The January FCBOE called session meeting minutes are finally up, one month later.

The highlight is the preliminary findings of the SACS accreditation team:

As expected, the SACS team found we had motivated students and great teachers. Anyone surprised there?

Of particular interest was 5 areas for improvement identified by the SACS team:

1. Construct a detailed plan for building and maintaining the technology infrastructure and a professional learning plan to prepare the stakeholders for successful utilization of the technology for 21st century classrooms.
2. Provide differentiated instruction using research-based strategies pervasively and consistently throughout all classrooms to meet the diverse needs and learning styles of students.
3. Develop a system-level assessment plan for each grade and all subjects that includes the expectations for use of each assessment and its purpose.
4. Review, discuss and monitor state assessment data for subgroups relevant to the school system. Similarly, data on higher levels of achievement should be reviewed, discussed and monitored.
5. Revise existing Strategic Plan to prioritize areas of greatest need for the purpose of creating a more focused and manageable plan. The district plan and school improvement plans must be clearly and concisely articulated, aligned and monitored.

I found items 1 and 5 particularly telling:
In bureaucratese-speak, the SACS board is basically telling the board that their technology plan is severely deficient, and the so-called "Strategic Plan" is a joke.

I have been railing about these two particular issues for several years now, and it's good to have outside professional vindication of my position.

The board simply does not manage to the "Strategic Plan" (example, our leased computers are fully funded for the future beginning in 2006), it is an unprioritized 160 page wish list of desired expenditures and wishful thinking. As such, the "Strategic Plan" is simply a dusty historical check list, rarely updated and even more rarely consulted.