May School Board Meeting Agenda

Bancroft-Rosalie Community School

Regular Board of Education Meeting Agenda

Monday, May 13, 2013 --- 7:30 p.m. in Bancroft

1.             Call to Order

2.            Open Meetings Act

3.             Roll Call

4.             Read and approve the minutes of the April 8, 2013 Board Meeting.

5.             Treasurer’s Report

            A.             Approve the Bills

            B.             Financial Review

6.             Review Agenda

7.             Public Hearing

8.  Administrator’s Reports:

            A. Superintendent’s Report

            B.            Principal’s Report

9.            Old Business:

            A. Coaches and sponsors assignments

10.            New Business:

            A. Annual review of financial needs- Preliminary budget study.

            B. Review budget amount for training and workshops.

            C. Review major purchase requisitions for ensuing year.

            D. Set wages for activity bus drivers and substitute cooks.

                E.            Approve School Mission and Belief Statements

            F. Offer teaching contract to Abigail Linnerson

            G. Accept invitation to join the East Husker Conference effective June 1, 2013 and

                         withdraw from the Lewis and Clark Conference

11. Discussion Items

            A. Common Core Standards

12. Executive Session-

13.            Future Planning- Next scheduled meeting- June 10, 2013 at 7:30 pm in Bancroft.           

14.            Adjournment.

GRADUATION

Massive open online courses

Massive open online courses (MOOC) are a recent development in distance education. An MOOC is an online course aiming at large-scale interactive participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for the students and teachers.

Open online courses have the potential to impact our educational system. Why do I say this? Read the following course description of Hippocrates Challenge, an MOOC from Stanford University, and see if you agree this would appeal to bright students who are bored with traditional classroom instruction but interested in health sciences-

"The year is 2032. You are the doctor on a ship of 5000, when suddenly you encounter a hostile forces Now, the sickbay is overflowing with the injured and dying. Your mission is to repair, reconstruct and regenerate your wounded shipmates before time runs out.
Welcome to the Hippocrates Challenge 2013, a course designed for anyone with an interest in medicine. When you take the challenge in this course, you'll be offered the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the structure and function of the human body, how tissues respond to injury, and how stem cells and regenerative medicine can change the face of treatment of trauma. Using case-based studies and collaborative projects, you will diagnose patients and then work in teams to repair and reconstruct their injuries. By the end of this course, you will have had the chance to learn the principles of human physiology and anatomy, surgical reconstruction and explore the innovative new field of regenerative medicine."

Sounds interesting and may appeal to students more than my chemistry lecture. But we are not ready to start using them at B-R yet. Most MOOC's are written for college students, but this year some high school courses came on-line. Three organizations, Khan Academy, Peer-to-Peer University (P2PU) and Udemy are viewed as being similar to MOOCs, but they work outside the university system or mainly provide individual lessons that students may take at their own pace, rather than having a massive number of students all working on the same course schedule.

Several questions must be answered before we try offering one of these classes to our students-
1. How will students be graded?
2. Is the class of good quality and worth of offering?
3. How will the class work within our current system?
There will be other issues that have to be resolved before B-R students will be taking an MOOC.

But if there is a good quality MOOC that our students are interested in, I am ready to consider it.

Computer proposal for 2013-14

Computer proposal for May School Board meeting agenda

2013-14 through 2017

Grades 9-12                        New MacBook Pro computers

Grades 7-8                        3 year old MacBook computers

Computer Lab            3 year old MacBook Pro computers and MacBooks

5^th and 6^th                        IPAD cart with 20 one year old IPad II’s

3^rd and 4^th                        20 new IPad II’s

1^st and 2^nd                        20 new IPad II’s

Pre and Kind                        20 new IPad II’s

Server                                    New MacPro server

Mrs. Nolting is the new B-R School Librarian

Bancroft-Rosalie School technology coordinator Joy Nolting will also be school librarian next year. Current librarian June Hawk is retiring at the end of the school year. 

Judy Ross will continue in her role as Library Assistant and will take over the duties of the elementary library. The 8th grade library skills class will become part of the 8th grade Reading class. 

Special Academic Awards

 Preston Peters and Levi Beutler win the Green Power Award of Nebraska Public Power. The school receives a free I Pad and a camera.

 Nikki White presents the IPAD and Camera representing Cuming County Power

 Morgan Smith receives the Golden Hammer shop Award

 Mr. Smith receives an appreciation gift from the Powerdrive team.

Morgan Smith presents the gift and says a few words. Mr. Smith was also honored with a video of his Decade as Powerdrive sponsor.

Academic Awards 7-12

Kennedy Schuttler- Silver Honor Roll