It's Questionland Time for Dr. Enfield
Over at the Stranger Slog, they have an area called Questionland where they pick a topic, get some experts and then you can ask away. April 13th the expert will be none other than Susan Enfield. They take questions beforehand so get your questions in soon.
Comments
sss.westbrook@gmail.com. I don't have your e-mail address.
I'm concerned about compliance with District Policies. As superintendent, how does she enforce the District's policies? If someone were to report the violation of a policy to her, what steps would she take to enforce the policy? What is her process? Does the Board have a duty to enforce policies as well? What is the Board's process for enforcing policies when violations are reported to them?
But to get to something that is more pertinent to Dr. Enfield, here's my actual question:
The budget is obviously a huge issue. Will the proposed budget be posted before the end of April? If not, how do you plan to get public input on the budget before the May 15 deadline for layoff notices to unionized staff?
WV: hemavam Clearly it knows the Bloodmobile is coming to my workplace this week.
Will you please re-examine keeping the .5 elementary counselors? They are very important in early intervention in students daily lives. You can easily reduce the coach positions as they are not as important as the counselor position. Please do the moral thing here.
So, if someone else can post it please:
"What is your plan for dealing with the large maintenance backlog at our schools?"
Have you checked the capital budget?
At the last meeting, the district was trying to put 30 HQ staff onto the capital budget.
of what should go in the capital budget?. Also, what is the downside
of being a little liberal with the
definition?
Thanks!
Ballard Biotech (only) will pilot a test-out of Physical Science - they need to pass an end of course exam. If they don't pass they must take Physics as part of the two year science requirement.
Why can only Ballard students test out?
Argh
Argh
State standards for high school schools cover Physical Science and Biology content. The district has an obligation to teach the content standards, either through district-developed courses that result from the district's curriculum alignment work or from validated site-based courses.
It has been recommended by the Alignment Committee, and approved by Dr. Enfield, that the requirement for Physical Science and Biology, as the two courses required for graduation, begin with next year's 9th graders. No current high school students will be impacted by the newly aligned curriculum requirements.
Several school teams have turned in validation requests for Science courses. Science coaches have worked closely with these teams and it is anticipated that all courses turned in for validation will successfully 'pass' the process and will be validated.
This is the line that gets me: The district has an obligation to teach the content standards.
It would be great if the "obligation" to teach content standards was taken seriously through K-12. Ironically, it's being used as justification for a forced pathway that will actually limit access to science classes.
Why does so much of the "alignment" seem to penalize and limit those that want to go beyond the baseline pathway?
"Why does so much of the "alignment" seem to penalize and limit those that want to go beyond the baseline pathway?"
The district has an obligation to teach the content standards, either through district-developed courses that result from the district's curriculum alignment work or from validated site-based courses.
So does "validated site-based courses" mean that online courses won't count? "Validated" by whom? SPS? WA state? What if you come from Lakeside or Boston or were homeschooled? There must be a method (and if it exists for them, there should be away for qualified SPS kids to opt in as well)
As far as I know, they have made no attempt to discover what standards are being covered in my kid's K-8 science classes. I know a junior in Chemistry at Garfield who JUST LAST WEEK started the first new Chemistry topic he has had since 8th grade. He was thrilled to be able to take Marine Bio last year--challenging and mostly new material. Now kids like him will have to sit through 2.75 years (instead of just 1.75) before they can learn anything new. Stupid and wasteful.
And Another is right. With the added complication that there will be fewer kids who are able to sign up for science electives so fewer courses will be offered (this will impact APP students as well, so I hope those parents are arguing for increased access for qualified students.) Schools like RHS that won't have a critical mass of identified APP kids will be particularly hard hit. They already had to cancel BioChem/Organic this year so the teacher could cover another section of basic Chem, and they aren't offering AP Chem next year.
Stupid and stupider.
(Sorry, I'm taking this thread further off topic--maybe we could have a thread for HS curriculum since I think 9th grade registration is going on now?)
Science
For Honors students, the common sequence of Science courses is:
•9th grade, Biology I Honors
•10th grade, Chemistry I Honors
•11th grade, Physics I Honors
•12th grade, AP Biology+Biology 2, AP Chemistry+Chemistry 2, AP Physics+Physics 2, or AP Environmental Science.
◦- if you have a clear career goal, choose your science accordingly:
■Health and medical related careers - AP Chemistry and AP Biology are better for Pre-Med;
■Engineering and Architecture related careers - AP Physics is almost a must.
■Ecology or any Earth Science related careers - AP Environmental is an excellent course for any physical science, or ecological careers.
With SPS's proposed science alignment, how would this pathway even be possible?
Befuddled parent
Yep. No special testing. No requirement to be in a G&T program in middle school. If you're up for the challenge you can go for it. You just have to win the lottery...
Befuddled
"Surviving Algebra II today might pay off tomorrow."
In response to your question re: capital budgets, the Govenmental Accounting Standards Board has clear guidelines for appropriate accounting and financial reporting methods.
The SAO would be very familiar with these.