School Board

I attended the Board of Trustees meeting last night to get a feel for how these things are done here. It was interesting and informative on some levels but rather unsatisfying on others. The meetings are governed by the laws of "open meetings" which I've not heard of before. The gist is that they have a published itinerary from which they are not allowed to deviate, however each additional speaker is granted a five minute audience to which no replies or comments may be made, that was the unsatisfying part. Everyone that spoke was complaining about the same thing (a redistricting of their children to a distant elementary school - the kids will be bussed past two existing, established, recognized (for merit) schools to attend a brand new school (with no playground equipment or established merit). Their requests were mostly the same "please add the topic to next months meeting to further discuss the idea and explain the decision" (at which time these self same people will still not be allowed to ask questions). There is no guarantee that the topic will be added (it was covered in the previous two meetings) and no other acknowledgement of their plight.

On the other hand I learned a lot more about foreign language instruction and ESL classes in the ISD. For only two languages is it possible to study for four or five years: French and Spanish, and those classes are taught as correspondance courses from the UTD. I'd never really considered taking a language class via the internet but with the advances in computer technology and the easy access of recording and digitizing equipment it may actually have some benefits over traditional instruction. In the "lab" clasess when you repeat a word or phrase it can make you repeat it until your pronunciation is correct.... weird. Last night the foreign languages department head was lobbying the Board to grant funds for the incorporation of ASL has an approved "foreign" language.