Before The School Year Starts

Maybe you have already bought back to school supplies. Maybe you are not a procrastinator. Maybe you are not squeezing the last few days of vacation out of the summer.

But my advice this week, based on my Facebook feed and an email I got from a worried parent, is this:

1. Check the bus schedules, if you expect your child to take the bus, NOW. 

For some Ann Arbor high school students, 
the bus transportation may be 
provided on an Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority bus.

Don't wait until next Sunday or Monday when everything is closed. If there is a problem (and I have heard about a few), you are much more likely to resolve it before the school year starts if you try to solve it now.

So:
--Look the schedule up (in Ann Arbor: http://a2schools.org//site/Default.aspx?PageID=5392)
--If there is a problem (for instance, if your child would have to walk more than 1.5 miles, or cross a very busy street without a crossing guard or light), then I would suggest doing multiple things:

• Call Transportation and ask for a Router to discuss the problem, in Ann Arbor: (734) 994-2330
• Fill out the Parent Question and Concern Form
• Let the school principal know your concern as well 
• If necessary (if you don't feel like you are getting a resolution) then bump up your concern to the Superintendent and the Board of Education.

And by the way, it helps to know your rights: you can read the Ann Arbor Transportation Policy in Board Policy 3760.R.01 which can be found in Board Docs. 

2. Did your child have a crummy year last year? Are you worried that will happen again? Take Action Now. For instance: 

It's OK to request a meeting: Summer vacation is over for teachers and principals--you should feel free to write an email or place a phone call asking for a meeting. (If it's simple, maybe you don't need a meeting--but anything complicated, ask to get on the schedule!) Don't feel badly about asking to meet with the principal or with teachers or counselors--they are there to help you problem-solve. If you have complicated/multiple issues, it may help for you to describe the problems in advance--but that is not a requirement. It is better to ask earlier, before the school year is well underway.

Is it possible that your child's difficulties are due to an undiagnosed learning disability or other issue that would be covered by special education statutes and would qualify your child for additional services? Sometimes (not always) a telltale sign for this, is that your child did well in elementary school because they are smart, but as the work (and school day) gets more complex, they have trouble with a specific class or classes (even though they seem to be trying); they have trouble organizing (even though they are trying); all of a sudden they are failing classes.
If you have been wondering about whether your child would qualify for additional services under an IEP or 504 plan, it is your right to request an evaluation. (You can also have someone do an evaluation for you at your expense.) Once you request an evaluation, the school district is "on the clock" to provide it--so it really is in your interest to request this early. 

3. There Are Resources To Help You!

In addition to teachers, principals, and counselors, don't forget that other parents have a wealth of knowledge. If you are new to the school, the PTO is a great place to start.

If you have issues with special education or truancy, the Student Advocacy Center can be a great resource for you. It has Sample Letters for requesting an evaluation or disputing decisions around special education.

Another great resource in Ann Arbor is the Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Committee for Special Education (AAPAC for short), a group of parents that have children who receive special education services and who work to improve services to kids. They have experienced parents who are often liaisons to specific schools, and they have regular meetings as well.
[Note: some of the other districts have similar groups as well.]

The Michigan Alliance for Families has a parent mentor available to all parents in public schools (that includes charter schools) who can be very helpful--for instance, reviewing an IEP to see if it addresses the concerns that an evaluation might raise.

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July 2015 News and Notes

Congratulations to Two New Nonprofits!

First of all, let's give big congratulations to two important, new local groups that recently got their non-profit status.

1. The E4DS Foundation, Excellence for Dexter Schools, is focused on raising money for regular operating expenses in the Dexter school district. There is also an Educational Foundation for Dexter.

Question of the Day: Is E4DS Different than the Educational Foundation of Dexter?

Yes. E4DS is the only group whose mission involves funding normal operating expenses associated with regular programming in our schools. The Educational Foundation of Dexter (EFD) provides financial support for teacher grants for innovative and creative educational projects that cannot be funded through the school district. E4DS supports the EFD and shares some Board members between the two Foundations. It is our sincere hope that the information you learn about the limitations of available funding will also move you to contribute and support the great work of the EFD!

Find out more at www.E4DS.org or like them on Facebook.

2. The CivCity Initiative (headed by Mary Morgan, formerly of the Ann Arbor Chronicle) also got non-profit status recently. What do they do? "CivCity is working to crack the nut of civic apathy, increasing awareness of how local government works and how each of us can participate in civic life."

I am hopeful that eventually they will take on some civic initiatives related to the schools--and considering that Linh Song of the Ann Arbor Education Foundation is on the CivCity board, I think that's a real possibility!

Find out more at www.civcity.org or like them on Facebook.

National News

The US Senate has passed a version of the Every Child Achieves Act (successor to No Child Left Behind). According to Barbara Madeloni, president of the Massachusetts Teacher Association, who is quoted in this piece on Diane Ravitch's blog:

“The bill continues yearly testing in grades three through eight and once in high school, but leaves it to states to determine how to use those tests for school accountability. It removes the authority of the federal government to demand that teacher evaluations be connected to student test scores and gives more authority to states to determine specific standards and curriculum.“ 

In giving more authority to states, the bill loosens constraints on how funds will be spent, though fortunately the Senate rejected a voucher amendment. The Senate measure now goes to a conference committee, where senators and members of the House will mesh their bills and develop a final piece of legislation. If approved, that bill will have to be signed or vetoed by President Barack Obama. If Obama vetoes it, Congress would have to override the veto for the bill to become law.

Per Madeloni,

“It is a bittersweet victory to applaud the power of school accountability going back to the states, should this bill become law. While it would allow us to organize locally and make the demands we want for our students and our schools, others have noted that it would mean we have 50 battles to fight instead of one – and that some states are especially weak in their readiness to fight.”  

And the House version [which is called the Student Success Act] is different, but it also provides a means for students who opt out to not count against the 95% rule for participation. In other words, based on federal law, parents opting out their children will not affect Title I funding (to be clear--currently this has not affected Title I funding anywhere in the country, but theoretically, it could).

Do you want the details about the differences between the two bills? This blog post, by Mercedes Schneider, does a good job of explaining the differences around testing. She's got other good stuff on her blog too!

I won't pretend to have read the bill, but at least about this piece of the bill--which gives the ability to parents to opt out--I am pretty happy.

Michigan News

We've got a new State Superintendent of Education, Brian Whiston. Read more about him in Lori Higgins' Detroit Free Press article.

The number of new charter school authorizations is going down. Maybe charter school authorizers are starting to realize they actually need to be accountable for the schools. [Hope springs eternal.]

We have yet another new state law that will negatively affect schools. According to this press release from Miller Canfield:

PA 109 of 2015 amends the Revised School Code to require any district without a positive general fund balance of at least 5% for the two most recent school fiscal years to report annually by July 7 the budgetary assumptions used when adopting its annual budget to the Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI). The budgetary assumptions must include the district’s projected foundation allowance, projected membership, estimated expenditures per pupil for the immediately preceding fiscal year and the projected expenditures per pupil for the current fiscal year. Based on the report, the State Treasurer may determine if the potential for fiscal stress exists within the district.

Local News

And that new state law (PA 109) is one of the reasons why the Ann Arbor superintendent and school board have been so focused on fund balance. Here is the list of local schools (including charters) that need to report. [Most of our local charters are for-profits, and their management companies could be manipulating their fund balances to take as much as they can--maybe they'll leave a little more in the bank now.] Ann Arbor was at 4.9% fund balance this past year, and are projecting to be higher in the coming year.

Ann Arbor has a third in-district transfer/schools of choice window. This might be good news for you if (as happened to a friend of mine) your landlord decided to sell the place you are renting and you might want to not be restricted to a single school area, but you want your kids in the same school as last year...

In the past several months, Ann Arbor has now hired four principals from other local school districts--two from Plymouth-Canton (Megan Fenech for Ann Arbor Open and Karen Siegel as assistant deanat Community High School), one from Northville (Alison Epler for Bach Elementary), and one from Farmington (Jerry Morrissey for Forsythe Middle School). I wish them all good luck! [Fenech and Siegel both live in Ann Arbor.] The Community High assistant dean position was filled in April, and is a new position that is being funded because Community High is adding students, and evening classes.

Ben Edmondson

Ypsilanti Community Schools hired Ben Edmondson as their new superintendent. (He is a former Ann Arbor principal, as well as candidate for Ann Arbor superintendent.) Read his 90-day plan here. (It looks ambitious to me, but it probably needs to be.)

Summer Fun: play.aadl.org

Are you playing the Ann Arbor summer library game? I am! If you are, I am going to give you five six! leads on ways to get some points and codes. [If you're not, it's not too late to start! Visit play.aadl.org, there are both traditional and online versions.]

1. Visit http://www.healthcarecounts.org, which is the Washtenaw Health Plan's site about health care coverage. Specifically, visit this blog post for a code, and a clue for another code.

2. Help out with Arborwiki, our local wikipedia. There's lots of work to be done, and lots of points to be gotten. And I registered and updated a page--it really was pretty easy! (On the page, it explains how to get the points.)

3. CivCity is "sponsoring" a bunch of badges. I think you have to go to meetings to get them... Go to http://play.aadl.org/badgelist and scroll down to CivCity.

4. Go into any local branch, walk around and look for the different codes. That's what I did today at West Branch, and here's a clue to one of the spots.

5. Read. Yup. Whatever you want. You can also get points for commenting on the books, rating them, and tagging them.
The last four books I read? (Which is probably more than I read January through April!)
1. Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind by Sarah Wildman (non-fiction/memoir/genealogy search)
2. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
3. Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce (young adult fantasy)--I liked some of her others' more
4. I'm in the middle of The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart (kids' book, part of the Mysterious Benedict Society series)

6. Staff codes--some of the library staff have special codes they can give you. Ask them!


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Puzzling Principal Decisions

Eleven Ann Arbor principal assignments were announced this week. 

There are clearly a lot of politics going on behind the scenes, so to analyze the changes, I'll start with the ones that make sense to me.

• Ann Arbor Open School — Kit Flynn, the media specialist at Ann Arbor Open.

This makes sense because Kit Flynn has been the interim principal on and off, as well as the lead teacher for several years. She also had a lot of support from parents and staff, who wanted someone who really understood open education.

• Bryant Elementary School — Roberta Heyward, the interim principal at Bryant and a teacher at the school.

This makes sense to me because Roberta Heyward has been the interim principal and a teacher at the school.

• Forsythe Middle School — John Reece, assistant principal at Pioneer High School.

This is a product of the elimination of some of the (grade-level) principals at the high school level. Pioneer and Huron each lost a principal (see Burns Park down below, which got an assistant principal who was bumped from Huron High School). Skyline High School was prevented from adding a principal. I believe that John Reece is filling a position at Forsythe left open by retirement.

Eberwhite Elementary School has a new principal in Bill Harris, the district’s assistant director of special education. At one point, Bill was an assistant principal at Scarlett, but perhaps he didn't want to go back to middle school. I am under the impression that the special ed parents like him. Special education is another area that has had a lot of turnover, so I hope they find someone good to replace him!

So--now we come to the puzzles. And there are some puzzles.

It's confusing, but in this discussion the schools to keep your eyes on are Mitchell and Carpenter (especially Mitchell). Also keep an eye on Haisley, which I heard did not send any representatives to the large group interviews of "teachers who were interested in becoming principals." And at the time, people wondered why that was. Now I wonder if the Haisley teachers and parents weren't given any choice.

• Burns Park Elementary School — Virginia Bell, assistant principal at Huron High School.

On the surface, this is a product of the elimination of principal positions at the high school.  But why is the Burns Park principal position open? That is because Kathy Morhous, current principal at Burns Park, has been assigned to King Elementary.

Well, why is that?

Kevin Karr has been the principal of King (and before that he was a principal and a teacher at Northside.) And according to published reports, people thought that he kept bullying "under control" at Northside and was a strong manager. So perhaps that is why he is getting assigned to Mitchell, which is a) a Title 1 school (in other words, there are a lot of poor kids there) with b) poor test scores--perhaps the lowest in the district--and c) about to undergo a major transformation in the the "lab school" partnership with Scarlett Middle School.

This carousel only makes sense because... at Haisley, they've got a new principal assigned to them as well. And as noted above, I understand they weren't part of the larger interview process--probably because they had already been told that  Kathy Scarnecchia, current special administrator working on the Mitchell/Scarlett - University of Michigan Partnership and former principal at Mitchell was being moved to them. You might wonder why she wasn't returned to Mitchell. Yeah, you might. Could it be because Mitchell's MEAP scores are dropping? I've certainly heard rumblings of dissatisfaction from parents there. She may be a better curriculum-planner than administrator. Oh wait--if that is the case, why is she going to another school? Or perhaps that is not the case--perhaps she is a strong administrator--I am very clearly speculating here. (On the other hand--interesting factoid--she was actually a student at Haisley once upon a time. So perhaps she requested that post.)

Meanwhile, Edward Broom has been the interim principal at Mitchell, and now he's going back to Scarlett as an assistant principal again. Did he prefer middle school? Why wasn't he made the permanent principal at Mitchell? Or perhaps--with the ongoing lab school partnership--and the relatively small number of students at Scarlett--they could have used this as an opportunity to cut costs and not replaced the assistant principal at Scarlett. Just a thought... (I digress here but I think if they are going to do the lab school, they could consider all moving into one building.)

Meanwhile, Haisley is a school that has had its own fairly recent principal turnover. In the 2008-2009 school year, Tamber Woodworth went from principal at Haisley Elementary School to an assistant principal position at Pioneer. (She was then the interim principal at Pioneer while Michael White was on military leave, and is now at Ann Arbor Open until she retires in June.) Meanwhile, Mary Anne Jaeger, the former principal at Dicken Elementary School who was on leave in the 2007-2008 school year, took over for Tamber Woodworth at Haisley. She is also retiring.

But wait! Why didn't they put... Charles Davis, the lead teacher at Haisley Elementary School, in the principal position there, as they did at Ann Arbor Open or Bryant? 

Instead, they moved him to a school on the other side of the district--Carpenter.

Meanwhile, a teacher who has been at Carpenter--Natasha York--gets moved to be the principal at Thurston...

Does it make sense to you? Not to me. Which is why I'm sure there are other forces at play.