| Newpapers; 3/6/06 | |
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| NFarquharson | Mar 6 2006, 06:08 AM Post #1 |
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From the Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../603060317/1006 Monday, March 06, 2006 Local agenda Ruling due in school battle Livonia parents want judge to issue permanent injunction to prevent closings, reorganization. Catherine Jun / The Detroit News LIVONIA -- A Wayne County Circuit Court judge is scheduled to decide Friday whether to force the Livonia Public Schools to halt implementation of its controversial reorganization plan until lawsuits are resolved. The opposing parents' group, Citizens for Livonia's Future, filed a lawsuit last month against the school board's adoption of the Legacy Initiative, a plan that would close seven schools and reorganize the grades in remaining buildings this fall. At the hearing, Judge John A. Murphy will determine whether there is sufficient cause to issue a preliminary injunction. The injunction would prohibit the district from closing schools and altering staff levels or making other changes to school start and end times, grade arrangements and bus schedules. At the same time, the district would be enjoined from selling, leasing or making any modifications to buildings and distributing information about the plan. The district has already given tentative assignments to most of the teaching staff, formed parent transition teams and arranged get-to-know-you activities for students who would attend the same schools next year. "We would certainly follow whatever the courts tell us to do," said Randy Liepa, district superintendent. You can reach Catherine Jun at (734) 462-2204 or cjun@detnews.com. The week ahead Dearborn Heights: Westwood Community School District officials will be looking for opinions from the public Tuesday at a meeting to set long-term goals. The session starts at 6 p.m. at the board offices, 3335 S. Beech Daly. Call (313) 565-1900. Van Buren Public Schools: School officials have called a special board meeting to discuss long-range planning. Last week, voters rejected a $105 million high school bond issue. The board meets at 7 p.m. today in Belleville High School Food Service Center, 501 W. Columbia. Call (734) 697-9123. _____________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../603060318/1006 Wayne County Meetings to focus on new school standards Local state lawmakers are holding town hall meetings in Highland Park and Dearborn this week on proposed high school curriculum standards. State Board of Education President Kathleen N. Straus is scheduled to attend the sessions. The Michigan Legislature is considering requiring students to take a certain number of years of math, science and social studies. State Sen. Martha G. Scott, D-Highland Park, hosts Wednesday's meeting at 6 p.m. at Highland Park High School, 15900 Woodward, and state Sen. Irma Clark Coleman, D-Detroit, hosts Friday's meeting at 6 p.m. at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Ave. in Dearborn. Coleman also plans a session at 6 p.m. March 20 at the Northwest Campus of Wayne County Community College, 8551 Greenfield, Detroit. _____________________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../603060312/1026 Monday, March 06, 2006 Max Ortiz / The Detroit News Muslim American Youth Academy teacher Linda Charara, left, works with students Hoda Ajrouche, Moussa Soueidan and Sara Nasser. Attendance at the school has nearly tripled from seven years ago. Muslims, Jews pick private education Religious schools in Metro area overflow Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News John T. Greilick / The Detroit News Rabbi Aaron Bergman's four daughters, Rina, 14, left, Shira, 11, Rikki, 8, and Ariel, 9, attend Jewish schools. "Jews are a very small people (in number), and we have only survived because people take it seriously." DEARBORN -- Hannah Makki stands proudly with shoulders back in her crisp green-and-white plaid school uniform, a confident 6-year-old who can recite the school promise by heart: "This week I'll do my best to be the best; I will listen; I will follow directions; I will be honest; I'll respect the rights of others; I will always please Allah; I'll obey my parents; I can learn; I will learn." Hannah wants to be a good Muslim student and a good American citizen. Her parents -- Imad Makki, an electrical engineer at Ford Motor Co., and Maya Hammoud, an assistant dean of student programming at the University of Michigan School of Medicine -- want her to have the best education money can buy. To them, that means the private Muslim American Youth Academy. The Makki-Hammoud family represents a growing trend across Metro Detroit. Jews and Muslims are increasingly eschewing public education for private schools that will steep their children in the traditions of their religion -- and allow them to grow up with, meet and maybe marry someone of the same faith. Their parents are willing to pay: Tuition can range from $4,400 at Crescent Academy International, a Muslim school in Canton, to $15,000 a year at the Jewish Academy of Metro Detroit in West Bloomfield. "I think it's important for kids to know who they are," said Imad Makki, Hannah's father. "Especially after September 11. I don't want my kids to feel they are being discriminated against. I want them to be ready to defend, or at least to educate others, about Islam and who they are, since most people seem to associate us with terrorism." Muslim-based schools have seen the greatest growth, but they're by no means alone. Crescent Academy International, which opened its doors in 1991, just completed a larger $7 million school to accommodate the growing enrollment -- nearly 350 students. The American Islamic Academy in Dearborn, a K-12 school, had a 40 percent increase to 420 students in the past year. Attendance at the Muslim American Youth Academy in Dearborn has nearly tripled from seven years ago, and now there's a waiting list. Yeshivas Darchei Torah and Akiva Hebrew Day School, both Orthodox Jewish schools in Southfield, have had double-digit increases in the past five years. The area's newest Jewish school, the Jewish Academy of Metro Detroit in West Bloomfield, has gone from 52 students to 176 in its six years. There are about 96,000 Jews in Metro Detroit, according to the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. The Glenmary Research Center says there are more than 61,000 Muslims in the area, but other estimates put the number much higher. Principal Ramzi A. Saab of the Muslim American Youth Academy, with pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, said the school teaches the Arabic language and Islamic studies. There are 271 students, with a waiting list. "We not only emphasize math, science and language, but we also teach them how to pray, how to trust God and how a good Muslim should behave," he said. "A good Muslim, a good American and a good student are all the same to us." Rabbi Aaron Bergman, who has four daughters and teaches at the Jewish Academy of Metro Detroit, said he prefers that his daughters attend Jewish schools. "Jews are a very small people (in number), and we have only survived because people take it seriously," he said. "I'm not saying non-Jews are bad or inappropriate. It's not a comment on them. But Judaism has been around for a long time, and it works for us, and I would want my kids to want it, too." Catholic schools still top the list of all private religious schools in the United States, with more than 8,000 schools in 2002. But Jewish and Muslim schools are increasing nationwide, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, whose most recent statistics reflect 2002. The number of Jewish schools increased from 658 in 1991 to 730 in 2002, while Muslim schools showed a more dramatic increase, from 44 in 1991 to 188 in 2002. Critics say the move toward private schools minimizes the value of public schools, which are forbidden to teach religion, in an increasingly diverse society. "A part of what kids learn in public schools is how to live with each other, which is part of what it means to be an American," said Deborah Dash Moore, director of Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. Moore points to four reasons for the increase in Jewish parents sending their children to private religious schools. "They can afford it, they don't think highly of public schools, they're critical of what they saw as their own inadequate Jewish education, and there is a desire among parents to protect and nurture their children, which means keeping them in a Jewish milieu." Another reason some parents send their children to private religious schools is the hope that they'll marry within that circle. Ann Rottman's son, Geoffrey, a student at the Jewish Academy of Metro Detroit, asked her permission to date a non-Jew, and she vehemently refused. Although Rottman, of West Bloomfield, was raised Catholic, she converted to Judaism before her children were born and now holds fast to the hope they'll marry only someone of the Jewish faith. "When I told my son, no, he could not date a girl who was not Jewish, he said, 'But you and Dad did it,' " Rottman said. "I explained to him that I was 25 and independent when I converted. He's 15, and we feel it is important for him to date Jewish girls. That's why we've sent our children to Jewish schools from nursery school through high school." Hanan Farhat of Dearborn Heights, is not quite as adamant about her stepson, Ali, 9, who attends the Muslim American Youth Academy. Muslim youths don't date, but Farhat has some thoughts about marriage. "If my son takes someone from another religion, that's fine," she said. "It's up to him, but I prefer him to select a Muslim woman." You can reach Shawn D. Lewis at (248) 647-8825 or slewis@detnews.com. Enrollment increase More students are attending Jewish and Muslim schools throughout Metro Detroit: Crescent Academy International, Canton: From 240 students 10 years ago to nearly 350 today. American Islamic Academy, Dearborn: 300 students to 420 in the past year. Muslim American Youth Academy, Dearborn: From less than 100 students seven years ago to 271 today. Yeshivas Darchei Torah, Southfield: 290 students five years ago to 339 today. Akiva Hebrew Day School, Southfield: 244 students five years ago to 328 today. Jewish Academy of Metro Detroit, West Bloomfield: 52 students six years ago to 176 today. |
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| NFarquharson | Mar 6 2006, 06:14 AM Post #2 |
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From the Detroit Free Press: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...EWS02/603060375 Wayne County Northville, Van Buren study vote fallout March 6, 2006 BY NAOMI R. PATTON FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER The postmortem analysis of Tuesday's failed school bond proposals from Northville Public Schools and Van Buren Public Schools points to the state's faltering economy. Officials said they thought their districts' needs would outweigh automotive industry layoffs, rising oil prices and the precarious economy. But supporters and opponents of the proposals in both districts said after the vote that school officials need to make their cases airtight to pass any bonds. "It came down to dollars," said Randy Brown, a member of Our Kids, Our Committee, Our Future, a group that supported the Van Buren bond proposal. "It's never a good time to build a school." Van Buren's $111-million proposal to build a school to replace the 80-year-old Belleville High School failed by a vote of 4,175 to 2,752. In Northville, two proposals totaling $70.67 million were rejected by similar margins. A $25-million proposal to build a new elementary school failed, 4,065 to 2875. The second proposal, calling for $45 million for renovations, a field house for Northville High and other items, failed by a 4,006-2,922 margin. Officials in each district said they planned to analyze the results and decide within the next couple of months whether to put bond proposals on the ballots in August or November. The votes last week mean little will change for students in the 2006-07 school year. However, class sizes could grow and portable classrooms could return to Northville elementary schools in 2007-08. Paul Henning, Van Buren communications coordinator, said district officials would look at "what we did right, what we did wrong." "The needs of our students are still there," he said. David Bolitho, assistant superintendent for administrative services at Northville, said the school board and district staff would meet within a couple of weeks to began planning their next move. "We don't want to run the risk of having another setback," he said. The district faced vocal opposition to a proposal to build its seventh elementary school, near a landfill in Salem Township. A later decision to choose a different location had little effect. "If they want to convince me to vote for this ... they need to talk to me about alternatives," Fred Shadko of Northville Township said about a future bond. Shadko, who owns and operates the popular Northville Notices Web site dedicated to Northville issues (www.northvillenotices.com), said traffic on the site has increased -- for and against the proposals -- since election night. The district, he said, has to cut back, "buying what they need and be able to justify it." Contact NAOMI R. PATTON at 248-351-3689 or patton@freepress.com. ___________________________________________ http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...EWS05/603060326 Metro Detroit BRIAN DICKERSON: Teens' truthful report shocks adult viewers March 6, 2006 BY BRIAN DICKERSON FREE PRESS COLUMNIST Neil Willoughby and Scott Sobanski say they simply wanted to warn their classmates at Lakeview High School about the hazards of posting personal information on the Internet. And whatever else you may think about the video the two St. Clair Shores teens produced for Devon Fralick's TV broadcasting class, you'd have to concede that, as a piece of journalism, it's been stunningly effective. Willoughby and Sobanski's 8-minute report on http://MySpace.com was broadcast to Lakeview students over the high school's closed-circuit Silver and Blue network last week, and right away, Willoughby says, he and Sobanski knew they had a hit on their hands. "It was the first time everybody was totally silent to watch one of our reports," Willoughby recalled Sunday. "We really got kids' attention." The video, which featured excerpts from the MySpace Web sites of several Lakeview students and an interview with a 25-year-old Internet user who enjoys trolling the popular Web site to look at photos posted by teenage girls, shocked many in the captive audience. "One of the postings was of a sophomore girl in a bikini with a beer in her hand," Willoughby said. "Her mom's really going after the school for that, but the picture was from the girl's own Web site." Willoughby and Sobanski produced their video for the TV broadcasting class taught by Fralick. Hours after it aired last Tuesday, a Lakeview High administrator escorted Fralick from the building and informed students that the 49-year-old teacher had been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into the My-Space video. Fralick, who has taught at Lakeview for nine years and helped students produce a closed-circuit news broadcast each morning for the last several years, declined to speak for the record this past weekend. But students and parents described her as an uncommonly devoted teacher who donated money and video equipment to make the Silver and Blue network possible. Lakeview Public Schools Superintendent Sandra Feeley Myrand told me she decided to place Fralick on leave after viewing the video and becoming alarmed at screen grabs depicting several district students in revealing clothes and/or compromising behavior. Myrand said several students were easily identifiable; Willoughby and Sobanski said all the students' faces were obscured and that only viewers who'd previously visited the MySpace sites in question on their own could have matched them to their authors. Ironically, Myrand told me, her school district had been planning a seminar to make parents aware of the MySpace phenomenon when the students' video aired. The hazards associated with MySpace.com were "absolutely appropriate subject material" for a piece of student journalism, she said, "but a very important message was lost because of the salaciousness of the material that was featured." I understand Myrand's obligation to protect all her students, including those hoisted on their own digital petards in Willoughby and Sobanski's video. But wasn't it possible, I asked the superintendent, that the "very important message" these two student journalists sought to convey had been underlined, rather than diluted, by the provocative images they featured? "I can understand how someone could make that argument," the superintendent conceded. Sobanski says his controversial MySpace report has already succeeded in making the Web site safer. "Our point was that kids never know who's looking at the stuff they post for their friends' benefit," he said. "All the girls whose sites we showed have either taken down their pictures or set their profiles to private," a feature that allows MySpace users to restrict access to Web users they know. Jane Cassady, a teacher's union advocate who is representing Fralick in ongoing discussions with her superiors, says the veteran teacher simply wants to return to the job she loves. "If this episode helps students and parents realize the potential dangers associated with MySpace, it will have been worth it," Cassady says. "In many ways, this has been a teachable moment for everyone involved." Contact BRIAN DICKERSON at 248-351-3697 or dicker@freepress __________________________________ http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...EWS02/603060368 Wayne County Livonia weighs tech overhaul Replacing city's outdated software to cost $730,000 March 6, 2006 BY ZLATI MEYER FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER The last time Livonia officials purchased financial software for the city, a mouse was something that lived in the walls of your house, an icon referred to someone like James Dean and a menu is what you got at a restaurant. The City Council is considering whether to buy software to replace the 21-year-old program currently in use. The price is a one-time cost of $730,000 and an estimated total of $455,000 for the first five years of maintenance. The city's information systems director, Dan Putnam, estimated Friday it would take 13 months to have the new system ready. It is unclear when the council will make a decision on whether to purchase it. Based on feedback from Livonia employees, Troy-based New World Systems has included features to increase work-flow capabilities, allow residents to take care of municipal business on the Internet, such as checking their water usage and buying dog licenses, and enable vendors to check on their payment status. The city's current municipal software was designed to run on an IBM AS/400 mainframe computer and is all text-based, Putnam said. In 2001, the city concluded that the financial software wasn't meeting its needs, but budgetary concerns prevented an overhaul. Putnam has proposed dividing the cost among all the departments that will be using the new software. "It allows us to open up City Hall 24 hours a day," he added. "We feel we have to do this now. We're running out of options." In addition, a technophile, the retired president of a regional computer company, is governing the city. Mayor Jack Engebretson "realizes technology can, in many cases, help employees do their jobs better," Putnam said. "These days, we have a lot less employees than we used to have, and that's important." Not everyone at City Hall is applauding the plan. Yvonne Lillibridge, a municipal payroll clerk and the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' Local 192, said she can't reconcile a large purchase with what she hears during union negotiations. "I guess I'd be all for that, if the claims weren't being put on the table that the city is in a dire financial situation," she said Thursday. "What we have is 20 years old, but it does work. ... "As a city employee and resident, if they're going to spend money, I'd rather see them spend it on police vehicles or employee wages." Contact ZLATI MEYER at 248-351-3291 or meyer@freepress.com. |
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| Grant | Mar 6 2006, 11:13 AM Post #3 |
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News from the Capitol: Excerpts provided to members of MAPSA through a subscription with Michigan Information and Research Service Inc. (MIRS newsletter) - Lansing's oldest and only Michigan-Owned Capitol News Report. House Passes Curriculum Bill Last week, on a 70-31 bipartisan vote, the House passed HB 5606, legislation that would provide a base statewide high school curriculum students would have to complete to qualify for graduation. Other than a few minor changes made via floor amendments, the version of HB 5606 that moved last week was the same as the measure that moved out of the House Education Committee yesterday. Of the 70 members who cast yes votes, 53 were Republicans and 17 were Democrats. However, even though the bill passed with relative ease, it appeared that the vote reflected a desire to move the process forward more than it reflected an actual endorsement of the specific legislation. Read More At: http://www.charterschools.org/pages/lansingnews.cfm March 2 Alegbra II, Physical Ed In, Foreign Language Out High school seniors would need to pass Alegbra II, physical education and the performing arts before they could graduate under the 16-credit graduation standards that moved out of the House Education Committee last week (HB 5606). Read More At: http://www.charterschools.org/pages/lansingnews.cfm March 1 SFA: K-16 Proposal Costs $556M In '07 The Senate Fiscal Agency (SFA) reported last week that the petition initiative calling for annual inflationary increases for public K-12 schools, universities and community colleges would blow a $556 million hole in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 budget. If passed by the Legislature the way it is or by voters in November, the "K-16 Funding Initiative" would necessitate drastic mid-year surgery to insure Lansing's education special interests have their piece of the state funding pie shored up for the years to come. Read More At: http://www.charterschools.org/pages/lansingnews.cfm March 1 School Infrastructure Issue to Get Hearing Sen. Ron Jelinek (R-Three Oaks) will hold hearings March 20 to address "unsafe, unhealthy and ill-smited conditions" that he says exist in schools around the state. Jelinek held a press conference last week about the issue. The Association of School Administrators, the Association of School Boards, School Business Officials and the School Equity Caucus presented information about the "serious structural conditions that exist" in many public schools. Read More At: http://www.charterschools.org/pages/lansingnews.cfm March 1 Let's Hear It for a Tax Hike Eighty-one percent of state residents would favor a tax increase if it was earmarked for maintaining or enhancing school programs and another 76 percent would embrace a tax hike for early childhood education. So much for the tax revolt if the data from Public Sector Consultants (PSC) is correct. The Lansing think tank released its biennial (every two years) survey on public attitudes about education and found that, "Michigan residents believe that tax dollars spent on local schools represents a good buy and they reject the contention that lower taxes are more important than maintaining educational services and programs." Read More At: http://www.charterschools.org/pages/lansingnews.cfm February 28 |
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