Monthly Archives: June 2012

The Educated Guess: Some cuts, some cash in budget deal

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By Kathryn Baron

John Fensterwald co-authored this article.

Legislative leaders protected most student financial aid in the Cal Grants program and preserved status quo funding for charter schools in the budget deal announced yesterday between Democrats and Gov. Jerry Brown.

The agreement comes less than a week after legislators approved a $92 billion spending plan that eliminated some of the governor’s biggest education proposals, including his plan to switch the entire school finance system to a weighted student funding formula.

Few details were revealed from the agreement announced yesterday; Senate staff members said the specific language of the budget trailer bills would be written over the weekend and taken up in the budget committee on Monday. A floor vote could come as soon as Tuesday.

via Some cuts, some cash in budget deal – by Kathryn Baron.

SFGate: Online education has teachers conflicted

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When the University of California dangled a $30,000 incentive to thousands of professors in 2010 inviting them to create UC-worthy online courses, just 70 responded, and only a few classes materialized.

Faculty members at California State University were similarly skeptical and warned of “Walmartization” last year as trustees charged each campus $50,000 to help fund “CSU Online.”

It turns out that California professors’ wariness of online education is shared by faculty across the country, according to a survey released Thursday by Inside Higher Ed, an online publication widely read by academics.

via Online education has teachers conflicted.

CBS 13-TV: Dixon School Board Meeting Gets Heated Over $47M Proposal To Repair Schools

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DIXON (CBS13) – Some Dixon schools are in disrepair and in desperate need of help; and a school board meeting about how to fix the problems got a little heated.

“I mean this has become a facilities wish list really,” said board member Joe DiPaole.

There were fiery words Thursday at the Dixon Unified School Board meeting.

“So astronomical and so ridiculous,” said DiPaole.

At one point the board’s president was forced to cut the member off.

via Dixon School Board Meeting Gets Heated Over $47M Proposal To ….

Daily Republic Letters : Solano College – A bitter pill to swallow

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Jeff Bristow

Fairfield

The Solano Community College board voted Wednesday to sever ties with the Solano County Theater Association. For those of us actually effected by this move, it came as no surprise. We expected this to happen.

What we didn’t expect is to find out we could have had another year if the board actually cared enough to make it happen. Another year to come up with new plan. Another year of employment for all the individuals that lost their jobs. Another year of quality theater and education for the students.

Before the board voted on item 10(d), we listened to item 10(c), the proposed budget for the next school year. Imagine our surprise when it was reported that more than $600,000 was being kept aside for the campus bookstore, a bookstore that is now being run by Barnes & Noble, at no cost to the college apparently, and was reported to be doing really well. This money is being kept aside “just in case.”

via A bitter pill to swallow.

EdSource Extra!: Some school districts try to fill growing summer nutrition gap

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By Susan Frey ~ EdSource Extra

School’s out, but Riverside Unified’s food services department is not closing down. “Hunger doesn’t take a vacation, and neither do we,” said Rodney Taylor, director of nutritional services for the district.

Each weekday, all summer long, the district and city have barbecues in 24 parks in low-income neighborhoods. Any child from age 2 through 17 can eat, no questions asked. The district expects to serve more than half a million meals through its summer program, with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“They’re not getting some baloney sandwich in a brown bag, which says, ‘here’s a lunch because you’re poor,’” Taylor said. “We’re saying, ‘Come join us for a picnic.’” Each day children have the choice of hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, spicy chicken, or hot links, along with whole-wheat bread, milk, and fresh fruit and vegetables from local organic farmers.

via Some school districts try to fill growing summer nutrition gap.

Dixon Patch: Brian Dolan Named Dixon Unified School District Superintendent

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by Carlos Villatoro

After several months of overseeing Dixon Unified School District, Brian Dolan can finally drop the interim from his job title and simply go by superintendent.

 

Last night, the Dixon Unified School District Board of Education made it offical by ratifying Dolan’s contract by a margin of 3-1. The lone abstained vote came from trustee Guy Garcia. Trustee Herb Cross was not present for the vote.

 

Garcia objected to making last-minute revisions to the contract made by the board. He argued that the contract was delivered to him and the other board members shortly before the meeting. The contract delivered by the district’s attorney contained errors and sentences that needed clarifiation.

via Brian Dolan Named Dixon Unified School District Superintendent.

Daily Republic: Settlement: Solano college to pay fired administrator

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by David DeBolt

ROCKVILLE — Solano Community College will pay $135,000 to a business official who sued the college district after he was fired, as part of a settlement agreement.

Carey Roth, former vice president of administrative and business services, was hired in December 2009 and was fired in June 2010. Roth filed a lawsuit against the college district in Solano County Superior Court in December 2010.

via Settlement: Solano college to pay fired administrator.

Daily Republic: Solano college board passes tentative budget

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by David DeBolt

ROCKVILLE — The Solano Community College governing board passed its tentative budget Wednesday, one that accounts for the elimination of summer classes, football and water polo and the terminated Solano College Theatre Association contract.

The board voted unanimously to approve the budget for the 2012-13 school year. A public hearing and the official adoption of the budget are scheduled Sept. 5 at a meeting in the board room on the main campus on Suisun Valley Road.

The board did not discuss the budget before its vote, which followed a presentation from Yulian Ligioso, the vice president of finance and administration.

via Solano college board passes tentative budget.

The Educated Guess: Another report urges changing API

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By John Fensterwald – Educated Guess

A report this week from a Washington think tank bolsters Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg’s call for significantly revising the state’s primary accountability measure, the Academic Performance Index. Now, if Gov. Jerry Brown would only read it…

“Ready by Design: A College and Career Ready Agenda for California,” published by Education Sector, recommends that the API shift focus from students’ performance on standardized tests to measures of readiness for college and careers, such as high school graduation rates, results of Advanced Placement tests, and percentages of students needing remediation in college. That’s essentially what Steinberg’s bill, SB 1458, would do without specifying what measures would be included, and that is what his bill last year, SB 547, would have done, had Gov. Jerry Brown not vetoed it with a snarky message sharply critical of quantitative gauges of school achievement.

via Another report urges changing API – by John Fensterwald – Educated Guess.

Vallejo Times-Herald: Benicia school board to consider a 50-cent lunch price hike

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The Benicia school board will consider on Thursday raising school lunch prices for the next year.

Citing a $90,000 deficit with the Benicia Unified School District’s food and nutrition department, district staff is recommending a 50-cent increase for 2012-2013.

That means elementary school prices would rise by 20 percent from $2.50 to $3, while middle and high school lunches would rise by about 17 percent from $3 to $3.50.

The price increase would bring in an extra $60,000.

via Benicia school board to consider a 50-cent lunch price hike.

Dixon Patch: DUSD: No Sign of The Promgate 35 at Dance Committee Meetings

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by Carlos Villatoro

When news that 35 students were not allowed to enter their junior prom back in late April, the town came alive with talk of The 35, a bottle of vitamin water, Principal John Barsotti, interim Superintendent Brian Dolan and calls for the school to make it up some way to the students.

 

Now that school’s been out for almost three weeks, and a lot of people are on vacations, working summer jobs, or just trying to move on with their lives in anticipation for the next year at Dixon High, talk of The 35 had died down.

 

That is, until the Vacaville Reporter published this story about a member of The 35 suing Principal Barsotti and the school district. Once again the students became the talk of the town, both out in the open world and online as well.

 

But for the Dixon Unified School District, the gravity of the events of Promgate had not been lost. The district formed a dance contract committee and invited members of The 35 to help shape the contract and talk about ways to avoid another Promgate-like event.

via DUSD: No Sign of The 35 at Dance Committee Meetings.

Daily Republic Letters: Thank you, FSUSD teachers and employees

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Unions are often criticized these days, but our own Fairfield-Suisun teachers’ and classified employees’ organizations showed us what “community” really means. Their selfless act of sacrifice, providing the Fairfield-Suisun schools with the money needed to save the sports programs, is an absolute inspiration.

Neighbors, let’s learn the lesson our education folks have taught — quit asking “what’s in it for me?” and ask “what’s in it for us.”

Kendall Wright

Fairfield

via Thank you, teachers and employees.

Daily Republic Letters: Thank you FSUSD teachers for a sacrifice

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Karen McCall

Fairfield

A monumental thank you from the community to the teachers of the Fairfield-Suisun School District for sacrificing their salaries for the second year in row.

While I am so grateful that my children will have sports and extracurricular opportunities this coming school year, I am saddened and disgusted that the district’s budget is being balanced yet again on the backs of those who can least afford it.

via Thank you teachers for a sacrifice.

Daily Republic Letters: Admin pay depletes FSUSD district office coffers

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Earl D. Olson

Fairfield

If you are a taxpayer in the Fairfield-Suisun School District and concerned why sports, music and student transportation were on the chopping block, and about the closure of a very important intermediate school, then the 2012 Salary Survey of the Fairfield-Suisun School District that is posted on the Vacaville newspaper’s website is required reading. Doing some arithmetic, you will find that almost $6 million in salary and benefits are spent on district administrators who commute to the castle on the hill each day.

The survey will also reveal that the $6 million figure did not include the principals and vice principals of the high schools, intermediate schools and elementary schools. There are also five principals of the alternative schools that are currently operating in the same district as elementary schools that were closed to save money.

via Admin pay depletes district office coffers.

Daily Republic Letters: Travis students let down again

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George Meggers

Vacaville

What rocket scientist came up with this idea to cut eight more days from the school year in the Travis district?

That’s on top of four days shaved off each of the last three years. California students are not rated the best in the world, in fact in the areas of mathematics they’re ranked 25th out of 41 countries and in science they’re ranked 20th. In the U.S., we’re rated “below average,” 34th among our 50 states. Class size will also go up to 39 students at Vanden High. The average class size in the U.S. is 22 to 26 students in inner city and urban high schools. California students used to be some of the best trained in the country. How is our next generation going to compete with the rest of the world? They won’t be able to.

via Travis students let down again.

Daily Republic Letters: Children first: Vote for Brown’s tax

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Earl Handa

Fairfield

Teachers and the school board have settled a contract that will help save the district’s extracurricular programs. In addition, the teacher’s settlement, along with the other district union agreements, will bring back some clerical, custodial and library technician positions.

This shouldn’t be surprising. Most teachers go into the profession because they love children. Civilization revolves around our children. If you doubt this, ask any parent holding their newborn child. Ask any grandparent who hears their grandchild utter their first words. Ask any teacher who sees their children’s minds grow. We all know that children are priceless.

via Children first: Vote for Brown’s tax.

Daily Republic: Solano college board drops curtain on theater group

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by David DeBolt

ROCKVILLE — The Solano Community College governing board closed the curtain Wednesday on the Solano College Theatre Association.

The board voted 6-1 with Phil McCaffrey dissenting to terminate the $750,000-a-year contract with the association. It comes after a June 6 closed session vote by the governing board to terminate the director of theater production position belonging to Chris Guptil. The board voted 5-2 with Denis Honeychurch and Phil McCafferty voting no.

The theater association has managed the college’s campus theater and Harbor Theatre in Suisun City, providing box office, marketing and production staff and renting costumes and sets for outside theater groups such as Fairfield’s Missouri Street Theatre.

Solano college saves $600,000 annually by cutting ties with the theater association. As part of the governing board’s vote Wednesday, the college will spend $150,000 to keep the theater program afloat, using faculty and students to run the theater.

via Solano college board drops curtain on theater group.

CDE: STEM Task Force will explore the status of STEM education in curriculum, instructional practices, professional learning, student testing, existing resources, and community and business partnership.

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On May 24, 2012, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla convened 55 volunteers to become members of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Task Force.

Co-chaired by Herb Brunkhorst and Susan Hackwood, the STEM Task Force members will explore the status of STEM education in curriculum, instructional practices, professional learning, student testing, existing resources, and community and business partnership.

 

The STEM Task Force members will then assess the state’s future needs, as well as recommend a blueprint on how to improve teaching, learning, and equal access to STEM-related courses and careers for students in kindergarten through grade twelve. The public may also contribute information–including resources and research–to the Task Force via the Brokers of Expertise Web site at CommentSTEM.myboe.org.

via STEM Task Force.

The Educated Guess: Assembly panel pursues college success

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By Kathryn Baron

Retiring Community College Chancellor Jack Scott watched his signature initiative move closer to becoming law. The Assembly Higher Education Committee yesterday unanimously passed SB 1456, the Student Success Act of 2012.

The bill would implement two of the 22 recommendations developed by the Student Success Task Force, a panel of educators, policymakers, students, and researchers that spent last year studying and taking testimony on ways to improve the completion rate at California’s community colleges.

“SB 1456 is about community college students and the tremendous fierce urgency of doing something now,” the bill’s author, Democratic Senator Alan Lowenthal of Long Beach, told the Assembly panel.

As TOPed previously reported, studies have found that after six years, only 30 percent of community college students earn a degree or certificate or transfer to a four-year college.

via Assembly panel pursues college success – by Kathryn Baron.

SCOE’s Facebook Wall: Sutter Medical Foundation hires six Dream Team interns.

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Sutter Medical Foundation hires six Dream Team interns.

The Dream Team interns are students enrolled at Golden Hills Community School, part of the Solano County Office of Education, who’ve been expelled from public school or are on probation. Golden Hills Community School’s mission is to give the kids a well-rounded education to get them back on track with their academics. The Dream Team program helps to carry this mission through the summer months by providing meaningful jobs at area employers. Read more – http://www.solanocoe.net/pdf/2012-06-18_dreamteamprogram.pdf

via Sutter Medical Foundation hires six Dream Team interns.

The Dream Team interns….