Cape school board holding special planning session today

The Cape Girardeau School Board will have a special planning session at 12:30 p.m. Monday at the central administration office, 301 N. Clark St.

Agenda items include a review of school data, a bond construction update and an instructional technology update, as well as discussion of secondary preparation periods and the district's comprehensive school improvement plan.

Superintendent Jim Welker said district officials and the board try to meet at least once each summer for a planning session.

As officials review school data, they will discuss enrollment trends, staffing ratios, expenditure comparisons and district performance data. The district also will compare itself to other schools to get an idea of how it is performing in different areas, Welker said.

The board also will look at historical MAP testing data; most recent scores are not available yet.

Neil Glass, assistant superintendent of administrative services, will give an update on projects being funded by a $20 million bond issue approved by voters in April.

The district's technology specialist then will give a brief update on technology at the district, including the 1:1 computer laptop initiative.

Welker said a board member requested to talk about the amount of preparation times teachers have at different buildings across the district.

"Then, we always try to spend a little bit of time on our comprehensive school improvement plan, which is like our district strategic long-range plan," Welker said. "It is actually time for it to be revised. It's basically a five-year plan, and we developed it about five years ago. We want to talk mostly about what kind of process we want to go through as far as do we want to take the one we have and tweak it or do we want to go through a process where we completely rewrite it. So, we'll begin that discussion."

klamb@semissourian.com

388-3639

Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.