Sophomore Jocelyn Shan works on a worksheet in class. Shan said she was happy to hear Zheng won an at-large seat on the CCS Board because she said she felt there was little representation of the Asian community.

The next School Board meeting will be on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. at the Educational Services Center, according to CCS Board President Layla Spanenberg.

The Nov. 14 meeting will be a workshop meeting. At this meeting, the board members will focus on the ongoing technology implementation in the district. Ann Arroyo and Christi Cloud, administrators at the Educational Services Center, will present information regarding the technology implementation as well as an update on the use of Canvas, an online learning management system.

“I think it’s been going very well,” Spanenberg said. “It’s not a one-to-one but each of our schools are getting hundreds of devices and so the teachers are using those devices in the classroom along with the devices they have already received and building new curriculum to optimize what they already have.”

Additionally, board members will discuss Bylaw 0142 regarding elections and appointments at the next meeting. Spanenberg said they hope to pass a resolution to redefine board districts using the 2010 Census Report and take action once the Indiana State Board of Education reviews and approves of the resolution.

“We haven’t changed districts or looked at them since 1999, so it’s been quite a while, and they are fairly imbalanced,” Spanenberg said. “This past election we had the general at-large members who were voted upon. In two years, it’ll be the district, so Districts 1, 2 and 3, we’ll have representatives from those districts run for board positions.  And in two years when we do that we are hoping to implement more balanced districts.”

Currently, board districts have 33,047 people in District 1, 31,047 in District 2 and 19,199 in District 3. Proposed board districts would have 27,498 people in District 1, 26,821 in District 2 and 28,938 in District 3.

The School Board consists of five board members elected by local residents for four-year terms. Members include President Spanenberg, Vice President Pamela Knowles, Secretary Michael Kershner and members Tricia Hackett and Kathie Freed.

Nov. 8 was election day for two at-large seats for the CCS Board. Candidates included Katie Browning, Cherish Foreman Davis, incumbent Freed, Tim Smith and Lin Zheng; current member Packett did not run. Browning and Zheng won the two seats and will join the board in January, according to Spanenberg.

Spanenberg said while she looks forward to working with Browning and Zheng, she also will miss Hackett and Freed.

“I’m very excited for our district. We’re doing some very positive, great things, and I think that have new board members with fresh ideas and perspectives. I think it’ll be a really wonderful opportunity for our district to have some fresh faces,” Spanenberg said. “It’s always sad to see our current members go. (Hackett) has done a really great job, and (Freed) has also done a really great job, and it’s sad to see them go. They really were both very helpful in developing some of the ideas we currently have and the direction that the board is going, but like I said, the new members I think can offer fresh energy and perspective that we don’t always get with old members, so I’m excited.”

Sophomore Jocelyn Shan said she is happy to hear Zheng win.

“When I first saw campaign posters for her, I thought it was really cool, because there’s little representation of Asians in Carmel,” Shan said. “I think the school board is a really great place to expand that.”

The School Board meets every other Monday and all meetings are open to the public.