Dr. John Benham, writing on www.supportmusic.com says, "Music Education Advocacy. The concept can make us indignant. Why should anything so valuable to the education of every child need to be defended?"
He continues, "If you’re a parent of a young person interested in playing music, you’ve already experienced first-hand the positive impact of this sort of challenge. If you’re a member of the community with a love of music, you know how much it has benefited you.
But the truth is, we have no choice but to defend school music programs. In a time of drastic reductions in school budgets, music can sometimes be misunderstood as not core to an academic curriculum. But we do know that participation in music is vital to a young person’s academic and social development."
Advocacy for music education for students is not about what we teach children as much as it is about what children are learning and music education is fundamental to that.
Continue Reading "MUSIC ADVOCACY: Caring Enough to Put the Students First" - Dr. John Benham
An author, asking to remain anonymous, prepared a summary of the meeting on January 18, when Superintendent Rainwater met with community members and discussed the process for selecting a new principal at East High School. The author concluded:
"If you believe that our superintendent cares about East and wants to get it right this time (like he finally did at Sherman and Black Hawk), then you left the meeting feeling good. If you question the process and his decision-making ability given some of his poor choices in the past, you probably left the meeting feeling disappointed, which is mostly what I heard. Nothing has changed."
"It was not said, but we pay for the mistakes for a very long time. A great principal can turn a school around in weeks, but a bad principal or several principals for several years can really hurt the students going through those schools. It is not just failing to master academics, but their feeling of connection gets hurt as well. It could be argued that some of the problems East is having today stem not only from the void at the top at East, but also from the fact that two of its feeder middle schools and some of its feeder elementary schools have been struggling due to poor leadership."
You can read the full report by clicking
Report on meeting with Rainwater on East Principal Selection.
Ed Blume
ps. No I didn't write the report. I didn't attend the meeting. Ed
Madison School Board Candidate, Parent and activist Lawrence Winkler forwarded a letter to Board President Bill Keys regarding Madison School's budget process if cuts must be made for the 2005-2006 School Year.
Winkler provides some useful background information and offers a suggestion to move forward with an improved decision making process. Click below to read his letter or here for a 37K pdf print version.
Dear Mr. Keys, Members of the BoardThe Board is to consider issuing non-renewal notices for administrative staff positions at the Special Board meeting of January 24. Unlike others, I do not at this time recommend issuing non-renewal notices. It does not foster my goals toward establishing a better decision-making process.
The Board’s decision-making process is flawed, in part, because the timing of critical budget-related decisions occurs piecemeal (sequentially) throughout the year. The result of sequential decision-making has several negative consequences.
1. Not all stakeholders are at the table during the budget negotiations
2. The Board and other stakeholders are unable to negotiate in light of the total needs of MMSD and other stakeholders.
3. The degrees of freedom open to the Board have been lost.
4. Different interests groups dominate at each stage, desiring only to “get their cut”, without being forced to consider the best interests of all.
5. It is well known that the result of sequential decisions is less than optimal (and certainly different) compared to a process where all decisions are made at once.
The Board is bound by Section 118.24 Wis. Stats. regarding the timing of non-renewal notices, appeal processes by affected staff, etc., but the timing is based on contract expiration date, and the contract expiration date is not explicitly determined by statute.
Therefore, I propose that the Board consider extending the expiration date of the Administrative contracts to August 31 from the current June 30, and modify HR Policy 9.04 accordingly.
Because the Administration offers a proposed budget model in February, with the Board approving the potential cut list in March, there will be opportunity to better consider the budget as a whole. Letters of non-renewal, if so decided in light of the whole budget, would occur on April 1, with hearings requested by affected staff on May 1.
I believe this proposal offers a viable alternative to the current process, and would allow the Board to make better budget decisions.
Thank you and the Board in advance for considering this proposal.
Sincerely,
Lawrence J. Winkler
Cc: Art Rainwater
Janitor Directs Generosity To East High, Trades His Broom For Baton Tonight by Sandy Cullen, January 13,2005, WI State Journal
Jim Ely loves music and the arts.
He also loves Madison East High School.
It's where he and his wife, Judy, who died of ovarian cancer in February 2003, were high school sweethearts more than 30 years ago, when he took her to his prom and she took him to the TWIRP (The Woman Is Required to Pay) dance.
It's where they worked together on the 1969 production of "Oklahoma!"
Read the entire article,
Music to His Ears