Lawrence school board agenda highlights ¢ 7 p.m. Monday ¢ 110 McDonald Drive ¢ Sunflower Broadband Channel 26 ¢ Meeting documents online at www.usd497.org

Bottom line

The board will decide whether Schwegler and Sunflower schools will become “neighborhood” English as a Second Language sites and whether the faculty at those schools will begin ESL studies during the 2007-2008 school year. The board also will consider a policy designating some schools as neighborhood ESL schools.

Background

Demographic projections indicate that in five years the number of Lawrence students needing ESL services will nearly double, exceeding 1,000 students, said Bruce Passman, deputy superintendent.

Most ESL students had been going to Hillcrest School until this year, when Cordley School was designated as the second ESL cluster site.

Passman said new sites need to be selected before Cordley and Hillcrest approach or exceed their capacity. The district’s ESL task force has recommended creating “neighborhood” sites, rather than cluster sites, so students can attend school close to their home.

The task force recommends that Sunflower and Schwegler become neighborhood ESL sites for 2007-2008. Sunflower has 65 English Language Learners in its boundary and Schwegler has 50 ELL students. Hillcrest and Cordley still will serve the remainder of the district.

Passman said the district hadn’t spoken directly with classroom teachers at the two schools about the studies they would need to continue working at the school. But Passman said they would need to begin taking classes to become certified as ESL teachers. That would require them to take 15 credit hours of studies and three hours of student teaching over three or five years, he said. The district would pay for the education. Currently, teachers at Cordley are going through the same training process.

“We understand some of the teachers are very concerned about it,” Passman said. He said some teachers might choose not to work at the schools.

“The important thing is we want all the teachers who teach in their building to continue to teach there,” he said.

Other business

Consent agenda

Approve in one motion the following routine items:

¢ Minutes from the Feb. 26 regular meeting and executive session.

¢ Monthly treasurer, financial and monthly vouchers.

¢ Personnel report, which includes the following certified personnel matters:

– Early retirements: Linda Allen, Lawrence High School guidance counselor, 26 years; Carol Alvarez, interrelated resource teacher at West Junior High School, 17 years; Phyllis Anderson, second-grade teacher at Kennedy School, 19.5 years; Peggy Dey, districtwide school psychologist, 29 years; Linda Joler, interrelated resources teacher at Free State High School, 15 years; Janet Olin, English/German teacher at Central Junior High School, 31 years; Jacque Shipstead, kindergarten teacher at Sunflower School, 24 years; and Paulette Strong, principal at Quail Run School, 21 years.

– Regular retirements: Sharon Carlson, counselor at Pinckney School, five years; Juanita Decker, districtwide school psychologist, 15 years.

– Election: David Cunningham, division director of human resources for certified employees.

– Transfers: Robert Arevalo, from director of personnel to division director of human resources for classified employees; Kim Bodensteiner, from principal of Cordley School to chief academic officer; Ann Bruemmer, from director of arts and humanities to division director of curriculum services; Kevin Harrell, from assistant director of special education to division director of student intervention services; Paula Murrish, from director of food service to division director of food service; Mary Rodriguez, from executive director of human resources to chief operations officer.

¢ Participation in the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center (Greenbush) Purchasing Cooperative program.

¢ A sign to be placed on the grounds of Sunflower School and a fundraising effort to pay for the sign’s $6,000 cost.

¢ Construction change orders at Central, West and Southwest junior highs.

¢ Purchase of furniture, fixtures and equipment for science classrooms at the junior highs and high schools of about $117,000 from three vendors.

¢ A board policy on computer use on its second reading and minor edits in several other board policies.

Reports

¢ Hear a report on a board policy about creating ESL neighborhood school sites.

¢ Hear a report about expanding the ESL elementary program to Sunflower and Schwegler schools.

¢ Hear a staffing and budget report for 2007-2008 and consider approving certified staff requests for 14.5 positions, costing $677,511.

¢ Hear a report on the Renzulli Learning Systems software for high-achieving students.

Executive session

¢ Go into closed session to discuss personnel.