Features

The Berkeley Unified School District was back in session on Monday after winter break. Elementary, middle and Berkeley High School students started classes Monday.  

The first school board meeting for 2007 will be held on Jan. 17 at the Old City Hall Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, 7:30 p.m. 

Other matters 

At the school board meeting on Dec. 13, the board approved a recommendation to establish the Office of Evaluation and Assessment to help in the development of the new tax measure, specifically Measure A.  

Three new positions—director of evaluation and assessment, data technician and program assistant—will constitute this new office to help the district evaluate educational programs effectively. 

The annual costs of the three new positions—approximately $270,000—had been calculated while developing the plan that served as the basis for the funding model for Measure A. 

The board also approved the out-of-state travel request for the recruitment of minority teachers and counselors to Atlanta, Ga., and Washington, DC, from Feb. 11 to Feb. 17. 

This is the first time the board has gone out of state for recruitment efforts. The disproportionate discipline rates and academic gaps between African American and white students have often been attributed to the shortage of African American teachers in BUSD. Retirement has also impacted the population of African American teachers in the district, with 10 retiring in the past year. 

Although BUSD has a 36 percent minority student population, only 14 percent of its teachers are minorities. The group will visit six black colleges, including Spelman and Clark Atlanta in Atlanta, and Howard and Morgan State in DC. 

The board also received information on the average daily attendance summaries.  

Student enrollment for October 2006 totaled 8,924, with an absence rate of 6.8 percent. This cost the district $ 323,667 (in lost revenue), compared to an absence rate of 5.03 percent, with a loss of $239,647 in September. 

Each student absence amounts to $31.86 per day in lost revenue for the district. Since 1997, school districts can no longer claim any absences, including excused absences, for apportionment attendance.