By Chuck Friend
The Record Publisher

The BCLUW Board of Education heard reports on the 9-12 Social Studies curriculum and viewed a presentation by two students in the Virtual Reality Education Pathfinder program during their regular meeting at the high school media center Monday evening.

Instructors Josh Ehn and John Schill presented the curriculum report, outlining the courses that they teach and the objectives of each. The talked about projects and assessment tools for each of the courses and shared a few of the students projects.

High School Principal Ben Petty gave an overview of the new VREP and 3D applications programs that will be added to the courses at BCLUW. The courses will use Blender, 3D graphics and animation programs that are built into the BCLUW student laptops.

Petty said the students in the new course are limited only by their imagination and dedication to the course. Each student must complete two educationally relevant, and two other projects of their choosing each nine weeks, and will spend a minimum of four hours per week working on his or her VERP projects.

Shaelynn Farnsworth and Cari Teske updated the board members on the fund raising and itinerary plans for the AP English class trip to Sweden.

The five students and two instructors will leave from Chicago on March 14, and arrive in Sweden at about 3 p.m. on March 15. March 16 will be spent at the school in Heiselborg. March 17 will be a walking tour of the city, while March18 will be a theme day and model United Nations event. March 19 will be a tour of the castle, while March 20-22 will be spent in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Fund raising has amounted to about $300 per person to date with another $3,500 or more that the students hope to raise.

The board approved several policies and sent two back for review in January. The members also approved several commendations.

Superintendent Mike Ashton reviewed the five-year facility; transportation and technology plan with the board members. He said that the five-year plan was in need of updating before the next school year. He also said that there had been concerns brought up concerning the district’s telephone system. Board president Matt Garber updated the board on the superintendent search. The advertising has been running for at least two week and to date there has been one applicant.

The tentative timeline is for the applications to be due by Jan. 7. The combined GMG/BCLUW committee will view the applications from Jan 7-17. A work session will be held in closed session on Jan .17 and then the full joint board will meet in closed session to narrow the list to five or six applicants.

Background checks will be conducted between Jan. 17 and 20. The committee will then meet and narrow the candidates two 2 or 3. At this point board members will make visits to the candidate’s hometowns and the first week of February the remaining candidates will be brought into the BCLUW and GMG districts for tours of the schools and communities. Later in February a superintendent will be selected and announced.

School board hears curriculum, Sweden trip report

Copyright ©2010 The Record. All rights reserved.
104 N. Main • Conrad, IA 50621 • 641-366-2020