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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UPDATED: School Prayer: Did she really say that?**

I just noticed this Ann Arbor Journal article, ANN ARBOR: School board candidates meet with cabinet staff, ask questions at forum, that came out on August 24th, 2011, while I was away. Many thanks to the Ann Arbor Journal for covering this meeting.

It starts out,

School board candidates Patrick Leonard, Lawrence Murphy, Albert Howard and Ahmar Iqbal met the Ann Arbor Public Schools cabinet staff and asked questions Aug. 23.

The "cabinet staff" refers to the top paid professionals in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. The idea was to help the school board candidates get oriented.

One of the candidate's questions were summarized:

[Albert] Howard had some religious questions to ask of the board, as well. Howard asked David Cosma if "the AAPS (would) be willing to add the Bible as a historical book to their teaching curriculum," to which Cosma stated that Michigan law allowed the Bible to be taught as a historical document, but the decision to teach the Bible was not his decision.

I think the article is referring to David Comsa, who is the district's legal counsel. There actually are English classes in the district that teach small bits of the Bible as literature.  I'm not sure if there are also history classes using it.

Here's the doozy, though--are you ready for it?

Howard also asked [Patricia] Green if she supported prayer in school, to which she replied she didn't have a position and would uphold what the board decided. (Emphasis added.)

Really? Patricia Green--the new AAPS superintendent--has been an educator for many, many years. She's been a superintendent, an assistant superintendent, a principal, and a teacher. She has a PhD in Educational Philosophy, and she doesn't have a position on school prayer?

Here are the descriptive words* that I've come up with to describe the possible reasons for her response.
1. This is a load of malarkey. In other words, she's selling the school board candidates--and us--a load of b.s.
2. She's being disingenuous. In other words, she is not telling the truth.
3. She's obfuscating. In other words, she's hiding her true feelings behind a veil of impartiality.
4. She's being obsequious. In other words, she wants the new school board candidates to feel that they can do whatever they want.

If any of these are true, my confidence in her is diminished. In other words, I feel less confident.

On the other hand--what if it is true that she doesn't have a position on school prayer? That is even scarier to me. Anyone who has had leadership positions in multiple school districts should be expected to have a position on school prayer.
___________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: Liz Margolis, the AAPS Communications Director, sent me the following email after I had already published this post: 

The report was inaccurate. When Mr. Howard asked Dr. Green how she felt about prayer in school it came right after he asked David Comsa the same questions. Dr. Green followed up David Comsa's response that she didn't have a position because she would follow the law. It was not meant as a way to ditch the subject at all but rather a way to address a question which she believes the law dictates.

The Ann Arbor Journal has not yet posted a correction, but if they do, I will share it. 

If Liz Margolis' account is correct, I feel relief that our new superintendent said something more reasonable. I wasn't there, but if anyone else who was there would like to share their observations of what happened at the meeting, feel free to do that in the comments. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Not only that, but I am pretty sure that the Ann Arbor school board and school leadership has discussed this before. There may even be a position on record. I couldn't find out for sure, because the Ann Arbor schools web site is pretty much impossible to search nowadays.
____________________________________________________________________________

 More Update: Liz Margolis also promises to share past Ann Arbor school board policies and discussions about school prayer--if any exist--and if so, I will post them as well, in a separate post. 

____________________________________________________________________________

I was, however, able to dig up the religious calendar policy (because I already knew it existed), and it infers in this paragraph--which I very much like--that school prayer would not be welcomed:

We are a diverse community reflecting many traditions and perspectives. If each of us is sensitive to both the direct and subtle ways we demonstrate respect and appreciation for these differences, we will each be a positive force in providing a multi-cultural education for our students.

Alternatively, Patricia Green could have turned to one of the other cabinet members, and said, "I don't know if there already is a policy in place--can anyone with a longer history with the district answer this question?" 
Or she could have shared her (real) position.
Or she could have shared the process for the district to come up with a position, if there isn't one.
Or she could have said something like, "There is a very long history of litigation around school prayer issues and the case law on this is fairly well-settled." Perhaps she could have even referred Mr. Howard to some of the cases, such as Engel v. Vitale."
____________________________________________________________________________
Update: Per Liz Margolis she did something like the last choice.
_____________________________________________________________________________
In any case, I can tell you that I am chagrined, crestfallen, dissatisfied, disappointed, disgruntled, and--yes--vexed and confounded by her response. Or not, if the update is correct.

*Hey, high school students and parents of high school students: these could be good ACT/SAT words! Look them up if you don't know them!

**All of this assumes that Dr. Green's response was accurately recorded--which is the assumption that I generally make with our local news reporters. Please see the updates in this post. They do confound this assumption, and, in fact, the whole post.

Don't Blame the Messenger

Last week, I came home one day and found this email message:

Ann Arbor Public Schools sent an important automated phone notification using their SchoolMessenger system. You are receiving this message because your email address was included to receive the notification.
If you missed the call, or if your phone number was not included on the notification list, you can still listen to the message. Simply follow the message link below to play the message in your web browser.

I asked my husband, "Did you listen to the message from the SchoolMessenger system?"
(And to be perfectly honest, I thought it was either a reminder about a PTO meeting, or that perhaps my child had been "absent or tardy.")

"Yes," he said. "It was a reminder about Skyline's Spirit Day. The kids are supposed to wear blue."

Really? That was the "important message?" Aren't high school kids old enough to remember their own spirit days? But. . . whatever. I don't care about it, but maybe someone else does. I don't mind the "important message system" being used for that. At least I didn't care. . . for about. . . five minutes.

That's when I opened the web site of the Ann Arbor Chronicle, and I was shocked. . . Shocked. . . SHOCKED to see Jennifer Coffman's article that said this:

AAPS, UM to Open "Lab School"

The Ann Arbor Public Schools board of education’s planning committee heard a presentation this morning on a “lab school” partnership being planned between the University of Michigan and Mitchell Elementary and Scarlett Middle schools.  The Mitchell/Scarlett/UM lab school, as it’s currently being called, has been under development for six months.

At today’s meeting, Mitchell principal Kathy Scarnecchia described the lab school as creating an integrated K-8 campus between the Mitchell and Scarlett buildings, as well as extending the function of the schools to serve as a community center for local families. She also noted that the lab school will use a year-round, extended-day academic calendar.

Had I heard of this before? No. And here is the kicker: 

The Mitchell/Scarlett/UM lab school will pilot two projects during this school year, then begin its full program in the 2011-12 school year.

So, just like the International Baccalaureate program, it's a fait accompli? Is predestination something more than Puritan theology?

Look--I'm not opposed to schools of choice. I've said before that I think Ann Arbor should have more magnet schools. I've dreamed of an elementary immersion Spanish program. . . perhaps another open school. . .  a high school arts magnet. . . something on the east side, maybe? I completely understand why Scarlett and Mitchell--both underperforming and underenrolled schools--would be targeted. I understand why schools of choice, and the money that follows them, are key. [What do you think is a top search term for this blog?]

When I was at the UM in the School of Education, reading John Dewey, the man who pioneered the "lab" school, I used to wonder why the SOE couldn't have its own lab school. (In fact, the School of Education is actually in a former Ann Arbor high school!) I get all that, but. . . But. . . BUT. . .

HEY! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! WHEN IS THERE ANY PUBLIC PROCESS? 

Is everything determined by professional staff now?

I really, really hope that significant public process comes before the "i"s are dotted and the "t"s are crossed.  Let's recall that our successful alternative schools (yes, I mean Ann Arbor Open and Community High School), in the past, have been developed through a ROBUST public process and with a GROUNDSWELL of support from parents and teachers--NOT from the top down.

Let's have some discussion: what do you think of an extended day and a year-round program? [I wouldn't send my kids to a year-round program. Would you send yours?] What do you think of sending your kids to a "lab" school? Why both Scarlett and Mitchell? Scarlett alone could accommodate between 800 and 900 students, which would be large for a K-8 program. Mitchell can accommodate over 300 students. Do we need a program for 1000-1200 students? How will this be cost-neutral? Etcetera.

Ann Arbor Administrators and School Board: I don't need to know about Spirit Week. I need to know where the schools are going.

This is the message that I should have gotten from the SchoolMessenger system.

This is a reminder that the Ann Arbor Public Schools are considering a partnership with the University of Michigan School of Education to create a "lab" school. Please come to the planning committee meeting on [DATE] or one of the three public hearings scheduled for October. You can also read the concept paper on the front page of the Ann Arbor schools web site, a2schools.org.

THAT is what we need.

P.S. A concept paper? Yeah, that would be a nice idea. I couldn't find that on the Ann Arbor schools web site either.

Assorted Notes

Schools of Choice
Ann Arbor has a limited schools of choice open enrollment period again. That's because they didn't have enough kids apply in round one. It is only for students entering grades K, 1, and 6. It is for select elementary schools and all of the middle schools. Find out more here. Open enrollment period closes August 12th. Other school districts have broader schools of choice options available--check with the district for details.

Saline Schools Bond Vote
The Saline Schools bond lost by 153 votes--2782 to 2629, or 51.4% to 48.6%. This proposal essentially extended a millage that would have expired (and will expire, unless something changes) in 2025, in order to qualify for federal recovery funds (ARRA). I think it was probably hard to understand that it wouldn't cost anything immediately.

In any case, a friend of mine who lives in Belleville pointed out to me that all of the local school districts are coming around and asking for funding for infrastructure and technology costs. I believe that in Belleville (Van Buren schools, which draw a small number of kids from Washtenaw County) they are building, or have built, a new high school. "Now is not the time," she said.

It's worth looking at why these proposals seem to be becoming more frequent. I'll give two reasons, and there are probably more. 1) There are some projects (technology comes to mind), where funding could come from a bond issue, or from per-pupil operating monies. Since the per-pupil operating monies keep getting cut, it's not really an option to take money for these projects from those monies, and we cannot go to local voters and ask for an increase in per-pupil funding, thanks to Proposal A. In other words, it is a function of the state school funding climate. 2) In a competitive world of school choice, and a world where we like shiny new things, school boards and administrators believe that we gain a competitive edge with new and updated schools. In other words, parents will choose to enroll their kids in a school based in part on facilities and technology.
Do you agree? 
On the one hand, I think I learned perfectly well without computers or whiteboards in my classrooms--and I expect that I am not the only voter who wonders "do we really need" this technology? Couldn't we teach without it? (The answer is clearly yes.)
On the other hand, if you expect teachers to orient their teaching around technological innovations (which, increasingly, we do)--well, I can say that there is very little that is more frustrating for a teacher than having technology not work. If we want all kids to learn computers, we need to give them computers to use. And what about having a roof that doesn't leak? Heating and cooling systems that heat and cool?

The WISD Transportation Mess:
In the end, only three districts decided to join the WISD Transportation Consolidation Plan. Yes, that is the number 3 (Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Willow Run). Yes, they originally said they needed 5, minimally. I still don't have an answer on how the math works out for that. The WISD is now advertising for school bus driver applicants. Are we going to have a major snafu come September? It does seem likely. Other districts are trying some other ideas. Dexter is going to a one-tier bus system. In that system, school times are coordinated so that you only need to drive through a neighborhood once, rather than different times for elementary/middle/high school. The tentative schedule will be to have the school day running from 8 a.m. to 2:51 p.m. Lincoln bus drivers agreed to significant concessions.


Ypsilanti Superintendent:
Ypsilanti is evaluating new superintendent Dedrick Martin. Share your opinions with the Ypsilanti school board now.

Principals:
Did anyone notice that the new Ypsilanti high school principal resigned before he started? And there are four new elementary school principals coming in to Ann Arbor. Three of them are from out of district. Do we really not have the skills and expertise in the district to hire from within?

Adequate Yearly Progress:
The state Department of Education has determined that most public schools in the county have made Adequate Yearly Progress. According to David Jesse at annarbor.com,

The schools that didn’t make AYP were Ann Arbor's Stone High School, Lincoln High School, Ypsilanti High School, Willow Run High School and Willow Run Middle School. Coming off the AYP problem school list was Ypsilanti's Adams Elementary School.

If you want to see the school-by-school details, you can find them on the state web site here.
I'm curious: those of you with fairly recent experiences at the schools that did not make AYP, have you been satisfied with your children's education? I have heard that some of these schools are "great for kids who need second and third chances" but are not doing so well with kids who don't need them. Do you agree?

If you want to look at a school district that is doing well in state rankings with limited resources (they are on the low end as far as per-pupil funding amounts), I suggest you check out the Manchester school district.

Budget and Salary Transparency Reporting:

I just noticed that the Saline and Manchester and Ypsilanti schools have Budget and Transparency Reporting up on their web sites. Look for it on their home pages, in a link. It turns out that it is a state requirement, to have this information posted on the home page of the district's web site within 30 days. When I first looked, I didn't see it on the Ann Arbor web site. When I read the state's documentation, that says it needs to be up and on the home page, I went back again. It is in the weirdest place on the AAPS web site, almost "off the page" on the far, far top right.

School Board:
If you haven't read my last post about school board elections, please do!

Six Questions, Fewer Answers

1. Is the Michigan Department of Education completely inept?
First comes the report that Ypsilanti High School has scored in the bottom 5% of all high schools in the state. Based on what I've seen, that didn't make any sense to me--and what about Willow Run? Their graduation rates are terrible. And then, three hours (yes, hours) before a big "transformation" grant is due, they are told that they are not eligible. Why? Um, they are not actually in the bottom 5% of all schools in the state. Generally, that's good news. But three hours? Ineptness, yes.
2. Why didn't more teachers take advantage of the early retirement offer?
(Multiple choice answer.)
A. The deal didn't give teachers a lot of time to decide.
B. The incentive wasn't that great.
C. The incentive came with a really big negative. If you accepted it, you couldn't come back as a part-time teacher (a common practice in several local districts), or as a curriculum adviser, or even as a baseball coach, without losing pension income during the time period you were actually working.
D. All of the above.
3. Will the state legislature take surplus money from the School Aid Fund?
Oh, you thought that money was earmarked for schools? It turns out that it is earmarked for "education." Any education--including community colleges and higher education. I do want us to support higher education, but not from this fund. It may not be a technical misappropriation, but it is truly a violation of people's understanding of the fund. [It's right up there with the fact that the state legislature took money out of the fund for matching political campaigns.] After all, K-12 education is mandatory. College is desirable, but it's not mandated. Short answer: Your guess is as good as mine.
4. Why does a2schools.org get you to the Ann Arbor Public Schools web site; and www.aaps.k12.mi.us gets you to the Ann Arbor Public Schools web site; but aaps.k12.mi.us gets you to "Problem Loading Page?"
Educated guess: because there is a problem with the web site.
5. Will Willow Run finally fire Doris Hope-Jackson, former Superintendent?  And Willow Run High School is in the bottom 5% of high schools in the state. What are they going to do about that?
I don't know, and I don't know.
6. What was my favorite advice to date in the Three Things That Could Improve Michigan on WUOM? (Admittedly, I haven't heard all of them.)
My favorite advice to date came from Josie Parker, Director of the Ann Arbor District Library. "Be curious," she said. I think that's a great idea.

What is the Agenda?

Tonight, Friday night, the AAPS Board is having a meeting at 5 p.m.
A regular meeting.
The agenda is still not posted.
I actually have no idea as to whether the agendas are typically posted in advance. I assumed that they are, but I have never looked before.
I also assumed that there was an Open Meetings Act requirement to post agendas in advance (24 hours? 48 hours?). As far as I can tell, there's no requirement about posting agendas in the OMA.
On the AAPS web site, I also couldn't find any evidence that there is an AAPS board policy about posting the agenda.
If the board typically posts the agenda in advance, then I would like to know why they didn't post this one.
If the board doesn't typically post the agenda in advance, then I would like to know why not.

Often you can't find things you want to find on the AAPS web site, but I will say this: if there is no requirement from the Open Meetings Act to post agendas, then the AAPS School Board--and every other school board--should make it board policy to post agendas at least 24 hours in advance. They can always be amended.

Failure to post agendas can only be interpreted, by parents and taxpayers like myself, as a way to depress attendance and reduce transparency. And this is even more true in a case like this, where the meeting is scheduled for
Friday at 5 p.m.
And where the meeting is an additional meeting.
You could call the lack of an agenda sneaky. Or misguided.
In any case, we are back to the issue that keeps repeating: Transparency.
Process is important. 
And agenda has two meanings: 1) The agenda for the meeting is posted and 2) We will try to move this agenda forward.


I think that the meeting is going to discuss transportation consolidation, but I don't have any proof of that. So when I ask, "What is the agenda?" I am asking both the simple question of "What is on the list to discuss for the evening?" and the more complex and less transparent question of "If there is no agenda posted, does that mean that someone has a particular agenda that they are trying to push?" In the case of transportation, my guess is that the administration does have an agenda they are trying to push, and they are trying to keep it out of the public eye by not posting the agenda.

I suggest you send your comments, on both transparency and transportation, to the Board of Education at boe@aaps.k12.mi.us.

Money, News, and AAPS

During school break, David Jesse had an article in annarbor.com about the money the Ann Arbor Public Schools are spending on contractors. Leaving aside the 33% increase in spending, there is this:

The largest new expenditure was a $55,000 contract given to former Ann Arbor News reporter Casey Hans to create a district newspaper and write stories for it. Other smaller contracts - some awarded to former district employees - were given for professional development.
Roberts said money for Hans’ contract came from backing down on the district’s advertising buys and transferring some money into the communications budget from another district budget.

[N.B.: That is just the cost of the contract. I imagine that printing and mailing increase the total cost to the $100,000 range.]

On the one hand, I understand the problem. AAPS is not the only group struggling to figure out what to do in the wake of the Ann Arbor News closing. Many nonprofits are struggling to figure out how to get their message out to people. I know a handful of people who read annarbor.com on-line regularly, and another group who read the Ann Arbor Chronicle, but most of the people I know have taken to reading them occasionally, if at all, and relying on WEMU and WUOM for their local news.  I recently read a blog post (sorry, can't remember where) that talked about the loss of the Ann Arbor News as the loss of a common, community document. In other words, although we still have news sources, we are not all relying on the same news sources, and so our understandings of "news" is fragmented. All of which poses a problem for the school district and a whole slew of other nonprofits and businesses. I understand this newsletter as an attempt to provide consistent messaging and information to a larger group of people. Added to that, I've been a paid newsletter editor, and I know it can be time consuming.


On the other hand, is this the solution? First, newsletters by their very nature are public relations pieces. They are not "news" in any critical sense. Public relations pieces are not necessarily bad, and they can be informational, but if you take a look at this new newsletter online, you will see that it has a lot of "good news" of the sort that can already be found in the This Week bulletin. At least this first issue is more "puff" than "information." [Seriously. The top article? Eberwhite teachers reach out to tutor young students at Parkhurst.]
We already have a communications manager at the school district. Supposedly, we have a budget crisis. It becomes really hard to believe what the district is saying. If we "need" to cut school staff and we "need" to cut what people get paid, and we "need" to protect classroom resources most of all, and we "couldn't" fund a grantwriter unless the funding came from a new/foundation source, then why the hell are we funding a new school newsletter? Really, we should be cutting the communications budget by at least 20%, not holding it neutral or increasing it. How will this newsletter protect and improve student outcomes? And why doesn't it even have any real news in it?

Oh, shoot. Now we're back to that transparency thing.

AAPS, Libraries, and Transparency

It was just happenstance that I wrote about libraries in my last post. Seriously, I was not expecting to get this in my inbox yesterday from a school PTO liaison:

We have recently learned of a slew of proposed cuts to our schools’ library programs, and these cuts have not been widely discussed as part of the larger public budget discussions going on.

It appears that administrators are proposing discontinuing all library classes, having the librarians teach tech ed, and having nobody (parent volunteers?) maintain the libraries.

It is also our understanding that there are alternate proposals that involve cutting FTE’s by reducing media services at over-staffed locations, which would save just as much money (perhaps more?), and not necessitate these drastic changes.  Unfortunately, it looks like momentum is favoring the former proposal, and doing so without any public input, as the public has not been made aware of this.

I encourage any of you concerned with this possible development to contact the School Board, Superintendent Roberts, and the Administrator for Elementary Education, LeeAnn Dickinson-Kelley, to tell them your feelings about this (email addresses below).  

And here are some email addresses that might be useful:

Superintendent Todd Roberts:  robertst@aaps.k12.mi.us

Administrator for Elementary Education, LeeAnn Dickinson-Kelley: dickinso@aaps.k12.mi.us

AAPS School Board:  boe@aaps.k12.mi.us

Please feel free to pass on this information to any other parents within the AAPS who might be interested. (Emphases added.)

Could I find anything about this on the AAPS web site? Nooooo. Will the other options save more, or the same amount of money? I have no idea, but if that is true, I'd like to know why they are thinking about this option.


OK, so--school board and administration--here is a RECAP for you. 

I was at a millage meeting, and someone asked Todd Roberts what people mean when they are talking about transparency. He said, roughly, "I have no idea. Our budget is on our web site."
In a follow-up blog post, I explain what I think people mean by transparency. Read about that here and here.
Todd Roberts, this is another example. This is not transparency. If you have "new ideas" about ways to save money for the school district (which is good), then share them publicly. Keep us updated. Sharing information with the public should not be window dressing. You have a web site. You have a new newsletter. You have a budget page on your web site. That would be transparency.
What are you waiting for?

Transparency, Part I: What Do We Mean?

I was sitting in a parlor meeting to hear a presentation by Todd Roberts (AAPS Superintendent). The purpose of the meeting was to promote the need for the schools millage (yes, that schools millage), and the audience was fairly friendly to the cause. One of the people present asked, “I keep hearing people talk about the need for more transparency. What do they mean by that?”

Todd Roberts answered (and despite the quote marks I am paraphrasing here), “I have no idea. We have a lot of information, including our budget, on our web site.”

“Holy clear plate of glass, Batman!” Seriously, Todd, you have no idea what people mean by transparency? 

Well, I have a few ideas (and I shared one of them at that meeting), and here’s a little detail.

When my friends talk about transparency, they (we) mean multiple things.

INFORMATION
First, we mean being able to find information that they need/want, when they need it. Hopefully by the end of the year I will be able to put up some ideas for how to improve the web site (which is an impossible mess, for the most part). But having a year-old budget on your web site, in pdf format, when the landscape has changed so dramatically, does not constitute transparency. Where do I find the ideas about what changes might happen? Without the information, what is left is FEAR. Fear that—for example—schools will be closed, and we will be the last to know.

Second, we mean being able to figure out who to contact to find something out. I just had someone email me who said, “Nobody ever answers my calls and I can’t figure out who to ask.” (That itself is quite an indictment, but in case you are interested, I sent her to my catch-all person—Todd Roberts’ administrative assistant. She should know, but if she doesn't know, she can probably find out for you.)

PROCESS

Second, we mean process. I have written about this before (here), but if I want to get involved in city or county government, there is a clear way for me to get involved in city/county commissions. There are plenty of public meetings. I can try to get appointed to a committee.
That is not so in the school district. Above the building level, there are virtually no public commissions or committees to sit on or even attend as a visitor. Making presentations about the budget to people (and answering questions at a meeting) is no substitute for having a committee where people can discuss, and come up with ideas. And no wonder those meetings are sparsely attended. They are poorly advertised, and they are seemingly meaningless. It’s not just about the budget, though. Are there any ongoing district-wide committees—open to community members—that look at high school policies and configuration, elementary school libraries, buildings and infrastructure, web design, extra-curricular activities? If there are, I can’t find them.  If there is one thing that Ann Arbor has, it is a wealth of experience and knowledge. Why, oh why, doesn’t AAPS tap into it?

The lack of transparency, the lack of information, the lack of process, the lack of approachability—all of these create an atmosphere of frustration and distrust. Sure, I know what to do at the building site level, but—try to move beyond that, and it’s like knocking your head against a brick wall.

[Up Next: Transparency, Part 2: An Example]

School Starts: Odds and Ends

1. Have you been to the Thurston Nature Center? Thurston School in Ann Arbor has a new rain garden--worth checking out. It was worked on by the third grade classes. (And apparently the nature center was used for filming "Flipped" as well! A movie was also filmed on the Ann Arbor Open at Mack playground, but I don't know what move it was.)

2. Small victory on the AAPS web site. This Week, the internal feature that I wrote about here, has been moved to the front page under publications. If you read This Week, you will see more good news about the AAPS.

3. Also on the AAPS web site--a new survey on cafeteria offerings. It's short, and there's lots of space for comments. Tell them what you think! (See the image, both This Week and the Survey can be found on the right-hand side of the page.) I hope you have a good year.

4. There's also new information on the AAPS web site around H1N1 flu. The upcoming season promises to be challenging. For one thing, all kids are recommended to get the H1N1 flu shots (yes, that is plural--they are supposed to be given one month apart), and many kids who have underlying health conditions (say, asthma) are also expected to get a seasonal flu shot. In case you are having trouble adding, that's 3 shots, and my guess is that a lot of people won't get them all. The new absence-reporting procedure asks you to tell the school why your child is sick (i.e. sore throat, fever, broken arm) and this is supposed to help them keep track of the flu. The only thing is that I bet a lot of parents won't follow it. I wrote about how my brother-in-law told the school his son had a 100 degree fever, and they said he had to stay home for a week. It wasn't the flu. My nephew was fine the next day, but he still couldn't go back to school. Will you tell, if you don't think it's the flu and it might mean staying home for a week?

5. How do you feel about school starting? You can take my unscientific poll if you like (right-hand side, top). I always feel like a Mack Truck has hit me--the change in pace is striking.

Bus Scheduling (Sigh)

A few weeks ago, wanting to get ahead of the curve and hoping to have some input, I called the AAPS transportation office to find out what bus options there would be in my neighborhood. I was hoping that as the number of kids at Skyline expands, the busing options would improve. I, at least, want to encourage the public school bussing option, but I don't like to have my kids walking nearly a mile in the morning dark in order to get on a bus--which meant, of course, that I drove my daughter to the bus stop last year.
So imagine my dismay when I was told on the phone that not only hadn't the options expanded, the bus that stopped last year 3/4 of a mile from my house was no longer operational.
Whaaat?
The guy answering the phone suggested that maybe nobody had used that bus at the end of the year.
Not true--there were about 12 kids there on most days.
I was upset.
I left a message for the route supervisor. [Whom, it should be mentioned here, never called me back.]
I also emailed some of my friends in the neighborhood about this. One of them called Todd Robert's office (the superintendent), and spoke with his secretary. She was following my grandfather's adage, "Don't waste your time. I always go straight to the top."

[In case you need it, the Superintendent's Office number is in the phone book. And it is: 994-2230.]

A few hours later, my friend gets a call back--the person I had spoken to had, in fact, given me the "wrong" information--there was a bus that went to the old spots, and a few other spots too (which are, in fact, closer to my house). You might have thought that "all's well that ends well."

Except for a few things. (Of course there is more.)
When the Back-to-School Bus Schedules came, the promised route was...ABSENT. This prompted a whole 'nother round of phone calls among our friends. What did this mean???
At Skyline registration, the route in question was indeed posted. [Although I didn't go to registration--if my child hadn't asked the right question, would we know the answer?]
Obviously, they had to print the schedules earlier, so I still don't know: did they add this route under our questioning? Or was its omission an editing mistake that they couldn't rectify in time? And if the route was there all the time, then why was the person answering the phone using the (clearly incorrect) printed bus schedule--at least the AAPS transportation department should have access to the correct schedule.

One more thing: twice last year, for good reasons, my daughter's morning bus schedule had major changes in time and location. But did they give us more than a day's notice? NO! Did they change the posted information on the AAPS Web Site? NO! And really, there is no good reason for that. Families deserve at least a few days notice. The web site should be updated.

A few days after the first set of events, one of the other parents whose child rides the bus calls me to find out if there was an update. I told her what had happened. "Typical of the school district," she says (and she works for the district). "And the confusion is all so unnecessary."

Lessons learned about the bussing:
Call early about the schedule
Read the schedule. Re-read the schedule. If you don't see what you need, be persistent and ask for what you deserve.
If you don't like the answers, go up the chain of command. The squeaky wheel does get the grease--at least sometimes. I don't think most of us are asking for all that much.
Oh--and--give the bus drivers a break, especially the first couple of weeks of the year...

Want to go to a school of choice?

Google Search that led someone to my blog:
Can a student be released from [local school district X] and go to a school of choice?

I don't think I've fully answered this question, so here is the short answer: You don't need to be "released," so to speak--there is no requirement that you go to public school in your school district. You could choose a private/parochial school, or a school of choice in a different school district--the requirement is that your child gets an education (and that includes the possibility of home schooling).

Depending on the school district you would like to opt into, you follow their enrollment/application guidelines. They can generally be found on the school district's web site. For instance, Lincoln Schools and Ypsilanti Schools have "schools of choice" buttons on their web site. (Although Ypsilanti's form and information is outdated, I think the procedure hasn't changed). I believe that they will notify your "last school" that you now have a new school. One other thing--typically, if your child has been suspended or expelled in the last two years it will not be so easy to switch them.

Note added 8/6/09: Here are the details from the state's web site.

Stimulus Funding at Pioneer High School

For the Allen Creek watershed. Don't expect to see any action until after the University of Michigan football season.

It's cool to see how the stimulus money is being used in our community. I only wish that the relevant information was not only on the County's web site but also on the AAPS web site.

School elections

See the linked article (click on the title). It's true for Washtenaw County, too.

Remember to vote on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 anyway.

Top 5 reasons:

5. It will make the county clerk happy:)

4. Some districts (Saline and Chelsea) have sinking funds or other bonds that require your thoughtful consideration. [AND, by the way, Ypsilanti Township--which includes several school districts--and the Chelsea Fire Authority have other items on the agenda.]

3. Some districts (Saline and Willow Run) have contested elections. These people make important decisions for us, and if you don't want them, write someone else in.

2. Even if the election is uncontested, when you have a complaint, you can go to Candidate X and say "I voted for you, and..."

1. They are your schools. You are a taxpayer (yes, even if you rent). Voting is your right, and your responsibility the kids in your district.

OK, I admit, it's not the greatest list. It's hard to get the motivation when there is no contest. What can I say? Vote anyway.

I liked what I saw

I happened to be inside Pattengill Elementary School recently. I have always felt that you can learn a lot from just walking the halls of a school--and this was no exception.

I liked the art on the walls--drawings"in the manner of" Picasso, geometric patterns.
I liked the variety--there were lots of things in the hall, and they looked fresh and well-cared-for.
I liked the sentiments--Pattengill has been trying to become a Michigan Green School (successfully, I guess, although I'm still not clear on what that means exactly) and Earth Day (today) was a day full of service learning and school ground cleanup.
I liked the--recycling bin for toner cartridges, batteries, and more--in the hall.
I liked the clothes closet donation box--did you know that sister school Bryant (grades K-2) has a clothes closet where families can get free clothes during school hours? (I didn't know that until I saw the sign.)
And I especially liked the "giveaway" box for hats, gloves, and mittens (labelled, "Not the lost and found")--given the number of gloves and mittens my family loses every winter, I really liked this. If we had this at my child's school, I could buy less, save money and irritation, and reduce consumption.

I wanted to find out more about the Michigan Green School program and Pattengill, so I did a web search, and that brought me to a little-known corner of the AAPS web site (ready, set, grumble). Seriously! Apparently the Superintendent sends out a notice to staff every week that is a summary of great things happening in the district. And we can read it. After reading just one (I think the memo is called "This Week"), I cannot--for the life of me--figure out why this is not more prominent, and publicized to all interested parties. It's kind of a brag sheet, so why not brag to parents and community remembers? You can read This Week here.