MARSD Special Action Meeting

The BOE met this evening at 1 Crest Way. The board quickly retired to Executive Session to hear recommendations on tenure from school administrators. There was considerable hand-wringing in the mostly empty room as principals waited their turn to present their cases to the board.

The meeting finally reconvened for a presentation by Dr. Debra Sheard and Mrs. Michele Ruscavage on how the high school will help incoming 9th graders make a successful transition from MAMS. The Freshman Initiative will use core curriculum, team teaching, attentive counseling, closely situated classrooms and lockers, a positive attitude, and strong parental involvement in all aspects of the initiative to improve the students' academic and time management skills, attendance and behavior, thereby increasing the rate of student promotion to 10th grade. 

The budget and finance section of the meeting was too complex and too quick to be informative to the casual observer and the board had already spent considerable time on the tenure issue.As far as instructional assistants are concerned, they of course aren't tenured. Instead, they receive RIF notices each year and must await job renewal offers that come in May or June.