Pali High Board of Trustees Continues eLearning Grading Conversation

By LILY TINOCO  | Reporter

A special Palisades Charter High School Board of Trustees meeting was held virtually on Tuesday, November 10, offering a number of updates and announcements related to the ongoing school year as eLearning continues.

The meeting began by reviewing public comments, including one from Russell Howard, assistant principal of athletics.

As students remain hopeful for a 2020-21 sports season, Howard explained Pali High has a unique situation to address when handling updated guidelines from Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

“There are some tough issues that we’re going to have to deal with,” Howard said. “We have 110 different zip codes that can actually show up to Pali. How are they going to get here? Can we start in-person conditioning?”

Since the start of the season has been postponed and delayed by the district, Howard said virtual workouts were slated to begin over Zoom on Monday, November 16, and in-person training after Thanksgiving on Monday, November 30. He said a survey would be sent to families to collect feedback.

“We have not been sharing a lot of information because, in all honesty, we didn’t have guidance,” Howard said, “and some of that guidance is conflicting, and we have to watch out for ourselves and not what everybody else does.”

The purpose of the meeting, however, was to revisit a conversation from the board’s previous meeting on October 22, when the board appointed the Academic Accountability Committee to review various grading policies that had been compiled and to come back with its recommendations.

Public comments that were submitted anonymously begged questions like: Why haven’t we had a direct answer if we are changing the grading policy or not? Why aren’t we talking about the grading policy?

The board approved a motion to assign Director of Academic Achievement Monica Iannessa as interim facilitator of the Academic Accountability Committee as it reviews the grading policies ahead of the board’s next meeting, slated for Tuesday, November 17.

Iannessa will facilitate meetings until the committee members elect a chair, vice-chair and secretary.

Brooke King, board management, reminded attendees that policies need to be reviewed for fair and consistent practices, and must meet schoolwide goals in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding in place.

The board then voted on the membership of the Academic Accountability Committee, which Community Chair Leslie Woolley described as a temporary membership so that the meeting can take place and the committee can move forward on the grading policies.

Woolley said 11 is the recommendation for the maximum members of a committee, meaning there should be six teachers and no more than five non-teachers on the committee, so long as there are enough teachers wanting to participate.

Parent Board Member Jewlz Fahn collected potential member names at a previous committee meeting that the board took a vote on. A motion was approved to temporarily confirm a list of committee members until the next meeting.

The board’s next meeting will discuss the grading policies further and is scheduled to take place over Zoom on Tuesday, November 17.