This School Got a Big Return on a No-Cost Change

Click on the post to view an article in the Janesville Gazette highlighting how a simple change at Wilson Elementary School in Janesville has reaped big improvements in disciplinary referrals. Simply putting recess before lunch last year decreased discipline referrals on the playground and lunchroom by nearly 25 percent. This year's numbers, if incidents continue at the same rate, predict another 63 percent reduction this year. If one compares the projected rate of referrals this year to the rate prior to the change, a 72 percent reduction in referrals is expected. This is incredible. All because they let the kids blow off steam before lunch, working up an appetite. This minimizes kids skipping lunch or wolfing it down to go play on the playground only to get sick later.

This change takes into account the nature of children instead of trying to make kids conform to some unrealistic schedule that so happens to suit the adults involved. Kudos to teachers and administrators on several fronts here. First, they put kids' needs first. Second, it didn't cost anything. Third, they set out to do something which had measurable progress associated with it. Fourth, their hypothesis has been supported by the data and any whiners that don't like the schedule change can be shut up with data. An all-around win for everybody. Especially the children.

Any specific questions anybody wants to see?

Well, I have a set of questions that I think are guaranteed to give the school board candidates a headache. Again, like I did last year, I'm going to troll for my readers' ideas of what should be asked of candidates. I'm a fan of open ended questions that make them think and write answers that indicate their ability to problem solve and critically think. However, specific issues are hard to get at with that kind of question. I don't promise to use them, but maybe incorporate them into existing questions.

Thanks for your help and interest in the elective process.

School Finance 101 Meeting Was Really Informative

Doreen Treuden, District Business Manager, held a "School Finance 101" primer on this cold sunny January Saturday morning. She held forth for four hours, nearly non-stop, regarding the ins and outs of school finance. The first two and a half hours was spent on describing terminology, giving examples of each term and how changes in one part of the finance picture effected other parts of the picture. The balance of the time was spent describing the Baird Budget Forecast model used to project next years budget, which pegs the deficit at 1.6 million dollars. Again, using Evansville specific values to go through a baseline, assumptions set one and assumptions set two models was probably the single most valuable board training tool I've seem in the 6 years I've been paying attention.

Most exciting, Doreen will make the finance tools available on the school district website so the general public can look at them too. Now, I'll be the first to admit that numbers simply activate some visceral part of me that goes immediately into analytical mode. My eyes didn't glaze over once and more importantly, even the coffeecake provided by the frugal finance 'ficianado from her own kitchen didn't cause the usual sweet induced coma. Huzzah, Doreen. Thank you so much for this data. Click on the post to see where the new Business Department info page is to peruse at your leisure!

Election Coverage in the Review;Recap Here Like Last Year

Ah, the smell of elections is in the air. I will once again be running a series of articles in The Evansville Review introducing the School Board Candidates to our readers. I will discuss with Kelly if I can place the entire series on my blog the week prior to the election, as I did last year. In this way, I am not competing with my source of revenue. Also, folks who miss an edition can recap and review their information prior to the election in April.

School board is very busy working through the process to search for a new district administrator. There was a meeting last night to summarize the results of board, administration, staff and select community input to what is sought in an administrator. I wasn't able to attend the meeting and hope to have additional information soon. I believe Nancy Hurley will be sending an article to the Review about progress thus far.

The Education foundation is just about ready to hit the ground running as well.

This Saturday, there is a meeting scheduled to discuss the budget. The board will be walked through the budget using current budget methodology helping them to transition from methods used previously. There will also be a summary of the Baird Budget forecast model used to predict next year's 1.6 million dollar deficit.

As we enter another election season, I urge all my readers to become informed. Read everything you can get your hands on and verify verify verify. Look at sources you disagree with as well as your favorite news sources. Even when, as with me, those sources you disagree with make you cringe to watch or read.

Being an informed voter is much more difficult than what most politicians expect you to do, accept the pablum unquestioningly. What with this being a presidential election year, the spring election is just a primer for the fun to come this fall. It is exhausting to inform oneself. Keep the faith and know that it's so much more fulfilling to be able to not only recognize the names on the ballot but know which ones support the agenda you would like to see result from your vote.

This Sounds Familiar!

So, Wisconsin schools are all in danger of failing to meet NCLB achievement criteria! I've been tooting this horn for years. I hope to high Heaven that somebody finally pays attention. Frank Schultz didn't write a sentence in this article that hasn't been shouted from the rooftops (or from this blog) before. It is unconscionable that the powers that be simply kept the status quo, wasting untold millions of dollars and sacrificing thousands of hours of instruction time over the last decade to arrive at the point everyone knew they'd be at today back at the inception of this idiotic NCLB legislation. Now that the rubber is hitting the road and the data back up what anybody with half a brain knew what the outcome would be, suddenly it's all: we need to be excused for our inability to meet criteria that could never have been met in the first place.

Yes, there is an important emphasis on student achievement now. Yes, accountability is coming home to roost. But what is the true impetus of the NCLB legislation? Most notably, students who graduate from high school in our country without even the most rudimentary abilities necessary to function in society, should be at the top of the list of "why we need reform." Are we hopping mad that billions of dollars are wasted every year on an impotent public school system? Of course. Is it a blinking shame that the US has fallen to abysmal levels compared to our world peers in student achievement? Dang right! But a public school system that cannot keep the finger on the pulse of it's customers (those who would employ or take in as secondary students their "product" graduates) is probably first and foremost the causative impelling all the rage.

My observation over time is that schools seem to view the students as their customers. That is not the case. The students are their product. Those who would employ their product are their customers. School administrations take great pride in serving the needs of and protecting the interests of their students. That job belongs to the parents, who are often minimized by district actions while simultaneously being vilified for their lack of participation in their children's school lives. If they would reflect on their attitude towards parents, maybe they will discover why more parents won't step up.

So, how can public schools reform in meaningful ways? They can listen, REALLY LISTEN to what their customers need. Universities need students who are ready to take university level classes, not those who must waste thousands of dollars on course work to bring them up to the university level, which is supposed to be what high school does. Employers need workers with a strong work ethic, who can make change when the computers go down and who understand customers are priority one, not their cell phone conversation or latest utube download. Most of all, society at large needs people who are critical thinkers and who resist group-think mentality. Design an educational curriculum to meet these needs, and you will be successful!

School Board Committee Meetings of the Whole Tonight at 6:30

Click on the post to see the agenda for tonight's school board committee meeting of the whole. Finance will address the new budget process and how budget reconciliations will be handled with the new District Finance Manager, Doreen Treuden.

My girls have a choir concert tonight and I won't be able to attend, or may only hit the first 15 minutes if I do. I already had to miss an important meeting to attend the very belated 11-12 budget presentation in September, so I'm going to the concert tonight for sure.

Commercial Featuring School Board Member Supporting Walker is Misleading

Click on the post to see the article in the Journal Sentinel Online regarding commercial featuring the school board member (identified in the article as Waukesha School Board member Karin Sue Rajnicek) lauding Governor Walker's school finance reform. The part that makes one hot under the collar is when she says they are "saving money from our biggest costs AND PUTTING IT BACK INTO THE CLASSROOM WHERE IT BELONGS." Really? How exactly is a funding cut redistribution of funding? There are no funds being redistributed to anybody or anything. It's all CUT CUT CUT. Or take from savings and pray the boiler holds together another year. She must not pay attention during the finance section of their meetings.

Even if ECSD administration had not locked in contracts only expecting 5 percent contribution to the insurance instead of the targeted 12 percent, there still wouldn't have been extra cash to throw at programming. They might have dodged the whole "take the deficit out of the fund 10 balance" problem, but as for any money being left to invest in the classroom, that is pure fantasy on somebody's part. A very sad misrepresentation of what is truly happening across our state.

That brings up the next topic, that of the rabid recall fever taking Wisconsin by storm. I support the proponents right to seek a recall. I even respect their dogged determination to show up at every public gathering that won't throw them out (though I do kinda draw the line at them soliciting signatures at the St. John's Bazaar last weekend). But in the end, I can't with all good conscience rationalize spending a predicted $650,000 in state funding to finance a recall and untold millions in local funding to put on special elections all over Wisconsin because we disagree with a particular political party which so happens to have won the popular vote last year. Unless being ignorant of the finer points of school financing is a crime (or maybe just ignorant in general), there is little evidence that applying the recall process to Walker is called for. Sure, he's a nincompoop and a fool, but let's consider the whopping 30 % voter turnout / apathy that ushered this ignoramus into office in the first place. Any recall election should take place only with the folks who originally took their civic duty seriously and prioritized voting on that first Tuesday in November last year. Since there is no way to prove who voted last fall, there is no way to recreate the voter roster for a recall. Those who suddenly got "non-participants" remorse do NOT get a say in a recall. Next time, get off your ass and vote.