By: Eddy Gifford, Publisher

The Dade County Board of Education held its regular monthly meeting Monday night and in spite of a light agenda the meeting lasted for over two hours.

The first order of business for the New Year was to elect a chairperson and vice-chairperson. Carolyn Bradford and Mutt Massengale were again elected to those positions. The two are the most experienced of the Board members and have severed in the positions for several years.

The Board approved the consent agenda, consisting of only two items. A band and chorus trip to New York City for March 2014 and the Power School license renewal.

Assistant Superintendent Cherie Swader discussed with the Board the upcoming AdvancED evaluation for school accreditation. The team will be in Dade Feb. 3-6.

Swader explained they will be evaluating all Dade schools in five areas: purpose and direction, governance and leadership, teaching and assessing for learning, resources and support systems, and using results for continuous improvement.

“There is no question that the school and the classroom are at the heart of teaching and learning,” Swader stated. “System accreditation has the power to nurture and support individual school improvement, and at the same time unify school improvement and align it with overall system improvement goals so that the system’s schools are moving in one direction,” she added.

The AdvancED team will be visiting all the schools while here as well as interviewing staff, faculty, board members, students and parents.

The exit interview will take place at a called Board Meeting Feb. 6 at noon.

Superintendent Shawn Tobin and the Board finished reviewing the final group of board policies with minor changes expected in a couple of them.

During the Superintendent’s report a review of upcoming proposed legislative bills was given and they included raising the dropout age from 16 to 17; changing the enrollment birthday from Sept. 1 to Dec. 1 among others. These are just proposed at this time with no guarantee of passage.

Superintendent Tobin stated they are also expecting more budget issues to come from the state legislature this year as it has in the past several years.

In action items the Board put two policy changes on the table for 30 days. On child abuse and neglect the policy to comply with state law in requiring volunteers and substitutes to be mandatory reporter.

In the school’s wellness program, on the recommendation of school nutritionist Wilma Hulgan, the phrase about eliminating the availability of carbonated drinks to students. These will be voted on in 30 days.

The Board approved being the fiscal agent for Dade First Family Connection as they have in past years.

The Board then went into executive session for personnel and after an hour and 10 minutes returned to approve the resignation of Randy Watson as golf coach.