Sacramento Press / School moving from old Marshall School to Thomas Jefferson Elementary

Sacramento Press / School moving from old Marshall School to Thomas Jefferson Elementary:


"It was confirmed last week California Montessori Project's Capitol Campus will move from the Marshall School to Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in the College Glen neighborhood.

Since August, CMP leased the Marshall School building from the Sacramento City Unified School District, which also oversees its charter. Next Thursday and Friday, the school will be closed for the move and will resume at the new campus on Nov. 16.

SCUSD superintendent Jonathan Raymond met with CMP board members, students and parents Tuesday night at the campus' new location. After stating reasons for the move, he answered questions from parents."

Board of Education Meeting

Board of Education Regular Meeting

Date: November 5, 2009

Time: 4:30 Closed session 6:30 Open Session

Location:Serna Center 5735 47th AvenueSacramento, Ca 95824 Tennessee Community Room

Agenda Items:

Item 7.2 - Carpenters Union 46 Scholarship Program
Item 9.1 - Public Hearing and Approval of Resolution No. 2586: Compliance with the Pupil Textbook and Instructional Materials Incentive Program Act.Item 10.1 - Approve New Board Policy 4311.1 Recruitment and Selection
Item 10.2 Part 1 - Approve/Ratify Facility Use Agreements: Sacramento Charter High School, St. Hope Public School #7 (PS7), Language Academy of Sacramento, and S.A.C. Prep
Item 10.2 Part 2
Item 10.3 - Approve/Ratify Naming of School of Engineering and Science (SES) High School
Item 10.4 - Resolution No. 2593: Ratifying the Facilities Use Agreement for the California Montessori Project Charter School at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School and Determining the Project is Exempt from the California Environment Quality Act.
Item 10.5 - Update on Library Services
Item 12.1a - Approve Grants, Entitlements and Other Income Agreements, Ratification of Other Agreements, Approval of Bid Awards, Approval of Declared Surplus Materials and Equipment, Change Notices and Notices of Completion.
Item 12.1b - Reporting of Williams Complaints for the Period of July through September, 2009
Item 12.1c - Approval to Separate Curriculum from Human Resources, Contracts, and Curriculum Ad Hoc Committee.
Item 12.1d - Resolution No. 2590: Authorizing Delegation of Power to contract to Include Patricia A. Hagemeyer.
Item 12.1e - Resolution No. 2591: Authorization of Personnel to Sign Orders on District Funds.
Item 12.1f - Resolution No. 2592: Authorizing Signature Authority on Documents Transmitted to County Superintendent of Schools.
Item 12.2a - District Personnel Transactions.
Item 13.1 - Business and Financial Information.

During a Regular Board of Education meeting, click HERE to watch the meeting live.

PLEASE NOTE: This video service is designed for high speed internet access.

This meeting of the Sacramento City School Board is being videotaped in its entirety and will be cablecast without interruption on Metro Cable 14, the government affairs channel on the Comcast and SureWest Cable Systems. Today’s meeting will be replayed Friday, November 6 at 1pm & Monday, November 9 at Noon on Channel 14, and will be webcast at www.sacmetrocable.tv. A video copy is also available for check out from any library branch.
Members of the audience wishing to address the Board should fill out a speaker identification form located in the back of community room and give to the Clerk. Please speak into the microphone when addressing the Board, and state your name for the record.

Greenwala - Greenwala Makes List of Top 100 Green Sites for Students

Greenwala - Greenwala Makes List of Top 100 Green Sites for Students:

"Yesterday, OnlineUnversities.com released it's list of 100 Top Green Sites for Students and Greenwala.com was included on the list.

Thanks to OnlineUniversities for including us on this list and of course MAJOR thanks to all the Greenwalas that make this growing communtiy so unique and special.

Here is the list of the Top 100 Green Blogs for Students:"

OpenSecrets | TARP Recipients Paid Out $114 Million for Politicking Last Year - Capital Eye

OpenSecrets TARP Recipients Paid Out $114 Million for Politicking Last Year - Capital Eye:

"WASHINGTON--(This release has been corrected to reflect that Bank of America has received $45 billion, not $55 billion, from the TARP program. The $45 billion includes $10 billion that Merrill Lynch received before being acquired by Bank of America. An earlier version of this release incorrectly added Merrill Lynch's $10 billion to Bank of America's $45 billion. Adjustments to the figures in the original release are in bold below. In addition, the total number of TARP recipients that lobbied in 2008 is 26, rather than 25 as originally stated.) The struggling companies whose freewheeling business practices have contributed to the country's economic woes are getting a lucrative return on at least one of their investments. Beneficiaries of the $700 billion bailout package in the finance and automotive industries have spent a total of $114.2 million on lobbying in the past year and contributions toward the 2008 election, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found. The companies' political activities have, in part, yielded them $295.2 billion from the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), an extraordinary return of 258,449 percent."

Obama Uses Malia’s Test Scores as a Teaching Example - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Obama Uses Malia’s Test Scores as a Teaching Example - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com:

"MADISON, Wisconsin – President Obama marked the first anniversary of his election on Wednesday by calling on states to toughen their education standards – and wound up calling on parents to toughen theirs, too, as he confessed that his 11-year-old daughter, Malia, recently got a 73 on her science test.

(Note to parents: In Malia’s defense, the story has a happy ending: she studied hard and came home on Tuesday with a grade of 95.)

Mr. Obama campaigned for the White House on a promise of revamping “No Child Left Behind,’ the signature education law put in place by his predecessor, George W. Bush. He came to Wisconsin to promote his own education agenda, including “Race to the Top,’’ – a $4.35 billion grant program that requires states to compete for education money."

The big state government that could -- latimes.com

The big state government that could -- latimes.com:

"For example: Sen. John Benoit (R-Palm Desert) wanted to be appointed by the governor to a vacant seat on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. And he was, after providing key votes for the water package.

Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) wants to be considered for the job of lieutenant governor, being vacated by Democrat John Garamendi, who was elected to Congress on Tuesday. Schwarzenegger will appoint Garamendi's replacement, subject to legislative confirmation. Maldonado would have been considered anyway, but he assured himself a finalist spot with his key votes Wednesday night.

The Capitol worked the way it's supposed to when it works.

The governor used the powers of his office.

Steinberg was tenacious and a nonstop negotiator, even siding against fellow Sacramento County and delta politicians who opposed the package.

The Assembly speaker, Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), astutely delegated"

Local governments use program to avoid tax grab by state - DailyBulletin.com

Local governments use program to avoid tax grab by state - DailyBulletin.com:

"Inland Valley cities are turning to a joint powers authority to help them overcome a tax grab by the state.

Because of its budget woes, California is borrowing about 8 percent of each local government's property tax revenues.

California Communities will issue bonds and make the state repay those bonds in the future, said Richard Watson, California Communities operations manager.
The enrollment deadline for the program is Friday.

'Having a third party step up and fill the gap for us is a benefit to us. That way we don't have to use reserves,' Upland City Manager Robb Quincey said. 'That way we can keep our protection in place in the event of something worse happening like a natural disaster.'"

Senate approves education bill, paves way for stimulus money - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee

Senate approves education bill, paves way for stimulus money - Sacramento Politics - California Politics Sacramento Bee:

"The California State Senate voted Tuesday to pass Senate Bill X5 1, which would make the state more competitive for federal Race to the Top stimulus funds.

The bill calls for strategies to turn around the bottom five percent of the state's lowest performing schools and authorizes open enrollment at those schools so parents can choose the school their child attends. It encourages school districts to reward teachers who consistently improve student scores and repeal's California's charter school cap. The Obama administration has indicated that these measures would make states more competitive for the $4.35 billion that will be awarded in Race to the Top grants."

Obama addresses Native American leaders | 44 | washingtonpost.com

Obama addresses Native American leaders 44 washingtonpost.com:

"President Obama told what he called the largest gathering of Native American tribal leaders Thursday that 'you will not be forgotten by this White House,' pledging to work with them to address the community's chronic problems with health care, economic development, land management and education.

Obama fulfilled a campaign pledge by bringing the leaders of the 564 federally recognized Native American tribes to Washington during his first year in office.

He began his remarks with an accounting of the historically troubled relationship between the federal government and Indian Nations, telling them 'few have been marginalized for as long by Washington as Native Americans.'"

Politics K-12: Tribal Leaders Voice ESEA Renewal Ideas

Politics K-12: Tribal Leaders Voice ESEA Renewal Ideas:

"The U.S. Department of Education has taken its Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization tour all the way across the street: to the National Museum of the American Indian, literally across Independence Avenue from department headquarters in Washington.

An event today gave tribal leaders, in town anyway for a White House conference on Native American issues, a chance to share their ideas for renewing ESEA, of which the No Child Left Behind Act is the current version.

As you probably remember, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said recently that the NCLB 'Listening and Learning Tour' has reached a new phase. Instead of just touring the country, Ed Department officials are reaching out to specific stakeholders to find out what they think needs to be in the new version of the law. Two assistant secretaries, Carmel Martin (planning, evaluation, and policy development) and Thelma Melendez (elementary and secondary education), spoke at the event, but they kept their comments brief and mostly listened."

Inside School Research: Texas Merit-Pay Pilot Failed to Boost Student Scores, Study Says

Inside School Research: Texas Merit-Pay Pilot Failed to Boost Student Scores, Study Says:

"Back in August, I told you about some early results from a study of a performance-pay program that was being tested in the Lone Star State.

Piloted between the 2005-06 and the 2008-09 school years, the now-defunct Governor's Educator Excellence Grants, or GEEG, program distributed more than $10 million a year in federal grants to 99 Texas schools that managed to turn in high scores on state tests despite enrolling large numbers of students from low-income families. The program differed from some other merit-pay schemes, though, because it required schools to involve teachers in designing the performance-incentive plans for their own schools."

In the earlier study, which was conducted by researchers from the National Center on Performance Incentives, at Vanderbilt University, we learned that, when given a say, teachers tend to be remarkably egalitarian. They favor relatively modest awards and spread them widely.

In the new study, released just this month by the same group of researchers, we learn whether the pay incentives for teachers translated to any improvements in their students' test scores. The answer, in a word, is no. The third-year findings indicate that, overall, the program had a "weakly positive, negative, or negligible effect on student test-score gains."

JFS Program Gives Students New School Supplies | Education | Jewish Journal

JFS Program Gives Students New School Supplies Education Jewish Journal:

"Jewish Family Service (JFS) of Los Angeles supplied 1,100 disadvantaged children in the Los Angeles Unified School District with new backpacks filled with school supplies through its Tools for Schools program.

The program, now in its third year of operation, provides backpacks with supplies including pens, rulers, erasers, notebooks and other school necessities to children whose families are helped by one of the JFS social service programs. “Due to the financial hardship faced by many in our community, the need for basic school supplies was even higher this year,” said Paul S. Castro, JFS CEO/executive director.

This year, Tools for Schools enlisted the help of campers at Camp Ramah in Ojai, who helped put the backpacks together as part of a social action project."

Neutrality is nothingness | St. Helena Star

Neutrality is nothingness St. Helena Star:

"In our schools, this should be a time of unprecedented celebration, of hand shakes, and congratulations. Over the course of the last five years we have seen steady improvement in our CST scores and have made remarkable advances in what the California Department of Education has made our number one goal: “Closing the Achievement Gap.”

Five years ago, the administration and the school board considered how to ensure that we would keep this goal at the forefront of our teaching and learning, while continuing our march forward in all other areas. In their wisdom, they created a part time (.20) administrative position, English Language Development District Coordinator, to oversee the teaching and learning of our students whose first language is other than English. Having held that position for the five years in question, I can speak to the support this board and our current superintendent, Dr. Robert Haley, have had for our ELD population. They asked for increased collaboration between school sites, a higher percentage of parent involvement, a review and improvement of available resources, increased professional development opportunities, and more."

Obama explains 6th grader's test challenges - Nation - TheState.com

Obama explains 6th grader's test challenges - Nation - TheState.com:

"MADISON, Wis. -- President Barack Obama is making the need for parent involvement personal, citing his own daughter's classroom challenges.
During a speech about his administration's education priorities, he talked about his sixth-grade daughter, Malia, and her study skills. He told a middle school in Wisconsin that Malia came home with a 73 percent on a science test and was disappointed.

The president said he asked her what went wrong. Malia explained that the test didn't match the study guide.

'So, what's your idea here?' Obama remembered telling her.

Malia told her father she had better start reading the whole chapters.

Obama then shared happier news that came this week: Malia came home with high-fives and a 95 percent."

Johnson To Share Plan To Help Homeless - Sacramento News Story - KCRA Sacramento

Johnson To Share Plan To Help Homeless - Sacramento News Story - KCRA Sacramento:

"Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson will announce a major effort today aimed at ending homelessness in the community.

The mayor is getting help from dozens of businesses for the initiative, known as Sacramento Steps Forward.

Johnson on Wednesday took journalist Lisa Ling on a tour of the site of a former large homeless encampment at the north end of downtown. The camp is gone, but homelessness remains a major problem in the city.

Ling's earlier report about the camp aired on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,' drawing international attention to the city's homeless."

McGraw-Hill Education Program Consultant To Take The Stage At National Middle School Association | Reuters

McGraw-Hill Education Program Consultant To Take The Stage At National Middle School Association Reuters: "NEW YORK, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- A top literature program consultant with
McGraw-Hill School Education Group, the leading provider of print and digital
educational materials for Grades PreK-12, will present a thought-provoking
session today at the National Middle School Association's (NMSA) Annual
Conference in Indianapolis.

Dinah Zike, program consultant for McGraw-Hill's Glencoe Literature: Texas
Treasures, will discuss 'Taking the 'DIS' from -Engaged and -Interested With
Self-Made 3-D Interactive Learning Tools.'

Ms. Zike's renowned graphic organizers, Foldables(TM) are incorporated into
Glencoe Literature: Texas Treasures, a comprehensive collection of engaging
literature and nonfiction with integrated skill development and targeted
differentiated instruction for Texas students in Grades 6-12."

School parcel tax measures fall short; incumbents retaining seats - San Jose Mercury News

School parcel tax measures fall short; incumbents retaining seats - San Jose Mercury News:

"Swayed perhaps by the floundering economy, voters threw a wrench into plans by two South Bay school districts to supplement their shaky budgets with an additional tax.
With all precincts counted, voters in the Santa Clara Unified School District and the Fremont Union High School District turned down parcel taxes on their ballots. Santa Clara's Measure C would have taxed each property owner $138 annually for five years, to raise $4 million.

In the Sunnyvale-based Fremont Union High School District, a similar measure, to impose a $98-per-parcel tax fell short.

And in two school districts electing trustees — Cupertino Union and Los Altos — incumbents coasted to victory. Anjali Kausar, Ben Liao and Gary McCue retained their seats in Cupertino. So did Mark Goines in Los Altos, where newcomers Tamara Logan and Douglas Smith grabbed two open seats."

Educated Guess » QEIA’s early promise (and its faults)

Educated Guess » QEIA’s early promise (and its faults):

"The California Teachers Association has issued early data pointing to positive results from a eight-year, $3 billion program for low-performing schools that the union fought hard to create and is fighting equally hard to preserve. Just last week – four months into the fiscal year and after some dragged-out battles – the Assembly passed a bill securing full funding for another year.

I have been a skeptic of the program– the Quality Education Investment Act — since it was created in 2006, although I applaud the CTA for going to the mat on behalf of low-income schools. I have had two problems with QEIA:

It benefited only a third of the approximately 1,500 schools in the bottom two deciles of Academic Performance Index (API) scores."

Enrollment dips at L.A. Unified -- latimes.com

Enrollment dips at L.A. Unified -- latimes.com:

"An apparent exodus of students to charter schools, combined with an overall enrollment decline, is disrupting Los Angeles-area schools and exacerbating an ongoing budget crisis.

Local independently run charter schools added more than 9,500 students this fall, a surge of almost 19% to more than 60,000. At the same time, enrollment is down more than 19,000 students, about 3%, at schools affiliated with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Total district enrollment has fallen to 678,441, down from a peak of 747,009 in 2003."

The Answer Sheet - Talking Out of School with.... Quincy Jones

The Answer Sheet - Talking Out of School with.... Quincy Jones:

"The following is a conversation about education that I had with legendary producer Quincy Jones at a conference he convened in New York City about music education. Jones has been nominated for more Grammies than any other living artist, with a total of 79 nominations and 27 awards. He also won an Emmy Award, seven Oscar nominations, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Q) Did you start your music career in school?
A) No. I didn’t pay much attention to music when I was really young. But when I was 11, I broke into an armory and….

Q) Excuse me, you broke into an armory? An armory?
A) Yes, my father was a carpenter for the Jones brothers in Chicago. They were gangsters. We used to play baby gangster. We played war with real machine guns. Real ammo."