SPS Meetings Week of Jun 20-24, 2011
Tuesday
I'll check but the word in the "labels" is how I feel about this issue.
- Joint Town Hall with the Superintendent and Mayor at South Shore K-8, 5:30-7:30 p.m. (it's a two-hour event; I wonder how much of it will be Q&A.)
- Public Hearing on the Budget from 4-5:00 p.m. at headquarters. You know folks, it IS worth your while to speak out and go on record. Whatever your concern or unhappiness with the public, register it. (I believe you can also send e-mails which will go into the record but I will check.)
- Operations Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m. No agenda released yet.
I'll check but the word in the "labels" is how I feel about this issue.
Comments
I am sure the schools are being driven crazy at this point by the district.
SolvayGirl
Thank you for your email and for your comments. I can respond specifically to your points:
- The cost of central administration has been cut by 1/3 over the past two years and is now commensurate with the levels of regional districts. That excludes HR. For HR we benchmarked our levels to similar sized districts and made cuts there too (for next year)
- Our staff, at the request of the Board, did benchmark other school districts both regionally and nationally. All conduct assessment testing and many use MAP as the tool. We did note that the frequency and grade span is less – we are looking at what that approach might mean for SPS.
- Most of the money spent on investments in academic improvements was money that came from grants specifically for that purpose. The Board and Dr. Enfield went through a line item review of the strategic plan work and made specific decisions to continue/slow/stop on each item.
SPS teacher
I hope this helps to clarify where we are relative to the two topics you identified.
Best,
Sherry Carr
Director, District II
(206) 252-0040
"- Most of the money spent on investments in academic improvements was money that came from grants specifically for that purpose. The Board and Dr. Enfield went through a line item review of the strategic plan work and made specific decisions to continue/slow/stop on each item."
It seems that a necessary step for analysis of "investments in academic improvements" ... would be to find out if academic improvements are being produced.
The UW CoE Math Education Project help is apparently free to the District.... but the results are horrific. Just because it nicely blends with the misguided ineffective SPS k-12 math program does NOT make this freebie worthwhile.
Adherence to Tribalism is no substitute for results.
For over a decade the SPS has been focused on Math improvement ... the results have been abysmal especially recently for High School students ... after $800,000 for new Books and $400,000 for professional development.
Now in response to poor results, we are told the Board will make "math" an area of emphasis......
So how will this emphasis be any diffferent than the recent $1.2 million emphasis that produced "diddly squat".