At the December 2011 Newburgh School District BOE meeting last night:

• There was recognition for the fifth grade math team and for the retirement of District Photographer and AV Expert Greg Thompson.
• The Board President praised the quality and accomplishments of the NFA Career and Technical Ed Program and the elementary IB program at Horizons. She said these programs had impressed visiting education experts.
• A resolution to approve the job description for Executive Principal of NFA was separated from being grouped with revised job descriptions for "Director of Social Studies Education and Foreign Language", and "Director of Bilingual Education and Accelerated Learning Programs". One board member voted no on the Exec Principal job desc.
• Meeting minutes for Sept and Oct regular meetings, and for three Special Meetings in November were approved. They will probably be on the district website soon.
• During public comments, teacher Ms. Hutchinson again expressed concern for the affect of the new attendance policies on participation in the Girls to Ladies club. She explained that there has been a real case of a student who it is the goal of the club to help, being turned away because of the attendance policy.
• A retired police sergeant with experience working with schools expressed support for the Girls to Ladies club. He said that students who find ways to participate are much less likely to run into trouble with the law.
• Former BOE member Grace Bowles took issue with the Executive Principal job description.
• Most agenda items were approved routinely. A couple of HR items (each was "an aggreement with an employee") were tabled for discussion in executive session. The meeting went to executive session after less than an hour.
• After about 90 minutes in executive session, the board approved one of the two HR items that had been tabled earlier. The other remained tabled.

Video will probably be up on Friday.