Common Core Standards - A Thought Experiment

More about the Common Core....nationalization of all things educations, no local control or influence

Maine DOE webinar on Incidence Reporting (behavioral)

From a concerned parent who watched the Maine DOE webinar regarding Infinite Campus:

Data collection starts out with very serious issues (weapons, etc), but now it is expanding to less serious issues (1/4 to 1/2 day in school suspension for insubordination).  If a student is pulled out of class for any time during the day for insubordination, it needs to get reported to the Feds (starting in Kindergarten).  The most recent change is that they have lowered the threshold and added “insubordination” on the list to be reported to the Feds.  I worry that the threshold will continue to get lowered….

Parents now need to monitor their children’s “behavior” tab so that administrators don’t accidentally select their child by mistake. 

The Effects of Town Tuitioning in Maine and Vermont

Released: 1/1/2002

Author(s): Christopher Hammons

This study finds that the school voucher programs known as “town tuitioning” in Maine and Vermont improve public schools through competitive incentives. Public schools close to tuitioning towns had higher test scores than other public schools – if a town decided to begin tuitioning its students, a public school one mile away could expect to see its test scores increase by over 3 percentile points – on average, that would be a 12 percent gain over existing scores.

Town Tuitioning Program

Began Operation 1873

Many small towns in Maine do not operate local high schools, and some do not operate local elementary schools. Students in these towns are eligible for a voucher to attend public schools in other towns or non-religious private schools, even outside the state. The “sending” towns pay tuition directly to the “receiving” schools. Although most towns allow parents to choose which schools will receive their students, some towns send all their students to one school. In 2009, 176 towns let parents decide where to send their children, while 33 towns contracted with one school.

Student or School Participation
In 2010:

·        Students Participating: 5,171

·        Schools Participating: 21

·        Average Voucher Value: $8,718

Important word from City Councilman Kyle Rogers

 Dear Lawmakers,

            Many of you know me however let me introduce myself to those who do not.  My name is Kyle Rogers, I am a citizen of Bath and serve as Ward 3 City Councilor.  I am also the chairman of the Sagadahoc republican Committee and founder of the Coastal Liberty Caucus. 

I would like to bring your attention to what is happening in RSU 1 and some concerns that I have with regards to the current situation.  In 2007 the citizens of the towns of Arrowsic, Bath, Georgetown, Phippsburg, West Bath and Woolwich came together to create RSU 1 via the legislative bill LD910 (An Act to Permit Public Schools in the Lower Kennebec River Area to Regionalize to Achieve Efficiency and  Improve Quality).  This bill was created to consolidate School Union 47 into one administrative Regional School Unit.  It was to be used as the model to create a statewide Regional School Unit system.  The premises of the legislation was by consolidating the citizens would save tax dollars, in fact to quote the 2008 Education Inventory published on May 28^th 2008, states it will:

1)     Establish one school board of nine equal members [if all Union 47 and Bath joined RSU 1], with each board member representing 1/9th of the region's population.

2)     Require each of the nine districts to include parts of at least two different communities comprised of about 20,000 people and 2,500 students.

3)     Establish one superintendent, one administration, and one school budget.

4)     Allow every citizen in the region to vote on the budget every year.

5)     Transfer all educational assets to the region, however any abandoned schools' ownership would revert to present owners.

6)     Require the region to assume responsibility for existing debt.

7)     Expect students to attend schools within the region (students for whom Union 47 currently pays tuition to schools outside the district and Bath and their siblings would have “grandfathered” rights).

8)     Allow school choice to all schools in the region.

9)     Establish a "school advisory group" for each school.

10) Cut costs, all other things being equal, by approximately $500,000 the first year with savings expected to grow in subsequent years.

11) Require the region to assume responsibility for all existing collective bargaining agreements.

12) Allocate the local share of educational costs to the communities based on a weighted formula, one-third enrollment, one-third appraised property values, and one-third population.

Each of these lofty goals are all well and good, however I would like to point out that the school board election process is very complicated and convoluted.  In some districts the person that currently occupies the seat on the board was a write in and had a total of 6 or 7 votes.  This is a social problem and I understand that it is each individual’s responsibility to get out and vote.  I also understand that serving on the School Board is generally a thankless job and not many people are interested in the job.  I will tie this together later in my letter.

LD 910 did establish one superintendent, one administration and one budget, I think.  I don’t see how this is any different from the Union 47 system we had except for the fact that the citizens of Woolwich no longer have control over the capital expenditures that might be necessary to keep their elementary school operational.  Instead, it transferred that local control to a board, or should I say a superintendent, that in reality does not have to answer to the citizens of Woolwich.  This holds true for the other town in RSU 1, there is no local control over the citizen’s tax dollars.  The new elementary school in Woolwich is being built to handle many more students that the town has, does this mean that the students from Phippsburg, Bath, West Bath et al will soon be bused to Woolwich?  I don’t have a crystal ball but I can almost bet on it.  This means that the surrounding town will then be left with empty buildings.

This leads me to item number 5 above.  “any abandoned schools' ownership would revert to present owners”.  The town are now left with decaying buildings because the RSU no longer has a need for them.  Did I mention that the buildings are in a steady state of decline because the RSU has only made meager capital improvements to the buildings.  The last thing these towns need is an empty school building to take care of.  Just ask the City of Bath how much it cost to manage empty buildings. 

Item number 10 is the most egregious claim; “Cut costs, all other things being equal, by approximately $500,000 the first with savings expected to grow in subsequent years.”  This was an empty promise or our RSU1 board is simply incompetent.  I like to think that it was an empty promise since our school budget has gone from approximately $16-Million to $26-Million in 3 years.  The proposed FY12 budget is expected to be 2.99% however the superintendent would like to have more.  In the creation of the RSU 1 administration the legislature removed any checks and balances that were in place by allowing the elected officials of each town to approve their own school budget.  We now have a new layer of government that has an appetite for spending tax dollars at will.  The budget approval process is designed in such a way that it lends itself to automatic approval.

1.     The RSU1 School board holds a series of public hearings already underway.

2.     On May 31^st the RSU holds an election which costs the taxpayer $3,000.  This election is to adopt the school budget and is conducted in the gym of the Bath Middle School.  This is the MOST IMPORTANT vote in this process.  If the budget is approved then it goes on the June Ballot.  If the Budget is not approved it does not go on the June Ballot and the school board must go back to the drawing board and make adjustments and hold another set of public hearings.  Then once they have another budget another election will be held and another $3000 will be spent.  Thus the process continues until they produce a budget that the taxpayers can live with. 

3.     Once the budget passes the process outlines in step 2, then it goes to the voter on the June ballot.  If it does not pass then the school board merely has to adjust the budget over the next 10 days and hold another election.  This election costs the taxpayer $7000 to $8000 to hold each time.  Another funny thing, this is the only reason we are going to the polls in June. 

I know from past experience that June elections are not very well attended.  That’s not the issue though, the issue is the May 31^st meeting where the “real” vote is taken.  This meeting is publicized as a budget meeting and the administration historically pack the gym with people they know will support their increased spending.

I will now get to items 11 and 12, I was recently given the following information from a source within the RSU Administration: These numbers are only for Morse High School.

In the core departments the number of sections that have class sizes 9 or fewer is:  35 classes of 9 or fewer students
Here is the breakdown:

English: 13 sections of 9 or fewer
Social Studies: 11 sections of 9 or fewer
Science: 6 sections of 9 or fewer
Math: 5 sections of 9 or fewer

In the core departments the number of sections that have class sizes 13 or fewer is:  66 classes of 13 or fewer students
Here is the breakdown:

English 20 sections of 13 or fewer
Social Studies: 19 sections of 13 or fewer
Science: 14 sections of 13 or fewer
Math 13 sections of 13 or fewer

I understand and don’t want to displace teaching positions but in all my years of business practice, even I can see that these numbers are unacceptable.  Some people say that we need to have lower class sizes because it make for a better learning environment.  I would consider a class size of 18, which is double at least 35 classes that are being taught is not unreasonable.  Overall there are 101 classes being taught at Morse High School that have fewer than 13 students.  I also know that there are classes with in the Vocational School that have as few as 0 students enrolled and the teacher is still paid to teach the class.  The more I look into this the more frustrated I become.

What I would like from you all is to please look into what is happening within RSU 1.  I would also ask that you please consider a repeal of LD-910 and restore local control to the towns.  I look forward to your response and would be happy to meet with any or all of you.  I am forwarding this email to Commissioner Bowen as well.

Regards,

Kyle Rogers

dylkyle@gwi.net

Schools Debate Cursive Handwriting Instruction Nationwide

The Great Cursive Debate

The Common Core State Standards do not mention cursive writing. Will RSU 1 continue to each this skill? This is a question for the School Board.

Teaching Content Is Teaching Reading

Great video on teaching reading.