"We as a community have called upon the board and administration to be
fiscally frugal and focused on "getting those test score ups" (which in my mind
DOES NOT equal academic excellence). That's what they are trying to do, I'm
convinced, though I don't always agree with the means or the desired end, for
that matter. It will be interesting to see if and how the community steps up now given the 180 degree turn we've made from this time last year."
I guess I am curious, has RAS changed in the past year? Are these improvements or degradations from your viewpoint? How would you improve things further?
All opinions encouraged as always !!!
Speed: Close 3 Schools
Speed: Eliminate education monopoly
Speed: Close Sandburg ?
Speed: WMEP
Speed: Libraries, ECFE, Community Ed
Speed: TERM paper
2 comments:
The problem I have is this board has continued to give us 1/2 truths. No longer are they hiring 40 teachers as they kept telling everyone (along with the media). It's down to 25 teachers.
They were going to elimanate busing to RSI/middle school programs, but they reversed that decision. Why, no real solid explanation from the "gods"?
They also were going to offer foreign language in elementary and 6th and 7th grade. We have an e-mail from Patsy Green telling us how great the new language program "could" be. Now, this isn't in their plans!
They told us that RSI would expand. Yet on the latest report (see attachment below), RSI numbers are going up by only 14 students. Personally, RSI should have closed for the good of the district.
Actually, I could go on and on, but I better get back to work!
http://rdale.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/494491/File/Transitioning/School%20Closings-030209-2.pdf?sessionid=9eede13716b96e68f2017b0956de9430
Hi, John. That was my comment from Speed's blog. I'm JGW and you can feel free to always attach my name to any of my quotes. I work very hard to NOT write anything that I don't want repeated elsewhere. A caveat is that I comment with trepidation always, because it's so easy to slip into over-simplification, reaction, etc.
Anyway, the difference I was most referring to is that last year at this time we were in the thick of strategic planning, having just come off the defeated levy referendum and the decision to delay closing any schools. Now we have a strategic plan in place, a passed levy referendum, decisions on three schools closing, and a search for a new super underway. There are also four directors coming to the ends of their terms. I'm as frustrated as anyone about some things, but I'm also still pretty hopeful that this change in he landscape will serve us well in the long run if we stay focused on creating the district we want, not just reacting to what we don't want. So, as always, thanks for keeping that conversation going.
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