I was at the school board meeting yesterday. It was a "Work Session" which they have every month. Hawthorne school was giving their school improvement report. They've been doing this for about 20 years- you'd think they would be improved by now- but what would happen to all the workshop providers, non profits and consultants if they actually accomplished school reform? They'd be out of work. Does this mean that we will be in school reform mode at the public schools indefinitely? It appears that way.
Well the school board always praises the school improvement reports- this is a way of praising themselves. They are just so cutting edge- probably just so cutting edge that the rest of us just can't understand it-or better yet- can't accept their genius (which comes to them from Federal Grants that generally get their push from somewhere else- like special interest groups and the U.N.). In any case- see if you think I'm just not forward thinking to not accept this one. In the bathrooms at Hawthorne School they are teaching respect by putting up signs that say "NO SEEING WHEN SOMEONE IS PEEING" and "NO SNOOPING WHEN SOMEONE IS POOPING". Hippies always did love vulgar language.
I couldn't believe I had to get up this morning and take the time to write the principal at Hawthorne School (c.c. ing in the Superintendent who was at the meeting) to explain to them that saying pooping and peeing to the little children was inappropriate- the kind of thing we generally hope to teach our children not to say- at least in polite company, at school, and in public. She wrote me back and thanked me for my "OPINION". I'm probably just flailing out there all alone with this OPINION, right?
They are just so "Cutting edge" that they don't know that controlling our language is one way of showing respect to one another. They don't know that we teach our children appropriate behaviors and language by modeling it for them.
The "cutting edge" planning committee was there to give their first report after being hired. They skyped a lady who spoke all of about 3 sentences. The presenter could have told us himself that Brain Spaces is a firm that specializes in planning spaces for education- but that would be just so yesterday. I guess we're all just too stupid to arrange classrooms for kids, we need a $250,000.00 firm to do this. So the school district will pick who will be on the planning committee. Don't bother applying- they only want smart people- that means people who agree with them. You only can see the future and are smart and with it if you go along with the program here. OF COURSE the business community and other powers that be will be on this committee, if they can get them. Getting the "right" people on the committee will help pass the BOND.
Before we leave the "cutting edge" here we should talk about the DIGITAL ACADEMY ( even we stupid people know this is online learning). Apparently the "Cutting edge" is collaboration all the way- or maybe it's online learning by yourself at home. As the curriculum specialist from the digital academy gave his presentation I was on the edge of my seat waiting for someone to ask the obvious question. There was a time for questions from the board but no one ever did ask that obvious question. There is just such a lack of curiosity. So I followed the gentleman out into the hall and asked him myself. I said when I taught school for 30 years there was always the concern of children not doing their own work- looking on other students papers for test answers for example. Here's the question HOW DO YOU KNOW THESE STUDENTS ARE DOING ANY OF THE WORK AT ALL- ESPECIALLY TAKING THE TESTS? I always did wonder about these online courses. Well- if the students work changes a lot for the better they call him/her up and ask questions. If they're not satisfied with the answers they make them do the work again. Tests are taken at school with a proctor (teacher aide to make sure they don't cheat)- oh so yesterday. Only one more thought and I hate to be the one to bring it up-but of course I will- why in the world would you offer classes in the Irish language? I'm Irish - but I don't speak Irish. Has anyone noticed that it's a dead language of no use at all unless you're an ancient historian and want to read original documents? I doubt our high school kids fit into this category.
Even if you vote Democrat you can't make more money. Choices are going to have to be made and that's one thing we know for sure. Will they choose teaching Irish and $250,000.00 firms over food share?
Wednesday 26 October 2011
Wednesday 12 October 2011
250,000 DOLLARS
What could you buy for $250,000 dollars? A new house? Maybe every family on your street could get a new car. What could a school district do with 250,000 dollars? They could hire 5 new teachers for a year. They could have a new textbook adoption. OR----they could hire a firm!
Well, you guessed it they are hiring a firm. What makes this firm so valuable? I don't know and I really don't think anyone at that meeting knew- really even the contractor asking for the contract. These people were architects (apparently). But they don't plan on doing any architectural plans- one of the board members asked about this and it was explained to him that if any building was going to be done they would absolutely have to hire architects to make that plan. No these architects are going to set up meetings with staff to discuss where the district is and where they want to go - pie in the sky kind of stuff.
Even some of the board members discussed the risk that they would hire this firm and nothing would come of it. The newspaper today discussed a 15 year projection for the planning but the real number bandied about by the consultants as well as the board was 50 years! Who in this world really knows what the world will be like in 50 years?!! Well, the school business manager of all people, thinks she knows what the world will be like in the future. She even knows what education will be like (REALLY??). As far as I know she's a great business manager but maybe she should just stay in her area of expertise. The business manager made a big speech recommending the hiring of the firm because the future in the world, and I guess according to her, in education, will all be collaborative. We'll need new spaces to accommodate all this collaboration. Shouldn't the school board have recognized that their business manager is not an educator and would know nothing about the future in the delivery of educational services?
Back in the 60's they thought everything was going to be collaborative too, or they hoped. Remember Rossiter School? The school in the round where they had to put up all the walls when they found out things couldn't work so open and collaborative? Ray Bjork and Broadwater had to put up partitions too after the abysmal failure of this experiment. Even their own new age education , the digital academy, is less collaborative and requires working on your own at home on a computer.
The truth is that none of us really know the future. What we do know is that this country, and states and cities across the nation are broke. We need to spend our money judiciously. What this firm is about really is getting a new bond issue, read YOUR PROPERTY TAXES ARE GOING UP! One of the firm members did mention the figure $200,000,000 but he said that was too high- they couldn't go that high with a bond. Well, how high can they go? Another presenter from the firm mentioned that other firms (Not theirs thank goodness) have had an 80% success rate in getting their bond passed. So this firm will get $26,000.00 just for getting the staff together and finding out where we are (we need to know how many soccer fans we have for example), and then $62,000 ostensibly for every phase after that. These
other phases will include getting the stake holders together (this may be you) and putting together and presenting a plan with, I guess, a price tag. In other words, they will be doing a lot of ground work and public relations work for this big bond.
I am not against bonds and I am not against good schools for kids, but in my view we already pay a great deal for our schools ( 75% of the huge property taxes you pay go to the schools). Is it O.k. to think about good old mom and dad struggling to raise a family and grandma and grandpa who are living on a fixed income just a little bit? I wonder if this board would have hired this firm if it was their own money they were spending. It's time to stop experimenting with our children's education and do common sense things in realistic ways that will really improve our schools and help our children. Let's start with the overcrowding in the valley. Apparently, the 10.8 MILLION DOLLARS we already spent over 7 years went to replace a boiler and I guess hire this firm.This bond was passed in 2007. We used to do upkeep of buildings out of the general fund and not have to go to the tax payers again. We used to hire our own superintendents without spending $15,000.00 from the tax payers to hire a firm. ARE WE ALL GOING TO BE TAXED OUT OF OUR HOUSES?
Well, you guessed it they are hiring a firm. What makes this firm so valuable? I don't know and I really don't think anyone at that meeting knew- really even the contractor asking for the contract. These people were architects (apparently). But they don't plan on doing any architectural plans- one of the board members asked about this and it was explained to him that if any building was going to be done they would absolutely have to hire architects to make that plan. No these architects are going to set up meetings with staff to discuss where the district is and where they want to go - pie in the sky kind of stuff.
Even some of the board members discussed the risk that they would hire this firm and nothing would come of it. The newspaper today discussed a 15 year projection for the planning but the real number bandied about by the consultants as well as the board was 50 years! Who in this world really knows what the world will be like in 50 years?!! Well, the school business manager of all people, thinks she knows what the world will be like in the future. She even knows what education will be like (REALLY??). As far as I know she's a great business manager but maybe she should just stay in her area of expertise. The business manager made a big speech recommending the hiring of the firm because the future in the world, and I guess according to her, in education, will all be collaborative. We'll need new spaces to accommodate all this collaboration. Shouldn't the school board have recognized that their business manager is not an educator and would know nothing about the future in the delivery of educational services?
Back in the 60's they thought everything was going to be collaborative too, or they hoped. Remember Rossiter School? The school in the round where they had to put up all the walls when they found out things couldn't work so open and collaborative? Ray Bjork and Broadwater had to put up partitions too after the abysmal failure of this experiment. Even their own new age education , the digital academy, is less collaborative and requires working on your own at home on a computer.
The truth is that none of us really know the future. What we do know is that this country, and states and cities across the nation are broke. We need to spend our money judiciously. What this firm is about really is getting a new bond issue, read YOUR PROPERTY TAXES ARE GOING UP! One of the firm members did mention the figure $200,000,000 but he said that was too high- they couldn't go that high with a bond. Well, how high can they go? Another presenter from the firm mentioned that other firms (Not theirs thank goodness) have had an 80% success rate in getting their bond passed. So this firm will get $26,000.00 just for getting the staff together and finding out where we are (we need to know how many soccer fans we have for example), and then $62,000 ostensibly for every phase after that. These
other phases will include getting the stake holders together (this may be you) and putting together and presenting a plan with, I guess, a price tag. In other words, they will be doing a lot of ground work and public relations work for this big bond.
I am not against bonds and I am not against good schools for kids, but in my view we already pay a great deal for our schools ( 75% of the huge property taxes you pay go to the schools). Is it O.k. to think about good old mom and dad struggling to raise a family and grandma and grandpa who are living on a fixed income just a little bit? I wonder if this board would have hired this firm if it was their own money they were spending. It's time to stop experimenting with our children's education and do common sense things in realistic ways that will really improve our schools and help our children. Let's start with the overcrowding in the valley. Apparently, the 10.8 MILLION DOLLARS we already spent over 7 years went to replace a boiler and I guess hire this firm.This bond was passed in 2007. We used to do upkeep of buildings out of the general fund and not have to go to the tax payers again. We used to hire our own superintendents without spending $15,000.00 from the tax payers to hire a firm. ARE WE ALL GOING TO BE TAXED OUT OF OUR HOUSES?
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