EASY COME EASY GO

With all the talk from the school district about the levy you would think that $417,000 is really important to them. Well, it should be that's a lot of money. But I just have to wonder why the millions they have been losing since they started school reform in the early nineties is never considered a problem. For every elementary student they lose they lose $4,900.00 a year, for every middle school or high school student they lose they lose $6,200.00 a year. Just do the math.

St. Andrew's now has about 80 middle and high school students and 90 elementary- that alone is almost a million dollars. Helena Christian Academy has 136 students a loss of more than $700,000.00. The five other private schools have a total of about 200 more students losing the district more than a million dollars. Home schooling has gone from 30 in 1988 to 248 today- and that's only the people reporting. That's another more than a million dollars lost to the district. So the district is losing around 4 million dollars because people are taking their children out of public school.

Prior to the "strategic plan" in the early nineties we had only 30 home schooled children and one very small private school. In those days almost everyone trusted the public schools. What has happened to our district? How many more people would withdraw their children if they could afford it? Is it fair that some people have to leave their children in schools they really don't trust? Is it fair that people are having to pay their taxes and then pay again for private schooling or to give up their job and home school?

What has the "strategic plan" done for our schools? Our drop out rates are high our scores are low and we have lost many students. Maybe we should go back to teaching good academics and get the politics and behavior shaping out of our schools.

WHO NEEDS SCHOOL ANYWAY?

Sometimes it seems like our Helena school superintendent is saying just that, "Who needs school anyway?"Students are out of class all the time. Eighth graders go over to elementary schools and elementary students go over to the high school and then receive them back, meanwhile upper grade elementary students go to see the younger elementary students every week. Then there's community service and teacher workshops along with early release days and the assemblies and artists in residency for at least a week at a time. Who's worried about teaching?

The new program, consistent release time, will have children staying an extra 5 minutes or 15 minutes a day depending on the grade. Sounds good - more teaching time - but no- as a result of the extra minutes students will have FOUR DAYS off of school. A district where more than two thirds of the Helena Schools failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks and which is below the state average in math at every grade level is now taking four additional days off school so teachers can attend workshops! Does this make sense?!! Maybe only if academics is not the most important thing you are doing.

RUMORS

In America we have the right to free speech. With every right comes a responsibility. One of the responsibilities of free speech is that if you speak disparagingly of someone you be able to back that up with facts.

One of the individuals that commented on the Independent Record blog yesterday said that all people who support certain school board candidates support the savage killing of innocent young men.That person can not back up that statement with facts. That is irresponsible and hurtful speech that does not move us forward in trying to get better schools for our children.

I hope as we go forward with this campaign that everyone will take the responsibility of free speech very seriously. Research the candidates and make your own thoughtful decision based on the facts. If you are reading this undoubtedly you are one of those fair and thoughtful people that do that research.

                                                "Just The Facts Ma'am"

A PAPER BAG LUNCH

I heard today on the radio that there is a school that is not allowing parents to send their children to school with a lunch from home. Everyone must eat a cafeteria lunch because it's healthier. I ate paper bag lunches all my life and I am a very healthy woman. Do you think this whole child concept is going a little too far when the schools begin telling parents what's good for their children as if they directed the parents?

I was at the school board meeting last night and the Early Childhood Coalition was presenting all their programs for children 0-4. Are they starting education in the womb now? Social services intervention for parents that are struggling is important-but most of us are just fine. Can government programs change families? In the 50 years since we've had many of these interventions they have not been proven to cause any lowering of drop out rates, teen pregnancies or drug abuse.

Maybe it's time to reevaluate this whole process and put parents back in the drivers seat.

RESPONSIBILITY

I remember when I taught, every year at Christmas the kids would get so hyper. The teachers would say "The parents have so many activities this time of year it gets the kids so excited!" and the parents would say "The schools have so many activities this time of year it gets the kids so excited!"The truth is we were all doing it.

We are the adults, teachers , parents and the community. What kind of leadership do we want to offer our youth?

We don't have drugs and high drop out rates because it's 2011 or because of the media,we have it because of adult decisions we make for our youth. I hope you'll vote with me for a change on the Helena School Board to begin that journey toward more discipline and academic focus in our schools that will help our children build better futures.

To learn more about three candidates that hope to make this change watch channel11at any of these times- 4-13 9:30 a.m., 4-13 4:00 p.m., 4-14 11:00 a.m., 4-14 5:00 p.m. , 4-15 1:00 p.m., 4-17 8:00 p.m., 4-19 10:00 a.m., or 4-21 1:00 p.m.

ROSE COLORED GLASSES

I was at the Helena School District union negotiations this Friday (collective bargaining). After a very complete presentation of a history of premium increases on our health plan which showed that they have gone up almost every year since the plans inception in 1994 and have never gone down- a 101% increase with a projected 5% increase this year- our board chair said he was hopeful that because of our wellness program premiums would go down in the next two years.

We've had a wellness program since the program started. If wellness has never made premiums go down in 17 years why would he think it would make them go down now? It's those old rose colored glasses.

Maybe that's why one of our incumbent board members is running for reelection on success in our schools while under her watch our dropout rates have soared to 22% at Capital High School and 25% at Helena High School, well above the state average of 18%, and the State Office of Public Instruction ranks our middle schools almost dead last in AA districts(again, thank goodness for Great Falls).  It also ranks Capital High 8th out of 13 AA districts and Helena High 11th. Meanwhile we're below state average in Math at every grade level.

It must take some great rose colored glasses to see that as success. I think it's time to vote in a new school board, Helena can do much better than this!

FOLLOW THE MONEY

My husband and I were looking at the National Education Department website last night and we came across some eye popping statistics. Their budget for '09 was 32 billion dollars. Their estimated budget for '10 is 56 billion dollars, and their estimated budget for '11 is 71 billion dollars! That's a steep curve of increased monies we have to borrow from China everyday.

What do they do with all that money?

Is it all being spent to help us teach math and reading better? I think not.

Maybe a lot of it is for grants to schools to shape behaviors for the 21st century. I wonder who the behavior guru is that knows how we should all behave. Since we have all this behavior shaping going on I wonder why Helena schools' drop out rate has soared from 17% to 22% at Capital High and 25% at Helena high, well above the state average which is 18%.

HOW ABOUT SOME ACADEMIC FOCUS?

Considering that our academic day in the elementary school is about 5 and a half hours when you take out recesses, lunch and specials such as library, music, and P.E., and that our teachers have 7 subjects to teach to 20 students or more, should they really be leaving their classroom continually for buddy programs down to lower grades or have the high school and middle schools coming over?

Maybe if teachers were allowed to stick to the curriculum they are supposed to be teaching more often we wouldn't be ranked next to dead last (thank goodness for Great Falls) in AA district middle schools here in Helena by the State Office of Public Instruction. Just a thought----

Helena Home Town School Speech Part II

Home town Helena Speech on Schools Part I

Let kids be kids

I was out talking to people today about the school board.  One couple said they wanted agendas taught in school because some parents don't teach values at home.  To this I say, commonly held values like discipline, respect and honesty should always be taught in our schools, however, do our youngsters really need to learn about oral sex in the 5th grade?  Our teachers will have a better chance to teach good academics when they have fewer responsibilities beyond the academic focus they are entrusted with.