E-NEWS

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A weekly digest of education news for Alaska's School Board Members.

Association of Alaska School Boards, 1111 West 9^th St., Juneau, AK 99801. Tel.

907-586-1083, Fax 907-586-2995. Carl Rose, Executive Director,

crose@aasb.org: John Greely, Editor, jgreely@aasb.org. Review past issues of

the E-News on the AASB Website at <http://www.aasb.org>. To unsubscribe send an email stating the same to jgreely@aasb.org.

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AASB E-News

November 15, 2007

--SCOTT MCADAMS ELECTED AASB PRESIDENT

--VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS REASONS FOR 1:1 LAPTOP INITIATIVE

--NSBA URGES SUPREME COURT TO PROTECT EARLY RETIREMENT

SCOTT MCADAMS ELECTED AASB PRESIDENT

Before a statewide audience of local school board members, The Association of Alaska School Boards welcomed Scott McAdams of Sitka as its new president during the 54^th annual conference Nov. 8-11 in Anchorage. McAdams is the first Sitkan to ever hold the office.

“I am a true believer in local governance, and understand that students are best served when they are equipped with a results oriented school board willing and able to provide the vision, structure, accountability and advocacy needed to deliver a comprehensive school program that successfully meets the challenges of external policy mandates and local expectations,” McAdams said. “As we continue in an era of standards based accountability, I believe that we are making great progress here in Alaska, and I am confident that with the help of our communities and state, locally governed schools will continue to deliver on the challenges of the 21^st century.”

McAdams succeeds Beth Betts of the Copper River School Board as AASB President. Sammy Crawford of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School Board is President-elect, and Tammy Fowler Pound of the Unalaska City School Board is Secretary-Treasurer. McAdams will lead AASB’s 15-member board until November, 2008.

“Scott McAdams brings a lot of energy to our board of directors on behalf of Alaska’s school children. His election as president of AASB is recognition by his colleagues of his leadership abilities,” said Carl Rose, executive director.

The four-day conference was highlighted by a wide variety of training opportunities for school board members; debate over education issues before Congress and the Alaska Legislature; the 17^th annual Youth Leadership Institute attended by 80 high school students from across Alaska; and an auction that raised about $9,000 for the June Nelson Memorial Scholarship Program. A special tribute was held for Sharon Young, the associate executive director of AASB who is retiring after 24 years with the organization.

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VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS REASONS FOR 1:1 LAPTOP INITIATIVE

AASB has produced a special video on digital learning. The six-minute presentation features testimonials about digital learning from staff and students at project schools participating in the Association of Alaska School Boards' Consortium for Digital Learning (AASB-CDL). Schools included are Eek School in Eek, Wendler Middle School in Anchorage, and Yaakoosgé Daakahídi Alternative High School in Juneau. The testimonials are excerpted from movies by Marco Torres about the statewide AASB-CDL 1 to 1 initiative. To access the video, click here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vdjpffcVSOs

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NSBA URGES SUPREME COURT TO PROTECT EARLY RETIREMENT

The National School Boards Association has filed an amicus brief that urges the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve the ability of government agencies, including public school districts, to offer early retirement incentive programs without fear of age discrimination lawsuits. See full news release here:

http://www.nsba.org/site/doc.asp?TRACKID=&VID=2&CID=90&DID=41896

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Association of Alaska School Boards

1111 West 9^th Street, Juneau, Alaska 99801-1510 Tel. 907-586-1083

Fax 907-586-2995 Email: aasb@aasb.org

Website: http://www.aasb.org