Math, Redistricting, President's Address

Math Discussion

Tuesday's (Sept. 27) Board Meeting will be held at Barratt Elementary.  During the Work Session at 4pm, the board will have an open discussion.  Some board members (myself, included) have requested that we discuss math.  So, this will probably be the topic for most of the Work Session.  Community Comments are always welcome during the regular board meeting at 6pm.  If you have any thoughts on this subject, please let me know.

Redistricting

Most of the board members met with the County Commissioners about redistricting.  We were given a couple of draft plans, and the one that was supported, so far, has Lehi with its own board member.  The other option had Lehi split into thirds and was rejected by the Superintendent almost immediately.  The County will wait until the Legislature has officially finished its redistricting to finalize anything.  They will also obtain input from the District Community Council, as well as representatives appointed by each city within ASD.  Once the maps have been vetted, there will be a public hearing.

You may use the State's online redistricting tool to draw your own map of ASD.  It isn't apparent, but you can monkey with it and get it to work.  Here's how. 

1. Go to the State's website, here.  If you don't have a login, create one, and sign in. 
2. Select a Blank State School Board template.
3. Click Create at the top of the page to get to the map.
4. On the left-hand side of the screen, there is an arrow about 1/3 of the way down.  Click on that to open up additional options.
5. Expand Utah_ReferenceLayers, then Census 2010, then select the check-box by 41 Utah School Districts.  (You may also want to check 'municipalities', which shows the population of each city.)
6. Click the arrow again to hide the reference layers.  You may now use the zoom feature to zoom in on the state and find ASD.
7. With 284,505 people in ASD to be divided among 7 board members, you are trying to create districts of 40,643 people, roughly.  They have to be contiguous, and the County is going to try to not split precincts.
8. Select the District 1 options from the pop-up box, select (in the first pane showing Active Area: District 1) to draw by area, square, polygon, and then start drawing/clicking.  You can draw to fill in by squares, voting precincts, etc.  (You may want to play with this to see how it works.)
9. If you accidentally go outside ASD's area, you will need to select 'unassigned' as the district and click to unassign those areas. 

If you come up with a great map, please share it with me. 

President Obama's Back to School Address to Students

On Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 11:30 am, President Obama will be giving his third annual address to school students.  Alpine School District's policy allows each individual school and teacher to decide whether to show all or part of the address during school hours.  It is supposed to be part of a meaningful curriculum, and the teachers/schools are to make sure the decision to watch all or part of the speech is communicated to parents.  In the past, schools and/or teachers have recorded the address, and shown it later. 

Sept. 27 Board Meeting Agenda

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

BARRATT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
168 NORTH 900 EAST
AMERICAN FORK

STUDY SESSION
4:00 P.M.
A study session will be held prior to the regular board meeting. The purpose of the study session will be for (1) professional development for the Board and (2) to discuss current issues.

BOARD MEETING
6:00 P.M.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE John Burton, Board Vice President

REVERENCE

SCHOOL CHORUS

STUDENT RECOGNITIONS

ALPINE FOUNDATION RECOGNITIONS

PRINCIPAL, PTA AND SCHOOL

COMMUNITY COUNCIL REPORTS

COMMUNITY COMMENTS*

ACTION ITEM
1. Resolution Approving the Polling Locations for the Bond Election

BOARD MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS
CLOSED SESSION

ADJOURNMENT

*Time set aside for community comments is not a time to discuss specific personnel issues. Personnel issues are not appropriate discussion items for an open-meeting environment. If you have a personnel concern, we ask that you contact a member of the administration or put your concern in writing and address it to the Board of Education.