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NEWSROOM * CIRCULATION * ADVERTISING
Friday
September 2010
3
Community Blogs
Kim is 34 years old, married for 16 years with three kids that all attend West Allis/West Milwaukee Schools. She was born and raised in New Berlin, but spent most of her time as a child in West Allis with her grandpa. After getting married, she stayed in West Allis for three years, went away for four years, and returned to West Allis for the past 8 years. Her hope with this blog is to raise awareness of what is happening, the good and the bad, within the school district.
"Race to the Top" Grant
Governor Doyle's new plan to get federal funding money for the state of Wisconsin, or should I say MPS! Back in October Doyle did a mini-campaign to Madison, Milwaukee, and Wausau to promote a change in Wisconsin Law so that the state can get some of the federal stimulus money. In order to be in the running for the money, Wisconsin needs to toughen up academic standards, get and keep good, effective teachers, and track student performances. What does all this mean? Well, teachers will have job performance reviews based on the WKCE test scores of the students. Now, to me this doesn't seem fair. Some kids are not good test takers, but are excellent students. Some kids are excellent test takers, but struggle in the classroom. The main problem area for the test scores is in Milwaukee, that is why MPS would see the money from this stimulus package! This is the only "improvement" that would need to be passed by Legislature. Increasing the school year or the school day would be a district by district decision. Gee, wonder if WAWM will jump on that bandwagon in hopes of some cash (let's forget the students and their families on that one!). Some of his other ideas are: Maybe districts like ours need to help the students achieve during the school year so that when testing comes around they do well. We really shouldn't be laying this on the shoulders of the teachers. Specially if these teachers are told to do whatever it takes to make the students pass like not giving out homework if they feel the students will fail it anyway. That is what needs to change, not basing the teacher elvaluations on test scores. Districts need to help the students not worry about how to make more money. Heck, lets get rid of some of the unneeded jobs, here is another one: a person who does nothing but hand out detentions and monitor the students grades! Yeah we need that!
-getting rid of WKCE testing for a faster result reporting test
-update state standards of benchmarks
-improve the state aid funding formula
We encourage your comments but will strive to remove discussion that contains personal attacks, racial slurs, profanity or other inappropriate material as outlined in our guidelines. We post-moderate comments on most content, but may choose to pre-moderate some comments so please be patient if you don't see yours appear right way. We also ask for your help by reporting comments you think are inappropriate.
- Viagra covered in school health plan? (9)
- Bullies, what do we do? (12)
- OnRamp
- Restructuring, Phase II (33)
- Steps in the right direction? (3)
- Need of Change! (37)
- Budgets and Pregnancy (36)
- Lincoln Intermediate School-passing or failing? (11)
- Snow day? NOPE! (7)
- Gym/Music Grading (14)
- More Kim's Perspective posts
8 Comments
StubbornOldMan - Nov 09, 2009 8:32 PM
During Monday's Board meeting, Superintendent Wachholz made special note of his visit to DC as part of Blue Ribbon Award ceremony recognizing Walker school. He mentioned some of the specific things that Secretary Duncan had to say about continual education for teachers and staff. He made specific mention of something that a woman by the name of "Stephanie Harvey" was doing for the West Allis teachers in this regard. Me, being the inquisitive and slightly cynical person that I am, started doing a little research. Here's what I found about a seminar that Stephanie Harvey put together earlier this year down in Chicago. I'm assuming that the program Superintendent Wachholz alluded to is VERY similar if not identical to this one.
http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=687487
Is this the same 'Stephanie Harvey' that's going to tell our teachers how to teach? She's only charging $325 PER PERSON to share her 'expertise', plus an extra $130 if you want a CIU to prove that you attended. I'm sorry, but is this REALLY needed? Look at the DETAILS and AGENDA tab at the top of this page. Doesn't this sound like fluff that really should be eliminated immediately? Really, look at the Agenda and tell me that this is particularly profound, or if it's worth anywhere near the $325 (not including food/lodging) that us dumb taxpayers are being forced to pay for this seminar. Don't teachers know all of this already?
I don't want to hear any more crockodile-tears as to how the District is cutting expenses to the bare bones and that teachers and staff members are starving.
I hope you take note, Mr. Sotiros. Please pass my concern on to the other Board members about these junkets.
StubbornOldMan - Nov 10, 2009 8:38 PM
It took me a while to quit saying, "Oh My God!" after I saw some of these numbers:
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/dataondemand/33534649.html?appSession=992058793131028
Maybe you'll have a similar reaction.
Sue Stalewski - Dec 09, 2009 11:38 AM
Kim comments about the Stephanie Harvey professional development program. She is correct in that there is a cost. Often, but not always, you get what you pay for. Teachers have several times reported to the school board about the value of this program, how it has helped their practice and made them more effective even after many years of teaching. There is not a consensus among experts about the best way to deliver professional staff development and there are plenty of opinions. So far, this program appears to be meeting the goal that was intended. The understanding of cognitive science and how kids learn has grown tremendously in the past few years. Our teachers should be up to speed on this science and a single seminar or meeting among teachers doesn't always meet the need.
Everyone can be sure that the school board examines the expenses related to such initiatives and that departments, in this case curriculum, have budgets that they must adhere to. The bottom line in all school improvement and staff development initiatives is student achievement.
StubbornOldMan - Dec 10, 2009 12:31 PM
Could it be that 'WEAC Trust' is grossly overcharging the School Districts for providing health care to teachers and staff so that they can siphon money from the annual premiums to line their pockets for other purposes OTHER than providing health care? I'm sure WEAC doesn't want our School District to save the taxpayers any money by switching to UHC for health care since that would eliminiate this potential gravy train. Does anybody out there care about this? Am I the only one?
I couldn't find anything (yet) to back up what I've written above, but here's a similar story from a few years ago from down in Kenosha. I'm sure the situation outlined in this article is NOT unique to Kenosha. I'd bet anybody $20 that it applies to West Allis as well.
http://www.biztimes.com/news/2006/6/9/kenosha-teachers-stick-with-weac-insurance-so-district-cuts-jobs-2
You get what you pay for. Teachers/staff contribute NOTHING for my annual premiums (and I have considerable OOP costs). I contribute 100% for theirs (and they have negligible OOP costs).
StubbornOldMan - Dec 10, 2009 1:11 PM
http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/MILWAUKEE-WI/BLNG-IP/Belling4_12-9-09.mp3
Judge for yourself if this is newsworthy or not. I think he makes a compelling case in his analysis. What am I missing?
groovyone26 - Dec 10, 2009 9:40 PM
Another note, maybe if kids actually had to work to get good grades, maybe student achievement would show!
StubbornOldMan - Dec 11, 2009 9:57 PM
The Board really needs to review ALL spending requests rather than simply rubber stamp everything just because a teacher SAYS that it's great.
When will you see to it that the School Board will start to ACTIVELY seek less expensive health care options than is presumably offered right now? Waukesha found that UHC had an equivalent program, so I think that would be a great place for you to start. The taxpayers deserve some representation by you and the other School Board members, don't we?
You wrote, "Good dialogue among decision makers and interested citizens is the best way to effect change if change is needed." Well, I'm doing my part in contacting you here. Do you think that change is needed in this regard? Why or why not? If I'm being disrespectful to you, show me specifically what I've written to/about you that could be considered disrespectful. Assuming I'm not being disrespectful, it's appropriate for you to respond to my questions above.
Sue Stalewski - Dec 30, 2009 5:34 PM
FYI - the last round of contract negotiations did include serious investigation of other healthcare options. Making a change is easier said than done. You can be sure that this is an ongoing concern. As posted in another comment, almost no one calls or even actually writes about any of this. No feedback often translates into no concern.
Sue Stalewski