“I am pleased to announce that schools will open next week,” said Superintendent Brian Garverick at Tuesday night’s board meeting. The students go back to school district-wide on August 27.
A special presentation was made by Leslie Neilsen, the Engineering Teacher for Project Lead The Way (PLTW). This year she will be teaching ninth graders in the same program. Neilsen was an electrical engineer before she started home-schooling her children and eventually becoming a teacher for PLTW.
According to Neilsen, she will be teaching a “high-level tech classroom.” The curriculum is online and the students are expected to learn software quickly.
The class aims to enable youth to “problem solve” and become more mathematically literate in an engineering context. Last year, Neilsen’s eighth graders developed a conveyor system machine that was capable of drilling holes into multiple pieces of wood.
Garverick said, “Taking a concept and putting it into a structure is very impressive [for eighth graders.] This class does a good job in teaching our kids how to be a part of our future. And the future is now.”
The district also voted to place three conversion schools in the Mansfield school district on probation. Three schools, Mansfield Elective Academy, Interactive Media and Construction Academy (IMAC), Mansfield Enhancement Academy (STAR), will have probationary statuses for the 2013-2014 school year.
Garverick said that there were no specific concerns prompting the probationary status, but that the school board would be monitoring them for both deficit spending and academic progress.
Mansfield City Schools acts as a financial sponsor for the three conversion schools.
“This class does a good job in teaching our kids how to be a part of our future. And the future is now,” stated superintendent Brian Garverick.
