PROCEEDINGS
BOARD OF EDUCATION
ALTON COMMUNITY UNIT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 11
November 8, 2006

A special meeting of the Board of Education was held at the Administration Center, 1854 East Broadway, Alton, Illinois on Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at 5:30 p. m. President David Lauschke called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Board Secretary Vivian Monckton read the notice of the meeting. The following Board members answered present: Ed Gray; Vivian Monckton; Dan Nickel; David Lauschke. Board members George Terry and Benjamin Golley arrived after the roll call.

Administrative staff who were present were: David Elson, Superintendent of Schools; Don Lindsey Assistant Superintendent-Elementary Education; Phil Trapani, Assistant Superintendent-Secondary Education; Christopher Norman, Director of Financial Services; Jack Martin, Plant, Facilities and Maintenance Administrator; John Cunningham, Director of Title 1 and Special Services. Representatives Jim Harter and Barry Moyer, FGM Architects; Anne Noble and Sean McCarthy, A. G. Edwards also attended.

OLD BUSINESS:

Health/Life/Safety

FGM Architect’s representative Jim Harter distributed a Health & Life Safety Implementation Plan that itemized all building’s repair/replacement items, the replacement costs, contingency fees and architects fee. Items that are in the greatest need of attention are the fire doors, exterior doors, toilet partitions, vinyl asbestos tile, water closets/lavatories, restrooms, exit and emergency lights, exhaust fans and urinals.

Our thanks to Kristie Baumgartner, district grant writer, who wrote a Dynergy Energy Efficient School Initiative grant for performance contracting. The district will be awarded $172,000 that will be applied to improvement expenses at North and East Elementary Schools.

Financial Implications

Anne Noble, A. G. Edwards, discussed some of the financial options available to the district through bonding. The financial impact to individual homeowners was reflected in a chart provided to the board. Mr. Chris Norman proposed a tax levy of 10% to capture all of the district’s growth rate. He discussed the financial profile score and he expressed his concerns should the score drop below 2.45 which would place the district in “Financial Watch”. In conferring with the District’s auditor, it appears the District’s financial profile owuld benefit from the sale of bonds for the Health/Life/Safety work as opposed to spending down the reserve in the Operations & Maintenance Fund.

NEW BUSINESS:

Assistant Superintendent Donald Lindsey reported the district’s elementary schools are in a “no status” category in school improvement or first year. The middle school and the high school status has yet to be determined by the Illinois State Board of Education. Interestingly, the School Report Card was due on 10/31/06 and has not yet been received making every school district in Illinois out of compliance.

Longitudinally charted math and reading scores for 3rd and 5th grade students from 2002-2006 showed the achievement gap between white and black students closed from 41% to 17% in the “All Category” for 2006. This gap is being closed by raising expectations for students, identifying areas of need, pushing services, such as tutorial instruction, pyramid of interventions and differentiated learning and increased repetition in the classroom. He said “we must rely on the highly qualified teacher to get the job done.” Additionally, reading achievement grant funds are paying for reading achievement coaches who will collect, review and analyze the data from the quarterly assessments and share the data in grade level meetings.

Middle school scores were reported for grade 8. The “reading, all students” percentage for grade 8 moved from 62% met or exceeded in 2002 to 76% in 2006. This score was reflective of both East and North Middle School students. “Math, all students” was 42% in 2002 and in 2006 76% met or exceeded. The middle school has shown the most consistent, positive upward trend in student achievement. In elementary special education the use of the S.P.I.R.E. reading program has been successful and S.P.I.R.E. will be implemented in the middle school.

Assistant Superintendent Philip Trapani attributed the improvement in the middle schools’ scores to implementing the 90 minute academic block, smaller class sizes, balanced literacy and differentiated instruction. High school junior students are achieving above their 8th grade math scores in all categories. He reported science scores dropped in every area when comparing the same student’s 8th grade scores with their PSAE scores. Not enough honors students are exceeding and those students should be challenged to exceed, not just meet the standards.

By increasing staff development using Professional Learning Communities instruction, our teachers will be trained to focus on skill mastery and how to assess student skills achieved. Curriculum instruction in science and reading needs to be evaluated for improvement for the A.C.T test.

Board member George Terry left the meeting at 6:50 p.m. to attend another meeting.

PERSONNEL:

Motion: Personnel:
It was moved by Ms. Monckton, seconded Mr. Nickel, that the Board of Education accept the resignation of the following administrative personnel effective as indicated:
Shirley Eaves - November 3, 2006
Voting on the motion was as follows: Monckton-yea; Nickel-yea; Golley-yea; Gray-yea; Lauschke-yea. Nay-none.

Motion: Personnel:
It was moved by Ms. Monckton, seconded by Mr. Nickel, that the Board of Education approve the appointment of Mr. Christopher Norman to Director of Finance effective October 30, 2006.
Voting on the motion was as follows: Monckton-yea; Nickel-yea; Golley-yea; Gray-yea; Lauschke-yea. Nay-none.

Motion: Adjourn:
It was moved by Mr. Gray, seconded by Mr. Nickel, that the Board of Education adjourn. Voting on the motion was as follows: Gray-yea; Nickel-yea; Golley-yea; Monckton-yea; Lauschke-yea; Nay-none.

The meeting adjourned at 8:05 p. m.