’t have to repeat that class, its because those grades don’t matter — all that matters is “seat time” (I double checked, and this is factually correct). Mr. Widrick went further, stating that if the Middle School didn’t have this policy, there would be kids with permanent parking spaces at the school. (Presumably, a reference to the view that if those students were required to pass a class to go to the high school, they would be at least 16 first).
- In middle school, students who receive less than a 50 automatically get a 50 (a grade change). This is one of those unwritten policies the District doesn’t advertise.
- In the High School, during the first quarter students can’t earn less than 50. For the remaining three quarters, the grade stands.
- The High School Principal can (and frequently does) change 63 and 64 grades to 65.
- The Board’s Priorities. The new superintendent presented topics for discussion which she thought might be the Board’s goals. Those goals were rather prosaically Community, Communications and Facilities (and something that was nearly synonymous with Facilities). The Board also received a point paper on the topic which was neither part of the Agenda, nor handed out to the public. Its clear that Ms. Zehr’s goal is to execute these objectives (which were not quite agreed to at the meeting) to the School’s Administrators next week, and begin executing on them by the beginning of the school year. They also expect to discuss this further at an upcoming Administrator’s/Board retreat.
- Board/Administrator Retreat. There’s no information on the retreat. I’ve asked for the information.
- Superintendent Community Forums. Ms. Zehr plans to host three informal community forums to interested residents at The Bus Garage, Public Library and the Gorman Center.
- Web Site Rework. The school’s web site has been mostly redone. There was a lot of discussion about why there are two pages up. (Hint: rebookmark your links — the old ones will continue to go to the old pages for the forseeable future).
- No Technology Funds. The State Technology funds from several years ago still haven’t been released by the State.
- New Assistant Superintendent. She will probably begin on the Second day of school.
- Named Baseball Field. The dedication of the Baseball field naming will be September 9, before the football game, becuase many more people attend football games than Baseball. Completely separately, Donations to renovate the field are coming right along.