BoardBuzz

« March 30, 2005 | Main | April 1, 2005 »

March 31, 2005

School law answers for NSBA National Affiliates

Board members and administrators of NSBA National Affiliate districts who will be attending NSBA's Annual Conference in San Diego next month have a chance to get some answers to their questions on school law. For the third year running, there will be a special session for National Affiliate members called You Asked! discussing the legal issues they ask about in advance. In the future, a special issue of Leadership Insider, the National Affiliate school law and policy newsletter, will recap the discussion.

To submit questions, National Affiliate board members and employees can click here. Even if you can't make it to San Diego, we want to hear from you. If you're not sure whether your district is a National Affiliate, you can check here.

Posted at 12:00 AM | Link to this story | Comments (0)

School boards confront student burnout

School boards around the country are taking action to address a serious issue: Burnout and stress among high-achieving students. The school board in Winnetka, Ill., is considering major changes at New Trier High School, where nearly 95 percent of students go on to college. "New Trier, like a number of large, high-performing schools, is beginning to acknowledge that a culture of excellence can have a dark side, and that the push to craft gilded college applications can bring on stress and overscheduling," reports the Christian Science Monitor, in an article that lays out the issues.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the Winnetka school board last week endorsed having administrators study 41 recommendations to address such concerns. Among them: Eliminating class rankings, setting guidelines for homework, and mandating student meetings with counselors beginning in ninth grade to assist students in arranging healthier and saner mix of academic and extracurricular activities. The most controversial suggestion, oddly enough: Mandatory lunch. Some students choose to skip lunch, opting to eat in class, to free up more time to choose other elective classes, such as art and music.

The school board in Palo Alto, Calif., has been addressing similar issues for about three years. Such efforts are deadly serious. "In 2003, there were two suicides at Palo Alto High School," reports the San Jose Mercury News. "But there are many more cases of students developing unhealthy habits—like skipping meals, drinking too much coffee, abusing alcohol—in their drive to succeed, said Mollie Galloway, co-director of Stanford University's Stressed Out Students program." The Stanford Program—called S.O.S.—offers programming and some good resources. "There are two kinds of solutions. Some I call Band-Aids, and some are root changes," Denise Pope of the Stanford program tells Christian Science Monitor. "For some of the schools, it's a huge success just to have conversations about this."

Posted at 12:00 AM | Link to this story | Comments (0)

A weighty subject

How would your state teachers' union respond to this? A state lawmaker in Hawaii has suggested that state's public school teachers be forced to weigh in as part of the fight against obesity in students. The resolution calls for all public schoolteachers to weigh in every six months. The measure calls for the education and health departments to formulate an obesity standard and appropriate measures for teachers who cannot meet the standard, reports KITV in Honolulu. State Rep. Rida Cabanilla introduced a resolution in the house requesting that the board of education establish an obesity database among public schoolteachers.

"You cannot keep a kid to a certain standard that you yourself are not willing to keep," Cabanilla said. More than 20 percent of Hawaii's children are at risk, or are already overweight, according to the station. There are no statistics on teachers. The Hawaii State Teachers Association objects.

Posted at 12:00 AM | Link to this story | Comments (0)

School boards making a difference

Every year, American School Board Journal's Magna Awards honors school boards and school districts across America that are going above and beyond the call of duty, reaching out to their communities and leading for positive change in numerous ways. Read about the recently named 2005 batch of winners and their programs here. Big winners: Miami-Dade County Schools; Metropolitan School District of Warren Township in Indiana; and San Diego City Schools. The winners will be honored at NSBA's annual conference in April.

Posted at 12:00 AM | Link to this story | Comments (0)