FULTON – In honor of Veterans Day and all those who have served or are currently serving in the military, students from Volney Elementary School read essays aloud regarding what the flag means to them at last night’s Fulton Board of Education meeting, Tuesday, November 8.
Fulton City School District Superintendent Brian Pulvino commented on the valor and courage all veterans possess in taking on the selfless roles in serving in the United States military.
“I just want to express our gratitude to all of our veterans over centuries and decades of what they’ve done to serve our country and providing the opportunities that we have to be here this evening, and the opportunities that we each have in our lives each and every day,” Pulvino said. “And I think we always need to remind ourselves that we always need to work at keeping a strong democracy, and part of that is all of those that have served our country – and thank you to them and thank you to their families who served as well.”
The floor was then passed to Volney Elementary School Fifth Grade Teacher William Cahill. For Flag Day last spring Cahill assigned his students the task of writing essays on the subject of what the flag means to them.
“Veterans: serving something bigger than yourself, which doesn’t always mean wearing the uniform – [it’s] about humility; about sacrifice,” Cahill said.
Six Volney Students stood and read their essays aloud; the board gave all students several rounds of applause. After the students completed the readings the board then praised their work.
The next topic of discussion during last night’s meeting was a change in the high school English progression program.
FCSD English Department Chair Danielle Florio and FCSD Director of Humanities Renee Hendrickson led a presentation discussing the changes that will be made in the English Language Arts (ELA) Program.
ELA is currently designed to prepare students for taking the English regents exam, which is given in January of their 11-grade year. Up to this point, 12 grade was the only year in which a student had course study options available to them.
The proposed changes would allow for the student to have course study options available in the 10,11 and 12 grades, as well as allowing the student the chance to focus on other needs and interests.
According to ELA documents from last night’s meeting new course offerings would include the following:
23-24: ELA Course Options (Fall/Spring) 10th, 11th & 12th:
- General Ed. ELA (10, 11, 12) ~StudySync as curricular resource
- Reading and Writing for Success (intervention-(fall/spring)
- Horror in Literature
- Young Adult Literature
- Technical Writing
- Media and Arts ( Journalism)
- Public Speaking and Theater
- Grammar Basics
- Science Fiction and Fantasy
- Mythology
- Children’s Literature
Full Year and Advanced Courses:
- AP English (full year course)
- OCC English (103/104) (12th Grade Only)
For more information including changes coming to the ELA Program from last night’s meeting, please click here. The link will take you to Board Doc’s were you can view the last night’s agenda – scroll through the agenda to click on information outlining the ELA program.
All items on last night’s agenda were unanimously passed. To view the full agenda, please click here. All Fulton BOE meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, the next meeting to be held on November 22nd at 6:30 p.m at the G.Ray Bodley High School library.
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