AAPS Budget, Public Hearing, Rick DeKeon Wednesday May 28, 2014

Wednesday, May 28th, the Ann Arbor school board will have a public hearing on the proposed AAPS budget. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

Here are some options:
1. Go and talk during public commentary
2. Watch the board meeting on t.v. (CTN Comcast Channel 18, and also available for online streaming, but not for on-demand replay--yet. The replay schedule is: Thursday @ 1:30pm, Saturday @ 8am, Sunday @ 1pm)
3. Email the school board with your thoughts at boe@aaps.k12.mi.us.

The board will vote on the budget at their next meeting, in two weeks.

Essential Reading

Here is the proposed AAPS 2014-2015 budget.

Here are the proposed expenditures and revenue enhancements. (Looks like a summary sheet, essentially.)

Here is the proposed budget plan. (How the budget gap will be closed.)

Compare the governor's, senate's, and house's education proposals and their impact on the AAPS budget. (There are also some slides from the new finance director--Marios Demetriou,
Assistant Superintendent, Finance and Operations--that, to be honest, I did not completely understand. Explanatory text would be nice.)

Major Proposals

How do you feel about the proposal to freeze all staff salaries, with no step or salary increases for any group? (Teachers, for example, took a 3% pay cut last year that was supposed to be a one-year pay cut. This would not be restored.)

How do you feel about the outsourcing of custodial work? (The main expected savings here has to do with the fact that the district has to pay into the state retirement fund for employees--if the positions are privatized, the state retirement fund doesn't have to be paid.)

Here are some things I've written about privatization in the past:

Transportation Lessons, 2010-2012 (February 2012)

Just Say No to Privatization (January 2010)

What do you think about Christine Stead's suggestion that the district should investigate whether there would be any possibility of suing the state for the constant cuts the district has had to make, since we are not being "held harmless?" (I LOVE IT.)

Let the school board know how you feel!

Special Bonus! 

Rick DeKeon
from a2schools.org

If you go to tomorrow's meeting. . . there is also a proposal to rename the Northside School Gym in honor of Rick DeKeon, well-loved Northside physical education teacher.

As the proposal says,

On behalf of Northside Principal, Monica Harrold, Northside staff, students, parents and alumni, it is my pleasure to present to you a recommendation, pursuant to Ann Arbor Public School Board of Education Policy 7150- Naming, to name the Northside Elementary School gym after former Ann Arbor Northside Elementary School physical education teacher and local coach Richard (Rick) Dekeon. 
Mr. Dekeon, a much beloved teacher at Northside for 25 years, passed away on November 8, 2013 leaving behind an incredible legacy that extends well beyond the Northside community.

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Rick DeKeon Rec & Ed Run: Everyone Is A Winner

Rick DeKeon was a well-loved Northside Elementary physical education teacher who died last year. In his memory, Ann Arbor Rec & Ed decided to hold a 5K run, with the proceeds going to raise scholarship funds for Rec & Ed activities.

I got my son Joel to run with me! (Well, not really with me. He's much faster than me--but he did join me at the 5K.)

The whole thing sounded like a great idea when we signed up on a warm fall day. A few weeks later...brrr!

Here we are with our medals. It was cold out! We didn't hang around to chat!
Photo by unknown runner.

Here I am with Rec & Ed Director Jenna Bacolor, right after I finished.
I know! My hair! (I should have kept the hat on...)
Photo by Madeline Bacolor.

Although they attributed the idea of this medal to Rick DeKeon,
in my experience this is also a typical Rec & Ed medal:
"Everyone is a winner."
Photo by Ruth Kraut

*Thanks, school board member Glenn Nelson, for being a sponsor of the run. That was a nice thing to do.

Ten Thoughts for the Last Two Weeks Before School Starts

1. M-Live has an article, that says there may be a tentative agreement between the teachers and the Ann Arbor school district. I have no idea if it is true, but here is the article (along with a document that looks authentic). If you haven't already read it, take a look, and see what you think.

One thing is for sure--even if there is a contract that ends up being like the tentative agreement referenced above, I think it's going to take a bit more to mend fences between the teachers and the administration.

2. Apparently, a lot of people were unaware that Powerschool is owned by Pearson Systems. Yup. Pearson has been in our district with Powerschool since 2007 (and many, many others too)--and probably earlier with textbooks. The alternatives to Powerschool are also owned by big corporations. I guess the question is (and I don't know)--what kind of data does Pearson get to use and keep about us and our children? What kind of safeguards are there? (And starting this year, I believe grading will also be done in Powerschool.) Powerschool is a *huge* convenience--but based on my facebook feed this afternoon, parents need to be convinced that our data is safe.

3. Riding my bike past the "Pathways Campus" today, I decided I like that name, much much better than the old A2Tech name. It implies that there are multiple ways of getting to the same destination.

4. Please--as you turn your thoughts toward the school year--take my survey and offer some meaningful critiques of the Ann Arbor district's new web site. It's my impression that a lot of stuff that was on the old web site is not on the new web site, but I don't know if that's true, that is really based on some cursory searches that I have done. What do you like and what don't you like? Take the survey!

5. Want to be a guest blogger? Let me know.

6. Back to School Helpline: From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. you can call 734-660-9911. 
Email:  backtoschool@a2schools.org 

Now that helpline is truly a great idea--I have often gotten panicked questions from parents in the last few days before school. I hope it works well (in other words, I hope that they have the staffing to handle the call volume). I also hope that the people answering the phones have the correct answers at their fingertips.

At the end of Rick's Run, 2014.
I got my son to come with me! Thanks Joel!

7. Let's talk about Rick's Run! It's a fundraiser for Ann Arbor Rec & Ed scholarships, in memory of Rick DeKeon, a favorite PE teacher at Northside Elementary who was also active with Rec & Ed. I ran last year (the inaugural run) and it was at Pioneer, and it was freezing cold. OK, actually, I half ran and half walked, and it really doesn't matter, you can run or walk. It's a little bit earlier this year so it should be a little warmer (October 24th) and I'm signing up! Join me? (Maybe I should form a team...the blogspots?) You can register as a family or an individual right here, and tomorrow (Monday! August 24th) is the last day for a discount. Who's with me?!

[I went searching for the piece I wrote about Rick DeKeon and the Northside naming of the gym in his honor, and now there is a new gym being built over at Northside--so I'm wondering if the new gym will also be named after him.]

8. There is a really interesting lawsuit coming out of New York about how standardized testing can (or can't)--certainly shouldn't!--be used to evaluate teachers.


New York: Controversial teacher evaluation method is on trial--literally--and the judge is not amused

and a Slate piece on why this is a big deal.

9. Also in New York, where about 20% of students opted out of standardized tests, the New York Times reports that school districts will not lose money.

10. John Oliver takes on standardized testing!



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Who's In For Scholarships? Join Me At Rick's* Run For Kids!

Next Saturday, October 15th, in the morning, you will find me at Rick's Run For Kids, doing a mixture of running and walking around beautiful Gallup Park to raise scholarship money for Ann Arbor Public Schools Rec & Ed. 

Why? 

Rick's Run For Kids is one way that Rec & Ed raises money for scholarships that allow lower-income families in our district to access all the wonderful extra-curricular work that Rec & Ed does. That includes summer camps, after school language and dance programs, youth soccer (baseball, volleyball, field hockey, etc.), exercise and educational classes, and so much more.

I'm on the Recreation Advisory Committee for AAPS, and this really does make a difference.

MORE RUNNERS/WALKERS=MORE SCHOLARSHIPS!

Please join me. Sign up here! 

Online registration goes until noon on October 12th, you can register in person after that.

The 5K starts at 9:00 A.M.
There is a Kids' Dash for kids 10 and under that starts at 10:15 a.m.

*Who was Rick?

No, in this case, Rick does not refer to our state's governor. (You laugh, but I was asked that by a couple of people.)

Rick refers to Rick Dekeon, a beloved Physical Education teacher at (then) Northside Elementary, who also served on the Recreation Advisory Committee for many years and was a Rec & Ed coach and official. He believed that athletics are for everyone, and through RAC and several other PE committees, his influence went far beyond the halls of Northside. He volunteered his time to run a before-school running club for kids, and that's why a Run for Kids seems like a great way to memorialize him.

So won't you join me?  (Bring a couple of friends, too--why not?!)

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Teacher Web Sites and Blogs: Windows to the School

I thought I would show you a few class websites and blogs. It wasn't exactly a "random sample." There are a lot of class sites that don't seem to be regularly updated (these appear to be), and this took quite a while to do. It's a lot of work to maintain a web site, and there are a lot of sporadic efforts (those are not featured here). Another time, I will have more comments about the different schools' web sites. Let's just say--the school web sites are highly variable in both information and tone.

Some schools have more than one teacher blogging or web-siting (and some schools have none), but I only chose one per school. You should feel free to look at individual school web sites to find some others. Yes, these are alphabetical by teacher's first name--no favoritism here!

Debra Wenzel's web site (Career and Technical Education, Slauson)

Gary Bartosik's web site (Special Education Math, Huron)

Jeffrey Bradley's Science Guy In A Tie blog (Science, Skyline)

Ko Shih's/Rick Hall's website (5th/6th grade, Ann Arbor Open)

Peggy Leonard's web site (Art, Lakewood)

Rick DeKeon's web site (Physical Education, Northside)

Sarah Bradley's blog (Kindergarten, Abbot)

Susan Haines' web site (5th grade, Haisley)