School E-mail April 8, 1997

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Subj: Academic Challenge
Date: 97-04-08 21:51:40 EDT
From: James.C.Klagge@bev.net (James C. Klagge)
To: Schools list@vt.edu

Dear Friends,

I have decided to organize a discussion on academic challenge in the county at the work session of our school board meeting on May 20th at 7:30pm. I know this has been a concern of many of you, and I hope you will attend. Wat Hopkins and Bernie Jortner have indicated an interest in helping organize this. The format and topics are not yet determined, and I welcome any suggestions as we work on this. However, the discussion is not intended as an inquisition concerning test scores. It will primarily be an opportunity for the board to get clear on where we are and where we might go from here. It is not my intention that we will make any decisions at that meeting. Nor will there be any public address time at that meeting. (Though you are welcome to make any remarks to the board at the first meeting of each month.) But if people wish to send me comments about this issue--especially suggestions of where we might go, I will consider circulating them to the rest of the board.

Joe Merola, chair of the Gifter Advisory Committee, asked me to forward the following announcement with you. Sorry for the lateness of the announcement, but I have been out of town. The meeting is TONIGHT:

From: "Joseph S. Merola", jmerola@vt.edu
The meeting of the Gifted Advisory Committee will take place on Tuesday, April 8 at the Farmhouse Restaurant in Christiansburg at 7:00 pm.

Following an introduction by the chair of the GAC, the meeting will break up into small discussion groups. The following will be the discussion groups set up, all of which deal with Gifted Education at the Middle School level:

Gifted Plan Philosophy
Rigor and Challenge in the Curriculum
Math Curriculum
Language Arts Curriculum
Differentiating in Science
Effective Differentiation
Effective Cluster Grouping
Exceptionally Gifted Students

The following is an approximate time line for the meeting:

7:00 Introduction by Chair of GAC
7:20 First break out to discussion groups
7:45 Report from the discussion groups.

dessert

8:20 Second break out to discussion groups.
8:45 Report from second discussion groups
9:05 Next steps
9:15 adjourn

Two break outs will give people the opportunity to participate in more than one discussion.

I have high hopes that we can BEGIN a nice process with this meeting and that discussions and working together will continue long after April 8.

Joe

-Jim Klagge

email: admin@gisone.com