Board of Education Preview: Valley View to Discuss Internet, Grading Policy Changes; Personnel Transfers, Dismissals

The Valley View Board of Education will tackle a wide variety of issues at its meeting tonight. Among items on the agenda are recommendations for board approval of:

• Policy changes required by the Federal Internet Children’s Protection Act (CIPA). To comply with the act, beginning July 1, schools must develop Internet safety policies to educate children about proper behavior on social networking websites and chat rooms as well as cyberbullying awareness and response.

• Revision of the district’s grading scale which, according to Superintendent James Mitchem, would serve to “level the playing field” with nearby districts. According Valley View’s current grading scale, a student who earns 91 percent in an AP course would receive a B, but in nearby districts, 90 percent in an AP course is considered an A.

• The adoption of the Children’s Progress Adaptive Assessment for self-contained bilingual students in grades kindergarten through second-grade, at a per-student cost of $15, or $12,000 total. Current MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) testing is available in English only, and administrators say providing assessments in Spanish would help the district collect data to guide classroom instruction.

• The adoption of “Benchmark Literacy,” a new program for grades kindergarten through fifth designed to support staff with the implementation of a rigorous curriculum to get all students on track for college and career readiness. The cost of the program is approximately $107 per student, for a total of $850,000.

• An amendment to a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMAX) contract with Wight & Company, to add the cost of site improvements at R.C. Hill as well as technology infrastructure improvements for kindergarten, first- and fifth-grades, computer labs for the career readiness program and math rooms. According to Gary Grizaffi, assistant superintendent of administrative services, site improvements at R.C. Hill will be funded mainly through a $1,000,000 grant by the Village of Romeoville through its Tax Increment Financing (TIF) allocation. The combined cost for the projects is $2,164,483; and

• More than 150 separate actions involving personnel, including both voluntary and involuntary transfers of certified personnel and dismissal of educational support personnel for reasons other than Reduction in Force (RIF).