| Newpapers; 3/14/06 | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 14 2006, 06:53 AM (297 Views) | |
| NFarquharson | Mar 14 2006, 06:53 AM Post #1 |
Principal
|
From the Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...08/1006/METRO01 Tuesday, March 14, 2006 Redford to cut teachers, buildings The district will tackle $3.7M deficit by closing three non-school sites, laying off staff, educators. Catherine Jun / The Detroit News The Beck Education Center, Roosevelt Elementary (currently leased to other organizations) and the board office on Beech Daly will be closed. The state's Day Treatment program will move to Keeler; and Keeler students will move to MacGowan Elementary, Stuckey Elementary and Bulman. MacGowan will house pre-kindergarteners through first-graders; Stuckey and Bulman will house second- through fifth-graders. Out-of-district ninth-graders will move from Pearson Education Center to Redford Union High School. REDFORD TOWNSHIP -- The Redford Union District School Board voted 4-3 Monday night to close three district buildings and lay off more than 40 staff members and teachers this fall, adopting the first steps in an aggressive cost-cutting plan to rein in their growing deficit. Regular school buildings were spared from the closures, to the relief of many parents. But students at Keeler Elementary will be relocated next year to make way for a state program that will bring the district $200,000 a year. "For too many years, we've waited for things to happen and then responded," said Donna Rhodes, who became superintendent of the 4,419-student district last July. The plan is a proactive response to the district's financial situation, she said. The board has been sifting through several cost-cutting plans in public meetings since January, trying to figure out a way to eliminate a $3.7 million deficit. The adopted plan includes 41 layoffs this fall that will save the district about $1.6 million next year, Rhodes said. More layoffs will be needed in the following three years, she said. The closing of buildings will cut $67,000 in utilities out of next year's budget, she said. The district lost 184 students from 2004 to 2005, and years of budget deficits are forcing the district to adopt a reduction plan to avoid state intervention. According to the plan, the budget should come into balance by the 2008-09 school year. Earlier talks about some elementary schools closing stirred many parents' fears. "I'm very relieved," said Becky Bonkowski after the meeting at Redford Union High School. One of her three children attends Bulman Elementary and she was pleased it would stay open. George Bezenar, 55, a part-time bus driver in the district, said he feared he could be among those that will lose their jobs. "We're kind of disappointed, but there doesn't seem to be any other choice," he said. You can reach Catherine Jun at (734) 462-2204 or cjun@detnews.com. _________________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../603140399/1026 Tuesday, March 14, 2006 Fowlerville opens up enrollment Desire for state funds prompts schools to invite nondistrict students to attend under choice plan. Kevin Shopshire / Special to The Detroit News Parents wishing to enroll their children in Fowlerville Community Schools for the 2006-07 school year can apply at the central office, 735 N. Grand, or call (517) 223-6001. FOWLERVILLE -- The sluggish Michigan economy has prompted Fowlerville Community Schools to open its doors to out-of-district students for the first time under the Schools of Choice program. With Proposal A funding public schools, each new student enrolled is worth more than $6,300 from the state to the district. Superintendent Ed Alverson keeps a close eye on the local housing market to help in planning how many grades to add or subtract each year and new teachers to hire. But the slow-moving economy led him to recommend the Board of Education open enrollment to all students next school year. Last week, the board unanimously approved the proposal. Fowlerville is the last school district in the county to opt into Schools of Choice. In the past, the district has accepted a limited number of out-of-district students, but this opens the doors to anyone in all grades. "This is an open enrollment," Alverson said. "It will be fun and exciting, and people have called over the years asking about it." Fowlerville not only chose to accept students from Livingston County, but also from adjacent counties that are contiguous to the Fowlerville School District, including Ingham County students from Byron, Perry, Webberville and Morrice. The Fowlerville area population is projected to grow by more than 100 percent over the next 25 years, and neighboring Handy Township alone has numerous housing developments in various stages of planning, accounting for 1,146 single-family homes. But Alverson said the trouble experienced by automakers in the state has led to a flat real estate market with a serious decline in building permits since July that led him to open enrollment to all students. Fowlerville is the smallest district in Livingston County, with about 3,100 students. Alverson said the district is small enough to give students a personal touch but large enough to offer all the programs larger districts can. Many districts market their schools with commercials and print ads. The district plans to brainstorm ideas to attract students, but officials don't expect much more to come out of it other than possibly a slogan and a limited campaign. "We have a waiting list of people waiting for our decision," Alverson said. "Parents say they like our teachers and programs." Kevin Shopshire is a Metro Detroit freelance writer. _______________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../603140301/1008 Tuesday, March 14, 2006 Relieve teachers of child-rearing Noel Epstein / It's time to put an end to all the headlines about achievement problems in our schools -- a far easier chore than most people imagine. All we need to do is two things: First, stop calling those establishments simply schools, when they're really hybrid institutions that are raising many of our children, not just educating them. Then ensure that those who deliver family-like services there are devoted exclusively to those tasks, so the educators can focus fully on academics. Few people recognize the extent of what's happened, but as I discovered while doing research for a book, the public schools have clearly evolved into public child-rearing institutions, something closer in that respect to the Israeli kibbutz, or commune. They not only provide before-school programs, breakfasts, lunches, after-school care, afternoon snacks and sometimes dinners (as well as summertime meals). They also instruct children about sex and, in many places, teach them to drive. They face growing pressure to take tots as early as age 3 in pre-kindergarten programs. They share responsibility for keeping children off drugs, making sure they don't carry weapons, instilling ethical behavior, curbing AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, battling alcohol abuse, preventing student suicides, discouraging cigarette smoking, tackling child obesity, heading off gang fights, providing a refuge for homeless children, ensuring that students are vaccinated, boarding some pupils, tending to toddlers of teen-age mothers and otherwise acting in loco parentis in ways not anticipated a generation ago. Though critics bemoan this trend, there's little chance of fundamentally altering it, for several reasons. Chief among them is that schools generally are reacting to what the public wants. Many people seem to think that adults' worries about schools center mainly on student achievement. That's wrong. While test scores certainly keep business, political, media and other elites up nights, they are not what most trouble the wider citizenry, as polls have long shown. According to a Public Agenda analysis of opinion surveys, for example, Americans in 1999 said that the top three problems facing public schools were lack of parental involvement, drug use and undisciplined students. Academic standards came in seventh. Similarly, that year's annual Gallup education poll found far more concern about violence, gangs and other student behavior than about academics, which trailed in ninth place. By last year, when Gallup ranked the public's top five school concerns, academics were not cited at all (inadequate funding led the list), and this year's poll showed again that student achievement wasn't among the public's main worries. Another common belief is that the school's enlarged family role is an inner-city phenomenon. That's wrong, too. Columbine and other school shootings (and the anti-violence programs they've spawned) aren't a function of inner-city problems, just as school strategies to deal with early childhood care, drunk driving, crack cocaine and the estimated 3.75 million teens with sexually transmitted diseases know no geographic, class or racial boundaries. Still others think the communal child-rearing trend is part of some grand plan hatched by the left. Wrong again. It's more a grand hodgepodge, created by those on the left, the right and in between. Conservatives, for example, push character education, sexual abstinence classes and random student drug testing. Liberals focus on issues such as school condom distribution, substance-abuse counseling and tolerance toward gay students. The Committee for Economic Development, a major business voice on policy matters, calls on schools to provide pre-kindergarten programs for all 3- and 4-year-olds. Some of the family functions that schools have taken on are American traditions, traceable to the early days of the republic or periods like the 1890-1920 Progressive Era. The development of student character has been a classroom responsibility since the beginning of U.S. schools, and early childhood care and education were not invented for today's working parents. Schools in early America enrolled children as young as 2, freeing mothers to toil on farms. "Infant schools" for toddlers as young as 18 months were created in the 1820s and 1830s, chiefly for poorer working mothers, though more well-off women soon began using them as well. Sex education and student meals have also been around for a century or more and are not about to be discontinued. Both initially were opposed by cultural conservatives, who worried about making children "wards of the state." Yet while there are still lively debates about what should be included in (or omitted from) sex education or school lunches, they are now widely accepted as school programs. It's only reasonable, of course, for some family-like school services to be challenged, especially if they fail to meet goals. While almost nobody was watching, for example, the federal government last year completed a three-year experiment to determine whether all elementary school students, rich or poor, should be eligible for free breakfasts. A subsequent study, however, found that the program had "no noteworthy effects" on daily classroom functioning or on standardized achievement tests, two of its aims. Similarly, an evaluation completed this year of the main federal after-school initiative -- the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program -- showed that the $1 billion-a-year effort didn't reduce the number of "latchkey" children (there are about 8 million, from 5- to 14-years-old) or produce academic improvements, two of that program's goals. Disappointing results like these, though, don't mean that critics will be able to shrink or kill such programs. President Bush discovered this in 2003 when he tried to slash $400 million from federal after-school funds. The Republican-controlled Congress balked, particularly after Arnold Schwarzenegger, who soon would announce his California gubernatorial bid, came out in their defense. Political careers aren't helped by cutting funds for anti-drug programs, for ensuring that children don't carry weapons, for dealing with student depression and suicide, or for discouraging drunk driving. In short, it's simply exceedingly popular to heap family roles on schools. The chief question, then, is how to manage these hybrid institutions so that both non-academic and academic programs get a fair shake. For answers, it's useful to look at what are most often called "community schools" but also are known as family resource centers, settlement-houses-in-schools, full-service schools or simply community centers. Typically, the estimated 3,000 to 5,000 such centers in the country are open year-round, usually until 9 p.m. and commonly on weekends and holidays as well. They are essentially one-stop academic, medical-care, mental-health, drug-education, homework-help, pregnancy-prevention, crisis-intervention, tutoring, violence-reduction, adult-education and anything-else-that's-needed institutions. One elementary school in Portland, Ore., for example, houses more than 130 programs. Although these institutions mainly target the poor, some serve affluent families as well. That's the case, for example, with Schools of the 21st Century, the brainchild of Yale University professor Edward Zigler, an architect of the Head Start program. In community schools, non-academic services mostly are provided by outside partners, not educators. Many centers, for instance, have health clinics where nurse practitioners, social workers, physicians and others minister to students' physical and mental needs, reducing demands on school staff. As the Coalition for Community Schools puts it, "Teachers in community schools teach. They are not expected to be social workers, mental health counselors and police officers." In addition, local governments often initiate school-community collaborations, especially to reorganize city services while using the school as the hub, and they (along with other government and foundation programs) also play an important part in funding them. Mayor David Cicilline of Providence, R.I., was a driving force in bringing community schools to that city. Similarly, the SUN (Schools Uniting Neighborhoods) centers in Portland, Ore., and surrounding Multnomah County were spearheaded by a city commissioner and the chairman of the county council. The question of who then controls family-like programs in schools can, of course, raise sensitive questions. For example, New York City's Beacon centers, created by that city's Department of Youth and Community Development as a drug-free after-school refuge, had to overcome "battles over control, turf and ideology," as the journal Education Week observed. It also can be argued that the need to coordinate multiple public services -- youth and family aid, recreation, health, police and other services -- bolsters the case for mayors to be in overall charge of the schools, as they are now in a handful of cities, such as Boston, Chicago and New York, and as Mayor Anthony Williams has long sought for Washington D.C. However power is distributed, though, the foremost requirement is to ensure that others tend to the many non-academic responsibilities of the communal child-rearing institutions while school superintendents, principals and teachers concentrate on imparting academic skills. That's the only way we'll have a fighting chance of improving student achievement while also working to improve children's lives. Noel Epstein, a former Post education writer, is the editor of the book "Who's in Charge Here?: The Tangled Web of School Governance and Policy" (Brookings Institution) and the author of the chapter "The American Kibbutz," from which this article is adapted. Distributed by the Washington Post. |
 |
|
| NFarquharson | Mar 14 2006, 07:00 AM Post #2 |
|
Principal
|
From the Free Press: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...NION01/60312004 Editorials Life Minus School Make certain students know costs of dropping out March 13, 2006 Dropouts' perspective Why do students drop out? Classes aren't interesting: 47% Missed too many days of school and couldn't catch up: 43% Too much freedom, not enough rules: 38% Failing grades: 35% To get a job and make money: 32% What are dropouts' experiences in high school? 88% had passing grades 70% said they could have graduated if they had tried 69% were not motivated to work hard 66% would have worked harder had more been expected of them How do they feel about the decision today? 81% believe graduating from high school is important to success in life 74% would have stayed in school 47% agreed it was hard to find a job without a diploma Source: "The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts," from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A copy of the full survey is available at www.gatesfoundation.org. Encouraging a child to stay in school is important. But showing that child the danger of dropping out is the more powerful, and sadly underused, way to drive the lesson home. In the same way high schools use bulletin boards to celebrate sports achievements or to single out successes of star students, more schools should consider posting and distributing more of the raw facts about the diminished value of life without an education. School leaders should start by teaching students this number: $260,000. That's how much less a student who decides to drop out of school can expect to earn over their lifetime, according to a new analysis from the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, D.C., think tank that promotes high school achievement. The consequences of that choice only multiply for state government. Need another number? How about $9,643,920,000? That's how much Michigan is estimated to miss out in lost wages,taxes and productivity over the lifetimes of the more than 37,000 students who failed to graduate from high school in 2004. Before young people make a mistake as major as abandoning school, they ought to have every available piece of information about its costly impact. Michigan, like many other states, is understandably focused on adopting more rigorous curricula. Those students who do graduate from high school must do so with as strong a knowledge base as possible. But imagine how Michigan's graduation rate might increase if school leaders were more aggressive about sharing early on in a student's education the frightening details about dropping out. Among the quarter or so of Michigan ninth graders who never graduate, some might think harder about their choices if given the right information. Educators should do more to provide it. _______________________________ http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...EWS02/603140413 Wayne County Livonia parents take sides on proposal to reconfigure schools Move would place 5th and 6th grades in own building March 14, 2006 BY ZLATI MEYER FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER Jerry Kmieciak hopes the blue and white sign staked in his front yard will be joined by 799 others all over Livonia. "For kids sake -- support Livonia schools," it reads. The father of two Livonia Public Schools alumni, Kmieciak was upset about criticism lobbed at the school board over its Legacy Initiative, a cost-cutting decision to close a net total of seven schools and reorganize the district's grade configuration. He rallied other pro-Legacy Initiative parents and printed up 800 lawn signs, 500 buttons and 500 window signs. "We watch the board meetings and read what's going on and realize we can't afford to be silent anymore," the 56-year-old insurance salesman said. "It's really important for younger parents to understand all our kids are at different points of their journeys of education. Our board is exceptional and does due diligence. Not every board can cut $19 million from the budget over five years." Nor can every board please every parent. Shortly after the board approved the proposal Dec. 5, parents who oppose the Legacy Initiative formed Citizens for Livonia's Future to recall six board members. They continue to attend school board meetings to air many of their grievances. Among them, they say that moving fifth- and sixth-graders to another building will undercut academic achievement, that the committee that developed the proposal had little parental input and that only six weeks passed between its introduction and the board vote. On Friday, Wayne County Circuit Judge John Murphy denied that group's request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the district from implementing the plan. "The kids are the reason why we're doing this, to maintain the integrity of the educational system," Kmieciak argued. "While the big concern seems to be with K-4 and 5-6, the class size will still be small, which will enhance the educational process." He said his two children -- Elizabeth, 25, a researcher at Washington State University and Kyle, 22, a junior at Northern Michigan University studying environmental science -- also like the Legacy Initiative. Citizens for Livonia's Future board member Patrice Mang isn't fazed by Kmieciak's group. "Everyone is entitled to express their own opinion," the mother of two elementary-schoolers said. "We've always known there are people who are supportive of the Legacy Initiative and if they wish to express that, so be it. Everyone has to do what they think is right, and we're doing what we think is in the best interest of the children." Contact ZLATI MEYER at 248-351-3291 or meyer@freepress.com. |
|
|
|
| fyi | Mar 14 2006, 09:20 AM Post #3 |
|
Principal
|
|
|
|
|
| Grant1 | Mar 14 2006, 09:46 AM Post #4 |
We have just begun to fight!
|
It takes approximately 30-35% of the functional operating cost to maintain a closed building. Operational costs on facilites are not the big money savings. |
|
|
|
| « Previous Topic · Livonia Neighbors Archive · Next Topic » |
11:44 AM Jul 13