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In her recent letter to the Wisconsin State Journal Chris Kolar, co-president of the Leopold Elementary School Parent Faculty Organization, criticizes me for my "early departure" from a Madison School Board meeting on April 25. She states that I "walked out of the board of education meeting at about the time Leopold was to be discussed".
Please consider the facts that Ms. Kolar did not include in her letter.
On April 25, the board began meeting at 5:30. We held a series of meetings and an award ceremony that night. At 10:30 I excused myself. I explained that this time of year is the busiest for me as Assistant Dean for Students at the UW Law School. As I said, I felt that I could not be ready to meet my obligations to my students in the morning and continue meeting later into the evening. Board member Shwaw Vang left at the same time. I "walked out", just as I had walked in. I did not leave the meeting in protest or to avoid discussion or voting.
The meeting that included Leopold issues began at 8:45. During the meeting, the board heard from the public in regard to Leopold school and other issues. I reported on a recent hearing at Lake View School. I offered motions on boundary issues at Hawthorne and Lake View Schools that were discussed and passed unanimously. I made the motion to maintain current boundaries at Leopold School for 2005-06 and make alterations to the building. This was the only item regarding Leopold that required action on Monday. The motion passed unanimously. It committed the Board to a plan for Leopold School for 2005-06. The final item on the agenda was not scheduled for a decision and there was no vote on the item after Mr. Vang and I left. After I left, the staff made a fifteen minute presentation and the meeting adjourned.
Here is Ms. Kolar's letter.
Robarts: Stay For Discussion
Saturday, April 30, 2005
As co-president of the Leopold Elementary School Parent Faculty Organization, I write to express our disappointment with the early departure of Ruth Robarts from the Monday, April 25, board of education meeting. Robarts has publicly expressed her reasons for not supporting the referendum question on the expansion of Leopold Elementary, citing her dislike for the proposed population size of the pair schools. While we can respect her opinion, the Leopold plan has been under discussion for almost five years. Ruth had supported the proposal all along. Her recent change of heart has been frustrating for our organization.
We want to publicly state that Robarts needs to be present for all discussions regarding referendum issues and in particular, the issue with Leopold, since she has been quite vocal in her opposition. She walked out of the board of education meeting at about the time Leopold was to be discussed. We welcome continued dialog on solutions for Leopold, and encourage public support of the referendum issue.
-- Christine M. Kolar, Fitchburg
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Tom Scullen (Scullen is superintendent of the Appleton Area School District, which has 10 charter schools. He also is president of the Wisconsin Charter Schools Association.):
Charter schools are playing an increasingly important role in that success story.State Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster, at a recent state charter school conference, said charter schools "are critical in making schools learning environments for all children." She added, "Charter schools encourage community and parental involvement and innovative teaching practices within the system of accountability for results in public education."
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 Quicktime Video 25MB MP3 Audio 4.8MB | Kirby Brant is President of local PAC Get Real (he's also a former Watertown School Board member and was a candidate for the Madison School Board in 2002). Brant gives his views on:
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| I'm happy to post views from all players interested in the May 2005 referendums. Email me at zellmer at mailbag dot com if you'd like to post an interview. | |
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The Milwaukee Public Schools has a detailed and informative budget posted on the Web.
Will the MMSD budget be as detailed if it's ever released?
Click here to see Milwaukee's budget.
Ed Blume
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Bersin's departure provides an opportunity to ask what we have learned from his highly visible and often contentious tenure. To explore that question, and with the district's full cooperation, last year I assembled a team of analysts to examine the San Diego reform push. For me, five key lessons emerged from their appraisal.First, the centralized, "managed instruction" model of improvement depends critically on the presence of a personnel and managerial infrastructure and on quality curricula. Alvarado gave unstinting attention to his centerpiece "Institute for Learning" training program for principals and faculty, and to building a corps of "peer coaches" to assist teachers. But his single-minded focus on these activities resulted in a lack of attention to infrastructure and curricula. As a result, the coaches, the Institute, and attempts to assign faculty where needed most ran afoul of the collective bargaining agreement's provisions on professional development, staffing, and teacher transfers. A balky human resources operation reliant on outdated technology inhibited district efforts to speed up hiring or promote more flexible staffing.
Finally, perhaps the most important lesson from San Diego is how limited the prospects are for radical improvement in urban public education absent structural change to personnel systems, technology, accountability, leadership, and compensation. For all their sweat and struggle, Bersin & Co. found their efforts to build the workforce they wanted stymied by statute and contract language. An outdated information system meant the district had to try to build on the fly the tools it needed to enable serious improvements to school accountability, human resource management, and budgeting. Bersin began his tenure with multiple advantages, including dazzling local and national contacts, personal charisma, a facile mind, polished negotiating skills, impeccable public service credentials, and a deft fundraising touch. If the legacy of his seven-year run is in doubt, the San Diego experience illustrates, above all, that even the boldest attempts to overhaul urban schooling are today undermined by the same institutional and organizational failings that they are intended to address.
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Joe Wineke, Don Severson & Mitch Henck discuss the upcoming Madison School Referendums, administrative consolidation and the budget in this 40 minute mp3 file (via 1310)
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The Madison School Board is facing some of the biggest challenges that a school district can face. These challenges include three referenda on the ballot on May 24th. One of the most unique challenges is the potential boundary changes throughout the district. These situations are very complex, political, frustrating and exhilarating at the same time. They’re complex because it affects so many people. It is political because of the many parent organizations it involves. It is frustrating because it takes so much work and time. Finally, in the case of Hawthorne and Lakeview it is exhilarating because the school board took action.
Being a member of the school board for one year, I have learned that no one really likes change. Unless that change has something to do with someone’s school or program that doesn’t affect them. This is especially true when it involves parent’s own children. The board has been inundated with e-mails from concerned parents regarding the proposed boundary changes. All of them are very compelling regarding the effect that it will have on their children or their own involvement in parent leadership groups and organizations. But let’s be honest, families move, teachers transfer and friends change. My personal priorities in this process are to: First, alleviate overcrowded schools. Second, make efficient use of space that will lead to substantial savings (without breaking the law as in the case of our paired schools) that can be used for our operating budget. Lastly, listening to the needs of communities that are under represented at board meetings and gauging their needs and concerns and balancing them with the needs of the district and effected schools. Unfortunately, my own personal second priority won’t be realized this year, but I feel confident that the school board will address this in the future.
As we address the issue of space, I have learned about the concept of neighborhood schools. People buy homes and settle down in a particular neighborhood because of a school. It is obvious that this concept is in the “eye of the beholder.” A neighborhood school means much more than just being able to walk to it as I did at Lindbergh Elementary school kindergarten through fourth grade many years ago. School is a place where students and family call their own.
In conclusion, a communication was sent to board members very early in our process that really struck me. It suggested that the administration was changing boundaries “to make the map look pretty.” If you have ever seen a district map (www.mmsd.org - click on boundary change options), I can see why they would believe that. I believe that the administration has done what the board asked them to do. Present viable options and begin the process of working with community groups such as parent organizations, neighborhood parents, students and the Long Range Planning Committee to narrow the choices until one can be made. Be assured that I won’t support “just making the map look pretty.” I’ll be listening to parents, organizations and students with the other members of the Board of Education and make decisions that take everyone’s view point into consideration. By doing this, we will all be part of a process to help students achieve in a healthy environment, wherever they call their neighborhood school.
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In "What, Me Worry?", Tom Friedman holds forth, as he so often does, on a speech Bill Gates gave on the antiquated way we educate our high school students. Gates warns that the future belongs not to those countries rich in natural resources but rather to those who "mine" their populace's intellectual power. China and India will soon propel many more of their students ahead of ours, and with the flattening of the globe, Tom's latest book's thesis, these students will no longer have to come to the US. Thus the brain drain will be from within and without.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/29/opinion/29friedman.html
"One of America's most important entrepreneurs recently gave a remarkable speech at a summit meeting of our nation's governors. Bill Gates minced no words. "American high schools are obsolete," he told the governors. "By obsolete, I don't just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed and underfunded. ... By obsolete, I mean that our high schools - even when they are working exactly as designed - cannot teach our kids what they need to know today.
"Training the work force of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. ... Our high schools were designed 50 years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting - even ruining - the lives of millions of Americans every year."
Let me translate Mr. Gates's words: "If we don't fix American education, I will not be able to hire your kids." I consider that, well, kind of important. Alas, the media squeezed a few mentions of it between breaks in the Michael Jackson trial. But neither Tom DeLay nor Bill Frist called a late-night session of Congress - or even a daytime one - to discuss what Mr. Gates was saying. They were too busy pandering to those Americans who don't even believe in evolution..."
A moving story in the New York Times on the staging of King Lear by inmates of a Wisconsin prison.
Would that these men had a fine arts program when they were young students.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/29/national/29lear.html?
In One Prison, Murder, Betrayal and High Prose
By JODI WILGOREN
Published: April 29, 2005
STURTEVANT, Wis., April 27 - Plastic Toys "R" Us swords were nixed for fear the guards might misconstrue them as real weapons. Gloucester's pouch was filled with metal washers, rather than pennies, because money is barred inside the barbed wire.
The two-and-a-half-hour production of Shakespeare's "King Lear" ran without intermission so that the audience of 100 inmates would not be idle in a big room. And, shortly after their curtain call on Tuesday night to a standing ovation, the actors lined up again, this time against the gymnasium wall, for one of the six daily head counts here at the Racine Correctional Institution.
"It's an opportunity for us to see something in ourselves that others don't see," Megale Taylor said of the play, adding that his role as the Fool had shown him "how much of a fool I've been in my life."
"I've always been an actor," said Mr. Taylor, who is 35 and serving five years for cocaine possession and battery. "We always have on our masks - life is a stage, really."
Here, there was no actual stage - just a set made of blue cloths draped over chin-up bars - for this week's performances of the first full play ever put on at this medium-security prison and one of a handful of Shakespearean works produced behind bars nationwide.
For prison officials, the nine-month Shakespeare Project was a rare opportunity to provide post-secondary education in a budget-crunched system that emphasizes remedial reading. For the director, Jonathan G. Shailor, a professor of communication at the nearby University of Wisconsin-Parkside, it was an experiment in the theater of empowerment....
Kenneth Spears, 52, who killed a woman and a 5-year-old girl with his car, already has 18 years inside, with "34 months, 23 days and a wake-up" left to go. But when a guard informed him last week that he was headed to a minimum-security facility, Mr. Spears asked if the move could wait until after the show.
"I said, 'Please don't let them transfer me,' " recalled Mr. Spears, adding that only the play has enabled him to overcome his rage and grief since his conviction. "My legacy is not going to be a crazy Vietnam veteran or a killer of women and children or a convict. My legacy is what I do with this from now on."
Mad City Grumps. Check out their website. They also discuss taxpayer costs, along with a negative aid discussion. My preference would be to see the entire school tax burden, not just the referenda portion (and the changes over time for the average taxpayer).
It's great to see this activity. I hope we see more - across all spectrums on these issues. via Katie Arneson
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Despite common characterizations of Madison’s school board as split along liberal and conservative lines, it just ain’t so.
The seven members of the board of education have to be among the most liberal people in Madison. I’d guess that all seven voted for John Kerry in the last presidential election, and they’ll all probably vote for the Democratic candidate in the next presidential election, no matter who the candidate might be.
The true fault line runs between a group determined to defend the status quo and a group whose few members ask whether the board and district could be better.
The status quo defenders say things like “Madison is the best school district in the nation” and “We follow the best possible decision-making processes. No change could make any improvement.”
By contrast, the questioners raise queries like “How can equity be improved in the district?” and “How can we make decisions on budget cuts before we’ve seen the budget?”
Forget liberal vs. conservative. Think in terms of status quo vs. improvement.
Ed Blume
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Suppose you are a fifth-year mechanical-engineering student at Cleveland State University, paying your tuition by taking off an occasional semester to work.Simply Absurd...Is that any business of the federal government?
An idea circulating in the U.S. Department of Education and on Capitol Hill says that maybe it should be, and that maybe the government should follow students' progress through college by assigning them bar codes.
Not surprisingly, that already is raising alarms. "What right does the government have to know that?" asks Katherine Haley Will, president of Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa., an outspoken critic of student tracking.
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It will come as no surprise to weary taxpayers that Wisconsin hosts one of the most expensive public school systems in the country.We rank 8th in per capita spending for elementary and secondary education. The seven states above us tend to be either high cost states like New York and Connecticut or states with very small populations like Alaska and Wyoming. Taxpayers shoulder this burden by paying high property taxes and high state income taxes. In fact, on average, 44 percent of the property tax bill goes to fund public schools and 40 percent of the state budget is devoted to funding for K-12 public education in Wisconsin.
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A year after laying a 13% property tax increase on the city, Milwaukee Public Schools officials are proposing a budget for next year that projects an increase of less than 1% in the amount to be collected in property taxes to pay for schools.But a budget proposal for 2005-'06 that continues reforms launched by Superintendent William Andrekopoulos and contains no major new steps is based on two big assumptions: That Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's state budget proposal, calling for a shift of more school funding back to state government, will win approval from the Republican-controlled Legislature; and that the School Board and the administration will win an arbitration proceeding with Milwaukee's teachers union that focuses largely on health insurance costs.
The MPS proposal was presented to board members late Tuesday. They are scheduled to spend the next month working on it.
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New AAAS Report Explores How Schools Improve Math and Science Learning
A System of Solutions: Every School, Every Student
Ten U.S. school districts have achieved significant improvement in science and mathematics performance by developing ambitious programs that set high standards and then closely tracking what works and what doesn't work in helping students learn, according to a new AAAS report.
The 22-page report, "A System of Solutions: Every School, Every Student," identifies 10 U.S. K-12 school districts, serving some of the nation's major inner-city areas, and discusses the systemic practices that helped them improve student performance and close the gap between minority and non-minority students.
U.S. school districts examined as part of the AAAS report are: Atlanta; Boston; Brownsville, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; Houston; Los Angeles; Miami; Portland, Ore.; and San Diego.
The 22-page report was commissioned by the GE Foundation and is available on-line here http://www.aaas.org/programs/centers/capacity/documents/GELongReport.pdf.
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Late Monday afternoon, the school district finalized the search committee for the East High principal. The committee met Tuesday night for orientation, and I believe that the interviews will start next Monday, May 1.
As Mr. Rathert reported at the April 14 meeting of the new parent/staff/school community organization, there are 8 candidates who will be interviewed. The district typically doesn't release the names until the field is narrowed to the finalists, so the names of the eight candidates are not available at this time.
It is likely that the new parent/staff/school community organization's May 12 meeting (7:00, East High cafeteria) will focus on the search, results if any, and ways that the East High community can participate in the transition process.
According to Bob Nadler, head of Human Resources for the district, the committee members are:
Parents: Kymberli Crowder, Larry Riechers, Cynthia Walton-Jackson
Staff: Scott Eckel, Sara Krauskopf, Jen Simpson
Administrators: Ed Holmes, Mary Ramberg, Ted Szalkowski [Note: in the past the other three high school principals have served on the committee, but apparently there are reasons why that didn't work this time.]
Students: Two students applied
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But several parents in an audience of about 50 said they have little hope that the May 24 referendum to build a new school will pass. Meanwhile, they said, school district officials need to reconsider their plans if the school isn't built, and also, perhaps, consider alternative building plans......
But she said the main reason she did not support the contract was because the administration provided board members only a few details from it.
"I would have a hard time approving an agreement unless I see it in writing," said Kobza, who is an attorney. "Maybe it's just the line of work I'm in."
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This is an e-mail sent to the Madison CARES listserve. Enjoy. By DENNIS A. SHOOK - Freeman Staf (April 16, 2005)
The hardest question on any test for a state legislator is what should be done to fund education?
Some legislators would answer "nothing" while others would answer "whatever it takes.’" But common sense tells us the right answer has to be somewhere between those two poles.
It is not a multiple choice question, with one or two right answers. It is more like an essay question that could cause even the most terse college student to fill several pages with an answer.
The latest round of referendum questions statewide showed the public is generally of the belief that education receives enough of the public’s tax money already. Yet school districts like Racine are considering ending extracurricular activities such as music and athletic programs. That could well cause an exodus from that city’s public schools to private schools or force families to relocate to other communities entirely. That surely can’t be what anybody wants, even the most ardent teacher bashers.
How did we arrive at such a state?
Almost everybody seems to believe it started more than a decade ago, when Gov. Tommy Thompson placed revenue caps on the districts, in tandem with a promise to fund schools by two-thirds with state money.
Like most state funding promises in the past several decades, it was not kept in the long run. So some districts receive more state funds than others. But few receive the full two-thirds.
The only way to get more money for growing or shrinking school districts is to go to referendum requests, which are about as popular as al-Qaida these days.
On top of that change, the state placed in the so-called QEO, or qualified economic offer of bargaining.
The QEO is the turf on which much of this dispute is being fought. Much of the blame for school problems is being laid at the feet of the teachers and their powerful union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council. Yet the QEO says that school districts can avoid contract dispute arbitration with WEAC by simply offering teachers a salaries and benefits increase package of 3.8 percent. As a result, few districts offer much more.
While that amount exceeds the wages/benefits package increase that many have received in other occupations, it is hardly a huge amount when compared to the double-digit compensation hikes teachers were routinely receiving from arbitrators during the 1980s.
The state Legislature’s answer to education problems has been to foster the idea of choice schools as a competitor to the public school system. But that alternative has picked up little overall support, as most people - particularly the governor - fear it will create a caste system of education. Families without the wherewithal to move into some parochial or private school setting could be left with second class, continually underfunded educational opportunities once other families abandon the public schools.
Legislators also seem fond of the idea that forcing teachers into the state’s insurance program would be a huge windfall. But the money that would be saved in such a conversion would simply go to teachers in wages instead, and not to districts or the state as some have suggested. After all, the educators are going to get that 3.8 percent minimum.
The notion suggested by some that teachers should somehow share those funds with the schools or state would be akin to having your boss go into your wallet after payday and taking some of the money back.
Not gonna happen.
But Gov. Jim Doyle’s answer was probably as unrealistic coming from the other side. In his budget speech he demanded a repeal of that QEO, which almost certainly would mean a return to the days of huge teacher pay increases. While that would make teachers happy, it would be pouring gas on a fire. Taxpayers are already burned out by what they see as taxes that are too high.
And I can hardly believe that the governor was as surprised as he sounded this week when the state Joint Finance Committee simply removed the QEO repeal from their version of the proposed biennial budget. They could scarcely do anything else without sparking an unprecedented taxpayer revolt.
Because math was always my weakest subject, I have to admit these numbers can confuse and daze me. Yet even I can figure out that when everything is said and done, something has to give. These are questions that require answers so Wisconsin does not flunk out in the competition to properly educate our children, provide them jobs in the state and live up to our heritage as a state that cares deeply about the pursuit of knowledge for all.
Way back in the corners of our collective political consciousness I am beginning to sense that there is an answer beginning to form. It probably involves consolidating many school districts and putting in place some kind of insurance program that keeps employee costs under control on the expenditure side.
On the revenue side, it also seems we are all starting to become more aware that not every sector in our economy is pulling its weight. Most every comparative study of tax burden during the past few decades has seen a dramatic shift of the burden onto the individual property taxpayer and away from the business sector. There are also a lot of taxable entities that are not being taxed at all, like nonprofits and even fraternal and religious organizations.
Before every CEO, pastor and grand pooh-bah out there comes to the newspaper demanding my scalp, I am merely suggesting that some kind of contribution may need to be forthcoming from them in order to help answer this problem.
After all, one of the golden rules I was taught before those teachers were salary capped was that we are all in this together, even when we choose to try to stay apart.
(Dennis A. Shook is the Freeman’s government and politics reporter. Contact him 513-2670, or at dshook@conleynet.com)
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Cuts of 10% to elementary music and art and 100% to elementary strings are being proposed by the administration. The overall MMSD budget cut needed is 2%. The School Board has not discussed or asked questions about the proposed cut list at any public meeting since they received the list on March 3rd - that's nearly two months now. Rather School Board members are "selling Art Rainwater's proposed cut list." Board members are "making excuses" why there are increases to the administrative contract budget, save all extracurricular sports for kids, unecessarily dividing rather than bringing together parent and professionals to work on what we can do for all kids and fairly. Rather, our board says, we can't do anything else - it's because the state does not give the school district enough money. Our board membes are not asking the question - what's academic, how will this affect children's learning, how have the administrators worked with teachers and other relevant professionals to minimize the impact on children. If they asked this about elementary strings and fine arts education - the answer would be that they have done nothing. I expect the answer is the same for many other academic areas.
MMSD's elementary strings course is academic and is one of those courses where the proposed cut is punitive and out of line with the overall budget cuts. Strings is well-established, much loved part of the district's music education curriculum plan approved by the Madison School Board. State law requires local school boards to approve curriculum plans - Madison's music education plan follows national, state and local standards for the study of music. Making changes to curriculum plans need to involve professionals in the field, need to follow a best practice process so that the impact on children's learning is minimized. Administrators with schedule sheets and dollar spreadsheets doesn't work.
Not only are the cuts to fine arts education heavier than any other academic area, they were made without asking the question: "What will be the impact on children's learning?" There are no existing processes and procedures in writing in place in the district to change curriculum plans - and it shows in the recommended cuts put before the school board. All we have is a Superintendent working with top administrators who work with more administrators - professionals in the variouls fields are not included. Any other business that worked this way would fail. So, why would we settle for less for our kids?
We need to do everything we can - if the School Board backs away from their responsibility, the community needs to step in. In the case of fine arts education, I believe we need to do that now.
Developing incentive pay plans are a challenge. Gov. Schwarzenegger is pushing this in California. Dan Weintraub writes:
Everyone knows that our poorest kids tend to clump in schools that depend too much on inexperienced teachers, many of whom are still trying to find their way in the profession. We have good, experienced teachers who would teach in these schools if they were rewarded financially for their trouble – just as in every other profession, where the toughest-to-fill jobs normally earn higher pay. So who or what is standing in the way of the students who need better teachers getting those teachers? The teachers unions.
Connecting the dots Gov. Schwarzenegger today again mentioned his support for incentive pay for teachers in schools serving a high number of disadvantaged kids – and again showed how politically tone deaf he is on the education issue. Schwarzenegger has rightly portrayed the teachers unions as part of the problem in the public schools. And for that – and his budget policies – he has been painted as anti-teacher by his opponents. But here is an issue that is pro-teacher and, more importantly, pro kid. Not only pro-kid but pro-poor-kid. And he just can’t seem to get himself to connect the dots.Everyone knows that our poorest kids tend to clump in schools that depend too much on inexperienced teachers, many of whom are still trying to find their way in the profession. We have good, experienced teachers who would teach in these schools if they were rewarded financially for their trouble – just as in every other profession, where the toughest-to-fill jobs normally earn higher pay. So who or what is standing in the way of the students who need better teachers getting those teachers?
The teachers unions.
The unions refuse in almost all cases to negotiate contracts that allow one teacher to be paid more than another for any reason other than seniority and academic credentials. You can’t pay a math teacher more than an English teacher, and you can’t pay a teacher who works with hard-to-teach kids in the inner city more than a teacher who works with well-prepared middle-class kids in suburbia. The only notable exception to this is incentive pay for bilingual teachers, interestingly enough.
This looks like the tip of an enormous issue with the potential to expose the terrible bargain the Democrats in the Legislature have made with the teachers unions, to the detriment of the people they claim to represent. Schwarzenegger has taken the side of poor kids by advocating incentive pay. And he has taken on the teachers unions in general. What he hasn’t done is use the example of poor kids to explain to nonpolicy wonks exactly how the unions can be a destructive force in education.
Democrats and the CTA must be thanking their stars that he hasn’t figured this out. If he ever does, their unholy alliance might stop being such a huge advantage and instead become a massive political burden.
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Out of all the local media, only Isthmus probes for insights into the curriculum and governance of the Madison Metropolitan School District.
Isthmus stories on reading, special education, talented and gifted, and board infighting support the best of democratic processes by sparking lively debate necessary to effective public policy decisions.
The rest of the media, the MMSD administration, and the majority of the school board condemn healthy discussions as divisive and destructive. Yet, the absence of debate will quietly slide the district deeper and deeper into stagnation.
Keep up your excellent reporting, Isthmus.
Ed Blume
ps. If you have an opinion on Isthmus' reporting, feel free to post a comment.
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A reader forwarded this 4 page (17K PDF Document - 17K) that compares and discusses Advance Placement classes available at Madison's four high schools.
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I watched the school board last Monday talk about the process for the "budget" up until the referendum. The original timeline had public hearings being completed prior to release of the 2005-2006 budget. Why? As Superintendent Rainwater says people don't care about the budget; they only care about the programs, courses and services they want to save. I care about the budget process and so do other parents and community members.
Lawrie Kobza, who sat at the table, said it does matter and people do care and want to know what the money will be spent on - it's not just the business community who wants this. Parents and other community members want to see a transparent budget process and decisionmaking.
But wait, the public will have a chance for comment - one public hearing before the release of the budget and one public hearing a few days after the public release of a document with more than 100 pages. It's what's behind the scenes that needs to be in the public discussion - that's not same service at all.
I and others in the community want to know why there have been very few committee Finance and Operations Committee meetings since last year, few topics taken up, no community advisory committee as many other WI communities are forming in response to budget cuts. In the past two months, we've had no discussions about the cut list - NOTHING. There was never a public discussion about how the "new" money last year was allocated. We're told by our School Board that we can't do anything else - so that means no ongoing dialogue with the public? Passing a referendum reqires good information and building voter confi
Committees waste the year listening to presentations - that's not committee work. For example, a presentation on reading curriculum that tells you the administration uses research information to make its decisions without looking at results with different curriculum is incomplete. Checking this off a list of to dos without being complete leaves out the opportunity for important public discussion.
Neither the School Board nor the administration has updated the public in any informative way since last year. I'm the treasurer of my daughter's schools PTO and we've heard nothing from either our district administration or our school board.
We need a transparent budget process and decisionmaking, that makes clear what is in the budget and can explicitly tie this to goals and educational benefits and is developed with meaningful public input. We need to see options - we get one. I want to see board members who will not accept proposed cuts from the administration in curriculum and support for curriculum until the administration, teachers and the community have done everything possible. They have not done that and the kids will suffer.
I believe we can and must do better for our kids - certain groups of children should not be at risk 100%, especially in curriculum and support for curriculum. Those kinds of cuts are not necessary or warranted at this time. The numbers from the administration need to be examined in a public forum - clearly and openly. It's one month before the referendum, and there are too many unanswered questions.
We need public discussions like those held by the long range planning committee advisory board. I'm not alone in thinking this is necessary. Members of our blog will be putting together a type of academic summit to begin the dialogue about what the academic, educational economic issues are facing our community and what we can do about it. We are hoping to host a forum in the near future. We desperately need to talk about the "costs" of the current way of doing business and what alternative options can be considered.
The administrators, who are around the boardroom table, are able to defend their positions and workload at every meeting. And they do. Result, no 100% reductions in their workforce and chuckles implying "how foolish" the public is to think that by reducing administration we will save much money. Implications: the public just does not get it. Lawrie Kobza asked how many open positions exist at the Doyle and Pflaum Road offices - good questions, needed questions.
The Superintendent says that his team knows what is best for kids - period. If the professionals hired in businesses operated that way and did not pay attention to outside sources of information and the consumers - they would fail.
When you want to save services to students (who are the customers of public education), we as a community need to do everything we can - be as creative and participate in collaborative problem solving. We haven't done that yet. Our kids deserve better from all of us. We need to continue to demand this of our school board.
Special education is a hot topic here, with school board meetings exploding into shouting matches over what services children are entitled to under federal law and parents spending thousands of dollars on appeals to force the school district to provide those services for their children.
The parents say they have no choice: the district, one of the state's most affluent, is fighting just as hard to hold the line on skyrocketing special education costs.
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Back in October, I testified at a meeting of the Long Range Planning Committee. I asked the committee "to do only three simple things." To my knowledge, the Board and Long Range Planning Committee have not done them, so I'm going to vote against the referendum on Leopold.
If the Board has done what I suggested, I welcome a response on all three points.
Here's what I said in October:
First, take the time to understand the budget consequences of a new school. By this I mean that you needed a referendum for operating expenses for this school year. How much additionally will you need to ask from taxpayers in annual referenda to fund a new elementary school?
Second, take the time to understand the enrollment impact of a new elementary school on the middle school and high school it will serve.
Third, citizens of the broad Madison school community include people with a tremendous amount of expertise in education, management, finance, urban planning, real life, and more. You should use every possible opportunity to tap their knowledge.
Ed Blume
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Several interesting letters to the editor in Sunday's NYT in response to this article: The Schools Under Bloomberg: Much Tumult, Mixed Results, including this comment:
Too many have held low expectations for Harlem's children. We have a mayor who not only seems to care about reforming the schools, but also is holding himself accountable for raising the expectations of our children. While I do not agree with every single one of his reforms, I believe they should be given more time before they are dismissed.
School Reform: How Fast, How Far? (7 Letters)
To the Editor:
"The Schools Under Bloomberg: Much Tumult, Mixed Progress" (front page, April 18) looks at the status of school reform and mentions Public School 92 in Harlem in particular.
I am a graduate of P.S. 92 (and an alumna of Bronx Science, Barnard and New York University Law School). I am also a parent with children in District 5 schools, and I disagree with the idea that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's reforms have accomplished little.
Too many have held low expectations for Harlem's children. We have a mayor who not only seems to care about reforming the schools, but also is holding himself accountable for raising the expectations of our children. While I do not agree with every single one of his reforms, I believe they should be given more time before they are dismissed.
The mayor should be commended for putting education front and center on his agenda.
Juliet Folks
Bronx, April 18, 2005
•
To the Editor:
As principal of the School for Human Rights in Brooklyn and a former teacher, I believe it is unrealistic to think that New York City school reforms would drastically improve test scores and achieve system stability within two years, given the fact that the system has been dysfunctional for decades. Nevertheless, there have been improvements.
My school is one of many new, small schools that opened within the past couple of years. In mine - and those like it - you can see the hope for the future of the small schools movement: weekly attendance rates of 90 percent or better, high parent participation and teachers' designing a curriculum that engages students.
Smaller schools, along with many of the chancellor's other reforms, are meant to improve the quality of education where it matters most - at the school level.
Kevin J. Dotson
Brooklyn, April 18, 2005
•
To the Editor:
The Bloomberg record on education comes up short in two crucial yet related areas: rigidity and class size.
A "one size fits all" curriculum does not allow teachers to adjust their instruction to individual differences among children. Flexibility is essential, yet the mayor tries to hold teachers in lock step.
At the same time, classes are much too big, especially in the early grades. One of the very few proven, but expensive, methods of improving educational outcomes is smaller class size. The mayor should be focusing on smaller classes instead of press releases.
Daniel Millstone
Bronx, April 18, 2005
•
To the Editor:
According to your article on the schools (front page, April 18), city officials have said that "more children are eating breakfast and lunch prepared at school and that those meals are more nutritious."
This part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's educational reform does not get much attention, yet research tells us that adequate nutrition - specifically, participation in school meal programs - is strongly tied to academic performance.
Improving access to school food and its quality is easily a 10-year effort, but the very fact that this issue is on the mayor's and chancellor's radar screen is impressive.
Richard Murphy
Executive Director, FoodChange
New York, April 18, 2005
•
To the Editor:
A parent in your article on schools is quoted as saying she hasn't seen a difference in her child's school. Well, she won't see any difference until Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg can distinguish between the value of aiming money directly at the schools to reduce class size and attempting to build a memorial to himself in the form of a West Side stadium.
Howard Sage
New York, April 18, 2005
•
To the Editor:
I have been stunned by the extraordinary expectations the New York City public school system places on my daughter in kindergarten at Public School 150. She has at least an hour of homework each night in reading and math. Her reading and math skills far outstrip what mine were at her age.
I have also been impressed by the role parents play in the system. As a member of the Community Education Council for District 30 in Queens, I've been empowered to a degree I wouldn't have thought possible. I've helped to get a leaking roof repaired and am organizing a seminar on asthma at P.S. 2, among other initiatives.
Jeffrey Guyton
Long Island City, Queens
April 18, 2005
•
To the Editor:
For the last three years, I have worked as a substitute teacher in many New York City public schools. There seems to be no discipline or order in the typical urban public school classroom. Disruptive students are difficult to remove.
Until discipline and order return to the public schools and the academic basics are taught, scholastic achievement will never be attained.
Keith Charles Edwards
Brooklyn, April 18, 2005
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Florida is making news again: This time, having handcuffed a five-year old black girl, of course, but after her tantrum was over.
What impressed me was the incompetence of Nicole Dibenedetto, the new assistant principal of Fairmont Park Elementary school. This principal had just been through Crisis Prevention training and, I suppose, was following the rules and procedures she had learned there. It doesn't say much about the competence of the training either.
Any parent who has had to handle the typical and not that unusual tantrum from a 5-year-old will recognize both the child's behavior and the thorough lack of knowledge this principal has in handling children.
Here is the recent link to the news report that has links to the video. Total video time is about 30 minutes. Report and Video
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The California of the 50's and 60's was the embodiment of the "American Dream". Their schools were the best. Today, the California school system ranks at the bottom in the nation, with Mississippi and Guam. Proposition 13 in 1978, and revenue caps require referenda to exceed the caps to be passed by 2/3! majority. Some now admit the California schools have achieved Third World status.
Today, most schools are like the Santa Monica-Malibu School District, serving one of the richest districts in California. The schools here do not have PE, Arts, Music, counselors, and minimal or no electives. A educational fads have taken hold: whole language, new math, multiple choice testing. And, of course, loss of local control to the State legislature.
For a sobering look at a failed school system, click on the transcript.
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(Warning: Parent bragging ahead.) My daughter and son, now college students, had terrific school sports experiences by just about any standard. Both played for Central Coast Section and league championship teams at Archbishop Mitty High School. Sarah's soccer team was ranked No. 1 in the nation for a while. Our son's basketball team was ranked No. 1 by the Mercury News and reached the NorCal championship game at Arco Arena in Sacramento.
And yet for all of that, I still look back on our family's trip through the youth and club sports gantlet with emotions that cause me to shake my head, shudder, grimace, get indigestion or . . . yes, scream.
This is what the gantlet does: It takes away the sweetness of simply enjoying a game. As your children progress in sports and the pressure builds from coaches and parents to make sure your kid plays on the ``right team'' with the ``right exposure'' so the kid can ``move up to the next level,'' you can almost feel the whole thing starting to smother you like a blanket.
``What? WHAT?'' I was screaming. Not at my daughter. Not exactly. But about my daughter, certainly.We were in Orange County at a big holiday soccer tournament with her high school team. Sarah was interested in playing college soccer. The coach at UC-San Diego had been communicating with her. He was at the tournament. He promised to watch her, with several other girls on various teams, and perhaps offer her a spot on his team.
But now, Sarah said, she wouldn't be starting the game. She and a teammate had violated some team rule at the hotel -- hadn't been on time for breakfast or something -- and the coach was benching them for the first 10 minutes as punishment. Sarah told us beforehand, so we wouldn't be surprised.``What? WHAT?''
``Don't worry, Dad,'' she said. ``It's fine.''
Fine? This is fine? When the UC-San Diego coach shows up and finds out why Sarah isn't on the field, this is fine? This is what we want? Didn't she understand this might blow her chance to play college soccer? I bit my tongue and nodded without a word, but as my daughter jogged away, I muttered an obscenity.
``Honey,'' my saintly wife said, ``you should cool it.''
I took a short walk and a deep breath. She was right. I couldn't be a hypocrite. The perspective that I had preached to my kids -- enjoy sports but don't let them overrun your life -- was leaking from my brain by the quart.
Last week, in my colleague Mark Emmons' excellent series about youth sports and the pursuit of college scholarships, he captured a lot of the numbers and facts and angles and quotes. But I don't think you can grasp the entire cultural experience unless you've been there.
(Warning: Parent bragging ahead.) My daughter and son, now college students, had terrific school sports experiences by just about any standard. Both played for Central Coast Section and league championship teams at Archbishop Mitty High School. Sarah's soccer team was ranked No. 1 in the nation for a while. Our son's basketball team was ranked No. 1 by the Mercury News and reached the NorCal championship game at Arco Arena in Sacramento.
And yet for all of that, I still look back on our family's trip through the youth and club sports gantlet with emotions that cause me to shake my head, shudder, grimace, get indigestion or . . . yes, scream.
This is what the gantlet does: It takes away the sweetness of simply enjoying a game. As your children progress in sports and the pressure builds from coaches and parents to make sure your kid plays on the ``right team'' with the ``right exposure'' so the kid can ``move up to the next level,'' you can almost feel the whole thing starting to smother you like a blanket.For example, as Catholics, we knew the kids were going to attend one of the local Catholic high schools. But by the time Sarah and A.J. reached junior high, we were fully aware that if our kids eventually hoped to earn a spot on a varsity roster at one of those schools, then they had better begin playing at the club level. At one point, our son was actually playing baseball, basketball and ice hockey at the same time.
Nuts? You bet. Yet we plunged ahead, hitting the road almost every weekend, trying to ignore the insanity. As it turned out, Sarah had several great coaches and progressed to the point where she seemed to have college soccer potential. She was intrigued by the possibility. My only demand was that she not pick her college based on soccer -- that she pick a school first, then see whether it matched her soccer ambitions and proceed from there.
After Sarah made the varsity team at Mitty, the ride grew even more intense. The team had eight girls who went on to Division I schools. One of Sarah's club teams had five other girls who did the same. Along the way, I saw some amazing stuff.
There was the father who, at halftime of one game, stood and announced that his daughter had received scholarship offers from several schools and proudly said: ``We're taking the best deal, no matter what.'' This, even though his daughter was telling her teammates that she really liked another school that didn't offer as much money.
There was the mom who, after a high school championship game, said: ``This is nice, but nothing like winning a club title.''That attitude still baffles me. The school championship banner hangs in the gym. The team picture is in the trophy case. At their class reunion, the girls can toast both. Where will they go to toast the club trophy? The garage of some former club coach, who has long since stashed it with his old tennis rackets?
Worst of all, there was the girl who broke a leg during a game and couldn't be moved -- so the referee moved the game to an adjoining field, as the moaning girl and her parents sat on the turf by themselves until the ambulance came. I still cringe at that one.
But in the end, you should know, Sarah was correct. Everything was fine. Sarah was admitted to UC-San Diego, and the coach said he would be happy to have her on the team. Oregon offered her some money, but more for academics than soccer. But before all that, during January of her senior year, the coach at Northwestern called Sarah with a very nice proposal.
The coach had no scholarship to offer. But she said if Sarah committed to playing at Northwestern, then she would be guaranteed admission -- as opposed to waiting until April and taking her chances with about 14,000 applicants for 1,900 spots. She would also be a full squad member, partake in summer practice and receive other perks. In the lingo of college sports, this is known as being ``a recruited walk-on.''
Sarah took the offer. And like many other student-athletes, she discovered that playing Division I sports can be both satisfying and draining. She eventually left the team on good terms and will graduate this spring.
Our son? That also was crazy, but slightly more relaxing. Early on, we figured out that although A.J. was a very good hoops player, he wasn't a Division I prospect. So we could enjoy the ride a little more.
If you are a parent in the same situation, my hope is that you can do the same. Throw off the blanket and try to breathe the fresh air of those sweet moments. In Sarah's senior season at Mitty, her team was playing on a horrible, muddy field somewhere. Sarah lost her footing and took a header into a huge puddle. After an instant, she came up for air, covered in muck, giggling almost uncontrollably. Then she began running to make the next play.That's the freeze frame I am determined to take away from our run through the gantlet. And I am almost getting there.
Almost.
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On Monday, April 25, the Madison School Board will hold a special session to vote on a plan that affects hundreds of west side families and six to eight elementary schools in the event that the May 24 referendum to build a second school on the Leopold site fails.
Options before the Board do not mention the drastic changes taking place in the Ridgewood apartment complex that is near Leopold Elementary School and home to many current Leopold students and their families. While it appears increasingly likely that the large low income community near Leopold will be displaced by changes in ownership of the apartment complex, the Board will be voting on plans that do not take this factor into account. Instead, at the insistence of Board member Carol Carstensen, the Board seems poised to lock into
a plan for 2006-07 that does not recognize the likelihood that the
Leopold School population will not grow as rapidly as current projections suggest and will change in its portion of low income families. Earlier this spring, the board voted not to change the Leopold school boundaries for 2005-06. The options before the Board on April 25 would be implemented for 2006-07.
Carol Carstensen appears to have suggested the options that the administration now recommends. The options first became available on April 21, four days before the final vote. They have not been through the Long Range Planning Committee process nor has the public had the opportunity to analyze the plans and comment at hearings.
While the administration's previous "fallback" option would move 1137 west side elementary students to different schools, the new recommendations move 168 to 304. The majority of students moved under both options are low income students. The plan to moves 168 students affects students at Chavez, Crestwood, Leopold, Stephens, Thoreau and Van Hise schools. The second plan affects students at Chavez, Crestwood, Falk, Huegel, Leopold, Muir, Stephens and Lincoln schools.
MMSD Boundary Change Page; See Options 3D1 Revised & 3D3 Revised
MMSD Option 3D1 Revised School Changes (School By School Details PDF | Maps - 6 Page PDF)
MMSD Option 3D3 Revised School Changes (School By School Details - PDF | Maps - 4 Page PDF)
For recent developments regarding the Ridgewood apartments, see http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/index.php?ntid=37310&ntpid=0
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Cherokee is having an open house this morning from 9:30 to noon. [map]
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This link was forwarded to Madison School Board members by Joe Quick
Racine School Board decides its next move after failed referendum.
Is it me, or is this a forshadowing of the future of Madison School District?
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"MadTeach is all about....teaching in Madison.....getting mad about teaching....and of course, getting mad about teaching in Madison.........."
Great to see this, though it's anonymous.... This site does not have an RSS feed (google owned blogger does not yet support it). Our rss feed is here.
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The LA Times opposes Rob Reiner's proposed "Universal Pre-School" scheme:
The last thing California needs right now is to raise another huge sum of money $2.3 billion a year to start that can't be used to close existing gaps.Reiner would do that with a higher tax on incomes of more than $400,000 a year. Last November, voters approved a poorly thought-out measure to tax million-dollar earners to fund mental health programs. The line of good causes calling out for a tax on the rich will only get longer.
This editorial page has advocated reinstating higher tax levels on top incomes, but only if the revenue is used to heal the crippled general fund, and only temporarily. With a healthier budget, the Legislature could have a rational discussion about funding more preschool.
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Way back in the corners of our collective political consciousness I am beginning to sense that there is an answer beginning to form. It probably involves consolidating many school districts and putting in place some kind of insurance program that keeps employee costs under control on the expenditure side.via wisopinion.comOn the revenue side, it also seems we are all starting to become more aware that not every sector in our economy is pulling its weight. Most every comparative study of tax burden during the past few decades has seen a dramatic shift of the burden onto the individual property taxpayer and away from the business sector. There are also a lot of taxable entities that are not being taxed at all, like nonprofits and even fraternal and religious organizations.
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Mary Van de Kamp:A fascinating article in Milwaukee Magazine compares two elementary schools with black principals and low-income black students. At one school, students outperform the district's white students; at the neighboring school, students do far worse.
Last year, 81 percent of Hawthorne�s black fourth-graders scored proficient or above in math and 79 percent proficient or above in reading, compared to 34 and 63 percent, respectively, at Thurston Woods.....
At Hawthorne, the principal works closely with teachers. Reading is the top priority; there's no time for frills.Via Joanne JacobsTeachers and assistants are expected to hone their craft, and (principal Bettye) Washington provides a steady stream of coaching and advice from experts. Each teacher is also assigned a buddy, and if any of a teacher�s students are struggling, it�s the grade-level committee of their peers and the school learning team�s responsibility to step in and help.
With literacy coach Carolyn Wesley (twin daughter of TV weatherman Paul Joseph) and math specialist Annette Perry, Washington studies the tests students take after every five lessons to identify any child who hasn�t mastered 80 percent of the material, then gets them help.
. . . Hawthorne�s efforts are paying off. Last year, 93 percent of the school�s African-American fifth-graders scored at or above proficiency in math � 48 percentage points higher than the district average for African-American students and 16 points higher than the average for white students.
Hawthorne�s black fourth-graders scored at 80 percent proficiency or better in every subject area, beating the district average for black students by as much as 36 percentage points. Ninety-eight percent of the school�s black third-graders scored proficient in reading.
At nearby Thurston Woods, where the principal doesn't like sharing power with teachers, morale is low, and so are test scores. Both schools use the Direct Instruction curriculum. It works at Hawthorne, where teachers get coaching and support; it doesn't at Thurston Woods.
MPS does not have a history of celebrating excellence in its midst. For a long time, a culture of mediocrity prevented praising the exemplary for fear it might make the inferior feel bad.
But Hawthorne, the highly effective school, didn't make a list of schools closing the black-white achievement gap, because the district decided schools didn't qualify without at least 10 percent white enrollment; comparing to the districtwide average for whites wasn't considered. Meanwhile, the ineffective school is being expanded; the principal will get a raise.
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A national survey of K-12 salaries appears in a recent issue of Education Week.. Among other things, the Educational Research Service that conducted the survey found that the gap between salaries of teachers and those of education professionals in higher paid positions--principals and superintendents--has steadily widened over the past decade.
Local point of interest---the salary paid to Madison Superintendent Art Rainwater in 2003-04( $153,150) exceeded the average for superintendents in the Great lakes states ($114, 026) and the average for superintendents nationally with the same years in office ($109,254) for 2004-05.
ERS Releases Nationally Representative K-12 Salary Data
Pay Varies by Size of District, Region, Amount of Per-Pupil Spending, Survey Finds
By Jennifer Park
The Educational Research Service has collected nationally representative data on the salaries and wages of 23 professional and 10 support positions in precollegiate education for the current school year.
The Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit organization has been collecting salary data for more than 30 years through its annual survey, but it just started to weight the data to represent national figures this year.
The data for 2004-05 show significant variations in pay across districts of different sizes, locations, and amounts of per-pupil spending. The survey provides interesting findings on superintendents� salaries based on race, gender, and the number of years they have been in their current positions.
A clear relationship between the size of a school district and the salaries its employees earn emerges from the data, but that link holds only for higher-paid jobs, such as superintendent, deputy superintendent, assistant superintendent, principal, and district-level director.
Salaries for superintendents who are leading districts with 25,000 or more students are about 80 percent higher than those for superintendents in districts with fewer than 2,500 students. High school principals in the largest districts make 23 percent more than their peers in smaller districts.
But no such relationship appears for lower-paying positions, such as assistant principal, teacher, counselor, librarian, or nurse. In fact, the average teacher or assistant principal in a district with an enrollment of between 2,500 and 25,000 students is actually paid more than those in districts with 25,000 or more students, according to the ERS data.
The geographic location of a school district also plays a role in pay variations across the field. Salaries are far higher in the Mideast and Far West than in the Plains and Southwest, the survey shows. In addition, education personnel working in rural communities are paid much less than their counterparts in urban and suburban school districts.
For example, teachers in rural districts are paid 27 percent less than their suburban counterparts, and 20 percent less than those in large urban districts.
Data provided by ERS on superintendents� salaries also shines a light on pay differences based on the background of school district leaders. Superintendents get a large boost in pay when they stay in the same district for more than seven years, the data suggest.
Race, Gender Differences
Also, male superintendents make almost $3,000 more per year than their female counterparts. Minority female superintendents earn the most of all superintendents, however, making almost $20,000 more a year than their white female counterparts, and almost $15,000 more than both white and minority male superintendents.
Since ERS has weighted its data only for the 2004-05 school year, unweighted data must be used to analyze trends over time. According to the districts surveyed, salaries of superintendents, high school principals, and teachers fell this school year when adjusted for inflation.
Superintendents� pay dropped just a fraction of a percent, but high school principals and teachers each saw about a 2 percent drop in real dollars.
Teachers are also getting the short end of the stick when it comes to salary increases over the past decade. Between the 1994-95 and 2004-05 school years, teachers� salaries have dropped 3.4 percent when adjusted for inflation, while high school principals and superintendents have seen gains over that period of 2.4 percent and 12 percent, respectively, according to the research service.
ERS researchers speculate that some of the decline in teacher salaries is a result of new teachers entering the teaching force and retirements from the high end.
Also, the gap between the salaries of teachers and those of education professionals in higher-paid positions�principals and superintendents�has steadily widened over the past decade. ("Schools Chiefs Lead the Way in Pay Trends," June 23, 2004.)
Vol. 24, Issue 31, Page 14
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/04/13/31ers.h24.html?querystring=ERS%20releases&print=1
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Education Intelligence Agency posted this data from the US Census Bureau, US Dept of Education and the NEA. Take a look.
Eighteen states plus the District of Columbia employ more non-teachers than teachers. South Carolina ranks highest in the percentage of teacher employees at 65 percent, while Kentucky brings up the rear with classroom teachers making up only 42.6 percent of its public education workforce.via joanne jacobs
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In 2000, The Justice Matters Institute Discipline Task Force published a report called Turning TO Each Other Not ON Each Other: How School Communities Prevent Racial Bias in School Discipline." The report provides helpful insights and resources for people who are concerned about creating more effective and equitable approaches to discipline in our schools.
That report is available in PDF form at: http://www.justicematters.org/turnto.html
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To add to the discussion of successful/unsuccessful reading programs there is an interesting system in place in Anchorage, Alaska that has shown to be successful and seems very logical. Kindergarten students are screened thru testing in the Spring of each year with a system called the Slingerland pre-reading test. This test evaluates student's strengths and weaknesses in the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic modalities. Once strengths are identified they are placed in first grade, and some times second, based on the results. First/Second grade teachers are trained to emphasis either an auditory, visual, or kinesthetic curriculm and students with that strength are placed accordingly. Of course, some students show no strengths or weaknesses in a specific area and are placed in classrooms based on traditional means.
This is a wonderful, proactive way to target a childs natural learning style. It avoids waiting for a problem to develop before seeking this information. Slingerland was developed to work with Autistic children but has been adapted to a general classroom setting and is implemented in all the Anchorage elementary schools.
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I came across an interesting review by Joseph K. Torgesen in the American Educator that is relevant to recent discussions on Reading Recovery and Direct Instruction. You can find the article online, but I will limit myself to quoting just a few lines from the paper.
"Instruction for at-risk children must be more explicit than for other children. ... Explicit instruction is instruction that does not leave anything to chance and does not make assumptions about skills and knowledge that children will acquire on their own. ... Evidence for this is found in a recent study of preventive instruction given to a group of highly at-risk children during kindergarten, first grade, and second grade (Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte, Rose, et al., 1999). Of three interventions that were tested on children with phonological weaknesses, the most phonemically explicit one produced the strongest growth in word-reading ability. In fact, of the three interventions tested, only the most explicit intervention produced a reliable increase in the growth of word-reading ability over children who were not provided any special interventions.(emphasis added) Other studies (Brown and Felton, 1990; Hatcher, Hulme, and Ellis, 1994; Iversen and Tunmer, 1993) combine with this one to suggest that schools must be prepared to provide very explicit and systematic instruction in beginning word-reading skills to some of their students if they expect virtually all children to acquire word-reading skills at grade level by third grade.
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The award that Tina Murray received Sunday may not go far in helping fund a new environmental project she started last week at Shabazz City High School, but it was gratifying nonetheless.Murray, who has worked as a technology teacher at Shabazz for seven years, was one of 10 Dane County teachers to receive the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Fellowship award.
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 | Madison School Board President Bill Keyes & Arlene Silveira Madison CARES presentation at the Thoreau PTO on Tuesday, April 12, 2005. Video (75MB). More on Madison CARES here. |
This information was provided to school board members via public information department
· Leopold Elementary School is overcrowded, and will become more and more overcrowded. The schools capacity is 655 students; 668 students currently attend the school. In five years the school is projected to have a minimum of 750 students and as many as 830 students, that is 95 to 175 over capacity.
· In addition, because of overcrowding there, 111 students who live close to Leopold are assigned to elementary schools outside their neighborhood. One of these schools is Chavez Elementary which currently needs and will continue to need seats for students moving into new developments close to this school on the southwest side.
· This question asks for authorization for up to $14.5 million to build and equip a new elementary school adjacent to the existing school on the Leopold site, and to renovate, remodel, equip and add to the existing Leopold building, and to make related site improvements.
· Building on the existing site precludes having to purchase at least 15 acres of additional land for an elementary school.
· Included in the $14.5 million is up to $1.6 million for the existing Leopold building to convert and remodel the former library and current cafeteria into small and large classrooms.
· If this referendum is approved, the new school will open for the 2007-08 school year, and plans call for the two schools to be paired. Just as its done in other school district paired schools, one building would have kindergarten 2nd grade students, and the other building would have 3rd 5th grade students.
· Construction of this new elementary school will be consistent with the school district practice of having schools close to where students live, and of all students in a given neighborhood attending the same school.
· Without the new school on the Leopold site, and in the optimal boundary changes scenario presented to the Board of Education, at least an additional 64 current Leopold students will be assigned to schools outside their neighborhood. Under this scenario, over 300 students will be moved to different West side elementary schools Thoreau, Van Hise, Stephens and Crestwood.
· Other boundary redistricting scenarios under consideration would move 828, 1063 or 1137 students to different elementary schools due to overcrowding. *(soon there will be an option to move around 300 students but the school board has yet to receive the information)
· The new school will cost the average homeowner an average of $25 per year for 15 years, and will generally maintain present school boundaries. (The median value of Madison homes is $205,400.)
For more information about the May 24 referendum, go to the districts Web site at www.mmsd.org
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Dear Editor: As a parent of children at both Madison East High School and Sherman Middle School, I am thankful for the hard work and significant positive contributions that Lawrie Kobza and her husband, Peter, have made to both of these schools.Perhaps those apprehensive at the election of Lawrie Kobza to the Madison School Board are concerned that it won't be business as usual. Quite frankly, this is exactly why Lawrie now sits on the board. The easiest thing for a school board to do when facing a budget problem is to float a referendum to ask the voters for more money. This is similar to giving a drug addict a fix. It is only temporary and the real issues will still be waiting for you when the fix wears off.
The old saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." In this case, it is appropriate to say "if it is broke, fix it." As a taxpayer, I am willing to invest in the quality of our schools if I am confident that those on the board, in partnership with our teachers, are working hard to come up with solutions. I don't believe that this has been the case as of late, which is why I was pleased to cast my vote for Lawrie Kobza.This letter to the Editor appeared in the April 16, 2005 Capital Times.I applaud The Capital Times for supporting Lawrie Kobza. It's not about conservative or liberal, it's about doing the right things for our children.
Steve Stephenson
Madison
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 Click on this graph for a larger version | Following is a link to 2005 Senate Bill 171 relating to the scheduling of referenda to approve school district borrowing or exceed a school district's revenue limit. A hearing is scheduled for the bill on Wednesday, April 20, 9:00 a.m., Room 400 SE, before the Committee on Labor and Election Process Reform of the Senate, Tom Reynolds, Chair. (74K PDF). Send your views on this to Senate President Alan Lasee 200K PDF ACE Whitepapers: 1. Community Services Fund (Fund 80) [64K PDF] 2. Fund 80 Media Presentation [180K PDF] Kanavas requests audit of Waukesha School District's Community Service Funds. |
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Capital Times April 15, 2005
Full article at: http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/local//index.php?ntid=36209&nt_adsect=edit
Teachers fight possible bilingual education cuts
By Lee Sensenbrenner
April 15, 2005
Bilingual teachers who are helping students in the Madison Metropolitan School District to learn English are organizing against a proposed cut to their department.
Threatened with losing eight positions if a May 24 operating budget referendum for $7.4 million is unsuccessful, the teachers said in an open letter Thursday that the cut would take away much of their ability to help mainly Spanish speaking elementary students who are struggling to keep up.
As laid out in the administration's $7.4 million list of proposed cuts, dropping 8.4 bilingual resource teachers would save $425,880. This would take away one of two teachers in the elementary classrooms where the positions would be lost.
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Senator Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) has asked the Legislative Audit Bureau to audit the Waukesha School District's use of "community service funds" (called "Fund 80" by Madison Metropolitan School District) to finance high school pool project.
The following article from the April 15 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel includes a larger discussion about how funds are being used in other Milwaukee-area communities and whether those uses conform to state law.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 15, 2005
Senator requests audit of Waukesha schools
He questions use of funds related to pool project
By AMY HETZNER
ahetzner@journalsentinel.com
Posted: April 14, 2005
One of the fastest growing, and perhaps least regulated, of school district expenditures could get increased scrutiny because of questions over the financing of a Waukesha high school pool expansion.
State Sen. Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) has asked the state Legislative Audit Bureau to audit the Waukesha School District's use of April 2001 referendum funds, particularly as they relate to the pool.
An audit is far from certain because the bureau usually confines its work to state operations, Kanavas concedes. But Chris Kliesmet, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsible Government, said he hopes the situation will prompt the state's attorney general and lawmakers to take a stronger hand in enforcing a law that allows school districts to raise tax levies to pay for "community services" outside of the revenue caps that restrict their operating funds.
"They went and, we feel, violated if not the letter of the law, the spirit of the law," Kliesmet said of Waukesha school officials' use of the district's community service levy to pay for the pool project. "I guess that's for a court to decide."
Waukesha School Board members say they have done nothing wrong and have even consulted with an attorney and the state Department of Public Instruction for verification.
"We wouldn't have done what we did if we felt there were any issues," School Board member Daniel Warren said. "From day one, we felt it was and still feel it is an appropriate use of those funds."
Service levies up 170%
Taxes levied statewide for schools' community service funds have exploded 170%, to $45.9 million this school year, since 2000-'01 when the state first removed them from the restrictions of revenue caps, Department of Public Instruction records show. That compares with a 23% increase in the total amount levied by school districts over the same five-year period.
The community service money has paid for everything from clerical and custodial salaries related to community use of school facilities to playgrounds and anti-drug programming. And, while the Department of Public Instruction offers some guidance, districts have been largely on their own in determining what might qualify for community service funds.
But in Waukesha, a group of taxpayers is challenging their district's use of community service funds - $800,000 this school year - to help pay for an enlarged competition pool at South High School.
Voters had approved spending about $1 million in a 2001 referendum to repair the pool. That amount, as well as the pool, expanded after the Waukesha Express Swim Team offered to contribute toward a larger pool.
Critics of the pool project contend that state law allows community service money to go only toward programming, not toward buildings.
And they also contest whether the district's use of the funds is really for a community service, given that a contract to help secure more funding for the pool gives special access to the swim team.
"I had probably a dozen, roughly a dozen, constituents who asked, 'Is this kosher, the way that they're spending the money?' " Kanavas said. "I said, 'I think it is. But I'm not sure, so we can check.' "
Use of funds defended
Waukesha school officials, like those elsewhere, defend their use of community service funds.
Some school districts run the recreation departments for their communities.
In some of those cases, school officials say, the rapid growth in their community service funds just represents a recent move to account for such costs in their proper place, something that has grown in importance with the restrictions revenue caps put on their everyday budgets.
David Ewald, superintendent of the South Milwaukee School District, said he can see where there would be a "real temptation" to increase community service funds "because we're all so tight with money that we have to use whatever resources we could use."
But he said, at least in his district, that is not why the community service levy increased more than $200,000 last year, to nearly a half-million dollars. The new cash infusion is going to pay personnel and new equipment costs related to the addition of a performing arts center and fitness center at the high school, he said.
"Even though there's a commitment to having them self-funded after two years, there are start-up costs involved in those," Ewald said.
At the Hartland-Lakeside School District in Waukesha County, its $230,000 community service fund went toward adding playground equipment at Hartland North Elementary School as well as helping to expand adult education classes available to the community, according to district Business Manager Peter Balzer. The district hired a part-time community education director whose salary is paid out of the fund, he said.
Such programming would not be available if the district could not raise funds through its community service levy, Balzer said.
"We would not provide programs to those beyond Hartland-Lakeside . . . if we had to cut programs for our students," he said.
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But the notion of electronic IDs in schools has proven more than a little controversial, with some calling them a cutting-edge way to monitor attendance and keep kids safe and others assailing them as an assault on the youngsters' right to privacy.
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The following story from the April 13, Appleton Post-Crescent reports on a school district in Wisconsin that is actually adding staff to both gifted and special education.
News-Record staff writer
NEENAH � The equivalent of four teachers will be added to the Neenah Joint School District next year to enhance its special education, and gifted and talented programs.
Last week, the Board of Education set the staffing level at 480.5 teaching positions for 2005-06, compared with 476.5 this year.
The changes will cost taxpayers an additional $244,000 next year.
Two additional teachers and one additional paraprofessional will be hired for special education.
The number of special education students in Neenah has increased by 5 percent to 948 during the last 15 months because of more cases of autism and speech and language disabilities, according to Anne Lang, director of special education.
That means one in every seven students in Neenah receives special education services.
The staffing plan also authorizes 1.5 additional positions for the district�s gifted and talented program.
One teacher will be hired for a new magnet class for highly intellectual students at Shattuck Middle School. It will be an extension of the magnet class begun this year at the elementary level.
Neenah parent James Godlewski said his fifth-grade son has blossomed in the magnet class. He asked that the program be continued in middle school.
�Promoting the excellence of our talented students, whether it be in athletics, in music or academically, is a very important aspect of what makes the Neenah Joint School District an important and special place,� Godlewski said.
A half-time gifted and talented position will be added at the elementary schools, reversing a cut made last year.Neenah High School will get 2.5 additional teaching positions next year, including one for the recently approved alternative high school for at-risk students that will be housed at the Boys� and Girls� Brigade.
Administrators initially had sought 3.5 additional positions as a result of an accounting error.
The increase in staff at the high school will be offset by three fewer positions at the elementary schools. Administrators projected a 4 percent decline in elementary enrollment next year.
Duke Behnke can be reached at 920-729-6622, ext. 32, or by e-mail at dbehnke at newsrecord.net.
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The cover story in today's Isthmus (dated April 15) includes new praise for the effectiveness of Direct Instruction for teaching reading.
For example, the article says, "Among the beneficiaries . . . are special ed students, who receive an especially intense form of Direct Instruction. One-third of Marquette's special ed kids were 'advanced' readers on last year's third-grade test, while over one-half were 'proficient.'
The article continue, "Meanwhile, at Franklin-Randall, the district's other paired elementary schools, the third-grade scores for special ed students are the inverse of those at Lapham-Marquette: Whereas Marquette has one-third of its kids at the top and 8% at the bottom, Randall has 8% at the top and one third at the bottom. At Hawthorne Elementary, one of five schools formerly eligible for the Reading First grant, no special ed children register as 'advanced,' and most perform poorly."
Unfortunately, most Isthmus articles are not posted on-line. When an electronic copy become available, I'll post a link to it.
Ed Blume
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Cliff Miller on recent management changes and the redevelopment plans at Fitchburg's Ridgewood Apartments. This complex is very close to Madison's Leopold School. Any changes at Ridgewood may affect Leopold along with the planned expansion.
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Fascinating read. This one, too.
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Below Jeff Henriques posted a response from the MMSD to a letter criticizing Reading Recovery.
The critical letter concludes:
"Reading Recovery has not met the needs of these lowest performing students. Most significantly, its excessive costs can make it more difficult for a school to provide help for all students in need, especially those who are behind in the upper grades. Thus, Reading Recovery is not a productive investment of taxpayers� money or students� time and is a classic example of a �one size fits all� method."
Read the full letter letter on Reading Recovery's flaws.
Ed Blume
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The New York Times on April 13 reported on a study by the Northwest Evaluation Association that shows there is a decline in the improvement of students in schools since the enactment of NCLB. To quote the article in part:
"Since No Child Left Behind, ... individual growth has slowed, possibly because teachers feel compelled to spend the bulk of their time making sure students who are near proficiency make it over the hurdle.
The practice may leave teachers with less time to focus on students who are either far below or far above the proficiency mark, the researchers said, making it less likely for the whole class to move forward as rapidly as before No Child Left Behind set the agenda."
The following link is to the actual report from the NWEA site, for your reading pleasure.
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In response to criticism of Reading Recovery here and on the Madison TAG Parents web site, MMSD Reading Recovery Coordinator, Sharon Gilpatrick, provided TAG staff with information in response to the letter about Reading Recovery and asked that it be shared with the community.
According to the Reading Recovery Council of North America the Internet letter criticizing Reading Recovery was not an "unbiased review of evidence. It represents a narrow but vocal minority opinion." They also state that it has a number of biases and omits important findings. You can draw your own conclusions by reading their letter signed by their group of international researchers.
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The District must have a budget process that allows the Board of Education and the public to review the budget, and balance the interests of the public, students and staff to accomplish the effective and efficient operation of the School District, and to ensure that its priorities are addressed.
The current timeline for budget approval does not allow the Board or the public to have reasonable and informed access to the information necessary to balance those interests, or to ensure those priorities.
Instead, current and past budget practices allow staff contracts to be accepted, budget cuts to be proposed, and additional programs to be considered, all without the ability to place these items within the budget as a whole, and therefore balance all interests.
Modifying the budget process to allow this balancing, to me, is non-negotiable.
I, for one, will not be supporting any of the referenda on the May 24 ballot, unless the budget process is fixed.
I will be voting in favor of all the referenda on May 24, if and only if the Board takes actions prior to the referenda to ensure all proposed staff contracts and other agreements are incorporated into the previously published budget and not acted separately upon by the Board; and, if and only if, all cuts to programs are proposed and presented in the context of the previously published budget, and not acted separately upon by the Board.
In order to get my vote, the 2005-2006 budget process and timelines need to be modified, even at this late date, to conform. We cannot reneg on any contracts already voted on by the Board, and we cannot review the failure to consider adminstrative renewals by the Board, and we cannot pull back the publicly proposed cuts to await the timely arrival of the budget.
But, we must be delivered an estimated 2005-2006 budget sooner than the proposed May 2nd to give the public time to review it, place the proposed cuts into its budget context, and plan for alternative budget adjustments. At the latest, the budget can be delivered to the Board and public on April 22nd, even under the current timeline, by posting the budget on the website prior to or instead of printing (we might even be able to save printing costs!).
Accepting the referenda for a changed budget process is a quid pro quo contract between the Board and the public. It is a prototypical win-win agreement. All sides to the coming debate over the referenda get everything they want. Those in favor of the referenda get the referenda passed; those who want a significantly better budget process get their interests heard.
Accepting such a challenge might even avoid the coming, and, what I perceive to be, very devisive battle among the many sides to debates.
For those who find such an agreement more of a compromise than a win-win agreement, consider it progress towards opening up the budget process � progress that could have been accomplished years ago.
The real debate has not started, but I�ve already heard some loose lips. I�ve heard it said (paraphrasing), �If you can�t afford the tax increases, take a mortgage out on your home.� And I�ve read comments that said (paraphrasing again), �If the Leopold expansion was in a white area, there would be no problem. The opposition are racists.�
Unless some agreement is accepted, I don�t see a reasoned and tempered debate occurring in the next month and a half.
Instead, we�ll be spitting at each other.
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There is some difference of opinion about what state law requires under the QEO statutes, particularly regarding the "required" 3.8% increase. For what it's worth, this is how the statute is worded:
SOURCE:Updated 03−04 Wis. Stats. Database 22
111.70 EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
(nc) 1. �Qualified economic offer� means an offer made to a
labor organization by a municipal employer that includes all of the
following, except as provided in subd. 2.:
a. A proposal to maintain the percentage contribution by the
municipal employer to the municipal employees� existing fringe
benefit costs as determined under sub. (4) (cm) 8s., and to maintain
all fringe benefits provided to the municipal employees in a
collective bargaining unit, as such contributions and benefits
existed on the 90th day prior to expiration of any previous collective
bargaining agreement between the parties, or the 90th day
prior to commencement of negotiations if there is no previous collective
bargaining agreement between the parties.
b. In any collective bargaining unit in which the municipal
employee positions were on August 12, 1993, assigned to salary
ranges with steps that determine the levels of progression within
each salary range during a 12−month period, a proposal to provide
for a salary increase of at least one full step for each 12−month
period covered by the proposed collective bargaining agreement,
beginning with the expiration date of any previous collective bargaining
agreement, for each municipal employee who is eligible
for a within range salary increase, unless the increased cost of providing
such a salary increase, as determined under sub. (4) (cm)
8s., exceeds 2.1% of the total compensation and fringe benefit
costs for all municipal employees in the collective bargaining unit
for any 12−month period covered by the proposed collective bargaining
agreement plus any fringe benefit savings, or unless the
increased cost required to maintain the percentage contribution by
the municipal employer to the municipal employees� existing
fringe benefit costs and to maintain all fringe benefits provided to
the municipal employees, as determined under sub. (4) (cm) 8s.,
in addition to the increased cost of providing such a salary
increase, exceeds 3.8% of the total compensation and fringe benefit
costs for all municipal employees in the collective bargaining
unit for any 12−month period covered by the proposed collective
bargaining agreement, in which case the offer shall include provision
for a salary increase for each such municipal employee in an
amount at least equivalent to that portion of a step for each such
12−month period that can be funded after the increased cost in
excess of 2.1% of the total compensation and fringe benefit costs
for all municipal employees in the collective bargaining unit plus
any fringe benefit savings is subtracted, or in an amount equivalent
to that portion of a step for each such 12−month period that
can be funded from the amount that remains, if any, after the
increased cost of such maintenance exceeding 1.7% of the total
compensation and fringe benefit costs for all municipal
employees in the collective bargaining unit for each 12−month
period is subtracted on a prorated basis, whichever is the lower
amount.
c. A proposal to provide for an average salary increase for
each 12−month period covered by the proposed collective bargaining
agreement, beginning with the expiration date of any previous
collective bargaining agreement, for the municipal
employees in the collective bargaining unit at least equivalent to
an average cost of 2.1% of the total compensation and fringe benefit
costs for all municipal employees in the collective bargaining
unit for each 12−month period covered by the proposed collective
bargaining agreement plus any fringe benefit savings, beginning
with the expiration date of any previous collective bargaining
agreement, including that percentage required to provide for any
step increase, as determined under sub. (4) (cm) 8s., unless the
increased cost of providing such a salary increase, as determined
under sub. (4) (cm) 8s., exceeds 2.1% of the total compensation
and fringe benefit costs for all municipal employees in the collective
bargaining unit for any 12−month period covered by the proposed
collective bargaining agreement plus any fringe benefit
savings, or unless the increased cost required to maintain the percentage
contribution by the municipal employer to the municipal
employees� existing fringe benefit costs and to maintain all fringe
benefits provided to the municipal employees, as determined
under sub. (4) (cm) 8s., in addition to the increased cost of providing
such a salary increase, exceeds 3.8% of the total compensation
and fringe benefit costs for all municipal employees in the collective
bargaining unit for any 12−month period covered by the collective
bargaining agreement, in which case the offer shall include
provision for a salary increase for each such period for the municipal
employees covered by the agreement at least equivalent to an
average of that percentage, if any, for each such period of the prorated
portion of 2.1% of the total compensation and fringe benefit
costs for all municipal employees in the collective bargaining unit
plus any fringe benefit savings that remains, if any, after the
increased cost of such maintenance exceeding 1.7% of the total
compensation and fringe benefit costs for all municipal
employees in the collective bargaining unit for each 12−month
period and the cost of a salary increase of at least one full step for
each municipal employee in the collective bargaining unit who is
eligible for a within range salary increase for each 12−month
period is subtracted from that total cost.
2. �Qualified economic offer� may include a proposal to provide
for an average salary decrease for any 12−month period covered
by a proposed collective bargaining agreement, beginning
with the expiration date of any previous collective bargaining
agreement, for the municipal employees covered by the agreement,
in an amount equivalent to the average percentage increased
cost of maintenance of the percentage contribution by the municipal
employer to the municipal employees� existing fringe benefit
costs, as determined under sub. (4) (cm) 8s., and the average percentage
increased cost of maintenance of all fringe benefits provided
to the municipal employees represented by a labor organization,
as such costs and benefits existed on the 90th day prior to
commencement of negotiations, exceeding 3.8% of the total compensation
and fringe benefit costs for all municipal employees in
the collective bargaining unit required for maintenance of those
contributions and benefits for that 12−month period if the
increased cost of maintenance of those costs and benefits exceeds
3.8% of the total compensation and fringe benefit costs for all
municipal employees in the collective bargaining unit for that
12−month period.
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. . . a growing body of evidence is showing that preteen students do better when they can remain in their familiar elementary schools for longer -- with better grades and fewer disciplinary problems than their middle-school peers.Via Eduwonk & Joanne Jacobs. . . An early study tracked hundreds of middle-school-age students in Milwaukee public schools, comparing those who switched to a new school in grade seven with their counterparts in a K-8 school who didn't have to make any switch. The research found that those who switched had more negative attitudes toward school and lower grades. Girls in particular didn't recover in middle adolescence (grades nine and 10) when it came to self-esteem and participation in extracurricular activities.
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"It's true. We do pay more," said Greta Roskom, a charter-school principal and a former Albuquerque Public Schools principal and administrator.By and large, charter schools are paying their teachers more than APS pays theirs.
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DATE: April 6, 2005
TO: Madison School Board Members
FROM: School District Employee
RE: MMSD Budget Concerns/Questions
As a Madison taxpayer, parent, and employee of MMSD, I have a unique perspective on the workings of this school district. I also feel a great responsibility to write my concerns. The Board should address:
� How can food service/custodial/secretarial personnel be cut/surplused at the same time that more administrators are added and given substantial raises?
� How can the Board consider cutting services at the schools when incredible amounts of money are spent on conference attendance by administrators and teachers?
� How many assistants does the Superintendent need? While a few Assistant Superintendents have retired/left in recent years, Supt. Rainwater now has a "Chief of Staff' and "Special Assistant for
Parent and Community Relations." How can these expensive staff be justified?
� How much money is being spent on the new Lawson purchasing and Kronos payroll systems? It takes staff triple the time to do the same work in this cumbersome, on-line purchasing system. Lawson is simply not working efficiently. The accuracy of its accounting reports is very questionable. The Kronos (timeclock) system is being forced upon the District's hard working employees because some employees were not working when they were supposed to. Rather than administrators tighten
control over those select few, an entire, new and expensive system is being implemented for certain groups of staff (custodial, food service, secretarial). Administrators, teachers & many other school
based staff are exempt from this system. My exposure to the Kronos and Lawson systems has demonstrated that they are highly inefficient. Employee morale is extremely low. Good employees, who often work extra, without overtime pay - will no longer go the extra mile to complete projects or to serve the public and students.
I suggest that before you cut any services for the students or increase student fees, the following options be
investigated:
� Seek a wage freeze from MTI members for a year - union members, as a gesture of concern/empathy to the community, should consider this option;
� The Board should cut your losses and cancel expensive and inaccurate systems like Kronos and Lawson;
� Freeze hiring of administrative staff. Other staff have been required to do more - with less.
� Cancel all out of state conference attendance for administration and teaching staff.
The Board has lost its credibility in the sight of voters. The referendums in May will not pass (nor should they). Board members must ask some serious questions, make sure you are being given the while picture from administration, and take action.
CC: Wisconsin State Journal
MTI
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In Madison, parents have begun asking why MMSD does not link parents to teachers through regular e-mail reports and messages. The April 6, 2005 issue of Education Week offers pros and cons of this suggestion. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/04/06/30email.h24.html?querystring=e-mail%20opens%20line
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Direct Instruction frequently enters discussions of reading in Madison's schools.
Strictly speaking, Direct Instruction (with a capital D and a capital I) is a copyrighted program. Direct instruction (little d, little i) refers to a variety of programs that use direct systematic instruction and other principles of Direct Instruction.
Additionally, direct instruction works to teach other subjects, math, science, history, and more.
Dr. Martin Kozloff, professor at University of North Carolina-Willmington, prepared a long list of direct instruction cirricula. Click here to read a short description of each.
Ed Blume
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The perennial argument that the QEO has somehow �capped� teacher salaries just doesn�t square with the numbers because most districts voluntarily settle above the 3.8 percent total package, which includes both salary and benefits. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards database shows that total-package increases averaged about 4.5 percent in 2003-04 and 4.3 percent in 2004-05.Stan Johnson:
Prior to the law change, arbitrators intervened in stalled negotiations and brought the sides together by analyzing such data as a local school district�s ability to pay, national and regional market forces, and comparable wages and benefits in the geographic area. Arbitration was the single most important factor accounting for the period of labor peace from the late 1970s to early 1990s.What's the QEO? via wisopinion
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4.11.2005 Capital Times Editorial:
Newcomer Lawrie Kobza surprised a lot of people with her win in Tuesday's voting for the Madison School Board, which saw her upset incumbent Bill Clingan by a comfortable 53-47 percent margin.Great to see the Capital Times engaged....Her win is being read as something of a municipal Rorschach test.
Some members of the current board majority, who vigorously opposed her candidacy, fear that Kobza will be another Ruth Robarts, the dissident board member who has angered her colleagues by picking fights on budget issues and accusing other board members of being rubber stamps for Superintendent Art Rainwater.
UPDATE: Karyn Saemann on No School District, no sense of place; schools in Fitchurg.
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Jason Shepard speculated on how a majority might form on the MMSD school board when Lawrie Kobza officially takes a seat.
�Lawrie Kobza�s win . . . over Madison school board incumbent Bill Clingan by a 53% - 47% margin will almost certainly alter the board�s ideological alignment. The only question is how.
Kobza credits a surprise endorsement from The Capital Times as the tipping point of her campaign. But a last minute mailing signed by Ed Garvey and former Mayors Paul Soglin and Sue Bauman questioned whether Kobza is really a liberal.
Kobza, an attorney with a sharp mind, says her election proves voters want changes in school governance. Soon-to-be colleague Ruth Robarts is thrilled: �There�s going to be a new dialogue.�
At election�night parties, there was speculation that Kobza could side with Robarts on what would normally be 6-1 votes, and also of a coalition made up of Kobza, Robarts and moderates Shwaw Vang and Johnny Winston. But Carol Carstensen says her big win . . . shows public support of the board�s liberal majority. We�ll see.�
-- Isthmus, April 8, 2005
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Quite a bit happening in Milwaukee, according to Alan Borsuk.
The revolving door for urban school superintendents has been a major fact of life across the country. The general rule of thumb many use is that if you make it three years in the job, you're doing better than average.Andrekopoulos will reach the three-year mark in August. He has said from the start that he was committed to the job for five years, and he recently said he might want to make it six.
It is still going to be heavy going for him and everyone else involved in MPS. The budget decisions are going to be tough and the politics demanding. Change, as Andrekopoulos says, is hard.
Most important, the job of raising the level of educational success of children in the city overall is complicated and slow going, at best.
But the Goldberg election may prove over time to have been an important signal that Andrekopoulos will beat the urban superintendent challenge and get the five years or more that he wants. That is likely to make this the key question for the next several years: Will the policies he stands for work?
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George Will, writing from Phoenix:
The idea, which will face its first referendum in Arizona, is to require that 65 percent of every school district's education operational budget be spent on classroom instruction. On, that is, teachers and pupils, not bureaucracy.Joanne Jacobs has a few comments.Nationally, 61.5 percent of education operational budgets reach the classrooms. Why make a fuss about 3.5 percent? Because it amounts to $13 billion. Only four states (Utah, Tennessee, New York, Maine) spend at least 65 percent of their budgets in classrooms. Fifteen states spend less than 60 percent. The worst jurisdiction -- Washington, D.C., of course -- spends less than 50 percent.
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In the May 24 referendum for the operating budget, voters will determine whether the Madison schools will have an additional $7.4 million to spend next year and for all the years thereafter. Superintendent Art Rainwater and the management team issued a cut list in March. According to Rainwater, the board should cut the programs, staff and expenses on this list if the referendum fails. http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/budget/mmsd/0506/2005-06_Budget_Discussion_Items.pdf
Before the referendum election, the school board can take items off of the cut list. One of the items that should come off the list is the proposed elimination of the elementary strings program, a program that costs $500,000 within a budget of more than $350 million.
There are at least five good reasons why the board should support the strings program and direct Superintendent Rainwater to make other cuts to save these dollars.
Reason 1: Music programs help close the minority student achievement gap. Music programs integrated into the academic curriculum are proving that they increase the academic achievement of minority and low income students, in particular. For this reason, the Ford Foundation is currently funding music and art programs in many school districts nationally.
Reason 2: Federal funding is available for expanded music programs. Music and other fine arts programs integrated into the academic curriculum can bring in federal dollars under the No Child Left Behind Act, as they have in the Tucson, Arizona and New York City school districts.
Reason 3: Eliminating programs like elementary strings adds to the differences between have and have-nots in Madison. When districts eliminate music programs, the harm falls mainly on low income children. Recently University of Wisconsin Music Professor Richard Davis assessed the proposed cut in the Madison schools. He said,�underprivileged children will suffer the most,� says Davis. �It�s another way of letting only those who can afford it get the opportunities. The fear is that you�re going to have a very one-sided, warped community, where one world will have all of the exposure and sophistication, and the other world won�t."
Reason 4: Strings programs are essential preparation for good jobs in the future in Madison. The City of Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Madison are investing together to develop Madison as a national and international venue for the performing arts. Pulling the strings training program out from under our low income and minority students in 2005 will keep these children from getting the good jobs and careers that come with that development. Families with economic means will be able to prepare their children from the new arts-focused economy in Madison. Other families will be left out.
Reason 5: There are many economic alternatives to this cut. The school board has many, sound alternatives to eliminating the elementary strings program as a way of saving $500,000. Think about the size of the cut. Out of a budget of more than $350 million, the cost of the elementary strings program is 0%. Combinations of small cuts in discretionary accounts used for purchasing outside services and consultants, conferences and staff travel expenses, supplies and equipment or the �miscellaneous� accounts of district departments would cover the cost of elementary strings and other classroom programs now on the cut list.
Please contact your school board members at comments@madison.k12.wi.us as soon as possible. Register your opposition to cutting this important program for our students. Our young musicians need your help now. You can also express your opposition by speaking to the school board at a rally on May 2. For more information about the rally, contact Barbara Schrank at schrank4@charter.net.
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Via Wispolitics:
Daniel Burkhalter, who has been director of government relations for the Illinois Education Association since 1993, is the new executive director of the Wisconsin Education Association Council.Wispolitics. Clusty searchThe WEAC Board of Directors approved the appointment of Burkhalter Friday (April 8, 2005). He succeeds Michael A. Butera, who left in November to take a position with the National Education Association. WEAC Legal Counsel Bruce Meredith has been acting executive director.
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Decisions: Adult or Student-centered? by Dr. John Benham, Music Advocate
Why do I include this as an issue of music advocacy? Because, it is my observation that the lack of a student-centered decision-making process is the number one issue in education!
As stated in a previous entry, whenever any decision is made the question must be asked:
"What will the short and long term effects of this decision be on the students in the district?"
Federal mandates, the demand for increasing test scores, the shortage of funding for public education, and a variety of other issues often convey an environment of negativism toward public education and in particular the public school educator. Even in states or districts that have demonstrated standards of excellence in student achievement there is often the presence of a public attitude that assumes "since there are problems in education somewhere they must be just as bad in our district, too!"
This crisis of negativism places the educator in the position of constantly defending their roles as administrators or teachers. The need to demonstrate administrative leadership or skills as a teacher can drive the decision-maker to operate out of personal need. The need for self-preservation politicizes the decision-making process and can lead to conflict (power struggles) between administrators, school board, and teachers. Student learning can become a secondary issue.
While public education exists for learning, the decision-makers in any school district are adults. Adults tend to make decisions based upon the perspective their position gives them on any issue. Administrators solve problems from an administrative perspective: Budgets, staffing, public relations, keeping teachers happy. Teachers solve problems from a teaching perspective: class size, student loads, salaries & benefits, keeping parents happy.
When the mission of education is perceived as teaching or educating children (See Decision-Makers: Who's Really Calling the Shots?) and not learning, the forces underlying the decision-making process may be driven by adult-centered issues. The influence of adult-centered issues in the decision-making process is often subtle. At other times they are blatantly obvious. Somehow educators seem to have adopted the concept that if we solve the issues that surface related to our job conditions, we have improved the learning of our students. Consequently decisions tend to be made that resolve adult needs, but do not necessarily improve learning.
Some examples from actual school districts may serve to illustrate the problem.
Example #1: The school district is in a financial crisis. The administrators decide that all students shall be required to schedule a one-period
While the district was in a financial crisis, further research into the situation revealed that there was a music teacher the administration had wanted to fire for several years. The financial crisis provided the perfect opportunity. The district mandated the elimination of 50% of the entire music teaching staff in order to go deep enough into the seniority tract to eliminate that teacher. The decision to require each student to schedule one study period per day was primarily to facilitate those students who would no longer be able to take music.
The Result: Upon revealing these facts to the parents, the administration rescinded their recommendation and reinstated the music program.
Example #2: Elementary schools in the district are overcrowded, but building a new school is not an option. Changing attendance boundaries or areas would solve the problem, but is an extremely volatile issue. The district decides to approach the problem with "educational reform." They will adopt a middle school philosophy of education.
The Result: The six graders are moved into the old "junior high" facilities. The names are changed, but little else. They may add an exploratory wheel in which student take a greater variety of subjects or activities, or even make a few other changes. General music is reduced from a full year to a six week exploratory. Band, choir and orchestra are reduced from daily instruction to every other day to facilitate more exploratory classes; and music teachers are replaced with exploratory teachers. Lessons and elementary (grade five) beginning instruction are eliminated. Elementary classroom teachers are happier because the "pull-out" lessons are gone.
Example #3: The district has hired a new administrator(s) who has decided to investigate various alternatives of educational reform. They decide to adopt block scheduling.
The Result: Students lose eight weeks of instructional time per course. The new administrator demonstrates leadership skill as an "agent of change." [Note:In every district that has consulted me about block schedule as educational reform, there has been a new administrator leading the change.]
Example #4: In a small district, the administration and guidance counselors are working out the class schedule for the coming year. One major issue seems to be in the way of completing the process. All the coaches (including the high school principal) participate in an amateur basketball league. Their schedules have all been arranged so that they have the last hour of the day available to practice in the gym. The problem: There are no other teachers available to supervise study hall during the last period.
The Result: Although the band director is voluntarily teaching band lessons during his "prep" hour, it is decided that the only logical action is to eliminate lessons and assign study hall supervision to the band director.
DEMAND STUDENT-CENTERED DECISIONS!
*
John Benham, Ph.D.
www.supportmusic.com
March 23, 2005
The Hacker Highschool project is the development of license-free, security and privacy awareness teaching materials and back-end support for teachers of elementary, junior high, and high school students.Today's kids and teens are in a world with major communication and productivity channels open to them and they don't have the knowledge to defend themselves against the fraud, identity theft, privacy leaks and other attacks made against them just for using the Internet. This is the reason for Hacker Highschool.
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Madison Teachers, Inc. is currently bargaining with the Madison School District. The current agreement can be found here (167 page PDF). I ran some google searches and found the following teacher contracts online:
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 | I chanced upon a rather extraordinary afternoon recently at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The Museum is currently featuring a Degas sculpture exhibition, including Little Dancer. Interestingly, several ballerinas from the Milwaukee Ballet were present. Children could sketch and participate. I took a few photos and added some music. The result is this movie. Enjoy! |
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Air America's Al Franken interviewed Richard Blumental, Connecticut's Attorney General, Friday because he is fiing a law suit against the federal government. His complaint on behalf of the state of Connecticut is the federal government is illegally and unconstitutionally requiring states and communities to spend millions of dollars to administer federally mandated test. He claims it is unconstitutional for the federal government to mandate education to the local communities without financially backing the mandates. He is asking that other states join in............
The same could be true for Special Education mandates required by the state and federal government in Madison. Mr. Keyes repeats over and over that if the state and federal government met their promised support for S.E. we would eliminate our budget gap.
While attending a board meeting last year I asked why we could not sue the state and federal government over these mandates. While the board chuckled at the idea, I was serious. I hate frivolous law suits but sometimes publicity is worth the suit. Read more at AP.com or thealfrankenshow.com.
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Lake Mills Superintendent Dean Sanders will speak to the Johnson Creek School Board at the end of April about the possibility of the districts sharing a superintendent, a business manager and possibly a pupil services director.The move might not only save money, but it could also avoid cuts to staff and services, he said. Sanders said both districts face financial challenges.
"We all have to look at ways of making our districts run, short of cutting programs and hurting kids," Sanders said.
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Mary Marcus forwarded this event notification: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 / 6:30 to 7:30p.m. @ Thoreau School PTO Meeting (Map & Driving Directions)
Guest Speakers Bill Keys and Arlene Silveria from Madison C.A.R.E.S. (Citizens Acting Responsibly for Every Student).Madison C.A.R.E.S. background information
Madison CARES (Citizens Acting Responsibly for Every Student) is an organization of citizens who are concerned about the future of the public schools and have come together in support on the 3 referenda that will be on the ballot in the Madison Metropolitan School District on 5/24. At the meeting, we will provide you with information on the 3 referenda questions and how they may affect your school. We will also introduce you to our organization. There will be time for questions and answers.
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Dear Editor,
I just returned from the annual Madison Strings Festival with a warm feeling in my heart. It wasn�t the warmth of joy, however, despite the lasting echoes of 1,000 children playing music. It was the embers of rage beginning to kindle. For the fourth time, the Strings Festival was tainted by rumblings of anger, shock, and outrage at Art Rainwater�s ongoing assault on Madison values. For the fourth time, the elementary strings program in the Madison schools is targeted for demolition.
Madison has spoken clearly about its commitment to the arts. (We have a $200 million gift downtown to prove it.) Madison has spoken clearly about its commitment to fact-based decision-making. Students who play an instrument care more about school, perform better in school, and are better equipped to achieve their life goals. More than 67% of students participate in strings (and the numbers would be higher but for a handful of anti-strings principals.) Minority and low-income children participate in percentages higher than their representation in the district. Private lessons are expensive (current market rate - $1500/year). At a cost of $285 per student, elementary strings is likely the most cost-effective minority achievement program in the district.
Madison has spoken clearly and unrelentingly about its commitment to arts in our schools and the Strings program in particular. Why does the superintendent persist in putting this extremely popular $500,000 budget item on the chopping block, while never considering a cut to the $500,000 pay increase for his administration? Madison values our low student to teacher ratios (10-to-1). But as a taxpayer, I can�t support an administrator-to-child ratio that is 20% higher than the state average. Madison does NOT value an administration so bloated, it includes a full-time "Chief of Staff� for the superintendent.
Madison schools need to reflect Madison values. We spend more than $12,000 per student. Are we really relegated to reading, �riting and �rithmetic? As Mr. Rainwater stated publicly a few years back, he came from a small town in Arkansas that didn�t have a well-developed arts program in his schools, �And look at me!� Mr. Rainwater, I am looking at you. And I�m more than disappointed.
Maureen Rickman, Ph.D.
Parent
Madison, WI
Letter in The Capital Times on Thursday, April 7, 2005
Lee Sensenbrenner & Sandy Cullen briefly summmarize Tuesday's election results/
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By trying to compare city council ward maps and the Leopold Elementary attendance map, it appears to me that Lawrie Kobza and Bill Clingan ran neck and neck in the Leopold area:
| Ward 57 | Ward 58 | Ward 59 | Total | |
| Kobza - 32 | Kobza - 16 | Kobza - 129 | Kobza - 177 | |
| Clingan - 36 | Clingan - 14 | Clingan - 138 | Clingan - 188 |
Do the results mean that the attendance area is nearly evenly split on the two options?
The comments section is open for anyone with an answer or interpretation.
Ed Blume
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In doing so, they overlook people like Joyce and Eric Burges, who are at the Valley Home Educators convention promoting their organization, the National Black Home Educators Resource Association. The Burgeses produce an annual symposium for African-American families in their home state of Louisiana, and Joyce Burges dreams of opening up a series of private learning centers where homeschooling parents can combine resources and offer instruction in a central location. In pursuit of this goal, Burges has reached out to local businesses and foundations, but few have responded so far. �We�re an upstart, grassroots organization,� she says, �so I�m asking businesses for anything that can help us get the word out that parental involvement in education is a viable way of ensuring that children do exceptionally well.�A lot of them say, �Yes, we sense your passion, but we can�t really do anything.��
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The United States has historically viewed public education as a local issue, so the federal government has looked the other way when the states have damaged the national interest by failing to educate large swaths of the population. That approach has left us with one of the weakest educational systems in the developed worl
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Bravo for taking this [string survey] on...it is really important for the elementary string classes to be recognized as an ACADEMIC elective, NOT as extra- or co-curricular study.
Find and use the research. Compile many testimonials from families with children in string instrument study. Look at best practice in the area and around Wisconsin. The study of a stringed instrument, which can comfortably start at as young an age as possible, allows a student to take ownership of their own learning in a completely direct way. Rarely is there such an opportunity for students to experience simultaneous physical, intellectual and emotional development at 100% capacity ANYWHERE else in the academic environment. Bring the Madison music study offerings up to par [with surrounding area school districts]! Stop the cuts and squeezing that has been happening over the last 5 years.
String Survey Comment - Non-Madison Orchestra Teacher -
Bob Lang, Director of the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau released an estimate of 2004/2005 State support for local school districts (44 Page PDF)
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 |
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"Without incorporating arts education, our children will not be prepared for success and survival in the world community we live in. The arts broaden our perception of the world, utilize our brains more fully and train us to look for a variety of solutions. The arts bring joy into lives that are not always full of sun.
I am deeply concerned about the impact on the future lives of children in lower middle class families as well as children living in poverty who will be denied access to orchestral music if the strings program is cut for 4th & 5th grades.
I grew up in a family of six children, in a blue collar family in north central Wisconsin. There was no extra money for private lessons, but all of us played an instrument beginning in 4th grade, and continuing through high school graduation. We continue to value music in our adult lives. That early music education broadened our perspectives, and enriched our lives in so many different ways."
String Survey - Parent Comment
Timing is everything. Timing is the reason that I believe a one-year operating referendum has a better chance of passage than a two or three year referendum.
Since being elected to the Madison school board last year, it has been very clear to me that many people in our community are educated in school board politics via local media. Unfortunately, television snippets, radio sound bites and newspaper articles rarely tell the entire story. However, in the March 31st Opinion section of the Wisconsin State Journal gets the story right! The article states, Tapping property taxpayers for more money is a regrettable option, but the finger of blame does not point to the board. Rather, outdated and unproductive state school financing rules are at fault. They put school districts like Madison's in a no-win situation. In response, the School Board, with a few exceptions, has been taking the right approach. By cutting, combining and conserving, the board has held down spending while keeping school quality high. Thank you Wisconsin State Journal for telling readers the truth!
I support the one-year operating referendum because I believe it is the right thing to do and the right time given the other referenda on the ballot (building a new school and maintenance being the other two). I am also sympathetic to community concerns regarding higher property taxes and the uneasiness that leaves in the communitys sense of economic security. For instance, gas prices are increasing, President Bush is advocating privatizing social security and many lawmakers are still promoting the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR).
The timing for any school board referendum will never be optimal. However, it is important to make any referenda as palatable as possible for as many people as possible. Given our circumstances, the time to do that is for one year. That time will be on Tuesday May 24th.
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 | West High School April 2, 2005   Video/Audio (MP3) (thanks to Denny Lund for taking these pictures) |
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"It is unreasonable that the strings program in MMSD should be the target of cuts every year, when it is demonstrated OVER AND OVER that it is a successful program musically, it helps with academic progress, and it is a boon to economically disadvantaged students. Will the School Board please allow the string teachers in the district stick to music education rather than fighting for the existence of a proven program?"
from comments - String Survey
Take the string survey - results will be tabulated and forwarded to the school board. I'll be posting comments from the survey on this website:
survey comment response: "Don't cut music. I was never in a strings program, but rather played trombone. I think that my experiences in music helped shape my teenage years more than probably any other factor. I think it would be sad to see it go. 4th grade is not too young to learn music; and early start allows them to be interested in music before they are overwhelmed by too many other things."
The annual string festival is a reminder of how wonderful music education is, and of how important this is for our children's education. This annual spring event is also a reminder of how badly the existing School Board is failing our children. Lawrie Kobza, school board candidate for Seat 6, wrote, "Fourth and fifth grade strings is a well-established, much-loved, and much-supported program. There is also significant research demonstrating a high correlation between playing an instrument and achievement. Given all of these positives, the 4th & 5th grades strings program should not be considered for cuts until the district does everything possible it can to retain or if necessary restructure the program so that strings can continue to be offered in 4th and 5th grades even in times of tight finances." This is Lawrie's approach - not settling for the status quo, working together creatively for what we value for our kids's education. I am voting for her on Tuesday, April 5th, because the strings festival, sports, academics would all benefit from her talents on the school board. The status quo is not working locally - the longer we stay with the status quo, the more our kids will suffer.
The 39th string festival that was held yesterday was inspiring and an experience that children and parents alike will hold dearly in their memories. Consider, when the first elementary string orchestra was taught in 1969 Madison, there were was not even 100 students. Today, the total student population has not changed all that much and the elementarys string orchestra has grown to nearly 2,000 students - 1,866 students this year.
Yet, each year students, parents and teachers are left to wonder - what is going on? It is not simply about money, it is not even about scheduling. The Superintendent is not considering children's learning and achievement - he has no clue about the benefit to children's learning of this curriculum. He has has spent every year since he has been Superintendent using one lame excuse after another trying to cut this program, remaining deaf to the children, parents and city of madison. Why can he "get away with this?" On this and many other trends that are troubling in our school district. Rainwater has a compliant school board and he loves it, who wouldn't.
Shipping this curriculum to MSCR would destroy the music education instrumental curriculum. Setting up private lessons to supplement what children learn in school would add to the learning experience, having small group lessons would complement the program. The spring performance yesterday was the culmination of a semester's work for children - they memorized all those songs. There were complicated skills, etc., that was included in that work. Think of how much learning they absorbed into their minds!
The Rainwater budget excuse to cut the program is not supported by the data, a possible impact on test scores is not supported by the data, and even the scheduling is not supported when teachers are left to work out the issues. Leopold Elementary is an example of a school where the new teacher has done a phenomonal job of working out the scheduling with teachers and the demand for the curriculum and participation has soared.
So, what does the current superintendent and school board approve - an increase in the administrative budget these past 2 years of $1.4 million - the number of administrators have increased in number, not decreased. Not one cut. this year's budget increase cut $2 million from the elementary and secondary school budgets - adding dollars to every other department. Those are bad decisions for kids, and the current board is letting the current administration make those decisions. The current school board is letting the administration to use "terror" to manage our school district on budget, new buildings, boundary changes, etc. Yes, state financing is not there, but neither is our existing school board.
For four years, students, parents and the community have asked for a community advisory committee on fine arts education - nothing from the School Board, because the Superintendent does not want us to come together to work together. When you make changes to what children learn and study, you start with the curriculum - you begin with the teachers.
The Memorial Strings Festival was a wonderful collection of children from forth to twelve grade, every color, every size, and all abilities. As I sat proudly and watched my daughter play, along with so many parents who were sitting and standing (as there were no seats left so many showed up)I was sad. The director was sad and the two strings teachers that were given pink slips (one from Crestwood, our school) Friday were sad. Surely this program does not need to be on the chopping block. I kept thinking, with this many parents attending a festival couldn't we do a fundraiser at the festival, sale something or just have a donation box for strings. Many parents like myself feel strings and no-cut freshman sports are placed on the block because they get the "involved parents" fired up to vote for whatever the referendum is, just to save these two programs. They are right. I will vote for the referendum to save a $500,000 program. I would not vote to save a secretary, two aides, two janitors and two middle management positions. But I will vote for it because, although I have been in charge of many fundraising events, I can't figure out how to raise $500,000 without a major community effort.
I have an idea though. How about moving 4/5 strings out of the classroom and into the Monday afternoon slot? Run it through MSCR or After School Program and while all the other teachers do whatever it is they do Monday afternoon allow strings kids to stay Monday for an hour of strings.(At Crestwood, After School provides foreign language in this same manner) MSCR does not seem to be a part of the MMSD budget that requires cutting and parents already pay a fee ($40 for me) to have their child in strings. We could increase the fee and then raise money for scholarships so to include low income children. The only problem I see with this arrangement is;
1. transportation for low -income students (we could have one at the Allied Drive Learning center instead of the school, parents could choose) 2. could we get enough strings teachers to cover the schools at the same time slot? If the referendum fails lets not throw this program out, let's think outside the box and find a solution.
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Pre-election School Board Candidates Campaign Finance Disclosures (City Clerk Reports):
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A message to Madison School Board members from Superintendent Art Rainwater:
Attached is a press release from the Federal Department of Education in which they use our closing the gap in third grade reading as the example for Wisconsin of what NCLB and the Reading First grants have accomplished. The other interesting thing is the data they use to show how successful they have made us is the same data we used to show them why they should fund our Balanced Literacy program.
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VOTE TUESDAY, APRIL 5
I support offering students the opportunity to take strings in 4th and 5th grade, and oppose the administration's proposed cuts to the program.
Fourth and fifth grade strings is a well-established, much-loved, and much-supported program. There is also significant research demonstrating a high correlation between playing an instrument and achievement. Given all of these positives, the 4th & 5th grades strings program should not be considered for cuts until the district does everything possible it can to retain or if necessary restructure the program so that strings can continue to be offered in 4th and 5th grades even in times of tight finances.
One step in this process, and a step that the community has requested, is to bring fine arts professionals and advocates to the table and work collaboratively on what the district's fine arts curriculum is and what it should be, what it costs, what ways there are to reduce or control district costs, whether there are other sources of funding, and whether services can be offered in conjunction with or through other community partners. Fine arts professionals and advocates are in the best position to look at these questions and think creatively about what and how these services can be offered.
Another step in the process is to form a community-wide task force, with a diverse group of interested parties, to establish community priorities for the programs offered by the school district, including programs such as fine arts and extracurricular sports. Instead of pitting program against program, we need to develop a community consensus on what the school district should offer and how cuts to desired programs should be made if cuts are necessary. The school board should use this community guidance -- not just administration's recommendations -- as it makes necessary funding decisions.
The school district is faced with limited financial resources and as a community we must look at ways to reduce spending. However, I do not believe it is appropriate or justified to totally eliminate an important program such as 4th and 5th grade strings based solely upon the administration's recommendation. We need to first take the steps set out above before we even consider elimination of this much-loved program.
Lawrie Kobza
Madison School Board Candidate for Seat 6
For more information about Lawrie, go to www.kobzaforschoolboard.org
VOTE TUESDAY, APRIL 5
Authorized and paid for by Kobza for School Board, Barbara Schrank, Treasurer
The District's functional analysis report from Virchow-Krause (hereafter VK) has been touted as showing how well the District is being run. But, the report's results are less than they seem. On page three of the report, VK gives the assumptions for the report. Quoting from the report:
-------
As Superintendent Rainwater has noted, there are several key assumptions behind the functional
analysis. These assumptions are:
� Every single thing the District does is good for kids. Long ago the District eliminated all those
things that were peripheral.
� All District staff members - teachers, administrators, custodians and food service workers �
are good at what they do.
� The District has very talented people that work very hard and that work very smart.
� Site-based teachers and administrators currently have full time jobs � and they can't absorb
more work. Functions cannot move from the central office to people at the site because sitebased
staff members are working as hard and as efficiently as possible.
With these assumptions in mind, the results of the functional analysis are presented in this
report.
-------
Clearly, given the assumptions of the report, VK could not have found anything but that the District is doing everything just perfectly.
Had these assumptions not been in place, VK might have been able to inform the District, Board and public of solutions not currently in front of us.
What is disturbing, however, is that the Board doesn't truly read or understand the critical material before them, that the District can make those assumptions, probably with Board acquiesence, and then have the temerity to claim they are providing leadership, and doing all that they can do.
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Burmaster announces High School Task Force members
MADISON�State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster released a list of the members of the State
Superintendent�s High School Task Force.
The group, co-chaired by JoAnne Brandes, executive vice president, chief administrative officer,
and general counsel for Johnson Diversey Inc., and Ryan Champeau, principal of Waukesha North High
School, will hold its next meeting May 3 at the Sheraton Madison Hotel. It will look at various local
initiatives aimed at redesigning or transforming the high school experience, enhancing student learning
and engagement, and strengthening the alignment of high school with postsecondary education and
workforce needs.
Madison Participants include:
Katie Arnesen of Madison
Parent
Steve Hartley, Director of Alternative Programs
Madison Metropolitan School District
Michael Meissen, Principal
LaFollette High School, Madison
Kendra Parks, Teacher
Memorial High School, Madison
The press release and a list of the members of the task force is on-line at: http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/Apr05/Apr1/0401dpihstaskforce.pdf
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