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Steamboat Springs — The snowstorm is briefly letting up for the Steamboat Springs School Board.

Compared to the blizzard of action at its last meeting -- when board members made the high school's Odyssey program an elective, turned down a proposed Bible class, approved two new Career and Technology classes for the high school, expanded foreign language instruction and placed the elementary school at North Routt Community Charter School on conditional accreditation -- the agenda for Monday's meeting is relatively tame.

Monday's meeting is a study session for the board; no formal actions will be taken. The agenda is more preparatory than exploratory, consisting primarily of policy reviews and a technology update comparing Gateway and Apple computer systems.

"Our plan, as a School Board, has been to review all of the policies," School Board president Tom Miller-Freutel said Friday. "This is an ongoing process."

Miller-Freutel said the review of Board/Superintendent -- or B/SR -- policies, which dictate relations between School Board members and Superintendent Donna Howell, is on the agenda only as part of the review process and does not indicate any dissatisfaction or concerns related to Howell.

"Those policies were scheduled for review before the holidays," he said, citing the board's recent heavy workload as a reason for the backlog.

The B/SR policies contain revisions from Julie Seavy, a consultant with the Colorado Association of School Boards. One of the policies states: "Each January and June, the Board will conduct a formal summative evaluation of the District Superintendent."

Miller-Freutel said that to his knowledge, such an evaluation was not completed in January.

The revised B/SR policies are scheduled for action at the board's Feb. 13 meeting.

Also up for review Monday is the district's Strategic Plan, a three-year outline of objectives for all aspects of school district development.

"The review of the strategic plan is high on most everybody's list," Miller-Freutel said.

The technology update on Monday's agenda includes a final report about computer usage at district schools. Steamboat schools use Apple and Gateway software on Macintosh and PCs. A technology audit in 2004 recommended that the district move to a "single platform" -- one computer style and operating system that is consistent throughout district schools.

The report recommends using PCs, stating: "Citing the widespread use of PCs in the home, college and workplace, moving to a PC platform might better prepare students for work and higher education."

Implementing a PC platform, the report states, would cost about $60,000 less than implementing a Mac platform.

-- To reach Mike Lawrence, call 871-4203

or e-mail mlawrence@steamboatpilot.com