In This Issue:
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INCLUDING TEACHERS IN THE STUDENT MENTAL-HEALTH CONTINUUM |
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STUDENTS NEED 20 MINUTES TO EAT + PARENT ENGAGEMENT MAY BE KEY TO ACHIEVEMENT + smf’s 1¢ |
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SOME THINGS ABOUT GOOD TEACHING NEVER CHANGE |
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WELCOME BACK, MR. MAGRUDER |
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HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but
not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources |
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EVENTS: Coming up next week... |
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What can YOU do? |
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Featured Links:
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LAUSD has a new $7.27 billion budget. It’s the best budget for kids we’ve had for years.
For comparison, the pre-recession 2007-08 budget, which was balanced, was for $19.5 billion. [http://bit.ly/UYWpE7] It's and apples2oranges comparison, from another time ...but those are the numbers.
More money will go this year for socioeconomically challenged students,
for English language learners and for youngsters in foster care. The
Local Control Funding Formula/Local Control Accountability Plan required
added funding for ‘Unduplicated Pupils’ …and I secretly hope that
whoever came up with that designation is taken out and silently shot.
Children are not ‘unduplicated ‘anything. They are not cells in an Excel
spreadsheet or data points on a slide in a PowerPoint deck. They are
unique individuals who properly nutured+encouraged grow NOT into
College-Ready/Career-Prepared widgets with forever rising test scores,
but into productive small ‘c’ citizens of a place we+they imagine just
beyond the limb of the horizon.
This budget and the LCFF attempt to level the playing field for poor and
foster children. It cannot correct those conditions – at best it can
only ‘correct-for ‘them. No poor children will move from poverty into
the middle class - or from foster care into familial function as an
immediate result of this investment. However we can expect (and should
demand) improved outcome from increased focus on English language
learners – whether they came from homes where another language is spoken
…or need to learn standard /academic English to succeed.
I have been asked to put a positive political spin on this budget – and I
do. This is not the best possible budget or even the best possible
budget in the context of the limits we find ourselves in. Superintendent
Deasy himself told the board this level of spending is “woefully,
woefully inadequate” – a factor that limits positive spin.
I witnessed much of the sausage making: The community meetings and the
public testimony and the meetings of the LCAP Parent Advisory Committee.
I never really witnessed true effective parent+community engagement –
only that the requirements therefore were complied with. The PAC
produced laundry lists of comments replied to boilerplate; their
attempts to produce a committee report and deliver it to the Board of Ed
were rebuffed.
The positive points for this budget are.
• The focus on Foster Kids – previously ignored+short-changed by the
County and the District; LAUSD could actually emerge on the cutting edge
on policy in large urban districts. (However we must remember that the
LCFF is temporary funding fix relying upon a temporary tax increase)
• Increased investment in School Libraries.
• The last minute commitment to funding the Family Literacy program.
• And the last minute attempted fix to the Arts+Music Ed Budget – how this plays out remains to be seen.
__________
At last Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting the following “not an
amendment” to the Arts and Music Education Budget detail was offered by
Boardmember Steve Zimmer and accepted by the superintendent and the
Board of Education without objection.
"Adoption of the Arts Education line item in the 2014-15 budget is
contingent on the submission of a revised plan from the new Executive
Director in August, which includes, but is not limited to:
● A plan to add funding to the Arts Instruction implementation plan that uses District, grant and/or Foundation funds,
● A detailed budget showing how much more money would be required to
expand beyond the proposed 9 week rotation arts proposal presented to
the Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee in April to
semester rotations and full year rotations,
● The creation of an Arts Equity Index indicating access to
comprehensive arts education bringing the index factors to the Board in
September and the Index for approval in December, and
● The formation of Arts Equity Working Group to advise the Executive
Director and the Board of Education on implementation, funding and
access issues."
_________
A budget isn’t the deal, done. It is a plan. Martin Luther King said
that a budget is a moral document – how moral this one is will play out
as the year plays out.
As these things go this is the best woefully² inadequate budget we are
going to get. (And the Board of Ed invested more time and passion in
debating the start time of their meeting next Tuesday than they did on
the 2014-2015 budget.) Watch this space.
A PAIR OF POLLS WERE TAKEN – one funded by Gates +Co. [ http://bit.ly/1pNlQSx], the other by the teachers’ unions [http://bit.ly/1r1Ki6x] – on what the Vergara Decision means. This may come as a surprise, but different conclusions were reached.
The LAUSD budget invests more in SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH – and as you will read below, that is a very wise investment.
And what do you know? IT’S NOT ENOUGH THAT WE FEED STUDENTS A HEALTHY AND NUTRITIOUS LUNCH. They need time to eat it!
...AND SLEEP...
AND ENGAGING PARENTS IN THEIR CHILDREN’S EDUCATION MATTERS! Who knew?
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
INCLUDING TEACHERS IN THE STUDENT MENTAL-HEALTH CONTINUUM
Commentary By Thomas J. Cottle and Jennifer Greif Green | Education Week http://bit.ly/1qiI2HS
Published Online: June 20, 2014 :: The location changes, but the story
is a familiar one: An angry young man*—sometimes a teenager—guns down
others in a public place. Whether it's Troutdale, Ore.; Isla Vista,
Calif.; or Newtown, Conn., questions soon arise about the mental health
of the killer and whether treatment could have prevented a tragedy.
Findings from the most recent National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent
Supplement, conducted from 2001 to 2004 and to date the largest
nationally representative study of child and adolescent mental
disorders, tell a striking story. Almost half the 13- through
18-year-olds studied met criteria for a mental disorder. Yet two-thirds
of those with a disorder never received mental-health treatment. Even
among those with the most severe disorders, only half reported receiving
treatment for their symptoms.
There are many explanations for this gap in treatment. At the
intersection of stigma, shame, budget constraints, the distances to
doctors' offices, and inadequate insurance coverage stand the parents,
teachers, pediatricians, psychologists, counselors, and social workers
who provide the best care they can, almost always with limited
resources.
Despite their many other professional burdens, teachers remain in one of
the best positions to attend to children exhibiting mental distress.
Parents, only naturally, are biased and emotionally invested. They
surely know their children better than anyone, but have limited
knowledge of typical and atypical child development. Pediatricians, on
the other hand, are knowledgeable purveyors of information on children,
given their experiences with hundreds if not thousands of them, but a
physician is unlikely to know an individual child as well as the child's
teacher does.
So it is that we turn again to teachers. The essence of school would
seem to be about the wellbeing of children, helping them live their
lives according to their best lights, as University of Pennsylvania
President Amy Gutmann has written. They need to be educated, as well as
cared for, in ways that will help them thrive. It is not melodramatic to
assert, therefore, that education is a life-or-death enterprise.
Teacher referral of children to mental-health treatment is, however, a
complex matter. It requires that teachers first recognize that students
need help, and, second, conceptualize that need as a mental or emotional
one and not just a medical, disciplinary, or parenting problem. But
that is only the beginning. Teachers need to assess risk, know whether
and with whom to consult, and then be confident that there are resources
available for students.
In a series of interviews that one of us (Jennifer Green) conducted with
junior high and high school teachers, they described the challenges
they face. A high school math teacher said: "My average student I see
for 50 minutes, 55 minutes, and unfortunately based on time and the
things that you're trying to get through, … I know that there are things
that I missed. … I'm sure that there are people who are suffering from
some sort of emotional distress or just some general dissonance and, I
don’t know how to address those."
An 8th grade history teacher talked about an all-too-common challenge:
"We lost our full-time counselor last year, so when I first started at
the beginning of the year, we didn't have a counselor." The school has a
new counselor, but the teacher added: "I'm not sure exactly what the
procedure is to utilize his services. Or even what days he's exactly
in."
“Some teachers welcome the student-support role, but are unsure how to
help students or where to find the information they need.”
From a high school math teacher: "I'm always just wishing we could do
more to support these kids better. Put them in smaller classes. Have
them connected to adults. How do we have every student in the school
feel connected to an adult in the building? How do you get to know 1,500
kids and make sure they’re all connected somewhere? I think really,
really, really the key—whether we're talking about their emotional
health or their academic ability—is that students feel personally cared
about, and I don't know how we do that."
Some teachers welcome the student-support role, but are unsure how to
help students or where to find the information they need to do this
well. Most teachers have little or no training in the complexities of
addressing student mental-health issues.
Further, how do teachers balance the needs of individual students with those of an entire class?
From a high school teacher: "Our role in society is pretty vague, and I
think for some teachers, they feel more like parents and are willing to
accept that added responsibility, and for other teachers, I think myself
included, I don’t like that responsibility. I didn't become a teacher
to also become a parent. I pursued teaching because of the subject that I
love, and I wanted to share that passion with young people.
"I just think if teachers knew more about the resources out there that
we could use, just to prepare ourselves. … I can go on the Internet and
do a Google search, but how do I know that that’s the right thing?"
It seems essential that teachers possess an understanding of normal and
abnormal psychological development. They need not become experts in
diagnosis or treatment; no one is suggesting they assume the role of
therapist or counselor. But if we insist that regular classroom teachers
receive training in special education, then why not instruction in
mental health or, at the very least, the signs of potential danger?
President Barack Obama actually called for such training in 2013.
A number of programs designed to instruct teachers in identifying and
responding to mental-health and behavioral challenges already exist. For
example, the American Psychiatric Foundation’s "Typical or Troubled?"
program trains school staff members to identify signs of trouble among
adolescents. Ought not this training be universal?
The reality is that many schools and communities are sorely lacking
affordable and high-quality mental-health resources for young people.
Let us hold in mind that children don’t slip through the cracks; they
are overlooked, neglected, or at times simply improperly cared for. The
path to understanding remains today as it did for Immanuel Kant: "[T]he
human being can only become human through education." But let us add
that recognizing, understanding, and treating mental illness are
ingredients of that education.
Knowing what we do, how can we not act on these words from a high school
English teacher: "We have to be the bridge—we know them the most, we
see them the most, we see them consistently every day for however many
minutes, and even though we have a lot of support systems, those people
aren't going to know about it unless someone refers them."
Thomas J. Cottle is a professor of education at Boston University
and the author of At Peril: Stories of Injustice (Rowman &
Littlefield, 2013.) Jennifer Greif Green is an assistant professor of
education at Boston University, where she studies school-based
mental-health services.
__________
* smf: In the interest of gender equality and Title IX: The authors seem
to have forgotten the case of 16-year-old Brenda Spencer who shot up
Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego on January 29, 1979, The
principal and a custodian were killed. According to Wikipedia, Brenda,
who had a history of mental illness, asked for a radio for her birthday –
and instead her father gave her a semi-automatic rifle and 500 rounds
of ammo.
U P D A T E
Pia V. Escudero, Director, LAUSD School Mental Health, Crisis Counseling & Intervention Services, writes 4LAKids:
Thank you for highlighting this article.
It is very relevant for our teachers at LAUSD. This year, we are
successfully launching a 5 hour training for new teachers, district
interns, and new SPED teachers.
Our focus is: Shifting the Lens from What’s Wrong? …to What Happened?
How to Promote Health and Wellness for Students in your classroom.
The five hour training includes:
● The connection between a student’s life experiences and their
behaviors at school, including the impact of stressful/traumatic events
on student’s behavior, spectrum of mental health and disorders,
development, social-emotional learning, and academics;
● Protective and risk factors and how they are crucial for building resilience in the classroom;
● The 5 component of Psychological First Aid, an evidence-informed model
that can be used when students are in crisis and a daily dose of
improving school climate;
● The warning signs and risk factors for students who may exhibit
suicidal/homicidal ideations or behaviors and what the District protocol
is for responding to these situations and how to get students access to
help;
● How life stressors can impact teacher’s own physical and psychological
well-being; self care strategies to working with students.
The emphasis on our seminars is to empower teachers to connect with
their students, setting high expectations, and ensure they access
services for their students, their families, or themselves when needed.
Human Resources has been had the foresight of collaborating closely with
School Mental Health for years, this new initiative is very proactive
and truly welcomed by teachers who want to teach but know mental health
and behavior issues impede our students ability to succeed if untreated.
STUDENTS NEED 20 MINUTES TO EAT + PARENT ENGAGEMENT MAY BE KEY TO ACHIEVEMENT + smf’s 1¢
►Sacramento Lawmakers in AB 2449: STUDENTS NEED 20 MINUTES TO EAT
by Alisha Kirby | SI&A Cabinet Report :: http://bit.ly/UOBtQe
June 26, 2014 :: (Calif.) A bill headed for a final vote in the state
Senate addresses a problem many kids and parents would like to see
resolved: Students not having enough time to eat lunch at school.
Twenty minutes, according to the California Department of Education, is
considered the minimum “adequate time” to consume a meal once it has
been served. AB 2449 would require schools not hitting that mark to
coordinate with their district or county office of education on a plan
to increase students’ time to eat beginning in the 2015-16 school year.
“If kids are buying lunch, they’re standing in line the entire time, and
by the time they sit down to eat, they have to throw it away because
lunch time is over,” said Tiffany Jensen, a parent of two who has
volunteered in the cafeteria at Twin Lakes Elementary.
“If their class is one of the last ones coming into the lunchroom
they’ve got probably less than 5 minutes,” she said in an interview with
Cabinet Report. The kids that bring lunch get about 15 or 20 minutes,”
she said.
With the passage in 2010 of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, greater
focus has been placed on making sure kids are actually eating healthier
foods. The goal of the law, which requires that more whole grain
products as well as fruits and vegetables be served in schools, is to
reduce childhood obesity by lowering calorie intake.
Research showing kids learn better when they’re rested and fed has
prompted student and education advocates as well as law makers to focus
on making sure that happens.
The CDE issued guidance in 2013 along with research suggesting that less
time to eat discourages students from buying and eating complete
lunches, and that waiting in line is the most common issue students have
with lunches.
According to a staff analysis of AB 2449, less than 25 percent of
elementary schools and 8 percent of middle and high schools have
policies regulating the amount of time that students have to eat. The
last student in line during the lunch period would only receive at least
20 minutes to eat at an estimated 28 percent of elementary schools and
45 percent of middle and high schools.
At Twin Lakes, the lunch period is 45 minutes, according to the school
website. However, kids are allowed to leave the cafeteria early. Some
students eager to be outside with friends spend the least amount of time
they can in the lunchroom.
“[Schools] incentivize it,” said Jensen. “As soon as a kid is finished,
they just sit there quietly and then [staff] lets them go to recess.
Then the kids just dump their trays.”
Part of the problem, according to Denise Ohm, school nutrition
specialist for the Enterprise Elementary School District, is what she
calls “school lunch room culture.”
“It’s meal time – we’re here to eat, try new foods and take our time,”
said Ohm, describing her ideal cafeteria, where an adult sits with
children during the whole serving period encouraging them to eat.
“I don’t know where that kind of funding would come from,” she admitted,
noting that schools would have to provide extra staff to supervise the
lunchroom and playgrounds. “The intention of the bill is to ensure more
eating time, but I don’t know if legislation can help us with that.”
___________________
►PARENT ENGAGEMENT MAY BE KEY TO ACHIEVEMENT + smf’s 1¢
by Carrie Marovich SI&A Cabinet Report :: http://bit.ly/THJxRT
June 24, 2014 (Md.) :: Books and Baseball Night. Fiesta-val of Math.
Family Digital Summit. Fish Fry and Social Hour. For schools across the
nation last year these family-oriented events – and dozens like them –
were more than just fun ways to promote learning.
They were all part of locally-designed, research-based plans to foster
partnerships between schools and families with the ultimate goal of
heightening academic achievement.
Ramping up parent involvement in their children’s learning is an
emerging strategy for raising student achievement, according to Dr.
Joyce Epstein, director of the National Network for Partnership Schools
at Johns Hopkins University.
“Our research shows that well-designed and well-implemented programs of
partnerships improve schools, strengthen families, energize communities,
and increase student success at all grade levels,” said Epstein, who
has been studying the impact of parent involvement at the school,
district and state level for more than 30 years.
Many studies have established a connection between academically involved parents and higher achievement levels.
A 2005 study by Canadian researchers Lise Saint-Laurent and Jocelyne
Giasson showed that first grade students made notable academic gains
after nine parent information sessions over the course of a year. The
sessions, which encouraged parents to visit libraries with their
children and showed them how to lead writing and reading activities at
home, resulted in significantly higher student scores on general reading
and writing tests, as well as measures of sentence structure,
vocabulary, spelling and written narratives.
Similarly, a study published in the School Community Journal in 2012
found that when migrant families with kindergarteners attended 25
one-hour sessions that taught them how to work with their children on
specific curricular skills, those children had significantly higher
reading skills in fifth and sixth grade compared with students whose
families did not attend the educational sessions.
Although federal law has long required that every district and school
receiving Title I funding develop a written plan for engaging parents,
it’s an area that Epstein says has been largely neglected. As research
reveals the academic gains that can be had by showing parents how to
engage in their children’s learning, states and districts are beginning
to embrace the family as an effective learning support.
In California, for example, a new mechanism for funding schools, the
Local Control Funding Formula, requires districts to adopt Local Control
Accountability Plans that address the state’s eight priorities for
schools – one of which is parental involvement. In their plans,
districts are required to show how expenditures will be used to
encourage parent involvement in district educational programs.
Currently, the National Network for Partnership Schools works with 60
member districts and 600 elementary, middle and high schools across the
nation to implement a research-based model for family and community
involvement.
Epstein says the network helps to develop school and district leaders
charged with making parents a larger part of the educational equation.
“Districts all have experts for implementing research-based programs in
reading, math, and other subjects, but not on family and community
engagement, she said. “Now, our studies indicate that this is something
that districts must focus on."
Schools that join the network as a partnership school develop an action
plan that includes all family and community involvement activities to be
carried out by teachers and school groups for the year. Activities by
member schools last year ranged from family math and literacy nights to
surveys of parents regarding school climate, and community service
efforts that brought families together to help those in need.
The success stories from the partnership schools are published each year
by the network, Epstein said, to highlight the accomplishments of the
participating schools and to serve as a source of inspiration for other
schools hoping to get parents more involved in their children’s
education. (Click here to read Promising Partnership Practices.)
In addition to organizing fun family events, partnership schools also
implement a homework program called Teachers Involve Parents in
Schoolwork, or TIPS. The interactive homework students take home in the
TIPS program is done with a parent or other family member who then
provides the teacher with feedback as to how the well the assignment was
completed.
A three-year case study by network researchers found that when math
teachers at an elementary school implemented the TIPS program most
parents became more involved in their student’s schoolwork and were
grateful for the additional guidance the program offered. More to the
point, the student’s math scores on state tests improved over the course
of the study compared to scores of students in comparison schools.
Scores for fourth grade students, for example, increased from 54 percent
to 66 percent, while same-grade students at a comparison school rose
from 54 percent to just 60 percent.
These results were bolstered by a 2011 study of third- and fourth-grade
students in the TIPS program, which showed not only that students’
enjoyment of math homework increased due to the parental involvement
component, but also that TIPS students had higher standardized math
scores than did a control group.
According to Epstein, a major reason schools and teachers are often
hesitant about involving parents or other family members in their
practice is that teachers generally do not receive training about how to
effectively work with families.
“So far, that kind of training hasn’t been typical in college courses
for future teachers or administrators,” she said. “If educators are not
sure of what they are doing, they are going to be wary of taking action.
Our work with districts and schools across the country indicates that
by providing the right training in research-based approaches to create
these partnerships, the fears go away.”
● smf’s 1¢: Like, duh.
SOME THINGS ABOUT GOOD TEACHING NEVER CHANGE
By Dennis McCarthy, LA Daily News columnist, http://bit.ly/VxUQhd
6/27/14, 3:50 PM PDT :: It’s been nearly four decades since Rose
Horkin stood in front of a classroom of elementary school kids with a
piece of chalk and a blackboard eraser in her hand.
Last week, the 96-year-old retired teacher stood in front of a classroom
of her peers holding $1,000 scholarship checks for two young teachers
just starting their careers.
“Every day we have new technology coming into the classroom to help us
do our jobs, but you had nothing but a piece of chalk and your passion
and skill,” says 24-year-old Samantha Farkas, one of those new teachers.
“I hope I can be half as energetic and helpful to young teachers as you have been when I’m in my 90s.”
Rose smiles and gives Samantha and 23-year-old Maria Arienza a hug.
“Come back in 50 years and join us,” she says, as the 40 members of the
California Retired Teachers Association in attendance share a laugh.
Sure, it’s true the tools of the trade have changed a lot, but the heart
and soul of being a teacher is still the same — whether you’re using an
iPad or a pointer.
You still have to connect with your kids and find a way to give them
every piece of knowledge you’ve learned from all those teachers who
handed it down to you over the years.
If you can’t do that, quit, and find another career. If you can, please stay because we desperately need you.
Samantha is getting her master’s degree in special education at
California State Northridge, while pulling a double shift teaching at a
private special ed school in Culver City.
Maria graduated last year from the CSUN teaching credentials program and
is a freshman teacher at San Fernando High, not far from where she grew
up in Sylmar.
The scholarship money these two young women received will go toward
tuition fees and putting a dent in their student loans. It’s not a lot
of money, but that’s not the important thing here, Maria says.
“These teachers have been where we’re going,” she says. “To know that
they feel I’m deserving of this scholarship makes it so special. It
motivates me to be an even better teacher.”
During lunch, Rose took the young women by the arm to the back of the
room at the Northridge Women’s Club. It’s here, at a long table covered
in everything from fruit and nuts to scarves and jewelry, that she’s
been able to raise scholarship money for more than 100 young teachers
over the last three decades.
At 96, Rose still hits the road a couple of times a month to restock her
supply, swinging by 9th and Santee downtown to buy her scarves and
jewelry at wholesale, before heading over to a little spot off Van Nuys
Boulevard where she picks up organic fruit and fresh bakery at a special
teachers discount.
“I’m always looking for offbeat stuff because it sells,” says Rose, who
began her career in elementary school education in 1941 teaching the
children of GI’s stationed at Camp Roberts in Paso Robles.
“From there I taught the kids of migrant farm workers in the Central
Valley before moving to L.A. and teaching for 29 years at Sherman Oaks
Elementary School. I started teaching fourth grade and worked my way
down to first grade by the time I retired in 1977.”
After that, she and her late husband, Jack, began delivering Meals on
Wheels to shut-ins and volunteering at Olive View Medical Center making
books for sick kids in the hospital.
But it was always education she cared about the most so she joined the
local chapter of the retired teacher’s association, and Valley
University Women — then she went shopping for scholarships.
“Without Rose and her little boutique in the back of the room we’d never
have been able to raise the funds to help so many talented, young
teachers just starting their careers,” says Eileen Banta, co-president
of Division 19, the local chapter of the California Retired Teachers
Association.
A few days after the luncheon, Samantha put it all in perspective.
“It was so motivating to walk around that room and have all these
teachers and administrators with so much experience come up to you and
offer their support and advice,” she said.
“I’m taking everything they said back to the classroom with me for my
special education kids. It’s important that they, like all students,
find that one teacher who won’t give up on them.”
And isn’t that all we ask of our teachers?
WELCOME BACK, MR. MAGRUDER
From the AALA Update of 6 23 2014 | http://bit.ly/TpBk4p
On Sunday, June 15, 2014, the young grandson of an AALA staff member
noticed on the table an article she had clipped from the Los Angeles
Times. He read the title, AN L.A. UNIFIED WATCHDOG GETS PUNISHED FOR
BARKING, and said, “Well, that’s mean. Dogs are supposed to bark.”
Out of the mouths of babes!
She explained to him the metaphor Steve Lopez, the writer of the
article, was using and the grandson replied, “Then they should just let
him do his job.” As Walenn ran off to do other things, she realized that
he had hit the nail on the head. Why not let Stuart Magruder just do
his job? Wasn’t he just carrying out his role on the LAUSD Bond
Oversight Committee (BOC)?
Stuart Magruder was selected by the American Institute of Architects
(AIA) two years ago to represent them in their seat on the BOC, a
committee that was formed to represent taxpayers and reassure them that
bond revenues were being spent wisely. The BOC is composed of a group of
15 volunteer citizens who truly have no vote on policy decisions or
binding authority, but can publicly raise important questions about
expenditures related to the bonds.
The story began when the LAUSD Board voted to not reappoint Mr. Magruder
to his position on the BOC in May. Board Member Tamar Galatzan opposed
his reappointment because she felt that he had overstepped his
boundaries by questioning curriculum and policy related to the $1
billion purchase of iPads for every student, teacher and administrator
in the District. She was quoted in the Times as saying, "He's an
architect and ... has made many forays into telling the instructional
people how to do instruction…I think it's inappropriate…”
Yes, Stuart Magruder has been one of the most vocal critics of the iPad
mega-project, raising some prescient questions (some of which are
loosely paraphrased below) that were timely, compelling and justified:
• Is the purchase of iPads an appropriate use of money that has been earmarked for construction?
• Why iPads versus other, possibly less expensive tablets or laptops?
• Why was the need for keyboards not determined prior to the purchase?
• Why was the software purchased sight unseen, in some cases before even being developed?
• Why was there so little teacher training?
• Who is responsible for lost and damaged tablets?
It was not that he was opposed to the use of technology or wanted to
deny students access to current tools, his “…primary concern was that
there clearly was no strong pedagogical idea behind this program…” He
felt that the proposal was poorly planned, not enough collaboration with
teachers occurred and that the District was buying an old, legacy
version of the iPad that was going to be out-of-date in a few years
(with more than 20 years still left to pay on the bonds). Once Magruder
started asking the tough questions, the media, parents, AALA and others
joined in. As a result, the District renegotiated with Apple to get a
reduced price and a current version of the iPad and then voted to
somewhat slow down the rollout.
These efforts cost Stuart Magruder, a parent of two LAUSD students, his position on the BOC.
But he would not go quietly. Making his removal from the BOC a public
issue brought him waves of support from various organizations, blogs,
the media and individuals. The LA Times ran an editorial titled LAUSD
HAS ENOUGH YES-MEN; IT NEEDS STUART MAGRUDER in which it called the
Board’s move terrible on several fronts, saying that the iPad proposal
was passed with a disturbing swiftness and lack of critical thinking.
The Times said that LAUSD should be grateful to have Stuart Magruder to
protect bond dollars from misuse.
Even though the Board removed Mr. Magruder from the committee, the local
chapter of AIA remained firm that he was their appointee to the
committee and disagreed that the Board could reject their choice. On
Tuesday, June 17, 2014, in a 4-2 vote, Stuart Magruder was reappointed
to the BOC. Steve Lopez’ article on Wednesday, June 18, was titled:
WATCHDOG BACK ON THE JOB. Now the AALA staff member can tell her
grandson that Mr. Magruder can again do his job …at least for another
two years.
AALA applauds the Board President, Dr. Richard Vladovic, and Board
Members, Bennett Kayser, Mónica Ratliff and Steve Zimmer, for their
thoughtful decision to reinstate Mr. Magruder to this most critical
role. Welcome back, Mr. Magruder.
●● smf: This is another retelling of a story that bears retelling. To
those who complain that LAUSD doesn’t offer comprehensive Civics
education – or even deep discussion of ethics – we have this example.
LAUSD never runs short of “Teachable Moments” and AALA staffer Walenn
and her grandson shared a civics lesson, an ethical discussion and
tutorial on metaphor. The danger Ms. Galatzan and her allies faced in
the singling out and elimination Stuart Magruder was in creating a
martyr. Now that he’s back she’s created a myth.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T
FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other
Sources
CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE IF GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS’ PRIVATE E-MAILS ARE PUBLIC + smf’s 2¢ http://bit.ly/1vkx1nw
Updated: INCLUDING TEACHERS IN THE STUDENT MENTAL-HEALTH CONTINUUM ...including #LAUSD | http://bit.ly/1pWmuiL
POLL FINDS COMMON CORE OPPOSITION RISING IN CALIFORNIA http://bit.ly/1mlJAcA
Commentary: INCLUDING TEACHERS IN THE STUDENT MENTAL-HEALTH CONTINUUM http://bit.ly/1pWmuiL
Sacramento Lawmakers in AB 2449: STUDENTS NEED 20 MINUTES TO EAT http://bit.ly/1iAmnZJ
Retweeting@HowardBlume: US STUDENTS BEST AT...oops, sorry, I dozed off... OUR KIDS ARE BEST IN THE WORLD @ BEING SLEEPY! | http://bit.ly/1pop2rY
STANDARD & POOR’S RATES OUTLOOK FOR CHARTER SCHOOL SECTOR AS ‘NEGATIVE’ http://bit.ly/1wCN3LW
Q: How much does a sign reading “CHARTER SCHOOL” reveal about the education being offered inside the building? http://bit.ly/1qgtRTS
A: About as much as a ’RESTAURANT’ sign reveals about the food it serves. http://bit.ly/1qgtRTS
John Merrow: WHERE IS THE CHARTER MOVEMENT HEADING? http://bit.ly/1qgtRTS
DETAILS OF CONTINGENT APPROVAL OF THE 2014-15 LAUSD ARTS EDUCATION BUDGET http://bit.ly/1pmHYaw
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
LAUSD BOARD MEETINGS ON TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2014
Start: 11:45 am
Start: 12:00 pm
Start: 4:00 pm
Start: 4:00 pm
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress,
senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find
your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these
thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!.
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