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Friday, April 30, 2010
OCEANSIDE: School district's bond rating downgraded
OCEANSIDE: School district's bond rating downgraded
OCEANSIDE: School district's bond rating downgraded
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Oceanside Unified School District's credit rating was downgraded slightly Friday by a bond rating agency that said the district's budget problems were troubling.
Moody's Investors said the lower rating was caused by "growing fiscal and economic pressures that have combined to weaken the district's credit quality."
Bond ratings affect the district's cost of borrowing money through the sale of bonds.
The lower the rating, the higher the interest rate the district must pay investors who buy the bonds.
The rating agency downgraded the district's bond rating from Aa2 to Aa3.
The highest rating is Aaa, given to investments considered to be minimal risk.
The lowest rating is C, given to bonds that are in default with little chance investors will recover their money.
District officials could not be reached for comment Friday on Moody's announcement.
Last week, Oceanside Unified trustees voted to cut jobs and scale back work hours as part of a worst-case plan for balancing next year's budget.
The plan would affect all of the approximate 900 classified employees including bus drivers and security guards.
It would shorten the work year by five days, cut the hours of hundreds of employees and result in the layoffs of about 50 people.
The district board won't approve a final budget until June, but must make preliminary cuts sooner to meet certain deadlines and being planning.
The Educated Guess Court slaps state board’s wrist in algebra case
Court slaps state board’s wrist in algebra case
The state school boards and administrators’ associations have won a two-year old suit against the State School Board over a controversy involving eighth-grade algebra. The impact of the decision will be minor, though the decision does serve as a warning to the State Board to follow the state’s open-meeting law.
At issue was the State School Board’s decision to require school districts to start testing students in Algebra I as the state’s sole eighth-grade assessment. The California School Boards Association and the Association of California School Administrators opposed making algebra universal for eighth graders, as did the California Teachers Association and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, who also joined the suit. They sued not over the decision but over the process, arguing that the State Board failed to give the public adequate notice of its impending action to decide the issue, as required by the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. The associations wanted an opportunity to explore the full implications of the decision on students and school districts.
A district court and now the 3rd District Court of Appeal have upheld an injunction against the state
At issue was the State School Board’s decision to require school districts to start testing students in Algebra I as the state’s sole eighth-grade assessment. The California School Boards Association and the Association of California School Administrators opposed making algebra universal for eighth graders, as did the California Teachers Association and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, who also joined the suit. They sued not over the decision but over the process, arguing that the State Board failed to give the public adequate notice of its impending action to decide the issue, as required by the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. The associations wanted an opportunity to explore the full implications of the decision on students and school districts.
A district court and now the 3rd District Court of Appeal have upheld an injunction against the state
Education - ContraCostaTimes.com Oakland teachers' one-day strike is over: What's next?
Education - ContraCostaTimes.com
"We're dealing with a community that's dependent on our school," Daubenspeck said. "We'll make do, we'll survive. I just don't want it to be at a cost to the children."
On Thursday, his young teaching staff lined International Boulevard with picket signs, drawing supportive honks from passing cars and trucks. It was a sunny day, but not too hot. The mood was upbeat, even festive.
Inside the school, Daubenspeck's relief was visible. Much of the tension that had gripped him the day before had dissipated, he said. Only about 50 children had come to school, and there were more than enough substitutes and volunteers on hand to supervise them. He visited each class, asked how they were feeling (good, safe) and promised to return with his guitar if all went well.
"Things are great," he said. "We're actually having a fun day."
Any sense of relief brought on by the end of a peaceful strike or the
Oakland teachers' one-day strike is over: What's next?
Posted: 04/30/2010 07:43:06 PM PDT
Updated: 04/30/2010 08:25:00 PM PDT
OAKLAND — The day before his teachers joined a one-day strike, Steven Daubenspeck was a sleep-deprived ball of nerves.
It's not unusual for the principal of Futures Academy to worry about the well-being of his elementary school students, who are exposed to high levels of violence and stress in their East Oakland neighborhood. The impending strike, however, brought his anxiety to new heights."We're dealing with a community that's dependent on our school," Daubenspeck said. "We'll make do, we'll survive. I just don't want it to be at a cost to the children."
On Thursday, his young teaching staff lined International Boulevard with picket signs, drawing supportive honks from passing cars and trucks. It was a sunny day, but not too hot. The mood was upbeat, even festive.
Inside the school, Daubenspeck's relief was visible. Much of the tension that had gripped him the day before had dissipated, he said. Only about 50 children had come to school, and there were more than enough substitutes and volunteers on hand to supervise them. He visited each class, asked how they were feeling (good, safe) and promised to return with his guitar if all went well.
"Things are great," he said. "We're actually having a fun day."
Any sense of relief brought on by the end of a peaceful strike or the
On Religion - Lessons From Catholic Schools for Public Educators - NYTimes.com
Lessons From Catholic Schools for Public Educators
By Samuel G. Freedman
Published: April 30, 2010
Within the 242 pages of Diane Ravitch’s lightning rod of a book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” there appear exactly three references to Catholic education. Which makes sense, given that Ms. Ravitch is addressing and deploring recent efforts to reform public schools with extensive testing and increasing privatization.
Yet what subtly informs both her critique and her recommendations for improving public schools is, in significant measure, her long study of and admiration for Roman Catholic education, especially in serving low-income black and Hispanic students.
In that respect, Ms. Ravitch and her book offer evidence of how some public-education scholars and reformers have been learning from what Catholic education is doing right. What one might call the Catholic-school model is perhaps the most unappreciated influence on the nation’s public-education debate.
“If you’re serious about education reform, you have to pay attention to what Catholic schools are doing,” said Joseph P. Viteritti, a professor of public policy at Hunter Collegewho has edited four books with Ms. Ravitch. “The face of the matter is that they’ve been educating urban kids better than they’re being educated elsewhere.”
When Ms. Ravitch assails the emphasis on standardized testing, particularly under the No Child Left Behind law, and when she exhorts schools to use a content-rich core curriculum and emphasize character and build ties to parents and neighborhoods, she is,
More Pre-K Pupils Qualify for Gifted Programs
The minimum score for the most competitive of the programs, which have 300 slots, was achieved by 1,788 students.
Reporting Help on Cyberbullying
A writer for The Times, Jan Hoffman, is reporting a story about how conflicts between young teenagers become magnified in cyberspace, and she's asked us to post a request.
Sacramento Press / City may lay off as many as 200 employees
City may lay off as many as 200 employees
The city of Sacramento may need to lay off as many as 100 to 200 city staffers as it makes cuts to balance its budget, Interim City Manager Gus Vina said Friday.
Vina proposed a draft budget Friday that would erase a $43 million gap. In the proposed budget, programs and services would face $14.6 million in cuts. The removal of all vacant positions and possible concessions from labor unions would amount to $19.6 million. Vina also plans to apply $8.8 million in other funds to the budget.
Vina’s draft general fund budget figure for the 2010 / 2011 fiscal year is $360.3 million.
“None of this is easy,” Vina said in an interview Friday. “We have only so much income and we have to have a balanced budget. I would encourage the public to stay engaged.”
The city’s budget documents will be posted online and the public is invited to attend all of the city’s budget hearings, Vina said.
Read the city’s draft budge
Vina proposed a draft budget Friday that would erase a $43 million gap. In the proposed budget, programs and services would face $14.6 million in cuts. The removal of all vacant positions and possible concessions from labor unions would amount to $19.6 million. Vina also plans to apply $8.8 million in other funds to the budget.
Vina’s draft general fund budget figure for the 2010 / 2011 fiscal year is $360.3 million.
“None of this is easy,” Vina said in an interview Friday. “We have only so much income and we have to have a balanced budget. I would encourage the public to stay engaged.”
The city’s budget documents will be posted online and the public is invited to attend all of the city’s budget hearings, Vina said.
Read the city’s draft budge
Willamette University art student just one standout among 2010 Oregon grads | OregonLive.com
Willamette University art student just one standout among 2010 Oregon grads
By Bill Graves, The Oregonian
April 30, 2010, 5:26PM
View full sizeAlisa Alexander, 23, who graduates in two weeks with an art history degree from Willamette University, works with curator Jonathan Bucci preparing a detailed condition report of a temple statue donated to the university’s Hallie Ford Museum of Art. Alexander says she wants to become an art history professor so she can show students that “looking is a form of thinking. ... Art history can literally change the way you see the world.”SALEM -- Alisa Alexander strolls wistfully through Willamette University's Hallie Ford Museum of Art where she's cultivated her passion over the last four years and staked out a future brimming with promise.She passes through the student thesis exhibit that includes her case study on artist Henry Darger, a Chicago janitor who worked outside the mainstream. Nearby is the Print Study Center where she used a Carson Undergraduate Research Scholar grant to curate the work of D.E. May, a contemporary mixed-media Salem artist. In the basement, spreads the office and museum archives where she spent countless hours cataloging art pieces for work study.
"Willamette has been such a treasure," she says as she contemplates becoming in two weeks the first person in her family to receive a college
State Senate introduces new bill to double cap on charter schools | GothamSchools
State Senate introduces new bill to double cap on charter schools
The legislative battle over whether and how to raise the state’s cap on charter schools could begin again as early as next week.
The State Senate’s Rules Committee, which is chaired by Senator Malcolm Smith, introduced a bill today that would lift the charter school cap to 460, more than doubling the number currently allowed under state law. It also would require schools to make more of their financial practices public and increase the number of special education and English language learners they serve.
Charter school advocates are hailing the bill as a compromise between supporters of the speedy growth of charter schools and critics who argue that a cap lift should come only with changes to how the schools are run. But perhaps the most vocal skeptics of charter management practices, the teachers unions, are crying foul. Union officials are complaining that the bill was developed without union leaders’ input and that its regulatory provisions are too weak.
The bill would require the schools to give admissions preference to special education students and those learning English and to demonstrate their efforts to attract those students as a condition of receiving or renewing a charter. It would also allow a single board of trustees to operate charter schools on multiple sites, and allow
Remainders: D.C. contract on hold, charter cap back in the news
The State Senate’s Rules Committee, which is chaired by Senator Malcolm Smith, introduced a bill today that would lift the charter school cap to 460, more than doubling the number currently allowed under state law. It also would require schools to make more of their financial practices public and increase the number of special education and English language learners they serve.
Charter school advocates are hailing the bill as a compromise between supporters of the speedy growth of charter schools and critics who argue that a cap lift should come only with changes to how the schools are run. But perhaps the most vocal skeptics of charter management practices, the teachers unions, are crying foul. Union officials are complaining that the bill was developed without union leaders’ input and that its regulatory provisions are too weak.
The bill would require the schools to give admissions preference to special education students and those learning English and to demonstrate their efforts to attract those students as a condition of receiving or renewing a charter. It would also allow a single board of trustees to operate charter schools on multiple sites, and allow
Remainders: D.C. contract on hold, charter cap back in the news
- The city’s Department of Education thinks the new charter cap bill is “a step in the right direction.”
- With 183 pieces of data, the system for grading schools is very complicated, writes Robert Gebeloff.
- Freakonomics interviews “pizza freak” Joel Klein and profiles School of One.
- After her daughter was assaulted at Pathways College Preparatory School, a Queens mother is suing.
- Nearly a third more children qualified for the citywide gifted programs this year compared to last.
- More soon-to-be kindergartners in Queens met the bar for the citywide gifted programs.
- The state teachers union is mobilizing to sway senators before a vote to lift the cap on charter schools.
- Helen Zelon looks at what will happen to school choice if students can’t afford to travel.
- A teacher who told his students he’d never let them go catches up with a former student.
- Teacher and students at Jamaica High School reflect on the school’s closure, which is now on hold.
- Teachers at Bronx Science waited for two years for an arbitrator’s ruling; the city rejected it in two days.
- Teachable Moment says, on the whole, the entire country’s school system doesn’t need revamping.
- The Promise Neighborhood grants are small, but they’re for planning, not implementing.
- Richard Whitmire’s book “Why Boys Fail” makes a convert out of Jay Mathews.
- And D.C.’s new teacher contract is on hold until the city shows it can afford to pay for it.
University of Arizona President’s Letter on SB 1070 � Student Activism
University of Arizona President’s Letter on SB 1070
In a letter to the campus community released yesterday, University of Arizona president Robert N. Shelton declares that the passage of SB 1070, Arizona’s new immigration enforcement law, raises “troubling questions about how SB 1070 will affect the University’s international community.”
“The health and safety of our international students, faculty and professional staff are priorities of the highest order for us,” Shelton says, “and … we intend to put in place whatever procedures are necessary to ensure their safety and free movement on campus and in our community.” He further pledges to “do everything possible to ensure that these students continue to feel welcomed and respected, despite the unmistakably negative message that this bill sends to many of them.”
Shelton says he has already received word that several out-of-state students — every one of them an honors student — will be transferring to other universities as a result of the bill’s passage. “This should,” he says, “sadden anyone who cares about attracting the best and brightest students to Arizona.”
The University of Arizona police department will, he says, “be receiving extensive training” on SB 1070, and will
“The health and safety of our international students, faculty and professional staff are priorities of the highest order for us,” Shelton says, “and … we intend to put in place whatever procedures are necessary to ensure their safety and free movement on campus and in our community.” He further pledges to “do everything possible to ensure that these students continue to feel welcomed and respected, despite the unmistakably negative message that this bill sends to many of them.”
Shelton says he has already received word that several out-of-state students — every one of them an honors student — will be transferring to other universities as a result of the bill’s passage. “This should,” he says, “sadden anyone who cares about attracting the best and brightest students to Arizona.”
The University of Arizona police department will, he says, “be receiving extensive training” on SB 1070, and will
Sacramento Press / Nominate a Family Member for a High School Diploma
Through its Operation Recognition program, the Sacramento County Board of Education will provide high school diplomas to qualifying veterans (proof of honorable discharge required) who left high school to serve in World War II, the Korean War or the Vietnam War, as well as to Japanese American citizens interned in WW II relocation centers (proof of internment required).
High school diplomas may be awarded posthumously, so families should consider applying on behalf of a deceased parent or grandparent who lived in (or attended school in) Sacramento County. Diplomas are awarded even if the honoree earned a G.E.D. or went on to college without having received his or her high school diploma. Persons who moved away from Sacramento County, but attended school here, are eligible.
Honorees, their family members and friends will be invited to attend a diploma presentation ceremony and reception the evening of Tuesday, May 18, in the Mather area of the county.
The deadline to submit an application (with necessary materials) is May 3.
Consider doing some detective work ... perhaps someone in your family qualifies for this honor!
http://www.scoe.net/or/forms/
For answers to questions, call the Communications Office at (916) 228-2416.
http://www.scoe.net/or/forms/
Pay It Forward
People tend to shy away from blood or bone marrow donations because their automatic reaction is almost always pain. But, once you get past the thoughts of your own discomfort and realize that your actions are going to help literally save someone’s life, that 20 minutes of discomfort becomes not so important or trivial.
CSUS Students Unite with BloodSource to Save Lives
CSUS Students Unite with BloodSource to Save Lives
CSUS Students are hosting the Unite to Save Lives blood drive and health fair for BloodSource on May 3rd and 4th from 10-5 p.m at the University Union on the CSUS campus. The CSUS students have set an ambition goal of raising 500 pints of blood and obtaining 150 new registrants for the "Be the Match" bone marrow registry. The CSUS students will also be promoting BloodSource's Pint for Pint campaign. Everyone that attempts to donate
ACE Mentor Program is Making a Difference for High School Students
ACE Mentor Program is Making a Difference for High School Students
Architecture Construction Engineering (ACE) Mentor Program is a nonprofit organization, formed under Section 501(c) 3 of the District of Columbia in 2002. Prior to that date (1994), the ACE Mentor Program of New York City, the founding affiliate, directed ACE’s leadership. ACE now serves more than eighty cities in America — from New York to Los Angeles, Seattle to Miami, Chicago to Dallas, even Honolulu — and is still growing.
Founded in 2007 with significant support from the Construction Industry Education Foundation (CIEF), the ACE
Founded in 2007 with significant support from the Construction Industry Education Foundation (CIEF), the ACE