Back to the Education Funding Formula

From Taryn at Minnpost Lawmakers consider retooling ‘equalization aid’ to better help property-poor school districts

MN School Finance A Guide for Legislators

This is somewhat of a vicious cycle...

• Districts / schools lower their behavior and academic standards.
• This ensures the unlucky kids feel welcome and don't fail.
• The academically focused more well to do families move to a different district / school.
• The property values and tax revenues fall.
• The Districts /Schools are short revenue with a more challenging student body.
• They go to the State begging for more funding.

Now I do agree that the "special education" costs should be fully funded by the Feds / State since they are the ones mandating some of that high cost / low benefit care.

As for the "we need more money" because we contributed to scaring away our best and brightest families. I am unsure if that makes sense??? 

From an earlier post...

"In my district (where I live) they decided this year to get rid of honors classes at the middle school and mix students together for all classes (not sure about math)
When my kids went there they had almost all honors classes, but I think the staff found teaching the non-honors classes quite difficult. Anyway, my neighbor whose youngest child is in 6th grade, open enrolled him to another district and now drives him and 2 other students to a middle school about 10 miles away. The other district is less diverse and much less low income than the district in which I live. Not sure if they have honors type classes or just classes with less misbehavior due to their demographics." Laurie 

"Yes, that is what I fear will happen at RDale now that they are eliminating seperation between focused students with good grades and the others. The hallways of the schools held there own challenges, but we knew the classrooms were more stable. Now folks like me will be even more concerned about keeping our kids in the district. And if they leave and take with them their child’s funding, their financial and time donations, and the stabilizing influence their focused kids provide... The whole school, district and community will suffer.

The same thing that happened to most challenged schools. Those who can run do so, and leave the trouble makers behind.  Which I guess is what a good parent who wants the best for their child would do." G2A / John

Support Dave Dahl

Well in an interesting twist they unplugged the FB Support Dave Dahl page.  Maybe a some open dialogue is deemed a concern by those in power???


"Hello Everyone. I want to thank everyone in this group for their passion, and their commitment to AHS and District 281. I also want to thank everyone who has come here to show support for Principal Dahl. I created this page almost two weeks ago at the request of community members and students, in response to the reassignment of principal Dahl to a Principal on Special Assignment position. The community members and students that I was in touch with were looking for a way to communicate with one another effectively, amplify student voice, and share information and meeting dates etc.
I immediately removed myself as the group’s administrator, because as a district employee I did not think it was appropriate for me to have any real or perceived influence on the content that might get posted in an open forum. (I asked to be re-added as an admin to post this and delete the group.) I am grateful for the students and parents who volunteered to admin the group, and for all of the work that they have done here.

The admins and I have agreed that while many other worthwhile topics have been broached in this forum, at this point the group has fulfilled its original purpose. We encourage anyone who has continued thoughts to share to write to the district administration at:
carlton_jenkins@rdale.org
john_vento@rdale.org
michael_herring@rdale.org
pam_lindberg@rdale.org
helen_bassett@rdale.org
sherry_tyrell@rdale.org
sam_sant@rdale.org
david_boone@rdale.org
Please also consider attending the school board’s listening session on Monday, March 18th, as well as get involved in the student group “Activists For Change” at AHS led by Kaia Hirt. Thank you again for your passionate discussion, your ardent support of 281, and your support of Principal Dahl."

RDale State of the Schools

I attended and was not impressed.  It really should have been called the  "RDale: Let's Clap Ourselves on the Back While We Dream"  Now I do agree that there were many people in attendance who deserved the applause and congratulations, especially the kids.

 A lot of the Supt's talk was based on the new Equity Mission Statement and the Unified District Vision.  Which apparently means we are going to keep kid's in the classroom no matter how challenging or dysfunctional they are.  This sounds like a very idealistic and great concept, except for one point...

Parent(s) who can move will move rather than leave their kids in a disruptive school or classroom.  They are not going to say... "We will leave little Janie in the chaotic classroom / school while little Bobbie is straightened out." 

They are going to focus on the needs of their child and move them to a school / classroom where all the kid's listen and learn.  That is the blessing and curse of school choice, Parent's can choose what is best for their child and take the tax payer's money with them...

It was humorous and sad as the Supt. preached about how it was our duty to ensure all kid's learned.

• I mean I agree with him on a community level...
• However from a Parent's perspective it so naive...
• The Parent(s) job to ensure their child learns...

One last thought, it is odd the Supt's seem to be like Business Managers in that they move around a lot. Which to the cynic in me means that they move before they actually prove themselves or learn from their screw ups.  Being at CAT for 16 years gave me many opportunities to learn from my mistakes. (too many... :-)) I am not sure what I would learn from spending less than 3 years in each place?

What is Wrong with You!!!

Unfortunately my online views and real life have collided again, so I have removed almost all my comments from the FB Dave Dahl page.

• Now I like Dave and hope he can stay on another year.
• And I dislike the soft bigotry the district seems to be pursuing.
• By lowering expectations and punishments for certain demographics
• But I do think that Bosses should be able to pick their employees.
• And I will have no kids in the district after June.
• So the current parent(s) will need to seize the reins. 

Conveniently a conservative FB acquaintance posted the below image today...  I thought it was very accurate...  Though maybe I would change the caption some:

• Judging people by their race, sex, wealth, religion and sexual preference is wrong !!!
• Why can't you White, Male, Wealthy, Christian, Straight BASTARDS figure that out???

I posed some questions on the previous post that deserves some page 1 coverage:

• Now folks on the Left expect and promote providing additional support and services to kids from certain demographic groups. 
• Why are they surprised that the kids from those certain demographic groups would get in trouble at a higher rate?
• Not only are they surprised, they blame the punishers and accuse them of being racist.
• So are they racist when they want to give a greater percentage of the additional services and support to certain demographic groups?
• Should they be screaming at the social services personnel for being racist?

Please remember that I really do not care about race. I happily work with people from all over the world.  However I do understand that one's home life does spill over into the school and classroom.  This is not a race issue, this is a poverty, parenting and social issue.



RDale State of the District

All families, staff and community members are invited to attend Robbinsdale Area Schools Annual State of the District Address.Thursday, March 14, 2019 6:30pm - 8:30pm Armstrong High School Auditorium 10635 36th Ave N, Plymouth, MN 55441

 

Well given the current politics going on in the district... This could be interesting... By the way, I am not getting answers to my questions...

• How does one determine if an action is racist or simply demanding a high common standard of behavioral excellence from all students and parents?
• I have no problem admitting that I believe the majority of the achievement gap is due to parental short comings. I believe the school systems are 30% accountable and the parent(s) are 70%. My readers and I have been arguing about how to ensure every child succeeds for 10+ years. No magic bullets yet.Given the stern and shocked responses to my Blame vs Contributions link. How do you want to ensure Every Child Succeeds? (ie No Child Left Behind) I am very curious...  To make this more meaningful. Please note that ~40% of our kids struggle. (see below)

My fear for my community is that they are falling into the trap of lowering the expectations for some students. (ie bigotry of low expectations) Which unfortunately leads to a very dark place as the students and parents who can afford to leave the district do so.  Instead of lowering behavioral and academic expectations for some kids, how do we help them to achieve the rigorous level. I have faith that they can rise to the expectation.

Cooper vs Armstrong HS Demographics

C vs A Achievement Levels

C vs A Graduation

RDale General Info

RDale Demographics

RDale Student Views

Trump Breaks Entitlement Promise?

VOX Trump said he wouldn’t cut Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare.

His 2020 budget cuts all 3.Trump said he wouldn’t be like

“every other Republican.” He is.

Now I am okay with doing whatever it takes to bring the "benefits" into alignment with the "premiums".  This could either be:

• Reducing benefits
• Increasing the payroll tax Rate

The  current situation is not sustainable..


However it is interesting that Trump went after them after all his promises to not touch them.

Robbinsdale and Racial Equity?

The Support Dave Dahl FB site took an interesting twist when some people wanted to post critical comments regard racial inequality and where the Armstrong school was headed. The moderator wisely took them down since they had pretty much nothing to do with the purpose of the page and had more to do with political view points. However the removal triggered some discussion.

One commenter explained that the voices of " people who have experienced racist encounters " were being silenced. To which I responded...

How does one determine if an action is racist or simply demanding a high common standard of behavioral excellence from all students and parents?

An interesting perspective from the other side of the topic is that for years I have heard about minority students getting away with things that Caucasian students could not. Dress codes, disruptive behaviors, etc... The rationale for this that was explained to me was that often the kids did not have adequate support at home, therefore it was better to let it slide.

I would prefer to have community schools with high standards than one that practices the bigotry of low expectations. It is an interesting topic." Give2Attain (aka John)

Now if anyone wants to discuss RDale issues beyond the scope of the FB page. Please feel free to leave them here.  Just remember to stay polite, professional and factual.
G2A Rules

• G2A will only discuss things that are general public knowledge. (ie no privileged info)
• G2A will only link to public / posted documents. (ie school and other websites)
• G2A will not post based on singular specific personal conversations or information without permission from the information provider.
• G2A will only post after observing common themes, issues, discussions, etc. (ie it is out there and people are talking about it)
• G2A will moderate any comments that apply derogatory labels. Be it to G2A, another commenter, group of people, etc.
• G2A will moderate any comment that includes offensive language. (ie swearing)

The Invasion Accelerates

NPR Migrant Families Arrive In Busloads As Border Crossings Hit 10-Year High


and


NPR Trump Seeks More Border Wall Funding In New Budget

Need to Have Money to Lose Money?

NPR How Federal Disaster Money Favors The Rich

I heard this during my long drive to Oklahoma and back. A friend I were moving my eldest and her fiancee back to the Twin Cities. They must have missed seeing me often. 😀😀😀 By the way, it was about 68 degrees down there...

Back to the post, I guess it makes sense that people with money would get more of the disaster funds. I mean if you are renting an apartment, what funds should you get versus the person who owns the building.  Thoughts?

Two Very Different Headlines

VOX House Democrats just passed a slate of significant reforms to get money out of politicsDemocrats passed their sweeping anti-corruption bill known as HR 1. It’s already doomed in the Senate.


FOX News: House Dems pass 'power grab' voting rights bill; McConnell says proposal has no chance in Senate


It is too bad politicians keep passing things that they know are doomed.  The GOP passed that redundant anti-infantcide bill and now the DEMs pass this... I mean all this work to pander to their base and make election talking points instead of actually getting legislation passed.


Why do we pay these folks again? :-)

Dave Dahl for RDale Superintendent !!!!

Now I would not wish that on Dave, but I thought it was catchy headline. :-)

Here is an update.

Here is a link to the FaceBook Page

And an interesting comment from there.

"Since posting my comment 12 hours ago, I've been overwhelmed and shocked by the calls, texts, and e-mails I've received from parents, teachers, staff, and students about the Dahl decision. It's clear that the District has far greater problems than just the decision about Mr. Dahl.

For example, I am shocked that less than four months after a successful referendum that will give an additional $6 million to the District over the next 10 years, the Superintendent is reporting that the District currently ha a $6 million shortfall.I'm alarmed that under Superintendent Jenkins's management, the District has had four Finance Directors and currently has an Interim Finance Director. Such lack of continuity is alarming.

It's disturbing to learn that Dr. Jenkins has brought in several administrators with checkered backgrounds from out of state who have worked with him when he was in Beloit, Atlanta, and Michigan. And when I read that Dr. Jenkins is planning a national search to replace Mr. Dahl, I not only questions whether he is functioning under the same fiscal-austerity rules as teachers and school staff have had to work under for years. I find it difficult to believe that here are no qualified candidates in Minnesota.

And I'm no expert about running school districts, so it gives me pause to write this, but I find it curious that the District has a Doctor of Education who was hired from out of state to be the Director of Operations and Safety, whose responsibilities (Custodial Services, Facilities, and Transportation) have no direct connection to the provision or administration of education.

These and other issues raise serious questions about how the District is being managed and what's in store for its future. I would hope the Board is not only aware of these problems and concerns but are actively working on them." Kelly

Keep Dave Petition

Sun Sailor Petition Coverage


Parents and students are already speaking out against Jenkins’ decision through a Change.org petition, “Keep Dahl in Position,” which is seeking 2,500 signatures.  This is Dahl’s 17th year as principal.

RDale News

For some reason beyond my understanding our relatively new Superintendent (Carlton Jenkins) is working towards removing the Armstrong High School Principal (Dave Dahl) one year before his retirement.  Now normally this may be fine, but the problem here is that the Dave has had the position for ~17 years.  On top of that, Dave:

• is greatly appreciated by the Parents, Students and Staff of the school
• attends almost every school event, often with his wife
• runs one of the best High Schools in the cities.

"Armstrong High School has once again made the Washington Post Most Challenging High School list for 2018! See the rankings here! Armstrong is ranked the 6th best high school in Minnesota! - Armstrong ACT Score Data"

Here is the form letter we received:

"Dear Armstrong High School Families;
I hope this message finds you well.  After several conversations with Mr. David Dahl as well as careful reflection about our Unified District Vision and Armstrong High School, I have made the decision to have Mr. Dahl serve as Principal on Special Assignment for the 2019-2020 academic year.
 
The following timeline has been established to conduct a national search for filling the Armstrong High School Principal position:

• we met at 6:45 a.m. with the Armstrong staff on March 4, 2019 to inform them of the decision and next steps for filling the position;
• we will meet with all key stakeholders (students, parents and staff) to develop a profile for the position;
• the position will be posted by April 12, 2019;
• we will work with the Armstrong Parent Association (APA) to identify parent representation for the interview committee;
• we will work with building staff and the Robbinsdale Federation of Teachers (RFT) to identify staff representation for the interview committee;
• interviews will take place during the month of May;
• we will work with the Armstrong staff on transitional activities until the new principal’s official date of hire, July 1, 2019.

We thank you for your patience and support during this transition. More information will be communicated as this process moves forward.

Sincerely,  Carlton D. Jenkins, Ph.D. Superintendent
Robbinsdale Area Schools

I am not even sure what it means when a person chooses a Unified District Vision over a highly qualified, experienced and appreciated Principal.  My guess is that it means Carlton has a lot of ideas that may not be very popular at Armstrong and may put our excellent standing at risk.

To me it seems they are peddling the bigotry of low expectations again.  Thoughts?

Ilhan Omar Controversy

CNN Ilhan Omar Controversy


This has got to be one of the strangest "controversies" in our free speech societies. I mean Conservatives bash Muslims and Palestinians on a regular basis.  And yet they attack Ilhan Omar for stating the obvious...


The USA is way too supportive of Israel because of some highly influential American citizens and the country's supposed stabilizing influence.


NYT The Messy Break Up
Haaretz Disillusioned by Israel
FAS Support History
Plight of Palestine
History of Illegal Settlements

Represent Us

A FB friend linked to a video of the lovely Jennifer Lawrence talking about politics... Represent Us So I took the time to watch it.  Represent Us propose corruption and financial influence by the wealthy and business as The Problem.  This is based on a Princeton Paper.

It seemed enticing however my BS alarm went off so I did a little looking. Especially when Jennifer stated the policies that she felt were being held back by our wealthy tyrants. Thankfully VOX Offered 3 Rebuttals and saved me some time.

The idea that American Policies are not being passed because of rich people and lobbyists is somewhat laughable if you think about it.  I mean almost half of our population wants more government intervention in our personal lives, higher taxes and more hand outs (ie wealth redistribution).  And half wants the exact opposite.

Thoughts?

G2A What would make American's Happy
G2A Political Tribes Continue