Please note that the tax levy is slated to be set on Monday night at 4:30 pm. The state aid should be available (which I haven't seen yet) which will allow them to calculate the final levy needed to meet the budget forecast. I did a quick search online and have not found updated figures.
Nobody on the school board has contacted me about the protocol for public comment prior to setting the tax levy. I hope to be able to make a statement, but I won't hold my breath in anticipation. As one friend put it, that opportunity was at the annual meeting, which everyone basically blew off. Indeed.
There will be a state DPI representative at the meeting to discuss open enrollment with the board. I hope I can stay long enough for that. I have to stay for the duration of the "Board Development" meeting to get to that part of the meeting. Again, not my forte. But I'm curious about the vision statement they have agreed upon. This has been a difficult task and needs acknowledgement for their persistance, if nothing else.
Policy also has a few controversial items up for discussion, including the policy governing evening and weekend activity time restrictions and protection of instructional time. In a valiant but undoubtedly pointless effort, some of the members of the board are trying to enforce policies CURRENTLY IN PLACE that essentially tell the adults involved that they can't monopolize these kids every afternoon and evening, sometimes until midnight and expect this to have no effect on a kids academic standing. Please. Yes, it's a choice the kids have to make. Be in the play and lose class (academic) standing or stay out and lose a vital part of the school experience. Play soccer and miss some 20% of the last part of advanced biology or sit out of soccer for the sake of understanding the class. These are not really choices teenagers should have thrust on them. Adults should know better than to ask so much of these kids. The system is broken in so many ways, I can't begin to speak coherantly about this problem. The ones in charge are clueless. "But we have no control over who's in our conference. If we leave to be home by 10:00, we'll have to forfeit the game." When the hell are the adults in charge going to begin acting like adults? What Einstein runs WIAA anyway? Why would you have kids routinely going 1.5 hour-2 hour drives away for conference games? Stop the insanity. IT'S A GAME!!!!!
Drama is no better. Owning the kids for a week before the play or musical causes impact on their academic standing. You cannot expect students in a block schedule to eschew homework more than 10% of the quarter and escape with an unscathed GPA. "Oh, they have plenty of time to work on their homework in the green room." Are you for real? That place is bedlam. Plotting multivariate equations is probably best done in peace and quiet.
Sadly, the "battle lines," if you will, are firmly drawn in the sand, complete with stereotypical personality types. Protectors of academic achievement are cast as unidimensional people overly focused on GPA (nerds). Sports enthusiasts are cast as dumb jocks who never grew beyond their "glory days" as the high school sport star. Drama is and always has been, well, dramatic. You'll NEVER change that thinking. Has anybody thought to ask the kids what they think of this? They couldn't do any worse than the adults "in charge."
Saturday, October 23, 2010
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2 comments:
Melissa I was wondering if you were going to do a article on open enrollment, how it works and what it can end up costing the district if we have to make up the difference for kids who open enroll from a district with a lower tax base.
Mr Woulfe has the visuals but I think people need a more involved explanation than what I can give.
You do a much better job on these things. You know the money involved and all that fun stuff.
sceone
Look for an article in the near future in the Review on this very topic!
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