The BoardsCorner: Update from CVU
by Lorna Jimerson,
June 30, 2011, page 8.....

Looking Forward: A Preview of CVU School Board Issues 2011-2012

Each spring, CSSU school boards gather together, both as a supervisory union and individually, to identify priorities for board work for the coming school year. These high-priority areas form the backbone of board workplans, in addition to “givens” such as budget formation, policy review and superintendent evaluation.
Though the CVU workplan will not officially be approved until September (at the CVU retreat), our board already has identified several areas that are of primary concern. The following is an unofficial preview of some of the issues that will be discussed during the 2011-2012 school year.

Equity issues
CVU board members, as well as board members from the other school districts, are troubled by the serious and persistent academic “achievement gap.” Across the country, across the state and within our schools, data suggests that low SES (socio-economic status) students, on the average, don’t do as well academically as higher SES students.
CVU does have some initiatives designed to improve academic success for ALL students (for example, the on-going effort to utilize differentiated classroom instruction). One question we will ask is whether there are other actions, other initiatives, other programs that should be considered to improve academic achievement among lower-income students. In addition, we want to examine current programs to ensure equity. In the past, for example, board members have brought up concerns about equal access to some of the trips to foreign countries and about the high cost of these experiences.
We realize that while there are no easy answers to fix the achievement gap, it is imperative to keep pursuing better outcomes. We hope that improvement can occur with continued focused discussion, scrutinizing data, examining relevant research and seeking information on “best practices” used in other schools.

Substance abuse
This is another persistent problem across the nation and our state, especially at the high school level. A comprehensive review of the relevant policies will be part of our effort to address this issue. Also, we will examine existing programs (such as CY) to ensure that we are doing everything we can to decrease the level of substance abuse among CVU students.

CVU 2015
CVU 2015 is a multi-year school transformation effort developed by the faculty and designed to improve instruction and assessment. This initiative is based on the latest research about how kids learn, and the new and different demands of our rapidly changing, technology-rich, global environment. This work formed the basis of most of the professional development this past year.
As the staff focused on ways to improve student learning, three major themes, or strands, emerged. One strand examines actual classroom strategies for improved instruction and assessment. A second strand seeks new ways to communicate to students, teachers, parents and others about what students can do. The third component of CVU 2015 examines different ways for students to earn high school credits. Here, the staff is exploring various student-directed opportunities such as independent study, community internships and integrated course work.
Some of these strategies will start to impact programs at CVU. For example, because of work by the communications group, incoming students will use an e-portfolio to introduce themselves to their advisors. The intent is that e-portfolios will eventually be incorporated into student assessment.
These topics (and others) will be of interest to many community members. We invite the public to come to CVU board meetings and we welcome your input. Our meetings are usually held on the second Wednesday of every month at CVU and the agendas are posted online on the CSSU website, cssu.org.

Lorna Jimerson and Marilyn Richardson are Charlotte's elected representatives on the CVU Board.