June 3 School Board Meeting

[lynne...@comcast.net]

I finally sat down and watched through to the end of last week's
school board meeting. The board didn't get to the agenda item re
curriculum alignment ("Introduction Item D.5 RFP 04948, Consulting
Services for College Readiness Diagnosis") until 11 p.m. I did not
catch the name of the individual from the district who presented the
agenda item -- she said that she was there in place of Cathy Thompson
and Kathleen Vasquez. The agenda item would allow the district to
award a contract to an outside consultant to revise and realign high
school course offerings. It sets out a timeline for implementation
that has LA curriculum alignment complete by December 2009. The
contract would be funded by the Gates Foundation through the Alliance
for Education. To their credit, given the late hour, the board came
alive with a number of questions. The woman from the district talked
about the need for consistency across curriculum and a need to make
sure that every student has equal access. She stated that the LA
curriculum alignment efforts had been going on for two years. Sherry
Carr made the point that there is a need to weave in to the process
what earned autonomy looks like. The superintendent said in response
something to the effect that you couldn't talk about earned autonomy
until after completion of the alignment process. Steve Sundquist also
referenced earned autonomy and the need to recognize the uniqueness of
existing programs. Harrium Martin-Morris made similar comments. The
consensus among the board members was that the board needed a work
session on curriculum alignment, but Director Debell noted that there
was no time for a work session right now because the board has too
much else on its plate. It was left unclear (1) when such a work
session might take place, and (2) whether the agenda item would still
be voted on at the next (June 17) board meeting, or whether it would
instead be postponed until after the work session.