Jet lag-

On the off chance you've been wondering where I've been, that's Eyjafjallajökull ( pronounced "Eh! Ya forgot my yogurt"!) erupting in the background.   Its a lovely place, when the weather clears up.  I got back early Wednesday- and was a bit jet lagged at the meeting, but I think this is what happened:

In the public comments section several teachers spoke regarding the contract negotiations, generally requesting that the board remove the modifications to the retirement benefits from the contract proposal.  On a related topic we received written notification that several teachers would no longer be participating in some activities viewed to be beyond the terms of the contract.

Other items of note: 
In unfinished business the board heard a discussion of, and approved, adoption of new biology text books necessary for the changes to the high school science curriculum.

The board approved administrative salaries with no increase for the coming contract year. 

The board discussed the location of the Alt. High School for next year and agreed to move ahead with moving the program to the Nichols building. At the last meeting there had been some discussion of moving this program to Winnequah, but there simply had not been time to thoroughly examine how that option would work or to inform and recieve feedback from the public.

Susan Fox announced committee appointments.  Appointment of board members are made by the board president, with the citizen membership made in consultation with the committee chairs.  The committees will be:
Business Services

Chair: Susan Manning
Susan Fox, Lionel Norton, Kathy Thomas (MN), Jeff Simpson (CG)

Policy:  Chair: Lionel Norton
Jessica Ace, Susan Manning, Beth Bingham (MN), Sharon Henes (CG)

Curriculum :  Chair: Peter Sobol
Jason McCutchin, Jill List, Andrew Bridell (MN), Jim Foley (CG)

The highlight of the evening was the presentation of continuous improvement activities in the district.  This detailed presentation examined efforts and results related to instructional facilitation in the High School, school climate at Glacial Drumlin, reading interventions in Winnequah, and math instruction at Cottage Grove Elementary.  We have seen significant positive results with these efforts, but mostly it is good to see that a continuous improvement model of operation is taking hold in the district - and it shows the importance of the resources necessary to support and develop these activities.  Although many staff members have made significant contributions, I don't think we would be where we are without the leadership of Ed O'Connor and John Faust, both of whom are leaving the district at the end of the year.

The board also received notice that Mary Ellen Van Valin, Business Services director is leaving the district.  The Herald-Independent has coverage here.  As Treasurer I have worked closely with Mary Ellen and can't say enough about her talents and how much this district relies on her expertise and experience to keep things running smoothly.

So what's been going on?

At Wednesday's board meeting we received a report from several Maywood staff members who detailed the implementation, management and results of the RtI programming in the school. I thought the presentation was an excellent illustration of how leadership, support services, professional development and science of education all need to come together to deliver a quality education.

Other items of note:
The board approved final notices of layoff for 11 teachers; 5 of the notices are only reductions in hours, and 2 of those eliminated were part time- the total reduction is 6.44FTE.

Some of these reductions are not related to budget cuts, but are the usual changes we see each spring due to things like leave of absence returns and adjustments for changing numbers of students.


We also spent some time discussing committee responsibilities. I have proposed that the board take some action to either expand committee roles or create special committees to address specific issues. I think we have a lot of public interest in helping the district this year and I don't think the traditional committee structures will be able to take full advantage of that support. The areas that I am concerned about are the budget and performance. We have very difficult budget problems before us, and we are really in need of innovative ideas if we are to avoid a death by a thousand cuts in the coming years. I also believe the board should create or adapt a structure to formalize its attention to issues of performance in the district. The idea is to institutionalize a focus on educational performance at the board level so that these issues get the recognition and attention that they need.

The board also discussed the location of the Alt. High School. Currently we are leasing space in a separate building, the idea is to bring the program into a district owned building to both provide more space (needed for expansion and enhanced programming) and save a bit of money. We had been considering moving the program into Nichols, but last night we also considered utilizing space in Winnequah School. The board needs to make this decision by the end of the month. In the end the board asked for the administration to provide additional information associated with the costs and issues of both options.

A little behind

Sorry I've been a little behind in my posting. Sometimes I have lots going on.

Tonight the board elected new officers for the coming year, Susan Fox will continue as president, and Susan Manning will continue as Treasurer.

The board also decided to reconstitute the standing committees, last year's "experiment" clearly showed the need in order to get important work done. Stay tuned for opportunities if you are interested in serving the district.

More from the WSJ

I have to at least give credit the WSJ for continuing to keep education front and center of their Sunday opinion section. This last Sunday, under the headline "Protect kids from cuts" the WSJ takes on the issue of closing the remaining Madison SD budget gap and editorializes for a pay freeze for teaching staff. Although the current budget situation probably makes reducing compensation for staff in one way or another inevitable, I don't think that devaluing the teaching profession can be construed as "Protecting kids". After all, the number one factor in educational outcomes is the placement of a highly qualified teacher in front of each class.

Attracting quality teachers means we have to be sure it is rewarding profession, so balancing the budget through reductions in teacher compensation is in the long term unsustainable. If the current situation was a one or two year problem then a freeze might serve as a bridge to recovery, and although I don't know the Madison situation I'm pretty sure their problems are similar to ours: shortfalls that extend year after year for the foreseeable future. The article notes that the Madison teachers receive the "standard" 1% raise this year. This year that seems inappropriate, but the fact that the same 1% is the “standard” every year since 1993 is also a problem.

According to USGovernementSpending.com primary and secondary education spending in WI has shrunk by 9% as a portion of GDP from 1998 to 2008- the education "Slice of the Pie" has been shrinking, and its the ultimate source of our budget problem, not the current recession.

We have to face it: reducing the money spent on education reduces the ability to provide services to kids. Let's not pretend we can "Protect kids" while doing it.

Ideas...

The Sunday WSJ editorialized on the idea of condensing high school from 4 to 3 years. Basically they argue the 4th year is of little value to disinterested seniors and the resources are better spent on early childhood efforts.

Moving more of our state's educational resources from the top of the K-12 system to the bottom and even earlier in children's' lives demands strong consideration and debate during this election year.

Although I don't agree with the idea (or rather I haven't given it sufficient consideration) it does relate to an idea I heard from an CA educator several years ago: Complete general education at age 16, and then provide 2 additional years of specialized programming related to the students interests: vocational/technical training, college prep in specific subject areas, etc. The idea was based on the observation that our current K-12 system was devised about two centuries ago and is not a good fit to students who mature an average of 2 years faster than they did then. Reworking the system in this way would be a better match to the needs and interests of students.

I do think that if we were going to design an education system from the ground up without any precedents, then that system would have some big differences from what actually have.

I do unequivocally agree with the last statement in the editorial:

Tinkering around the edges of education reform won't be enough to move our state forward.

Lay-off notices...

At last night's meeting the board approved preliminary lay-off notices for several teachers. Final lay-off notices will be distributed in May. Some of the lay-offs are associated with adjustments that happen each year, usually related to enrollment. Others are related to teachers returning from leave of absence and other factors, but several of the lay-off notices are directly due to budget cuts made by the board towards balancing the budget.

Lay-offs are based on qualifications and seniority, in general the least senior teacher from among those qualified for the position is the one laid off. This is the contract language:

Post probationary teachers shall be laid off in the reverse order of their initial employment provided the teacher with the greater seniority is qualified to perform the available teaching assignment. In determining whether the teacher with the great seniority is qualified, the Board shall take into consideration the appropriateness of training, experience and certification of such teacher with respect to the available teaching assignment.

According to Jim Orlenko the administration has not completed the evaluation of the qualifications for all the positions that will be reduced, and so in some cases the final determination of who will be laid-off has not been made.

April 14th meeting...

Items of note:

New Business
A. Discussion and Possible Approval of MG Alternative School revamp, (30 mins)including new charter and implementation grant application to DPI
(Rebecca Fox-Blair and Bill McDonald)

The MG Alt. High School needs to update their charter to bring them into compliance with federal guidelines. At the same time by rechartering the school it will be eligible for a 2 year "implementation grant" that will provide funds for curriculum development, equipment, workstations, software and furnishings - allowsing a significant upgrade to the offerings of the alt. school.

C. Discussion and Possible Approval of 9th Grade Biology, Beginning (30 mins) 2010-2011 - MGHS Science Department Staff & Bill Breisch

In an effort to align HS science offerings with College readiness standards, the high school science staff is proposing to expand biology to a full year for freshmen (2010-2011 school year) and chemistry to a full year for sophomores (2011-2012 school year). Honors courses will also be offered.

D. Discussion Regarding District Racial Issues (45 mins)
(Renee Tennant, Paul Brost and Charles Ellis)

As you probably know we have some difficult racial issues to address. Paul, Rennee and Charlie Ellis will provide us with an update on the situation and efforts to improve the environment for all students.

E. Discussion and Possible Approval of 2010-2011 Teacher Preliminary (10 mins)Notices of Layoff

Teachers contracts automatically extend for the next school year at the end of April, so we need to authorize preliminary layoff notices that reflect the budget cuts agreed to by the board before the deadline.

Kicking the can down the road...

Last night the board met in special session, with the goal of balancing the budget for next year. We ended up reducing two of the IMC media professionals for a savings estimated at $66,000, bringing the total cuts to $811K, well short of the $1M objective. Essentially we did not deal with the additional $250K we needed to find to offset our decision not to consolidate Maywood.

In normal circumstances I would be willing to say "close enough"- but not this year. We are facing growing deficits each year, and if we don't balance the budget it will only increase the pain next year, with interest (quite literally - our interest expense will increase because our operating cash will be reduced.) Cuts of $811K will save only $4M over 5 years, so the shortfall over the next four years has effectively grown to $11M. If we get lucky and the deficit isn't as big as projected, the additional reductions would serve to make next years reductions a little easier.

I don't believe any reasonable operating referendum will balance the budget alone without additional cuts, so the cuts we don't make this year will have to come out of programs in the future. The road we kick this can down is really one big pothole.

On some of the specifics, I moved that we not reduce the building budgets by 5% ($25K savings). Building budgets pay for pens and paper, art supplies and curricular materials, communication with parents and classroom equipment. Its the kind of thing that supports all programming, and preserving it fits with my philosophy of adequately supporting those things we choose to do rather than trying to do everything. This item alos appeared on the list without going through the thorough process for other items, and the amount of effort we were asking from the staff to make us comfortable with this small reduction just didn't seem worth it to me.

We also reviewed the plans for increasing walk zones to save transportation costs. Currently our elementary students walk a maximum of 3/4 mile, the change would have meant some students would have to walk as much as 1.5 miles. This would effect about 250 students, the vast majority of those at CG elementary. Given the number of students and the small amount saved ($35) I was uncomfortable with the plan and proposed John and Mary Ellen take a look at some alternatives, perhaps looking to develop a plan to provide the service at a reasonable fee to families in these areas.

A humble thank you.

Final results:

Jennifer Pickel: 1435
Peter Sobol: 2004
Susan Manning: 2161

A thank you to the voters of the the Monona Grove School District who have again placed your trust in me to do this job. I will do my best, and I pray that my best is good enough.