Hope School Board

The Hope School Board met in the Administration Building on Thursday, June 13th. The meeting began with an approval of the minutes for the three previous meetings – the 6th, 20th and 29th. The expenditures were also approved.

Next were speeches of the last two aspiring leaders.  The first was Marilyn Marks the Principal of HAPS. Marks shadowed Portia Jones while doing this project over a two-year period. She stated her goal had been to see how her school could use the Comprehensive Needs Assessment to Create a targeted and Effective School Improvement Plan.

Marks led the Board through her process starting with 6 goals and having 30 questions. She stated she wanted it to be clear that it was a collaborative culture. She also stated while the administrators understood this wasn’t simply something required by the state but was for the school’s benefit as well teachers did not. Marks talked about her goal of creating stakeholder engagement and was questioned by Bubba Powers if she had any opinion on how to create that. He stated it had been wrestled with for many years. Marks talked about the need to celebrate all growth and recognize everyone. Having more student recognitions and performances was mentioned as well.

Laura Gray, the English to Students of Other Languages Coordinator spoke next. She talked about three levels of English language performance – emerging, progressing and proficient. Gray talked about potential problems in improving the performance level such as the lack of specific and intentional strategies. With the improvement of comprehension comes the improvement of reading scores. Using all of the senses in the process and including the objective and holding the students accountable were mentioned as being important in the process.

Different tools that can be used are smaller groups as they make the students less nervous, kids talking to and learning from each other and the use of language objectives.

Other topics included school safety and a unified handbook for Beryl Henry, Yerger and HAPS. The three schools worked together to create their new handbooks and are 90% unified.

The purchase of instruments for the Band requisitions was approved with the stipulation that efforts would be made to ensure their return at the end of the year.

A facilities rental request was denied as had been recommended.

Fencing for the front of Beryl Henry by United Fencing was discussed and approved.

There was a motion to approve the Stupa Arts program paid for with magnet funds. The motion passed.

The personnel packet was accepted as presented.

A special personnel session on the 26th was announced.

With Bubba Powers recognizing Dr Crossley’s birthday in turn his the previous week was also recognized.

The meeting adjourned.