UPFRONT
Trends, Research&Dates
Compiled by Shannon Hendricks
AASB DISTRICT DIRECTOR ELECTIONS Check your mail this month for details on AASB’s district director elections. The association’s revised bylaws state any active member can selfnominate or nominate another active member for district director by writing the executive director by Sept. 1. AASB will inform the district membership of nominees. Ballots listing the eligible nominees will be mailed to the district members by Oct. 1. Each board within a district gets one vote. The board president will certify that action was taken at a board meeting to choose a nominee, and the ballot must be returned to AASB by Oct. 31. If only one person is nominated, he or she automatically becomes district director. The district will be notified of the election results as soon as they are calculated. This year’s elections will be in the districts of directors Patsy Black, District 1; Jeff Bailey, District 3; Susan Harris, District 7; and Laura Casey, District 9, who have reached the two-term limit and are ineligible for reelection. An election will also be held in District 5, where Jennifer Parsons is eligible for reelection.
STATE TREND: Systems Choose Four-Day Work Week Sky-rocketing fuel and energy costs have forced some school systems to move to four-day work and school weeks with extended hours during the summer. That was the case in Hoover, where the board of education adopted a Monday-Thursday schedule for employees in early June. Trussville’s schools and central office operated on a four-day work schedule through Aug. 1. Similar action was taken across the state, condensing summer work and school weeks in Jefferson County, Cullman and Bessemer, to name a few. The Energy Information Association recently reported the average price for a gallon of gasoline in Alabama was $3.92, while the average retail price for electricity in the United States had risen to nearly 7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Taxes and Schools Voters rejected a half-cent sales tax that would’ve relieved growing pains in the Madison County school system as well as in Madison and Huntsville city schools, reported the Huntsville Times. The measure’s failure in the June primary leaves few options and could lead to more portable classrooms. It’s the latest blow for boards already facing budget cuts, fewer state dollars and an expected glut of student transfers as Army families move in when bases are realigned.
4 Alabama School Boards • July/August 2008
Are You Ethical? School board ethics isn’t a concrete science. However, if a more ethical, happier life is what you seek, self-proclaimed “Ethics Guy” Dr. Bruce Weinstein suggests these five fundamental principles in a BusinessWeek article: do no harm, make things better, respect others, be fair and be compassionate.
3,338 DID YOU KNOW?
There were 3,338 graduates recommended for their first Alabama teacher certification in 2006-07, according to the state’s Teacher Preparation Program Performance Profile.
SAY WHAT? “I’ll tell you what’s wrong with No Child Left Behind. Forcing our teachers, our principals, and our schools to accomplish all of this without the resources they need is wrong. ...Labeling a school and its students as failures one day and then throwing your hands up and walking away from them the next is wrong.” — Sen. Barack Obama, U.S. presidential candidate
Programs to Expand Statewide Gov. Bob Riley and state Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton recently announced the expansion of two prominent state education initiatives. By August 2009, every high school in Alabama will have the state’s ACCESS distance learning program up and running — a year ahead of schedule. Riley said Alabama will be the only state with videoconferencing and Web-based learning in every high school. In addition, 13 new schools will soon join the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative. The number of schools using AMSTI to improve math and science education is now 573.