NHP-GCP Board of Education Notebook: July 25

In case you missed Monday evening’s board of education work session, here are some highlights from the meeting:

• The board is starting to plan presentations for their five-year plan and decided that beginning in September, each month following will focus on a different department, such as curriculum and construction, finances, buildings and grounds, technology and special education. said she liked the idea of compacting the five months, but she would also like to have an executive session to go over more information at least every two months or so. granted this plan.
• The state has still not released the test score data, to which Katulak sarcastically said, “This is such an unbelievable thing.” Next year’s test dates are not available yet either, but to get the school calendar in resident’s homes in the right amount of time, they will have to be printed without those test dates. Katulak said he will then send a notice home that the test dates will be available online. He also anticipates the test results will come in sometime in August.
• In addition to the test scores data, the board will have a presentation on the test scores at the October board meeting where the board will discuss where they were before, where they are and where they want to be in terms of student performance. They will also have a list of district wide collaborative strategies to get from Point A to Point B.
• Katulak said there is a new product out called PRO (Power Reading Online) which enables students to practice their reading skills with a recorded voice that is at a pace attentive for them. Since the program is web-bases, the students have access at school and home as well. For 20-99 students, the cost is $35 per student license per year, or $20 per student license per year for 1,000 or more students. Because Katulak volunteers and attends the annual conference and presents, the board will be given the licenses for second to sixth grade per gratis.