School Board Meeting

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EDU 210 School Board Meeting

Jessica Beasley
October 19, 2014
College of Southern Nevada

School Board Meeting

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The Regular Board Meeting took place on October 9, 2014. They
started off the meeting with a flag salute and a prayer. It was interesting to
see that student body presidents from Palo Verde and Centennial Hills were
invited to open up the meeting. They both went over how well their schools
were doing statistic wise. The meeting was incredibly long. 415 minutes to
be exact. This meeting is very beneficial and relevant to the content in this
course.
We just learned about student led prayer in class. And in the beginning
of this Board meeting they initiated a prayer. It obviously did not violate the
Establishment clause in this case. So it is intriguing that they did this at a
meeting because we just learned about prayers involving school. So that is
one relevant issue that is related to content in this course.
During the meeting, there was a time allotted for public comment. We
learned in class that parents are able to have a say in the education. In one
discussion we talked about the national PTA. So in this meeting they give up
to 2 minutes of time to address an issue not in the agenda. That is great
because it gives time to address issues to the Board. However, the Board is
unable to take action on anything raised during the Public Comment Period.
We learned about sexual orientation harassment. Sexual harassment
towards a gay or lesbian student that is serious enough to limit or deny a

students ability to participate in school programs constitutes as sexual

harassment prohibited by Title IX. At the school board meeting a teacher
talked about how a student that was in the LGBTQ program was being
harassed. She just went on to let the Board know that it is very important to
make sure students are safe. Parents were very concerned about choice.
They want the Board to opt in for parent choice.
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Another teacher brought up how we need to teach the same things
more frequently. This teacher wants curriculums to be more frequent and
lengthy. Some kids do not learn everything off the back. If a student needs
more time to learn something then the curriculum should have it more
frequently. Some students said they did not know something that was
supposed to be in the curriculum. And in our discussions in class we
discussed about following our procedures as teachers. We need to follow the
curriculum. It is our duty to teach students within the curriculum. If not, we
can be disciplined. We can even be dismissed. And this is all of course
within the guidelines of due process.
Another person talked about performance pay salary structure. We
talked about this through our discussions. Merit pay is a concern among
teachers. It can be good and also bad. Sometimes teachers cannot be held
accountability for students lack of motivation. There will always be students

at some time bound to not be as motivated. Teachers that are doing

excellent jobs in the classroom with great evaluations should be rewarded
and compensated.
A lot of teachers were actively involved in the Public Comment section
of this School Board Meeting. Once person said there are over 600 vacancies
for teachers. But they are hiring substitutes instead. This is inconsistent for
children. He suggested that instead of using money for signing bonuses,
they use the money as incentive to hire more teachers.
In conclusion, this meeting was found very comprehensive on many
issues. There were a lot of situations that are relatable in regards to our
course content. With continued
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attendance and support of our community, these School Board meetings will
bring much involvement of parents, teachers, and citizens.