Fulton Board of Education race approaches

Filing for the Fulton Public School's Board of Education race begins next month.

The seats of current president Verdis Lee Sr. and current vice-president Andy Bonderer will be up for grabs during the April 2 election. Filing begins 8 a.m. Dec. 11 at the superintendent's office (2 Hornet Drive, Fulton) and will continue during regular office hours through Jan. 15. Terms last three years.

The upcoming election will be one of several topics touched on during Wednesday evening's Board of Education meeting, slated for 7 p.m. at the Fulton High School library.

One topic touches on use of messaging apps to communicate between faculty, coaches, students and parents.

As the board meeting packet points out, text messaging is an increasingly prevalent modern mode of communication. Many messaging apps are not suitable for use in an educational environment, either because they share too much personal information or do not keep accessible logs of conversations necessary to ensure propriety.

The administration is proposing selecting an app called Remind as the district's only authorized texting app. The app is specifically designed for use by educators, can be used on any device and maintains a contact log viewable by administrators, Superintendent Jacque Cowherd said.

Remind is already popular among educators in the district, and was used to exchange some 300,000 messages within Fulton 58 last year, Cowherd said.

The cost would be $2.50 per student.

Officials will also hear several program updates: libraries, special services, parents as teachers and differentiated instruction (interventions put in place for students who are educationally disadvantaged, at-risk or gifted).

A few notable points:

In 2017-18, more than one in 10 district students were in special education programs, slightly lower than the state average of 13 percent. The most common disabilities facing students in the district are specific learning disabilities, speech impairment, autism, intellectual disabilities and language impairment.

During the 2017-18 school year, the district served 17 English Language Learner students; their first languages include Spanish, Chinese and Kinyarwanda. It also serves 31 homeless students, the lowest number since the 2013-14 school year.

District officials plan on discussing a potential solution for dealing with this year's "extraordinary" number of behavior challenges at Fulton Middle School. Administrators have proposed establishing an alternative resource classroom to provide targeted support and instruction for students with intense behavioral and emotional needs.

An existing FMS teacher with behavioral training will lead the classroom, the packet states.

To read the complete meeting agenda and packet, visit bit.ly/2K5K2zE.