At Benicia High School choices are being made, names taken down and forms turned in as students prepare to choose classes they hope to take the next year. For freshmen and sophomores, their choices do not weigh as heavily as do the choices the juniors have to make. Are they going to take classes based on their passions? Or are they are basing their choices on where they hope to go to College?
via High School Students Choosing Classes for 2012-2013 School Year.
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Senators on the Budget and Fiscal Review Committee generally praised the rationale and framework of Gov. Brown’s proposal to overhaul school funding in a four-hour hearing Thursday but questioned the details, timing, and the disparate financial impacts on school districts. One message came across clearly: They won’t be rushed into adopting Brown’s weighted student formula.
via Senators: Don’t jam us on weighted formula – by John Fensterwald – Educated Guess.
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The horse race of international rankings in education is based on misconceptions that can lead countries such as the United States to consider sweeping reforms that probably won’t improve academic achievement, according to a new report. The 2012 Brown Center Report on American Education released yesterday by the Brookings Institution makes a case against Common Core standards – arguing that California’s current standards are superior – and cautions against placing too much weight on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and international comparisons.
via Beware Common Core and “dubious causality” – by Kathryn Baron.
As I contemplated the topic for this quarter’s “Superintendent’s Message” for the website, I was stumped. A review of past statements revealed hopefulness and the belief in our community to pull together during these trying times. Truthfully, I am having a difficult time retaining my positive spirit as I ponder the Governor’s proposal for school funding with another looming “trigger” at our head. The reality is, we must prepare now for the impact of the potential triggers; yet, in doing so, we dismantle and decimate our public school system.
via A message from Jay Speck, Solano County Superintendent of Schools February 16,….
Presented to Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee
Presented to Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee
They may be coming at it from different angles, but the several dozen who gathered to celebrate Vallejo Together’s second anniversary have their eyes on the same prize — making Vallejo a better place.
via Scores united in Vallejo Together’s effort to make the city a ….
Patterson Elementary School is just a few blocks from the epicenter of Thursday morning’s aftershock — but many teachers and students didn’t even feel the earthquake.
via When aftershock hits near Vallejo’s Patterson Elementary school ….
Revising alcohol policies, an increase in cafeteria meals prices and concerns about how the state budget continues to affect the Vacaville Unified School District took up the lion’s share of trustees’ time Thursday night during the governing board’s meeting.
via Alcohol, budget top Vacaville Unified School District agenda.
It’s been two weeks since various students, parents and coaches filled the chambers of the Dixon City Council to air discontent with the dismissal of former Dixon High School Troy Hensley at the Dixon Unified School District’s board meeting.
via Dixon High Sports Program Draws Variety of Commentary During ….
Vallejo will have another campus with school uniforms next year.The Vallejo school board unanimously approved Dan Mini Elementary School’s application for school uniforms Wednesday night.
via Uniforms next year for students at Vallejo’s Dan Mini Elementary ….
Anyone following the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act would be able to guess at the big question hanging over a hearing on the House GOP bills to rewrite the law: What’s the right role for the federal government in helping to improve K-12 education?
Brianna Boyd, Editor
Dolan, the final presenter during Thursday’s State of the City Address, admitted to the group gathered that the school district has not been the healthiest organization over the last three years. Financial struggles have plagued the district since 2008, test scores have fallen at school sites and a lack of collaboration and respect created a “toxic environment”, Dolan said.
Brian Dolan, Dixon Unified School District’s interim superintendent, said the district faced three major challenges last year including fiscal and culture challenges and student achievement.
“We’ve not really been a healthy organization in three areas, one is fiscal,” he said. “Fiscally, we started our own problems with inadequate management back in 2006-2007 and it all kind of exploded on us in 2008. So we were cutting budget and dealing with financial ruin before the state decided to also financially ruin every other school district in California.”
via City, School Officials Deliver State of the City Address.
FAIRFIELD — Solano Community College is looking to appoint someone to a vacant governing board seat once held by James Claffey.
FAIRFIELD — Police Chief Walt Tibbet began a talk Thursday to students at Sullivan Middle School with a question: What time did you wake up this morning? One child said 5 a.m. Another said 7 a.m.
(This is a draft of my shoot-from-the-hip speech made at the School Board meeting on Thursday, February 16th, in favor of keeping Mr. Gary Jensen as Principal of Benicia High School. So many people (parents, teachers and students) had speeches much more eloquent and worthy, but since I don’t have their copies, I humbly submit this as a way to show support for this cause.)
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In the first of what will likely be multiple revisions – Finance Reform 1.01 – the Brown administration has scaled back the first year of phasing in its new school funding system and proposes to hold districts harmless from potential losses in revenue in that initial year.
via Brown stretches switch to funding reform – by John Fensterwald – Educated Guess.
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Over the past few weeks, several articles have appeared in TOP-Ed (here and here) identifying programs that have been threatened by the governor’s latest budget proposal. Gov. Brown would dramatically overhaul current funding for education in California by instituting a pupil-based formula prioritizing districts with high-poverty and English language learner populations, while eliminating virtually all existing categorical programs.
via Vital student programs may be sacrified on the altar of flexibility – by Jim Aschwanden.
At what may turn out to be a landmark hearing in Sacramento today, state senators will review a sweeping proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown to reform California’s notoriously complex school finance system that distributes funds based more on decades-old formulas than on student needs.
via Hearing to consider Brown’s plan for new school funding formulas.