Post Game Wrap-up

I arrived back from a camping trip about an hour and half before tonight's meeting, so couldn't post a preview - but here is the "postview":

We had a long agenda of somewhat bureaucratic items including approval of contracts with Chartwells for school food service; changes to the new alternative High School charter (henceforth to be know as the MG Liberal Arts Charter School for the 21st Century); approval participation in Impact Concussion program; adopting Opportunities Inc. as alternative education site (this is a school to work vocational training program in manufacturing); the new Extracurricular Code of Conduct; and acceptance of a bid from ABM Janitorial Services for custodial services. 

In other business we discussed and approved a plan put forward by Craig to restructure the Continuous Improvement/Assessment Coordinator position until recently held by Ed O'Connor.  Craig proposed, and the board approved, splitting the duties with Deb Lyons (currently part time Assistant Principal at Maywood) picking up the Continuous Improvement responsibilities part time and School Psychologist Christa Macomber picking up the Assessment Coordinator responsibilities part time.  The duties/responsibilities of these positions are expected to evolve over time.

Ed, by the way, has started a consulting business offering districts his expertise in assessment and continuous improvement.  Ed apparently was even offered (but didn't accept) a position in Madison similar to the one he held at MG.  Given Ed's experience and the great deal of progress he helped us make at MG, I think he is in a position to do a lot of good for his new clients. 

On a similar note, the board approved a plan to restructure the Diversity Coordinator position currently held by Charlie Ellis, creating two part time positions: one focused at the High School and including responsibility for he Monona Elementary schools and one focused at Glacial Drumlin and including responsibility for the CG elementary schools. 

Craig did give an update on the issue of the over payments made by the district:  Due to a clerical error, about 50 teachers were paid more than the contract (I won't say they were "overpaid"!) over the last 2 years.  The amount is estimated to be $20-40K in total, less than $1000 per teacher.  The error is apparently related to calculation of the longevity of some of those teachers who have been with the district since the pay freeze in 1996.  

The board also approved a contract with Jerrud Rossing as the new Director of Business Services.  Jerrud comes to us from the Hudson School District where he is the Financial Services Manager.

Lastly, as Craig noted the Board received a summary of the appraisal of the Nichols property in closed session.  The details of the appraisal won't be made public for now,  but it does raise the question: what do you think the district should do with the property?

Miscellany...

WISC-TV in Madison has launched a collection of web pages for local Dane County communities, including one for Monona and Cottage Grove at http://mononagrove.channel3000.com/.  The page includes news and coverage of local events as well as words of "wisdom" from local bloggers such as Doug Wood, and occasionally yours truly.  I've learned a thing or two about events around town already from this site (a Croquette tournament! I've got to make that next year!) I've added it to my favorites, right under the Herald-Independent.
-------------------------
Its not the kind of publicity I like to call attention to, but in case you missed this news item over the holiday, there has been a conviction related to some of the racial incidents that occurred a few years ago.  This obviously isn't an end or reason to relax our vigilence in the schools, but I hope it reflects an increasing societal intolerance for like behaviour.
-------------------------
Lastly, I'm having a hard time getting over this story in the NY Times about manufacturers struggling to find qualified workers even in the current economy.  I've had this experience myself in the past.  In each case I've hired someone I was dependent on the product of a public education system.  But all too often it wasn't a US public education. The wealth of our society is solely dependent on our collective skills and knowledge, and our schools can't fail to deliver.