District 202 School Board President Margaret Lurie is not expecting a large turnout for tonight’s meeting.

“There’s a Cubs game, you know, so there won’t be a soul in the audience,” she said.

While the Cubs battle the Florida Marlins at Wrigley Field, the board will tackle three extensive reports: the opening school report, the academic achievement report and the superintendent’s annual report.

“It will be one of those meetings where we get these long reports filled with data,” Lurie said. “They are difficult to plow over.”

The reports look at statistics regarding Evanston Township High School students. After examining the reports, the school board can analyze ETHS student achievement on the state and national levels.

“The report on state achievement compares (ETHS) to schools across the country,” Lurie said. “We have done just fine, even better than other schools.”

One change that could boost ETHS students’ ranking is a new math requirement for this year’s freshmen.

Beginning this year all new students will be required to take three years of math classes as part of normal core curriculum instead of just two.

“Somewhere around 80 percent (of students) take three years anyway,” Lurie said.

The No Child Left Behind Act also is an added concern regarding testing in District 202.

Through this federal act, 40 percent of students must earn passing scores on state reading and math tests in 2004.

Ending the evening will be a look back to the 2002-03 school year. The superintendent’s report will wrap up the information portion of the evening, listing district highlights from last year.

“(Superintendent Allan Alson) will tell us about good things students did during the year,” Lurie said.

The school board meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Evanston Township High School, 1600 Dodge Ave. The meeting is open to the public.