In This Issue:
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DO CHARTER SCHOOLS REALLY DO BETTER? LET'S LOOK AT LOS ANGELES |
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TEACHERS DO MORE THAN TEACH BETWEEN 8 AND 3! + THE GEMSTONE FOUNDATION |
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Dan Walters: MANDATED COLLEGE PREP COURSES ARE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE |
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MONEY MAY BE LEFT ON TABLE IN TRAINING PROGRAM FOR TRANSITIONAL KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS |
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FREMONT HIGH’S ‘FIELD OF DREAMS’ DEDICATED TO VOLUNTEER FOR 50 YEARS OF SERVICE |
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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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Before I go off on the inevitable tangent, this past
week was National Teacher Appreciation Week. Thank you teachers and
educators for all you do, every day.
We all know the stories. The unexpected comes from nowhere and performs
the unforeseen. The Miracle on Ice Hockey Team defeats the Soviets. The
Miracle Mets. The Milan High School Team from ‘Hoosiers’.
Only three things of note happened in the nearly thousand year history of Leicester, England:
• King Richard III was defeated+killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field
just outside of town in 1485, ending the Wars of the Roses and the
Plantagenet Dynasty. Richard’s body was unceremoniously buried after it
was paraded through town naked …and its location lost.
• In 2012 Richard’s body was dug up after being found under a municipal
parking lot in downtown Leicester. There was a bit of a kerfuffle about
where it was to be re-entombed – York claiming to R3’s hometown
(Shakespeare has R3 modestly introducing himself: “Now is the winter of
our discontent. Made glorious summer by this son of York”). Leicester
won in the end; possession being 9/10ths of anything – including
deceased monarchs.
• And after R3’s reinternment in Leicester Cathedral in 2015 the
Leicester City Football Club, The Foxes – hapless in 132 years – began
winning soccer games.
British bookmakers are not ones to fool around, betting on sports in
Britain is big+serious business. At the outset of this season nine
months ago they set the odds of Leicester City winning the Premier
League Football Championship at 5000-to-one. (The odds of Kim Kardashian
becoming president or Elvis discovered alive were 2000-to-one.)
Needless to say Leicester City wouldn’t be mentioned in this issue of
4LAKids if they hadn’t won the Premier League Championship with a team
of unknowns and a team payroll of a quarter of that of the competition.
What they had was a lot of heart and an Italian coach nobody thought
could do the job – and a strategy to not control the ball but to strike
quickly – from nowhere – and score.
Saturday afternoon they collected their trophy and Andrea Bocelli sang Puccini’s ultimate aria of triumph and hope:
Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza,
guardi le stelle
che tremano d'amore
e di speranza.
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun saprà!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo dirò
quando la luce splenderà!
Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio
che ti fa mia!
(Il nome suo nessun saprà!...
e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!)
Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincerò!
vincerò, vincerò!
Nobody shall sleep!...
Nobody shall sleep!
Even you, o Princess,
in your cold room,
watch the stars,
that tremble with love and with hope.
But my secret is hidden within me,
my name no one shall know...
No!...No!...
On your mouth I will tell it when the light shines.
And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!...
(No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.)
Vanish, o night!
Set, stars! Set, stars!
At dawn, I will win! I will win! I will win!
NOBODY SET ANY ODDS on Donald Trump winning the Republican presidential
nomination – that was too preposterous to contemplate (the Reality Show
casting for Commander-in-Chief was obviously Kim Kardashian’s). And
last week, when The Donald sewed it up and the Rolling Stones introduced
the victor with a recording of “Start Me Up” …
You can start me up
You can start me up I'll never stop
I've been running hot
You got me just about to blow my top
You can start me up, you can start me up,
I'll never stop, never stop, never stop, never stop.
…the Stones responded with a threatened lawsuit. And many many Republicans headed for the exits.
This essay has now introduced the characters of Richard the Third and
Donald Trump to the conversation about surprise victors. R3 is Britain’s
most unpopular monarch – primarily due to bad press from the Bard of
Avon. Trump is the most unfavorable candidate in American political
history – primarily due to the press not knowing whether to
cringe-or-cry while they gave the “Campaign of our discontent, made
glorious by this billionaire son-of-the-Bronx” a free ride. Trump calls
for America to be made great again by building walls and blocking
Muslims and deporting millions and secret plans to end wars and
discounting treasury bonds. On the eve of his greatest victory he named
his opponent’s father a conspirator in the Kennedy assassination. The
Republican New York Times columnist David Brooks says Trump “appeals to
those longing for an ideal that’s never coming back”. That would be
paternalistic thirties/forties/fifties-era America First jingoism and a
return to the good old
days …that, like all good old days, never
were.
[Any number of Tom Lehrer songs fit here, here’s one ‘em:]
When someone makes a move
Of which we don't approve,
Who is it that always intervenes?
U.N. and O.A.S.,
They have their place, I guess,
But first: Send The Marines!
We'll send them all we've got,
John Wayne and Randolph Scott,
Remember those exciting fighting scenes?
To the shores of Tripoli,
But not to Mississippoli,
What do we do? We Send The Marines!
For might makes right,
And till they've seen the light,
They've got to be protected,
All their rights respected,
'till somebody we like can be elected.
We had a presidential candidate who got himself elected with a secret
plan to end another unpopular war – that plan was escalation and that
war dragged on past his spectacularly failed presidency.
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Trump has been called, on multiple occasions, a School Yard Bully …and I
think that puts schoolyards and their bullies in a bad light. And that
(un)fortunately is the only mention of education in this blogpost –
except to recall the history of another American bully and his undoing:
Mr. Welch: “And if I did, I beg your pardon. Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.”
Senator McCarthy: “Let's, let's –“
Mr. Welch: “You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
I leave further comparison to you, gentle reader. Lincoln called upon
the Better Angels of our Nature. They have not been in play this
electoral cycle; but if the London bookmakers will set the odds I’ll put
a tenor on ‘em!
Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
¡Happy Mother’s Day!
¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
DO CHARTER SCHOOLS REALLY DO BETTER? LET'S LOOK AT LOS ANGELES
by Alan Singer in the Huffington Post Education Blog | http://huff.to/24vfpvZ
05/05/2016 06:22 am ET | Updated 9 hours ago :: Advocates for charters
schools like to talk about their unwavering commitment to student
success, parental choice and the benefits of privatization, but their
main argument for charter schools is that with their “no excuses“
approach they can do a better job than public schools educating
inner-city minority youth.
In 2009, the Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School
District passed a Public School Choice Motion that expanded the number
of charter schools in the district.
While in my Huffington Post blogs I frequently complain about both
charter schools and the way high-stakes testing is perverting education
in the United States, sometimes the data the tests produce can be
useful.
So to answer the question “Do Charter Schools Really Do Better?” let’s look at some test score numbers from Los Angeles.
On SAT exams administered to high school juniors 2400 is the maximum
possible score. A score of 1500 is considered the minimum threshold
signifying college readiness. Top colleges demand much more. In 2013,
2052 was the average SAT grade for freshmen accepted into UCLA.
The Los Angeles Times published a list of the average SAT scores at the
100 lowest performing high schools in Los Angeles County. Eight of the
ten worst performing schools, including one that has already been
closed, are charter schools. This includes the Animo Locke Charter High
School #1 operated by the Green Dot Corporate Charter Schools chain
whose founder, Steve Barr wants to run for mayor of Los Angeles in 2017
based on his record of educational “success.” Green Dot also operates
four other charter high schools among the bottom twenty SAT performers
and a total of nine schools in the bottom fifty.
Critics have long charged that the SAT primarily measures the
socio-economic status of students, a charge the College Board, which
operates the SAT refutes. However Los Angles high school SAT test scores
seem to confirm what critics are saying. In each of the ten worst
performing schools, the student population is more than 90% Latino and
Black and in some cases it is 100%. The number of students eligible for
free or reduced price lunch at these schools, a major indicator of
poverty level, ranges from 84% to 99%. In some of the schools the number
of English Language Learners approaches 50% of the student population.
Despite bad performance, Los Angeles charter schools also seem to be
free to ignore the rights of parents and children. The Granada Hills
Charter High School has been reprimanded by the Los Angeles Unified
School District Charter Schools Division for improperly charging
students $60 cap and gown fees for graduation ceremonies and violating
parent rights to opt children out of standardized testing by making the
tests a requirement for participation in extra-curricular activities
including athletic teams. The school’s Parent-Student Handbook states
“All students must participate fully in California CAASPP and Granada
Testing in their 9th, 10th and 11th grade year to be eligible to
participate in optional activities such as senior activities, school
extracurricular activities and school athletics. Students who clearly
disregard the test as determined by the testing coordinator or test
proctor will be regarded as having refused to comply with the testing
requirement and will be
subject to loss of senior activities, school extracurricular activities
and school
athletics.
Granada Hills Charter is one of the largest and highest performing
charter schools in California and the United States. It is also a school
with a White or Asian student majority, relatively fewer economically
disadvantaged students, and almost no English Language Learners.
The reality is that despite their claims, charter schools cannot perform
educational miracles. At least in Los Angeles, it is not even clear
they serve inner-city minority youth as well as public schools do.
MORE CHARTER BLUES/NEWS
Also in California: The Tri-Valley Learning Corporation operates four
California charter schools, two in Livermore and two in Stockton.
Livermore and Stockton are both east of San Francisco. Tri-Valley claims
to “use innovation in education research, to design, create and operate
world-class, exemplary charter schools that encourage and enable every
student to reach his or her full potential as a scholar, a citizen and a
life-long learner.” But the New Jerusalem Elementary School district
serving Livermore is not that happy with the way it operates its
schools. In April 2016, the District’s governing board sent Tri-Valley
official notification that unless it corrected the way it operated its
tow charter schools in Livermore, the District would revoke its charter.
In the letter to Tri-Valley, New Jerusalem charged, “TVLC has failed to
meet generally accepted accounting principles, engaged in fiscal
mismanagement, and violated provisions of law.” It gave Tri-Valley until
May 8
to
respond.
The District also suspects Tri-Valley of a conflict of interest because
it shares one of its public facilities with a private charter school
with ties to its former CEO. The chain of charter schools also faces
accusations of charging illegal tuition fees to foreign students and of
owing $208,000 to a local community college for a “teacher fee” and
$90,000 to the city of Livermore in back taxes.
Meanwhile in North Carolina: On April 26, the Attorney General of North
Carolina filed a suit against the now defunct Kinston Charter Academy.
The suit charges the company and its officers with financial
mismanagement and requests that the assets of the principal officers be
frozen. Legal officials also demanded the charter company repay North
Carolina $600,000 in misappropriated state funds plus damages and civil
penalties. According to the papers filed with the court, charter school
management used public funds for themselves, inflated the number of
students enrolled in order to receive additional tax dollars, misled
prospective students, and failed to disclose information to parents.
●Alan Singer – whose opinions are his own – is a social studies educator
in the Department of Teaching, Literacy and Leadership at Hofstra
University in Long Island, New York and the editor of Social Science
Docket (a joint publication of the New York and New Jersey Councils for
Social Studies). He taught at a number of secondary schools in New York
City, including Franklin K. Lane High School and Edward R. Murrow High
School. He is the author of Education Flashpoints: Fighting for
America's Schools (Routledge, 2014) which is based on his award winning
Huffington Post blogs, Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach: A Handbook
for Secondary School Teachers (Routledge, 2013), Social Studies For
Secondary Schools, 4th Edition (Routledge, 2014), New York and Slavery,
Time to Teach the Truth (SUNY, 2008), and Teaching Global History
(Routledge, 2011).
TEACHERS DO MORE THAN TEACH BETWEEN 8 AND 3! + THE GEMSTONE FOUNDATION
By Colleen Schwab, UTLA Secondary Vice President, from United Teacher | http://bit.ly/1T5EMis
April 22, 2016 :: It’s no surprise that the public often thinks our
jobs start at 8 a.m. and end at 3 p.m., with months of vacation time
during the summer and winter seasons, breaks that are often
misunderstood. I remember being completely exhausted the first weeks
after school ended in June only to hear from friends who were not
teachers that I was “lucky” to have so much vacation time.
Yes, lucky indeed, but is this time earned! What educators do during the
school year is beyond understanding if one has never been in a
classroom or school site working with students—lots of students, that
is, on a daily basis. At a recent social event, a somewhat know-it-all
about education who has never been an educator asked me a rhetorical
question to the effect of, “How hard is it to teach U.S. History to 20
to 30 eighth-graders?”
Please just imagine how I responded, having taught middle school for 31 years!
That brings me to the thought that we not only teach, we care for
students in so many ways: counseling needs, health concerns,
psychological issues, and the list goes on, and it includes addressing
the varied learning differences in the classroom.
A few years ago, former UTLA lobbyist Bill Lambert brought an exciting
new service to my school to help students read better. Bill became
involved in the Gemstone Foundation, which researched eye development in
young students and found a largely undetected eye alignment problem
that causes poor reading development. This alignment problem is easy to
test for and easy to correct.
The treatment is a computer-based eye program that students can complete in a relatively short time.
Several Los Angeles Unified schools have already been through the
program and have seen success in affected students’ reading skills and
their progress in school.
The problem is funding the treatment, even though it is very low cost
(approximately $250 per student). Gemstone Foundation Senior Scientist
and Director of Research Dr. Maureen Powers and Bill are working to
raise funds for our Los Angeles students.
If you would like to contribute, any amount would be greatly
appreciated. You can make checks payable to Gemstone Foundation and mail
them to UTLA at 3303 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010; attention
Colleen Schwab.
Stay tuned to hear more about this exciting support for our students!
●●smf’s 2¢: Caveat: I am on the board of Directors of the 501(c)(3)
non-profit Gemstone Foundation and am working with Bill and Colleen and
Maureen and others will be bringing the Gemstone Program to schools in
LA thanks to a generous grant from County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas.
First we learn to read, then we read to learn.
Learning to read is an exquisitely complicated process that literally
requires rewiring and reprogramming of the brain; it also requires
phenomenal eye-brain coordination. Educators learned long ago that poor
vision effects reading ability; we are now learning that binocular
vision – important in depth perception and eye-brain coordination – is
also critical in reading ability.
Over the past several years, Gemstone has been testing children in LA
and elsewhere for eye coordination ability. We find that many who pass
the mandatory school vision screening exams complain that their eyes
hurt while reading; they skip lines, they see double sometimes, and they
even see words wiggle or jump. Most of these children are “20/20” -
yet clearly they have some sort of vision problem that can interfere
with reading.
School vision screening does not detect this problem, which we call EYES
IN CONFLICT. Technically this is recognized as a weakness in visual
skills or as binocular vision impairment.
In Los Angeles schools alone, we have tested over 5000 students in
grades 3 and higher. At Ann Street Elementary School, our first tested
school, we found that 62 percent of the students in grades 3 through 6
had Eyes in Conflict. Two years ago 32 of 56 third graders (57%) at
Robert Hill Lane Elementary and 47 out of 90 (52%) of third graders at
Trinity Street Elementary were identified.
We also tested 200 boys incarcerated at the Gonzales Probation Camp.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of the boys had Eyes in Conflict!
We find that, on average, more than 30% of children have some level of
Eyes in Conflict—and that the percentage is more like 50% in low income
schools and juvenile offender facilities.
In classroom interventions we routinely find that two-thirds or more of
participating students improve vision skills to target levels for
reading. In half of students an immediate improvement is seen in oral
fluency scores. These results are lasting. Once a student learns to
coordinate their eyes reading and learning improves dramatically - and
stays improved.
EYES IN CONFLICT is not a problem that can be solved by eyeglasses or
surgery. It is a problem that can be solved through practice and
training. This problem does not go away without intervention. Visual
skills will not improve without training, no more than eyesight can
improve on its own without glasses.
…as it says above, stay tuned!
Dan Walters: MANDATED COLLEGE PREP COURSES ARE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE
STUDENTS WHO ARE FORCED INTO COLLEGE PREPARATORY
CLASSES MIGHT HAVE BETTER SUCCESS IN VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS, A PUBLIC
POLICY INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA STUDY SUGGESTS
Opinion By Dan Walters | Sacramento Bee | http://bit.ly/1T4LyBS
May 5, 2016 :: More than 6 million youngsters are enrolled in
California’s K-12 schools, a number higher than the populations of 33
states.
The diversity of those kids – in ethnicity, economic situation,
intelligence and innate capacity for learning – is probably wider than
any of those states.
If we have 6 million-plus unique individuals, why then do we try to
stuff them into a one-size-fits-all educational system? Shouldn’t we, to
the extent possible, tailor their educations to their individual
circumstances and traits?
In addition to the vital basics, shouldn’t we offer challenging academic
studies to the gifted and college-bound, extra instructional help to
those with learning disabilities, and solid technical classes for those
suited by interest and aptitude for skilled trades?
Yes, we should. But for reasons that defy common sense, many of our
larger school districts assume that all students are bound for four-year
colleges, even though a relatively small number of those who make it
through high school will, in fact, earn bachelor degrees.
Therefore, they insist that before graduation, all of their students
complete the 30 semesterlong courses known as “a-g” to meet basic
admission requirements for state universities or the University of
California.
It’s simplistic, it’s illogical and, a new report from the Public Policy
Institute of California suggests, it’s ultimately irresponsible and
destructive.
PPIC looked at the college-for-everyone policies of several big school
systems, concentrating on San Diego Unified School District.
It found that SDUSD has increased students enrolled in the college prep
classes, but it’s also increased the number of kids who won’t make it
through graduation.
“In sum, roughly 10 percent more San Diego students may become eligible
to apply to the CSU and UC university systems,” PPIC concluded, “but 16
percent more may fail to graduate. For the class of 2016, the new
graduation policy is likely to produce many students who will win, and
many who will lose.”
The college prep mandates in San Diego, Los Angeles Unified, San
Francisco Unified and other big systems, moreover, fly in the face of
state education policy, which has gradually moved toward more
individualism, including a long-overdue re-emphasis of what used to be
called vocational education but now is “career technical education.”
Furthermore, college-for-everyone ignores the real world. Yes, we need
more college graduates, particularly to replace the baby boomers who are
retiring out of the workforce. In fact, it’s already created a shortage
of teachers.
But everyone knows of college graduates struggling with large student
debts and poor employment prospects, and we also need more blue-collar
workers to perform society’s work – to build houses, to install or
repair wiring, plumbing, to make and fix our cars and computers, and so
forth. There are already shortages in those high-paying fields that also
are hit by baby boomer retirements.
For K-12 students and society as a whole, college-for-everyone policies are counterproductive.
MONEY MAY BE LEFT ON TABLE IN TRAINING PROGRAM FOR TRANSITIONAL KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS
By Jeremy Hay | EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/1Wg1qF7
May 5, 2016 :: A $15 million state program to reimburse transitional
kindergarten teachers for required professional development classes is
struggling because too few teachers have signed up, and nearly a third
of California’s 58 counties face the unwelcome prospect of having to
return unused funds by the end of the coming school year.
Although the counties have until July 2017 to distribute the funds, many
have already calculated that they will have to return a portion of the
money because their efforts to recruit teachers to participate in the
program have fallen short.
The Legislature created transitional kindergarten in 2010 for children
who had not yet turned 5 by September — the cutoff date to enter regular
kindergarten — and whose birthdays fell between Sept. 1 and Dec. 2. In
2014, legislators passed a law requiring teachers assigned to
transitional kindergarten classes after July 2015 to get 24 units of
early childhood education or child development classes by 2020. The
California Transitional Kindergarten Stipend program was set up to
reimburse teachers for those costs — but they have only until July 2017
to collect those funds.
The stipend program will receive a total of $15 million in state
funding. So far, $11.2 million has gone to planning councils in each of
the state’s 58 counties to distribute to teachers, with the remainder to
be given out later. To date, counties have paid out only $928,000,
though that amount is expected to rise as the school year ends.
Statewide, out of 3,379 new transitional kindergarten teachers
identified by the California Department of Education, 300 have received
stipends. About 150 teachers in the California State Preschool Program
for low-income children have also participated. Although transitional
kindergarten teachers are the first priority, state preschool teachers
can receive stipends for any early childhood education or child
development classes.
“We’ve done a huge amount of advertising and promotion this year, and
we’re just not seeing a lot more people come forward,” said Missy
Danneberg, interim coordinator of Sonoma County’s Child Care Planning
Council, which plans to return $65,000 of its $185,000 grant.
Last January, the California Department of Education began allocating
funds to the planning councils, and each county was given flexibility to
design systems to recruit teachers and help arrange classes for them.
But the counties had a short window of time to set up those programs and
spend the funds.
Many teachers appear unaware of the requirements for additional
education, officials in some counties said, and as result have not
signed up for classes they will need. And with a 2020 deadline for
teachers to fulfill those requirements, there appears to be little sense
of urgency, other officials said.
“We didn’t even find out about the program until January, then every
local county had to deal with its own program; so you basically lost a
year by the time you got things going,” said Tara Ryan, former
coordinator of San Diego County’s Child Care and Development Planning
Council and now coordinator of the county’s preschool quality program.
“That’s kind of typical of how CDE (California Department of Education)
does things.”
But Cecelia Fisher-Dahms, administrator of the California Department of
Education’s Quality Improvement Office, said the initial allocations
were delayed because her office was waiting for more information from
the Legislature, which created the program. “The first year was moot
because we were late getting clarification,” she said.
In a department survey of the 58 local planning councils, 17 said they
may return money by July 2017; 31 counties said they will not; and 10
have not responded, said spokesman Peter Tira. He declined to reveal
which counties said they may return funds.
Judi Andersen, coordinator of the Humboldt County Local Child Care and
Development Planning Council, said her office has spent just $706 of its
$52,863 allocation. She said the way the program is structured has been
a barrier. Teachers have to pay for their classes up front and wait
until they have verified transcripts before getting reimbursed.
“It kills me to send money back that could go to early educators,” Andersen said.
Alameda County’s General Services Agency received $550,661 for stipends
for an estimated 125 new transitional kindergarten teachers. As of April
20, it had distributed $11,000 to 13 teachers, eight of them preschool
teachers who are also eligible, said Kim Hazard, Alameda’s special
projects coordinator for the Early Care and Education Program at the
General Services Agency.
Hazard said one challenge has been locating transitional kindergarten
teachers to let them know about both the new requirements and funding
that is available to meet them.
“Half of the battle is figuring out who the TK teachers are in our
community and trying to establish some sort of relationship with them,”
Hazard said.
She said she hopes a summer transitional kindergarten institute will
attract more teachers, but the county has decided it will return
$137,000 of its allocation, calculating that in the time remaining it
will not be able to reach enough teachers.
“We want to get as much money out as possible to a community (of early
childhood educators) that is underfunded – it’s heartbreaking to send
money back,” Hazard said.
“It is sort of surprising,” CDE’s Fisher-Dahms said of Alameda County’s situation. “They’re a go-getter.”
“The challenge may be the outreach (on the local level) to the
transitional kindergarten community,” Fisher-Dahms said of the problems
some counties are facing. The department plans to redistribute returned
money to counties that still need it, she said.
In Riverside County, the program has flourished, with the first stipends
delivered in June 2015, said Deborah Clark-Crews, executive director of
the county’s Child Care Consortium. Teachers have since been given
$70,250 in stipends, and 120 more are currently enrolled in classes for
which they will be reimbursed. Clark-Crews projects spending all of the
$973,586 the county received from the stipend program.
“We are not going to leave any money on the table,” she said. “It comes so infrequently.”
In Ventura County, Carrie Murphy, director of early childhood programs
at the county office of education, said $180,000 of the county’s
$334,802 will be spent by July, and the remainder in the next year. She
said her office worked with school districts, CSU Channel Islands and
community colleges to design a curriculum blending online instruction
with class time to create an easy “one-stop shop” for teachers to
participate.
In Santa Clara County, however, the Local Early Education Planning
Council has distributed just $1,500 of the $669,603 it has received.
Michael Garcia, staff coordinator, says the council, too, will return
funds: $290,000.
“Unfortunately, it’s been slow to take off,” Garcia said.
As time runs out, even officials who still foresee success say the program needs more time to reach its goals.
“To try and gain 24 units in a two-year period, that’s not doable,” said
Ellin Chariton, executive director of school and community service at
the Orange County Department of Education, which received $1.1 million.
She recommended extending the deadline to at least 2018.
She said her department worked with school districts and local community
colleges, as well as CSU Fullerton, to design curricula and offer
necessary classes. So far, 69 transitional kindergarten teachers are
expected to receive stipends ranging from $200 to $2,500, Chariton said.
Ian Hanigan, a spokesman for the Orange County Department of Education,
said a “very conservative” estimate of first-year distributions is
$300,000.
Roseann Andrus, project consultant for Orange County’s Child Care and
Development Planning Council, said, “We really have to do some hard-core
marketing that we really didn’t get to do effectively because we were
rushed in the beginning” to design the program.
Los Angeles County received $3.6 million. By July it expects to have
more than 100 teachers receiving stipends, said Harvey Kawasaki, acting
CEO of Los Angeles County’s Service Integration Branch. He said he
expects his office will distribute 70 percent of what it had aimed to
disburse by July, but more would have been distributed if the program
had started earlier. It’s not clear whether his office will be able to
distribute all the funds in the program’s remaining 14 months, Kawasaki
said.
“Most of us are probably going to leave some dollars on the table,” he
said. “If we are allowed to roll over our unspent dollars, that means
many more teachers we could reach out to.”
FREMONT HIGH’S ‘FIELD OF DREAMS’ DEDICATED TO VOLUNTEER FOR 50 YEARS OF SERVICE
by Barbara Jones | LAUSD Daily | http://bit.ly/1q6wrh5
May 6, 2016 | Clarence Johnson has lived in South LA for more than a
half-century, but his real home is on the baseball field at Fremont High
School.
That’s where Johnson has spent the last 50 years grooming the diamond,
offering players tips that he learned as a pro and running a weekend
baseball league for the neighborhood. Most importantly, the field is
where he has mentored generations of Fremont students.
“I love all the kids. I tell the all the young kids, make sure that you
stay in school,” Johnson said. “Go to school. There’s no way out. You
must go to school every day.”
In recognition of Johnson’s 50-plus-year commitment to the Fremont
community – not to mention the thousands of hours he has spent as a
volunteer – school leaders this week renamed the baseball field in
Johnson’s honor.
“He’s given us so much over the years – baseballs, uniforms – we don’t
even have to ask,” said Fremont Pathfinders Coach Curtis Johnson, who is
not related to Clarence. “If I mention that a kid needs a new glove,
he’ll show up the next day with a new glove. And he loves to talk
baseball with the kids. He’s the backbone of our team in a lot of ways.”
During the dedication ceremony for the Clarence Johnson Baseball Field,
its namesake recalled the path that eventually led him to Fremont.
After graduating from high school in the early 1950s, Johnson went
straight to the Kansas City Monarchs as a catcher for the Negro Leagues’
franchise. He later played for the Brooklyn Dodgers farm team, and
moved with them to Los Angeles in 1958; however, he never moved up to
the Major League.
Going to work for Amtrak, Johnson never lost his love of baseball. In
March 1966, he walked from his house to nearby Fremont, where he took it
upon himself to start taking care of the ball field. That was also the
beginning what has become a lifelong affiliation with the school. He
spends weekdays with the Fremont kids and weekends overseeing teams of
teens and young men from his South LA neighborhood. Even Lois, Johnson’s
wife of 43 years, concedes that Fremont is “his first home.”
And on Johnson’s well-manicured fields, Fremont has produced 25
professional ballplayers – the most of any school in the country.
“He tells us to respect the field because that means respecting the game
and that means respecting ourselves,” said Daniel Russell, who coaches
Fremont’s junior varsity team.
Traschon Harris, a senior who plays center field for the Pathfinders, said Johnson is a role model for the team.
“He’s just a great guy and really helpful,” Harris said. “Even when
we’re messing up, he’ll just come up and correct us. He’s never rude or
pushy. He’s really amazing.”
Principal Pedro Avalos was behind the idea to name the field, describing Johnson as a mainstay of the community.
“He is not only the person who is the maintenance worker for the field,
but he is the maintenance worker for growing up,” Avalos said. “He has
fixed a lot of us.”
With the ball field now bearing Johnson’s name, “students, parents,
teachers and the community will know your legacy and the difference that
you made,” said Christopher Downing, the superintendent of Local
District South.
Johnson said he was thankful for the recognition of his 50-plus years,
but that he doesn’t plan to end of his volunteer service anytime soon.
Asked where he was planning to be this weekend, Johnson said simply,
“I’m going to be here.”
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
• Tues. May 10, 2016 - 9:30 a.m. SPECIAL BOARD MEETING - - INCLUDING CLOSED SESSION ITEMS – Revised Agenda: http://bit.ly/1T4Nzhu
• Tues. May 10, 2016 - 1:00 p.m. REGULAR BOARD MEETING – Agenda: http://bit.ly/1WhrErw
*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:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Ref.Rodriguez@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
George.McKenna@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 the Superintendent:
superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000
...or your city councilperson, mayor, county supervisor, state
legislator, 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. Volunteer in the classroom.
Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child -
and ultimately: For all children.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE at http://registertovote.ca.gov/
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!
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