Comments

1
Meanwhile lots of money to lock non-violent offenders up in jails.

Hmm.

I wonder what happens when you don't fund schools ...
2
This is NOT about scores. This is about helping families who need help. A counselor is great but will not do the same things as a family support worker who might do everything from making sure a low-income child has school supplies to helping the family have a Thanksgiving dinner to giving advice to the mom about helping her child with schoolwork. This is on-the-ground social work right at school. The district claims they want "wrap-around services" at schools and yet they want to get rid of Family Support Workers. And Holly Miller of the City's Ed Department is right - there should be support workers in middle school as well.

By the way, no one has bothered asking teachers or parents what they think is most important.
3
Isn't it odd that everyone hypes community schools with wrap around services and here we have the closest thing to that goal and the board wants to gut it? Based on test scores?

They are FAMILY SUPPORT workers, not academic intervention workers. We need those too, but getting rid of the FSW to fund something more academic oriented is cruel.

Maria got a bonus based on meeting four out of twenty goals. What does DeBell have to say about that?
4
Both 2 and 3 FTW. DeBell clearly has no idea what a FSW actually DOES, or is EXPECTED to do. Raising kids' test scores is not on that list, but getting a fucking roof over a kid's head, and food in his/her stomach, IS on the list. Those are damn important things. Could the School Board possibly be more ignorant?
5
"But School board president Michael DeBell said that the program was not meeting the targets set for "improving academic standards of students in high poverty schools." As a result, the board wants to replace it with elementary and middle school counselors."

Nothing the school district is doing is improving academic standards of students in high poverty schools. Nothing. Michael should not being throwing any stones.

Outside of eliminating standardized testing and introducing high quality pre-school, there's probably not a single better thing we could do to move the ball down the field education outcome-wise than to do longitudinal studies of kids to track their progress in conjuction with an Individual Education Plan for each student / family. Obviously provide the resources to make it happen with sufficient prevention strategies and interventions.

365.
6
"But School board president Michael DeBell said that the program was not meeting the targets set for "improving academic standards of students in high poverty schools." As a result, the board wants to replace it with elementary and middle school counselors."

Nothing the school district is doing is improving academic standards of students in high poverty schools. Nothing. Michael should not being throwing any stones.

Outside of eliminating standardized testing and introducing high quality pre-school, there's probably not a single better thing we could do to move the ball down the field education outcome-wise than to do longitudinal studies of kids to track their progress in conjuction with an Individual Education Plan for each student / family. Obviously provide the resources to make it happen with sufficient prevention strategies and interventions.

365.
8
I believe the test scores that Director DeBell is referring to are around the third and fourth grade levels. Perhaps Director DeBell needs to look at the pathetic instructional materials that the Board approves and that the Superintendent requires the teachers to use in the elementary schools.

His thought that the family support workers are not having much if any academic impact from his analysis of test scores is ridiculous.

Dear Director DeBell,
Any chance that the $11 million annually the district pours into coaches for teachers instead of more teachers for children might be a problem?

Does Director DeBell understand the difference between causation and random correlations? Maybe increased temperatures are responsible for the test scores.

How about the fraudulent way the Superintendent operates?

http://mathunderground.blogspot.com/2010…

http://mathunderground.blogspot.com/2010…

http://mathunderground.blogspot.com/2010…

Any chance the Board will ever require the Superintendent to obey state laws?

Worrying about the use of city levy money is an incredible abdication of responsibility until he gets the Superintendent problem fixed. First things first.

The State Audit showed an astonishing number of findings and now we have the NTN contract fiasco. Is anyone paying attention?

$800,000 no bid contract and yet no exemptions from competitive bidding were sought. ... WOW the Board and the Superintendent are the Biggest Problems in the District.

Either the Board starts directing the Superintendent or the Board should step down.

Petitions for the recall and discharge of Directors Carr, Sundquist, Martin-Morris, and Maier should pass the sufficiency test within 30 days. Then signature gathering can begin.
9
'"It's not like we want to get rid of family support workers—the work they do is really valuable. It's a question of priorities."... The program gets about $2.4 million from a $17 million Families and Education Levy which is up for renewal next year.'

A question of priorities indeed!

The Board wants us to choose between family support workers and school counselors when they regularly squander money it items worth far less than either of these. Take all the money they've wasted this year on consultants, travel expenses, website redesigns, and 3 times a year MAP testing (that is in addition to the state mandated MSP testing) and you can easily put together $2.4 million to staff these positions.

I am so tired of the district stuffing money into adminstrative projects and taking it out of staffing that serves kids directly at schools!

It's time for a new school board.


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