Schools
Emanuels Sworn In as Newest School Board Director
At Emanuel's first meeting as a school board director, math, literature and biology curriculum changes were approved.
As the first order of business at yesterday’s school board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano swore in Brian Emanuels as the newest School Board director. Emanuels was elected by the sitting school board members for the seat recently vacated by Lisa Eggers.
With a half dozen of his relatives on hand, Emanuels took the oath of office. “I, Brian Emanuels, do hereby solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Washington and will faithfully discharge the duties of director of Mercer Island School District …to the best of my ability.” Watch the video.
After a brief recess for congratulations and cake, curriculum changes to middle school math, 8th grade literature and high school biology were presented to the board for final approval.
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The new 8th grade novels were recommended by the Middle School Language Arts Team to better prepare students for the rigors of high school. Described by MISD’s director of secondary learning, Michael Schiehser, as “engaging, cognitive, global, critical-thinking novels,” the two books chosen were Maus by Art Spiegelman and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Director Adair Dingle praised the selections. “This is a huge step forward. The books are critically acclaimed and widely read by the students.”
The formal adoption of the biology textbook initiated some contentious discussion following Director Dave Myerson’s request to delay approval until he had additional time to review it. “It is the role of staff to choose textbooks…Your job is to set policy,” Dr. Plano emphasized in his response to Myerson. The textbook, which is accompanied by virtual labs, quizzes, assessments, demonstrations and videos, is Biology by Stephen Nowicki.
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Ultimately, the school board unanimously approved all the curriculum changes.
Director Janet Frohnmayer praised staff members Jennifer Wright, Schiehser and Plano for their “time-intensive, detailed, sound and inclusive curriculum review process,” which in the case of the math curriculum review spanned more than three years.