By Turner Russel

On Monday, March 10, the Atlantic Community School District’s board meeting took place at the High School. Those who were present at the board meeting addressed several important community topics, including next year’s professional development schedule, the AHS Friend-to-Friend mentoring program, financial statements and open enrollment approvals, and one-to-one student laptops. You can see the entier agenda here: https://docs.google.com/a/student.atlanticiaschools.org/document/d/1nZ0arwx4D9-1a409Td0mmo1dRGwCuA9U_ZihLy2E2t4/edit.

As the meeting started, AHS teachers Jennifer Hartwig and Allison Berryhill expressed their concerns with the current Professional Development (PD) schedule, asking that the District Leadership Team (DLT) reevaluate the Wednesday afternoon time. While many teachers are in agreement that having PD at a different time–such as Monday mornings–would help high school students focus better throughout the week, the DLT representatives reported that they had already discussed the issue and prefer to maintain the current schedule.  Superintendent Dr. Mike Amstein said, “A new schedule won’t work unless you change the process.” After the discussion, a majority of the board members voted to keep the same schedule. This means AHS students will continue to have shortened days on Wednesdays next year.

Next, AHS senior Lillie Zablocki and sophomore Sarah McCance gave a presentation of the Friend-to-friend mentoring program which involves high-schoolers meeting with middle-schoolers for about 45 minutes every other week for friendship and academic support. Zablocki reported that currently there are approximately 40 high school students and 50 middle school students involved in the program. Each mentor has gone through a training. McCance stated that she thinks the mentoring program is able to offer both mentors and mentees a chance to “get away from life and be a friend.”

Another key subject talked about at the meeting was the possibility of one-to-one laptops for students next year. The district’s technology coordinator Roger Warne presented a possible option that included MacBook Airs for the high school and Chromebooks for the middle school. Warne said the high school would have the ability to lease the MacBook Airs from Apple, also adding that if the school did upgrade to MacBook Airs, the machines could be “laser-engraved” with student identification. If the district decides to go with this plan, it will most likely cost over $600,000.

Board meeting minutes are available for review here.