Sierra Crest charter and new English text before school board on Tuesday

Douglas County School Board trustees have some enormous items on their plate at their 3:30 p.m. Tuesday meeting at Douglas High School.

Discussion on the fate of Douglas County's only public charter school is scheduled to be at 5:15 p.m. Sponsored by the school district, Sierra Crest Academy's charter is set to expire June 30.

Last month, after hours of emotional testimony from parents, students and staff members of Sierra Crest, and a presentation from the district office outlining the school's curricular deficiencies, trustees decided to continue the item, citing the absence of two board members, Tom Moore and Cindy Trigg, as one of the reasons.

The school board will also rehear the central office's recommendation to adopt a new English textbook/curriculum called SpringBoard, "a vertically-aligned, research-based, articulated curriculum in grade 7-11 and pilot senior English in English IV classes."

That discussion is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.

The district office and SpringBoard proponents claim the new program will engage all students and better align curriculum in the secondary grade levels. They've argued that supplementing SpringBoard with additional texts outside the classroom is not a problem.

On the other hand, numerous English teachers have criticized SpringBoard for what they perceive as a lack of rigorous grammar, vocabulary and writing instruction.

They've argued that the content of SpringBoard is watered down and excludes many classic English texts that can no longer be taught in the classroom.

A closed session on Tuesday has been cancelled with superintendent candidate and Washoe County Schools Chief Academic Officer Lisa Noonan to negotiate the terms and conditions of her employment contract.

School officials say Noonan is still interested in the superintendent's position, but that negotiations aren't to the point of board approval.