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| Board Update 1-10-01 The Conversion continues! Will the Board be healed? Last night, the Slippery Rock School Board appointed Rev. Michael Bruno to fill Duryea’s seat. Rev. Bruno is a resident of the SR boro and the pastor of the church that meets at the high school. Adams made the nomination and it was seconded by Christmann. The vote was 6 to 2 with Smith and Thompson voting no. This is the first Sign. The second Sign will be when our board votes to elect board members “at-large”. The third Sign is open for debate. In case of rapture, this website will be unattended! To learn more about the rapture- check out this Christian site-CLICK HERE! Update 1-15-01 The More Things Change… You may remember that last week the illustrious Dr. Christmann informed each candidate for Duryea’s seat that the District had adopted Core Knowledge. So last night I asked if the Board could clear up the confusion swirling around the Core Knowledge curriculum. Some in the community are concerned, I continued, that this Board’s interest in Core Knowledge could be motivated by some members’ right wing political agendas. I explained that groups such as the Heritage Foundation, the Rutherford Institute, and Citizens for Excellence in Education, The Get-equipped website, discuss such agendas, as does The Investor’s Business Daily (Remember when the Board (or Bill Adams??) paid for every Board member to have a subscription to Investor’s Business Daily?) I know that’s where I get all my information about education!!) Right wing Christian groups, too, have agendas, and talk about public education in terms of reconstructionism and deinstitutionalization (rhetoric that has found a home in this District.). As my time drew to a close, I asked what I thought were two simple questions: When did the district adopt the Core Knowledge curriculum? And what exactly did Dr. Christmann understand the term “curriculum” to mean in the context of Core Knowledge? Simple questions, or so I thought. The palpable silence was broken, first by the sound of Christmann’s sitting up straight and leaning over the table, then by the sound of the raised voice of an obviously irate public official. “Are you saying we didn’t adopt Core Knowledge?” Christmann blustered (Remember the Board passed a motion to integrate Core Knowledge content into the existing curriculum, then tabled the integration, pending further staff development). Christmann’s other insightful comments went something like, You tell me, you’ve been at all the meetings, you have the camera, what, did you miss a vote, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah…. Whose records are they? I’m not on the Board! I always thought elected officials were accountable to the public, not the other way around. Things sure are confusing here in the Slippery Rock School District. Bottom line? Did they adopt the curriculum? “I think we have,” Christmann continued, saying that the district was going to move forward with Core Knowledge. (Remember, all you teachers who wrote our existing curriculum, you’re just amateurs…Oh and middle school teachers, get ready. Christmann’s now pushing for K-8 Core Knowledge). After a short discussion with Superintendent Beaton, Watson said he understood that a vote had been taken to integrate Core Knowledge into K-5, but integration and adopting a curriculum are different things. That’s true. But what is ignored is the fact that the motion was tabled. Core Knowledge fan Christmann never did answer what he understand the term “curriculum” to mean in the context of Core Knowledge. I guess not. Cause that brings us to the crux of the matter. Is this District going to adopt Core Knowledge hook, line and sinker? If so, that means that all the content must be taught in the sequence established by the Core Knowledge Foundation. If we want the same results that other schools get, then we have to implement Core Knowledge according the Foundation’s guidelines. But maybe what this District would be just as happy with is a do-it-yourself version of Core Knowledge. That way they could leave out all that Buddhist stuff, the sex education and evolution (Creationism, here we come!!!). Of course, you wouldn’t really be doing Core Knowledge in any official way (it ain’t about the test scores anyway), but at least the good ol’ boys could brag to their conservative buddies that they got Core Knowledge into the schools. Just a little is enough for bragging rights. Plus it might just be a good punishment for all of those uppity teachers who just got that big ol’ raise…. Superintendent Beaton also addressed Core Knowledge. She has spoken with all of the elementary teachers and discovered that the teachers just don’t have enough information about Core Knowledge. In fact, they’ve received misinformation. A significant number of the teachers want to know more about it, and want to get solid information. But it has to be a grass roots movement and teachers have to want to do it for Core Knowledge to be successful. Teachers do have to support Core Knowledge for it to be successful, but do they have enough information to make a professional decision about the curriculum? Several Core Knowledge speakers (was it three or four different groups?) have addressed the faculty. Teachers have taken trips to Core Knowledge schools and attended the Core Knowledge conference. They’ve been given copies of the Core Knowledge Sequence and a book called Becoming a Core Knowledge School. Hm… I guess that they just aren’t professional enough to make up their own minds! And saga continues….. Reapportionment and Voting Regions A motion was made to authorize the solicitor to prepare a petition to modify the current voting regions in the district prior to February 13, 2001 (the date that candidates for the School Board begin circulating their petitions). A written proposal, describing the changes in the regions, was circulated. Mr. Giesler was extremely knowledgeable about the issue, using terms like “inequitable” and “what the school code requires”. Attorney Hnath referred to their earlier discussions about creating a two region plan, but he found out the school code won’t permit this. Earlier discussions? When? Who was involved? Surely not more than 2 Board members – then it becomes official deliberations. I thought the Board always had to meet in public, except for issues that require an executive session (personnel, pending litigation, etc.). I didn’t know that changing how citizens vote was a private issue. Silly me. I guess I thought the citizens should be part of this. Citizens will have a chance to be heard at the Court’s hearing. You have to wonder why the Board doesn’t want at-large voting – couldn’t be political, especially in this election year -–Could it??? Committee Membership A new policy was introduced that collapses the 6 sub-committees of the Board into 4 sub-committees (Operations, Educational Programming, Personnel, and Athletic). The President would appoint members, and everyone would serve on two committees. Gielser and Christmann took exception to the policy that said that only members on the committee could vote; any other Board members who attended the meetings were only observers. Why couldn’t you just vote in committees and make decisions there, Giesler suggested. Beaton had to explain that the full Board has to make the final votes and final decisions, not a committee. President Watson, in a conciliatory tone, said he hoped the Board as a whole could look at the possibility of getting away in some type of retreat format in order to set goals, develop action steps and plan assessments for the District (kind of like the Strategic Planning mandated by Chapter 4). Gee guys, what is this? The Slippery Rock Social Club? Hell no. It’s a school board!!!! You can’t have private meetings for strategic planning and exclude the public. You can’t have discussions about reapportionment behind closed doors. Subcommittees cannot act in place of the full board. You can’t table a motion and then put it into effect. Obviously, this Board is in desperate need of training. It’s available free of charge from the PA State School Board Association. Of course the Board doesn’t want training because then they would discover that local control doesn’t mean doing whatever they want. It means upholding the constitution and the laws of the Pennsylvania and the United States. It means involving parents and teachers. Year Long School It’s coming. I can feel it in the air. After looking at a draft of next year’s school calendar, Superintendent Beaton said she would circulate it among teachers to get their input. Brad Smith, though, asked Dr. Beaton to look into a school calendar for year round school. Dr. Beaton described how much teachers and children loved year round school (where are the parents in this equation?). And the teachers’ contract doesn’t prohibit it. York City Schools are currently dealing with this issue. Click here for more information. |
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