Last night was the first meeting of the CRT after the Board vote on scenario 7. There was much discussion on the timeline for developing the six subcommittees that would be responsible for hashing out the details of scenario 7 for the October Board vote. We discussed if and how the six committees would be expanded. We also discussed the focus of each subcommittee.
Below is a summary of what the committees would be and their purpose taken from documents at the meeting last night.
"Team 1: K-3, 4-8 building realignment
*Conduct further research on grade configuration
*Visit to K-3, 4-8 schools
*Clearly identify the educational benefits other schools using this configuration have experienced
*Discussed and plan for transitioning 3rd graders versus 5th graders
*Plan for how 4-5 students will be a part of the school climate and culture of a 4-8 building as to minimize any transition from 5th to 6th
Team 2: Extent of the future application of SAGE in the K-3 realignment
*Clearly define educational impact of SAGE
*Plan for how to best serve the current K-3 students in SAGE
*Determine how many buildings will be SAGE
*Conduct cost-benefit analysis for SAGE
*Set parameters for SAGE implementation in the buildings (Will research be conducted in conjunction with WCER through the first transition to see effects?)
Team 3: Special Education
*Finalize special education placement, working with special education teachers
*Finalize special education staffing impact under the new distribution
*Develop the transition timeline
*Develop a protocol for special education placement outside home school
Team 4: Attendance Area
*Become familiar with the factors affecting attendance area changes and determine whether additional factors should be considered
*Review attendance area options considered in making recommendation
*Assess the impact of the boundary shift
Team 5: Transportation
*Find out current grade configuration on buses
*Identify Special Education routes
*Identify regular education routes and transfers
*Determine bus routes for growth areas
*Contact transportation officials to determine road construction
Team 6: School building design, maintenance, and functional issues and referendum analysis.
*Determine which schools in the lowest quartiles should be closed
*Determine which maintenance, functional, and ADA needs will be addresses in the remaining schools
*Bid architectural services
*Commission building drawings (design and layout)
*Explore green buildings vs. not green building
*Communicate plan to various constituents
*Determine recommended funding plan (e.g.: 15 years, 20 years, exceed annual revenue caps, etc.) to finance agreed upon plans"
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
CRT Update
Saturday, April 14, 2007
School Configurations
Part of the planning process for scenario 7 is a new configuration for our schools. While the current plan is to turn all schools into K-3, 4-8, and 9-12, it might be necessary to consider additional options. Clearly not everyone will get everything they want. However, there may be fair compromises. What would you consider a reasonable compromise? Which of the below would you consider? Feel free to vote for more than one in each category.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Vision For Oshkosh Area School
Scenario 7 has now gone to the planning process. There are others in our community who are working on additional possibilities for scenario 7 and for alternative scenarios and referendum questions. I have been asked to host a public forum of sorts for people to discuss ideas, questions, and make suggestions for the direction our district should go in.
Anyone can post with or without their name. You can post anonymously, however, choosing an alias will make the discussion a little easier. Posts will be moderated to prevent anonymouses who just want to rant or call names from disrupting discussions. Everything else associated with the scenario will be approved as soon as I get the notice that someone has posted.
The goal is to help create a scenario (whether just helping to develop scenario 7 or another option) that the community can support. Our focus should be on the entire community from elders on limited and fixed incomes, to families with no children or children in parochial schools or home schooled, to families with children in the system or not yet in the school system.
Board of Education, April 4, 2007
2 teachers from Webster Stanley: SAGE is to help children in poverty in high poverty schools. Increased teacher collaboration. Daily, weekly, and monthly checklists. Buildings stay open later and open earlier.
Shannon Walter: Has 3 special needs students. Special Ed gets moved around a lot. Get schools consistent. Find a home for programs and keep them there. Regular Ed benefits from Special Ed students – diversity. Busing is an hour each way from behind Fleet Farm to E. Cook. One student has to be let out of school 15 minutes early because kids are split between Roosevelt and E. Cook. Both schools let out at same time.
Eric Whiting: Keep Green Meadow open. School is a community. Money raised by parents and repairs done are causing Green Meadow to lose district funds. PTO raised money for computers, the next year district bought computers for everyone else and ignored GM. Parents rebuilt baseball diamond when district wouldn’t and was reprimanded. Look for grants.
Paula Steger: Defended herself against angry couple from Algoma about writing letters for Amy, her daughter. Amy is capable of writing her own letters. Need to move forward. Letters from children who love their teachers are not important. Children will adapt and love their new teachers. Cannot just focus on just own children. Need to focus on whole district. Moved four children around and they were fine. If the adults have a positive attitude, the children can adapt.
Janie Robson: Brought cookies for hardworking BOE. Subbed for 5yrs. Fought for her school (Webster Stanley) when it was supposed to be changed. Now we have a deficit. Animosity and negative needs to stop. Brought information for the Town of Algoma to make them feel better about going to “the hood.” Property tax comparison and annexing Town into Oshkosh.
Reports:
Policy and Governance
Facilities and Finance
Superintendent’s Report
Reorganization Meeting on Monday 4/27 at 7pm in OASD Board Room
Consent Agenda Resolutions 1-4 voted yes
Resolution 5: Scenario 7
Bowen: Do we have to read the whole thing? Don’t people have copies?
Kavanaugh: Read entire resolution.
Traska: Introduced amended resolution. Too many questions need to be answered. Do not have a boundary policy. Make transition teams into planning teams. Direct Administration to complete plan before final vote.
McDermott: Clarifies language.
Weinsheim: Don’t want to water things down. Language is okay. Need to build, not tear down.
Bowen: What does the administration think?
Amendment carried 7-0
Schneider: Scenario 7 without contentious language is good but still has problems. Doesn’t mention price tag. Illogical components. Could end up only $1.5 million plus educational benefits. Need something more concrete.
Weinsheim: Should not count on intuition have heard other opinions in district. Never thought this vote will ensure public support. Voting to continue moving forward. If we don’t, we lose educational value, increase class sizes, increase deficits, increase deferred maintenance.
McDermott: Board needs the direction to move forward.
Bowen: Keeps thinking about Shannon Walters and her children having to keep switching schools.
Sween: Important that district moves forward. Board has to be very supportive. Hopefully the public will want to be educated about this and it is a benefit for whole community.
Kavanaugh: Not a rush job. People need to provide input along the way.
Amended Resolution voted 6-1. Schneider lone no vote.
Workshop 1: Preliminary Review of OASD Boundary Policy
The Oshkosh Area School District Board of Education believes that, whenever possible, students should attend the school closest to their home. However, in order to avoid overcrowding in certain schools and underutilization in others, the school board shall designate school attendance areas.
A boundary change shall be considered when enrollment trends/projections meet the following:
- over 105% or below 65% of full capacity for elementary schools
- over 105% or below 80% of full capacity for middle schools
- a disparity of 500 or more students between North and West High Schools
The Superintendent/designee shall be responsible for the boundary policy. The Superintendent/designee shall review the enrollment/enrollment projections and make necessary recommendations to the school board. Recommendations as to whether to initiate changes in the boundary policy need to be made by January 31st of the current school term for the following school year.
Attendance area boundaries shall not be changed except by a school board vote requiring simple majority. Factors that will be considered when redistricting are found in the attached rules.
[Note: Rules were not attached.]
Workshop 2: Electronic Grade Book based on Benchmarks
Parents will have internet access to students grades based on proficiency benchmarks. Year one cost is $25,000, year 2 cost is $40,000 to $60,000, and year 3 cost is $40,000 to $70,000. Each year after will be $40,000.
Workshop 3: Student Fees
Fees are for supplies, special course fees, and field trips. The fees for things like CDs, agendas, etc are not to exceed actual cost of the item to the district.
Thank You
Thank you to all who voted, the 4513 who voted for me, and all who helped with my campaign. It has been a long road and was a close election.
I am grateful for all the people who have come into my life and I am especially grateful for the new friends I have made during this election. It is amazing what can being people together for a common good.
The future is yet unwritten, and I will be taking time to enjoy each day as it comes. I will continue to post here about OASD happenings and the future of our neighborhoods and schools.
Thank You Again.
Michelle Monte
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
E-Day
Well, here we are counting down the hours until the results come in. There could be a small change to the School Board or a large change. Then there is always the possibility of no change depending on which combination of candidates gets seats. Regardless, life will go on and our district will continue down the path it is on.
So, if you have not voted yet, please consider braving the rainy day and cast your ballot for the future of our schools and our children. All it takes is one vote to change the course of things in a positive direction. Call your friends, email everyone on your list and encourage them to vote today. Car pool with those that cannot drive. Take advantage of this simple way to make a huge difference.
For those that have voted, regardless of whom you cast your ballot for, thank you for taking part in the process that is so essential right now.
Thank you to all of the wonderful people I have met and those that have helped with my campaign. I'll reserve those names for personal correspondence, I'm sure no one is doing this for public notoriety. Know that I appreciate everything from putting up signs to dropping flyers, making phone calls and emails to stopping people on the street. Every contribution was greatly appreciated. I am so proud to be able to say that I ran a clean and positive campaign worthy of our wonderful children, our great schools, and our community.
After today, I will continue to advocate for our children, our schools, and our community. I will continue to post updates and send email updates to those who are interested. I will continue to work with our schools to ensure whatever plan is enacted is what we want, truly efficient, and in the best interest of our children.
Thank you all and remember to take five minutes and vote. I was number 27 at 7:30 this morning at Traeger.
Michelle Monte
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Liars In Our Midst
It would seem the negative campaigning from the Thiel camp has taken of with a vengeance. An anonymous person posted that Dan Rylance comented in the past that Teresa Thiel should have resigned in 2003 as an ineffective board member. Teresa Thiel's good friend Cheryl Hentz of Eye on Oshkosh claims to have contacted Dan to look into this comment and states that his response was, "THE COMMENT MADE BY THE ANONYMOUS POSTER IS 'TOTALLY INACCURATE!'"
Really? Then what is:
WILL THERE BE MAJOR CHANGES IN THE OSHKOSH SCHOOL BOARD IN 2003? BY DAN RYLANCE
[Note, the bold Italics are my addition.]
Readers might recall that the Board became deadlocked on a 3-3 vote because Theresa Thiel, the seventh Board member, is prevented by Wisconsin law from voting on the budget because her spouse is a School District employee. He inability to vote gave added impetus and power to the three anti-Heilmann Board members.
Since the Budget will mostly certainly remain a major focus for 2003, Thiel, will remain a non-player. A key seventh member on the sidelines because of her conflict of interest. Thus, there will be only six voting members on the Board for the crucial budget cuts forthcoming. Her vote for support of Heilmann's agenda won't count. She's become a non-voting and irrelvant Board member.
There are some other issues to consider.
First, if there are more than six filed candidates, state law requires a primary election in February. This will be a very low turnout contest which probably will favor the incumbents.
Second, a Kogutkiewicz win would be the worst case scenario for Heilmann. Kogutkiewicz spent three years talking endlessly to himself and believing that he knew more about how to micro-manage the School District than anyone else. He had no takers then and probably could count on one hand the number of motions he made that passed. If elected, this would no longer be true. He would not only have others to listen, but others who would vote with him as well.
Third, if the three team candidates emerge, will they have much support? The answer is, of course, unknown. But a slate is more radical than a single candidate and poses far greater implications for the future direction of the School District.
Fourth, another variable would be for Thiel to resign her seat soon. She must realize that her power on budget matters is lost and that she will continue to hold a seat without a vote next year.
[On a side note, union negotiations are forthcoming.]