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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Pedestrian Safety Report Is Out--You Can Make A Difference

The past two days, Jews around the world marked the start of the Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah. In case you're wondering what that has to do with schools, or pedestrian safety, let me tell you.

A year ago last night (counting by the Jewish calendar*), on the second night of Rosh Hashanah, a little girl named Anna Hendren Schwalb was hit by a car in Ann Arbor, and she unfortunately did not survive. In Anna's memory, last year I wrote about how pedestrian deaths--of children--are more common than you would think.

Ann Arbor averaged 55 pedestrian crashes per year for the five-year period 2010-2014; this was a 22% increase over the average of 45 pedestrian crashes for the previous five-year period 2005-2009. In addition, using those same two periods, the total number of incapacitating injuries resulting from pedestrian crashes increased 100% (22 to 44), and the total number of fatalities increased from 2 to 6. . . And while Ann Arbor crashes involving pedestrians represent only 16% of all crashes in the City of Ann Arbor, pedestrians account for one-third (1/3) of the fatalities and almost one-quarter (1/4) of all serious injuries. --From the City of Ann Arbor Pedestrian Safety & Access Task Force Report, p. 3

The fact is, when it comes to car-pedestrian, or car-bike accidents, it's not exactly a fair match-up.**

Anyway--I was already interested in pedestrian safety, but Anna's death made me pay attention to the city's Pedestrian Safety and Access Task Force. And last night, exactly a year after Anna was hit by the car, the task force presented their findings to city council at a working session.

And yes, I think that this is definitely a school issue. Many kids do walk or bike to school; and many don't, because their parents don't feel that where they would need to walk would be safe. Many kids walk to school on roads without sidewalks; cross roads without crosswalks; leave their houses before it is light, or return home when it's already dark.

Cover page of the Pedestrian Safety & Access Task Force.
You can find the report online here.

The Task Force identifies "Seven Symptoms" in their report--one specifically calls out children walking or biking to school, but I think the others all relate to schools as well:

1. Motorists passing other Vehicles that are stopped for Pedestrians in a Crosswalk. 
2. Motorists failing to stop for Pedestrians at Midblock Crosswalks. 
3. Motorists failing to stop for Pedestrians at School Crosswalks. Marked school crosswalks are not immune to symptoms 1 and 2. 
4. Motorists failing to yield to Pedestrians when Turning at Intersections. 
5. Inconsistent Signing, Marking and Signaling of Crosswalks. 
6. Snow and Ice Accumulation on Sidewalks and Crosswalks Inhibiting Pedestrian Travel. 
7. Motorists Speeding in Residential Neighborhoods.

There are a lot of recommendations. I am not going to summarize them here. I'm just going to say--you should read the report.

Beyond reading, though, what can you do?

1. Support the proposals in the task force report--some of them take money, some of them take time, some of them take awareness. Remember, support can be beautiful.

2. "If you see something, say something." If you see something that seems unsafe for pedestrians or bicyclists, speak up! The right "authority" to notify might be the schools, or city council, or township government, or the county road commission. Recently, I put in a request through my city council representative to have the Newport/Red Oak flashing yellow light become flashing red around the times that school starts and school ends. I don't know whether that will happen, but I realized--it doesn't hurt to ask.

3. Slow down. Yes, I'm talking to myself here, too. In fact, one of the recommendations is to work toward speed limits of 25 miles per hour or less city wide. As the report notes, "any residential street where the 85 percentile speed is greater than 25 mph or a school zone where the 85 percentile speed is greater than 25 mph during school hours should be evaluated for geometric, signal timing and roadside improvements that have been shown to reduce the speed of motor vehicles."

And why are we doing this? To make this place safer--for kids, and for adults, for pedestrians, for bicyclists, and for drivers.


*The Jewish calendar is lunar-solar, so it doesn't match up exactly with the secular calendar. The events I'm talking about took place a few weeks later in 2014.

**And I was reminded of this last month, when my husband was in a car-bike accident. He was the one on the bike. Luckily, he's fine (just a few scratches), thank you for asking. The bike was quite damaged. The car? unscathed. Whatever numbers of accidents they have compiled, I'm pretty sure that it's an undercount. For example, my husband and the car driver did not immediately file a police report (or exchange numbers! that was a mistake!)--my husband filed it several days later. How many accidents never get reported, or counted?

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Introducing (Again): The Two-Hour Delay

Happy New Year!
Happy Cold Snowy New Year!
Happy Cold Snowy Beautiful New Year!

I am reposting this post from last year (Feb. 11, 2013), because it has been soooo cold, and tomorrow morning the warning is as follows: 

... Wind chill warning remains in effect until 7 am EST Wednesday...  

And kids are waiting for the school bus before 7 a.m. in some cases. So do we do another snow day? Or could we start a two-hour-delay trend? Why not?

Just saying...

Today was a snow day.

Now don't get me wrong. I love snow days, especially when there is snow to play in.

And I know that it was icy on the rural roads in the district at 5 a.m. But then it warmed up.

My friends in Pittsburgh (a city of many bridges that freeze) tell me that their schools often get a two-hour delay on days when it is icy in the morning but likely to warm up later.

I'm really not sure why none of our local schools seem to do this. It seems like this would have been the perfect solution in weather like today's.

And that is my bright idea!

Missed Opportunities: Ann Arbor and the Washtenaw IB/WAY/ECA Consortium

I wasn't really paying attention to the big brouhaha as to whether the Ann Arbor schools should sign the contract to continue to participate in the International Baccalaureate program, the WAY (Washtenaw Alternatives for Youth) program, or the Early College Alliance. But now I am. And mostly what strikes me is that there have been several missed opportunities. Sure, I know that hindsight is perfect, but looking back and evaluating is also a good way to learn.

So here are five missed opportunities.

1. Missed Meetings: The Ann Arbor News reported that the Ann Arbor school representatives missed many of the consortium meetings. I don't know if Supt. Pat Green or Deputy Supt. Alesia Flye was to blame for that--maybe it was both of them. They're both gone now, so I'm not sure if it matters if we figure that out. Going forward though, if we have a seat at the table, we need to take it. It's pretty clear that we can have more influence if we are there early in the process.

2. Anti-union contract: Someone called me to say that he was worried that the contract the Ann Arbor school board was discussing was anti-union. Given that the contract (click on the link to see it) specifies that if a teacher is tenured in a district and goes to work for the IB, WAY, or ECA schools they are not operating under or accumulating tenure (among other things), you could describe it that way fairly, I think. But here's the thing--this same contract was already voted on by the Ann Arbor schools for this current year in August--and by the other school districts as well. Does the Ann Arbor Education Association or the Washtenaw Education Association not care, or did they just miss this? They probably could have influenced the terms and conditions...

3. Failure to Track: When the Ann Arbor school's Count Day numbers came out, and they were below expectations, much of the attention went to the number of AAPS high school students who were enrolled in the IB, WAY, and ECA programs. And the district seemed surprised by this. To my mind, either they weren't surprised, but wanted the public to feel that they were (which would be misleading), or they were surprised. And if they were surprised, then I have to ask why that is. You might remember that my son applied to the IB program at the Washtenaw International High School--and he found out that he was accepted sometime in late winter or early spring. Now surely, as consortium members, the district could find out how many Ann Arbor students had gotten in to--and later, decided to go to--these alternative programs. The question is, why didn't they take those numbers into consideration as they constructed this year's budget?

4. Transportation Thinking: I don't think the school board and administration really took into account the way that threatening to cut high school transportation could affect the way students looked at schools. I'll probably never be able to prove this, but to my mind, when the district said--at the same time that students were looking at high schools--that high school transportation might not be available, it changed the equation for many parents. I know for myself that I was intimidated by the idea of transporting my son to the IB school. On the other hand, if I lived far from my district high school, and would have to transport my child anyway, then I would not be comparing "drive my child to one school or have him take a bus to the other" but rather "drive my child to school A or school B?" So even the threat of the transportation being cut may have influenced the debate for students at the time when the choices were being made.

5. Going it alone: I believe the ECA, the IB program, and the WAY program are all very worthwhile. But Dexter--which decided to do its own IB program, and which decided not to join the WISD transportation consortium--may have done the best job in looking out for Dexter. I am glad to see the Ann Arbor school board now considering doing its own IB program, even if the consortium IB program continues.



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Read. Think. Act

Things to read:

Article about the experience of being a test grader: Inside the multimillion-dollar essay-scoring business. Reading about scoring reminded me of the essay my son wrote for a test once that I actually published.

Article about Ann Arbor Public School teachers losing their domestic partner benefits due to the union contract being renegotiated due to Right to Work, and the anti-domestic partner legislation passed two years ago in Michigan. (Note: this is also true of Washtenaw County employees, and probably others in the state.) I. feel. terrible. about. this.

Article about how Snyder and Co. knew all about the Skunk Works project. 

Article about Albion closing its high school. (One thing I don't understand about this--it was my impression that state law says that a district is defined by having a high school. But it appears this won't automatically dissolve the district.)

Think and Act. Or in some cases, Act and Think.

The former "SkunkWorks" group now headed by Michigan Superintendent Flanagan has set up a new Facebook page asking for input. Please. Give them a piece of your mind.

The Ann Arbor Schools are asking you to fill out a survey about the qualities most important to you in a Superintendent. Find the survey here. It's fairly short, but before you fill it out, think about how you want to answer qualities that could be interpreted in more than one way. There are several of those. For instance, what exactly do they mean by "Is comfortable leading innovation and reform efforts?" Is that a code word for another Broad Foundation candidate? I'm all for innovation along the lines of more project-based work and more magnets, but I'm not for corporate reform. . . As it happens, there is a comments box at the bottom. Use it!

There is a MoveOn petition to the Ann Arbor school board asking the district not to cut high school transportation because of its disparate impact on low-income kids. If you are in agreement, please sign it here. (I did.)

Ann Arbor: Are We Operating in a Data-less World?

I'm reflecting on the Ann Arbor school district's budget study session, and the recommendations that have come out of it.

And it just makes me wonder--are we operating in a data-less world?

It's a little hard to get a fix on exactly how much needs to be cut, and it does need to be cut. I might make some people unhappy by advocating for more cuts rather than fewer, but given the uncertainties in the budget that would make sense to me.

How do you go from needing to cut 20 million to 8.6 million. . . and then back up again. . .

In any case, I accept that there will be teacher cuts. [Speak to the legislators and tell them to restore funding to the School Aid Fund.] I don't have any trouble with cutting a staff person from the Pioneer theater program. [Have you seen how much money Pioneer Theatre Guild makes?] I accept that pay to play sports will cost more for my son next year.

But it seems to me that we are making decisions without data that the district should be able to provide.

For instance, I asked a couple of weeks ago, when the proposal to cut all of the Reading Intervention teachers came up, "But is the Reading Intervention program working?" [Not surprisingly, the Reading Intervention teachers say yes, and here is their web site.]

I argued, if the program is working, we shouldn't cut it, because early interventions for reading are important; and if it isn't working, we should have cut it earlier.

And then. . . the school board decides to cut it. . . in half. To my mind, this is the least satisfying thing they could do. Is the program working, or not? I am sure that there is data that shows that it is or isn't working. But maybe the data doesn't exist. If it doesn't exist, then that's a different problem. Cutting the program in half appears to show that you have no idea if the program is working or not.

The school board is deciding to cut high school busing. I think this is a terrible idea, at least in the mornings. (I saw an interesting suggestion to keep busing in the morning, and cut it in the afternoon--I liked that idea but I'm not sure if it is legal.)

But what I really want to know is this: how many low-income kids live in areas that are too far from their high schools to get there without high school busing? Many of the complexes with large numbers of low-income students are not on bus routes.

If we assume that most middle class kids would, in fact, be able to find a way to school (and I'm not sure that's true, but let's make that assumption), how many low-income kids would have trouble getting to school? I'm thinking, for instance, of kids who lives outside the bus lines at Scio Farms, Orchard Grove Village, or Lakestone (formerly Eagle Pointe) Apartments. How would they get to Pioneer or Skyline? What about kids who live in apartment complexes that are on bus routes--say, for example, Glencoe Hills? Would we pay for them to have bus passes?

Do we have this data? I would think we should use it to inform our decisions. Do the supposed cost savings account for paying for kids (at least low-income kids) to have bus passes? Does it account for some number of low-income kids dropping out? Do we even know how many kids we would put at risk of dropping out?

Where is the data?

Externalizing Transportation Costs: Yes, We Pay

Today, the Ann Arbor Chronicle has a piece by David Erik Nelson, In It For The Money: School Transportation. In it, he points out that  

If you’re wondering why there is such a crazy drag on Michigan’s economy, maybe part of the problem is that we make 40 able-bodied adults do, at no pay, the work that we once paid one dude a basically fair salary to do with a big yellow bus. Those are hours spent not making anything anyone can buy, not earning any money to buy anything from anyone else, not creating jobs for another person, not rendering or using services, not being useful to the community.

Nelson describes how, in place of each cancelled bus route, we now have many, many adults driving their kids to school, and what a drag that is. . . on the environment, on the economy, on people's time.

He has some other examples and I think the entire article is worth reading, but the basic point is that the costs don't go away. They just get transferred from the school district (the public good) to individuals. In some cases, the costs go up--how much do you think all of those parents are paying in gas? But they don't go up for the district, they go up for the individuals.

Nelson then goes on to detail the ways in which the most vulnerable get the least attention in this shuffle, because the parents with email, the parents who speak good English--they are the ones whose complaints get noticed. The ones who don't have email, who don't speak good English? Forget about it.

One of the side effects of cutting transportation--and one that definitely contributes to the number of parents driving their kids to school--has been the expansion of the "walk zone." How far away from school do you have to be to get a bus ride? Now, it's 1-1/2 miles.

Now I have no problem with an expanded walk zone, if it's safe for kids to walk, year round. Even in snowy weather. Even in the early mornings in late fall when it is dark. That would require sidewalks.

Do we meet that test? Funny you should ask. No, we don't. I'm just waiting for the serious accident to happen. How much are our savings worth?

I was glad to see, in annarbor.com today, an article about Clague receiving a $180,000 Safe Routes to School grant. According to the article,

The grant is one of six awards MDOT allocated to Michigan schools this month — about $990,000 in all — to help students safely walk and bike to school.

Huron High School students walk north toward home on Nixon Road just south of Green Road Thursday afternoon in Ann Arbor

Courtney Sacco | AnnArbor.com

 

The grant will fund the installation of sidewalks and crosswalks on Nixon Road, flashing beacons on Green Road and crosswalk improvements at the intersection of Green and Nixon. Clague Middle School Principal Cindy Leaman said students currently walk on a bike path space on the side of the road to get to and from school because a sidewalk on Nixon Road is incomplete.

The picture above, excerpted from the annarbor.com article, shows kids walking to Clague from Huron High School on a roadside bike path. They are not walking against traffic, and I don't know if the bicycle path even exists on the other side of the road. Now imagine those kids walking to school, in the morning, in the dark. Does that seem safe to you? Not to me.

And the grant is truly fantastic. Except for one thing. There are nearly thirty schools in the Ann Arbor school district, and I don't know if there is a single one where every student within the walk zone has a safe route to school. I know for sure that my local schools, Wines Elementary and Forsythe Middle School, do not. Are we going to get these grants for every school in the district? That would be impossible. There were only six grants given out in Michigan this year. [Thurston Elementary School did get one a few years ago.]

As noted in the article, 

Students walk on the shoulder of Newport Road and over M-14 to get to [Wines] school because there is no sidewalk on the road, [City Council member Sabra] Briere said. “There is no safe route,” Briere said. “These students are forced on to Newport Road or they don’t walk — their parents have to drive them. The burden has shifted from the government to the individual.”

Transportation Lessons: 2010-2012

Preface

In ninth grade, I had an algebra teacher who always wore cowboy boots (I grew up in New York! That was not usual). About mistakes, he had this to say, "It's okay to mistakes. But it's preferable to make a different mistake every time."

That story is meant to say: I know that hindsight is perfect, and foresight is imperfect. So the point of this lesson is to use that knowledge to improve decision-making in the future.


Transportation Lessons: What Can We Learn? (Or: More Proof of the Importance of Evalutation)

Our object lesson is the transportation consolidation that took place over the past two years. You may recall that back in 2009-2010, the Ann Arbor schools (and Ypsilanti and Willow Run) each had their own buses and bus drivers. And all of the county's districts were looking for ways to save money--including on transportation. After much thought, Dexter went to a "one-tier" bus system (all schools start and end at the same time of day, so they can do one run through a neighborhood instead of two or three). Lincoln bus drivers took major pay cuts in order to avert consolidation.

Ann Arbor bus drivers also offered major concessions as an alternative to consolidation. But remember--Ann Arbor is the biggest district in the county, and it is right in the middle of the county. I think the school board felt that if Ann Arbor didn't choose consolidation, then consolidation couldn't work. That, by itself, brought some additional pressure to the Ann Arbor schools.

However--the biggest incentive, by far, was the money savings that were promised. As described by deputy superintendent Robert Allen in April of 2010, in an annarbor.com article that David Jesse wrote,

Hiring a private company to run the district’s busing operations would cost $7,019,214, said Robert Allen, the district’s deputy superintendent for operations. Joining with five of the county’s other traditional districts to form a consolidated busing system would cost the district $6,578,274.

Both those options are cheaper than the district’s current busing system, which costs $8,718,669, Allen said.

In other words, the savings were estimated to be over two million dollars! [I think it was understood that the savings would be a little bit less if fewer districts joined in--which was, in fact, what happened--and in a later article (October 2011, Ann Arbor Chronicle) Robert Allen says the final savings were estimated to be closer to $1.5 million. Still, that is nothing to sneeze at.] It was understood that the bulk of savings would come from reduced staffing costs, despite the fact that the estimates were based on the idea that service levels would remain the same. The reduced pay for bus drivers was ostensibly based on a market rate study.

So on the one hand, I don't blame the school board officials and the school administrators for getting a little bit starry-eyed at the thought of saving all that money!

On the other hand, there were some warning signs that promises from privatization and consolidation don't always turn out all that well. 

Somebody Evaluated Food Service Privatization, But Did We Pay Attention?

Food services had been privatized in Ann Arbor a few years earlier. Had the savings from that approached the promised savings? Not according to University of Michigan researcher Roland Zullo, who is also an Ann Arbor Public Schools parent. Prompted in part by the specter of privatization of Ann Arbor schools custodial and transportation staff, he undertook an evaluation of the food services privatization. (Earlier he had done a larger study of food service privatization.) According to this (very interesting) New York Times article (12/3/2011),

Roland Zullo, a researcher at the University of Michigan, found in 2008 that Michigan schools that hired private food-service management firms spent less on labor and food but more on fees and supplies, yielding “no substantive economic savings.” Alarmingly, he even found that privatization was associated with lower test scores, hypothesizing that the high-fat and high-sugar foods served by the companies might be the cause. In a later study, in 2010, Dr. Zullo found that Chartwells was able to trim costs by cutting benefits for workers in Ann Arbor schools, but that the schools didn’t end up realizing any savings.

[An aside: this, by the way, is consistent with the findings of the AAPS Privatization History blog post that I wrote in March 2010.]

In Zullo's March 2010 review of Ann Arbor food service (read the full report here), he reported that there were initial savings the first year, but the savings evaporated after that. And he says,

By losing their AAPS employment status, food service workers lost their state pension benefits, had their health insurance co-pays skyrocket by 500%, and lost union representation. New employees are offered wages at about $9.00 per hour.

 
It Was Consolidation, Not Privatization

But wait--the Ann Arbor school board did not choose privatization. They chose consolidation with another public entity, the Washtenaw Intermediate School District.  Employees who chose to apply for jobs with the WISD would--if rehired--be able to keep their state pension benefits, and they would be able to unionize if they wanted (in fact, they have voted to affiliate with the Michigan Education Association, or MEA).  In fact, one thing that the board appears to have taken away from the food services privatization discussion is that many people lost their pensions, and that was a bad thing. I know from conversations with board members that they saw consolidation as different from privatization, although I'm not sure that the bus drivers saw it very differently. Just read, for instance, my interview with Andy Thomas when he was a school board candidate earlier this year.

So How Has Consolidation Worked So Far?

The first problem was that only three districts agreed to consolidate.
There were quite a few service problems in the beginning, and in fact Ypsilanti ended up giving a private bus company, Trinity, a $180,000 contract in the first year, because the WISD couldn't keep up. (I still see a lot of Trinity buses in Ypsilanti, so I assume that they still have some kind of contract.)
I have heard alleged--in other words, nothing that I have substantiated--that bus drivers who were active in their unions were not re-hired.
And the WISD reported to the Ann Arbor school board, in October 2011, that turnover rates were astoundingly high--over 40%.
Most of us know that even with lower staffing costs, high turnover is going to increase costs and probably reduce service quality. High turnover requires increased training and recruiting, makes it more likely that drivers will make mistakes on routes (because they are new), and means that students are always seeing new drivers and/or substitute drivers.

Partly because of the complaints, the Ann Arbor school board asked the WISD for an evaluation of the first year (2010-2011), and it took the WISD several months into the 2011-2012 school year to provide it. If you want, you can read the full report here.

But here is the summary:
Total savings were not quite $619,000--just over 40% of the expected savings.

According to the WISD, unemployment compensation costs; higher than expected gas prices; workers' compensation claims; and a retirement rate increase were the primary reasons that the savings were so low. Aren't those things that should have been expected and included in the initial budgeting plan? It looks like we got the "pie in the sky" budget (hence the starry eyes) when we should have gotten the plain pie budget.

The report also makes clear that whereas before, many people were school bus drivers as a primary job, that has changed. For most people, these are secondary jobs now--and when they find a better job, with more hours/no-split shift/more pay, they take it and leave the school buses behind. Remember--the bus drivers did offer concessions to the district. They simply were not deemed to be enough.

The projected savings for the Ann Arbor schools for 2011-2012, according to Robert Allen, are about $1 million. But those savings are largely a function of all of the cuts that they made to busing schedules at the beginning of this year, and not of consolidation.

More recently, Ypsilanti and Willow Run have said they may completely pull out of the WISD consortium, leaving Ann Arbor as the only district in the consortium, making it not a consortium at all. I assume that is because they are not getting the savings that they expected. Should this be a shock? No.

So I was glad to see the Ann Arbor Chronicle report that in light of these changes, on January 25, 2012 the school board directed the administration to

...examine and make a recommendation on the following transportation options: improving busing within the current framework of the WISD; consolidating busing with Ypsilanti and Willow Run outside the WISD consolidation; bringing busing back into the AAPS budget with bus drivers remaining public employees; bringing busing back into the AAPS budget but privatizing bus drivers; eliminating busing entirely; or collaborating with the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) to transport AAPS students.

Hindsight is Perfect

If we go back to the preface--hindsight is perfect.
Looking back, do I think it was a good idea to privatize? No. I think we could have gotten those same savings with salary concessions from the bus drivers and revamping the bus schedules--with much less disruption to both the school district and to the employees' lives.  (I admit it--I was always skeptical, and I wrote about that here.)
 
In fact, on June 24, 2010, I wrote that:

Regarding the teacher contract, kudos to the negotiators. It really is a creative collaboration. However--the teacher contract makes the vote to consolidate bussing--which means that workers lose their jobs with no guarantee of re-hire, or even of seniority preference in hiring--all the more disappointing. . . It is disappointing because it is clear--based on the teacher contract--that the district has the capacity to develop creative agreements that serve workers well. Yet in the case of the transportation workers, they chose not to do so.

As I read back over my notes though, I think I know why they chose not to do so. It's not simply because transportation is not considered a "core service." I think it's because transportation departments have a reputation for being difficult to run. They've got all those buses with maintenance; lots of parts, supplies, and gas; and difficulty scheduling multiple routes, special education needs, and staffing. Maybe they thought the WISD could actually do a better job--even though that turned out not to be true!


It's Better to Make a Different Mistake Every Time

And since it's better to make a different mistake every time, as we look forward to another round of budget cuts, what should be done differently?

If privatization comes up again (and I will bet that it will), what questions should the school board and administrators be asking that they didn't ask last time? Let's articulate those questions now. 

Coda
One good thing that did come out of this--although the Ann Arbor schools did not ever have a major problem with buses passing state safety inspections, the Ypsilanti and Willow Run schools sometimes did, and their pass rates have improved dramatically, as I note here. They sold the buses to the WISD for $1, and the agreement is that they will be sold back to the districts for $1 if they leave the consortium.

Willow Run Deficit

I know a little bit about the Willow Run deficit and student counts. That's because I requested the powerpoint presentation that was made to the Willow Run board at the beginning of December. The presentation has quite a bit of information in it, and it's too bad that nobody is regularly covering the Willow Run school board meeting, because Willow Run's meeting minutes are extremely terse. As in,

Bert Emerson gave a presentation and PowerPoint update on the financial standing of the District. He stressed the necessity of financial change within our district. (Quote taken from the 12/1/11 meeting minutes.)

Yes, that's it. No details at all about the finances--although the minutes do note that district employees would be getting the information the following week. Which means what? That they get to worry about additional concessions? The teachers have already made concessions that are approximately 10% of their salaries!
Willow Run has already closed schools, reconfigured the whole flow of students in the district, and asked teachers for very significant concessions. What kind of "financial change" can possible be created?

The short story is that, although Willow Run's initial budget (which, like Ypsilanti's, was part of an approved deficit elimination plan) showed higher revenues than expenditures (positive by over $411,000), by mid-November the district had figured out that things looked much, much worse--their expenses are going to exceed revenue by $1,165,017. School fiscal years start in July, so this analysis was done about 1/3 of the way through the school year. Obviously, the further you get into the school year, the harder it is to reduce the deficit.

As you might suspect, a big part of the problem is in enrollment:

There are fewer kids enrolled in the following grades: K, 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12. There are a lot of kids in the Washtenaw Alternatives for Youth Program, and a few in the Washtenaw International High School and Early College Alliance--but a lot of the funds that come in for those students then has to go out to pay for the kids. 

So overall, they lost 66 students, which is over 4% of their student body, following a trend that has been true for over ten years. (Honestly though, considering that a new charter high school opened nearby, I thought they might have done worse than they did.) Like everyone else, Willow Run also lost a big piece of their foundation grant from the state, $530/student, which is almost 7% of their foundation grant. And--again, like everyone else--their retirement costs have gone up again and are ridiculously high.

Here is the summary of the last slide of Bert Emerson's presentation:

Problem = Cash

• 1. State Aid is cut: out of business in 2 weeks
• 2. Keep spending = drawn out insolvency
• a. We could not get the State to authorize increased borrowing w/
August State Aid note.
• b. Can’t get “bridge loan” approved w/o approved Deficit
Elimination Plan.
• c. If we cut spending enough to get renewed approval of DEP, cash
problem diminishes.

You can take a look at the powerpoint presentation yourself here. 

Did I mention that cutting $1.165 million would mean cutting about 6% of their budget?

Did I mention that they have lost students every year for more than ten years?

Did I mention that they now have high school grades of fewer than 75 students?


Willow Run did such a good job of restructuring over this past year. If they had restructured three or four years ago, instead of sticking their head in the sand then, maybe they would still be viable now. I do believe that their school board is much more focused, and willing to work together, then it was a few years ago.

It's my opinion (I know, most of what I write is opinion, but I really want to call this out now as opinion) that they shouldn't be talking about transportation consolidation with Ypsilanti. First of all, that is not going to solve Willow Run's problems, and second of all, the two weakest districts in the county coming together is just going to weaken both of them.

Of the two districts, I've always had more faith that Ypsilanti can pull through than Willow Run. Historically Ypsilanti has dealt with their financial issues more quickly than Willow Run. (See my last post for an example--I have not yet heard of any layoffs in Willow Run.) Second of all, Ypsilanti has a real downtown, and many community boosters.  In other words, although both districts are financially weak, Ypsilanti is by far the stronger district.

It's my opinion that Ypsilanti should not be partnering with Willow Run for transportation. Ypsilanti should look for a stronger partner.

It's my opinion that the pro-active thing for Willow Run to do would be to close their district down--whether by splitting it into pieces or by merging with another district. To me, it would make more sense to split it into pieces--it's surrounded by other districts--Van Buren, Lincoln, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, and Plymouth-Canton.

But--I haven't seen Willow Run be truly proactive yet, so I don't hold out much hope for them to take my advice. To wit, action on the finances wasn't even on the agenda for January 5th, 2012. In fact, in print, I have not yet seen any of their board members even float the idea of closing the district. I'm hoping that in 2012, their school board will be proactive.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all

(Emily Dickinson)

Roundup

It's about time that I showed a little love to some of the other school districts in the county.

Saline is considering all day kindergarten.

So is Dexter. Dexter is also abandoning the trimester system and going back to a traditional semester system in their high school. Why? According to this Dexter Leader article, neither staff nor students liked the trimester system, and switching to semesters will also save them staff time. And, Dexter is still planning on implementing an International Baccalaureate program next year in their high school.

By the way, the Dexter superintendent has a post on how MEAP cut scores are changing (they're going up!). That is going to be a huge challenge for all of the schools.

Speaking of International Baccalaureate programs, Washtenaw International High School opened with a much smaller enrollment than expected. I'm not sure what the Count Day numbers will show, but the initial enrollment was for 109 students (they were expecting closer to 150 students). There are seven partner districts, but I think the most interesting factoid (h/t to an anonymous reader) is that 39% of those registered students were coming from out of county! According to Sarena Shivers of the WISD,

Students who do not reside in one of our consortium partner districts may apply for unfilled slots. They must school-of-choice in to one of our consortium districts in order to attend the school. The foundation allowance follows each student to WIHI.

In other words, a student from the Van Buren Schools (Belleville) might become a school of choice student in Ypsilanti and then, as a school of choice student, choose to enroll in WIHI.
I personally think the low numbers are primarily a result of trying to start up WIHI too quickly. It used to be that a project like WIHI would require a planning process of three years, not one year--and that's probably better.

The Ypsilanti School Board has decided to not renew David Houle's contract. David had been their finance director ever since he left Willow Run school. According to WEMU, they are not planning on replacing his position, at least not immediately.


Ypsilanti and Willow Run are also exploring the idea of sharing transportation, including the consolidation of buses and facilities. Now here's what I don't get about that idea--wasn't the WISD consolidation of Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Willow Run transportation a consolidation? So have we concluded that it's not working or saving money? And if that's the case, where will that leave Ann Arbor? Has a report been issued yet? (I'm trying to find out but I don't think so.) I'm very confused.

Speaking of transportation, the state school bus certification results for 2011 have been published. Most of our local districts did quite well (the buses are safe). The "consolidated" districts (Ann Arbor, Willow Run, Ypsilanti) all show up under the Washtenaw ISD, and they did have eight buses red-tagged (out of 185).  You might think that's bad, but for Willow Run and Ypsilanti it is a huge improvement. In 2010, all of Ann Arbor's buses passed; 12 out of 44 of Ypsilanti's buses were red-tagged; and 14 out of 18 of Willow Run's buses were red-tagged. So based on this mark, at least, consolidation has been an improvement for Willow Run and Ypsilanti.

Lincoln High School is also undergoing a transformation redesign project (following in the footsteps of Willow Run and Ypsilanti, because they all found themselves on the "Persistently Low Achieving" schools list--not a fun place to be.)  The district explains what is happening here.  Read the "Frequently Asked Questions" piece here.

State Senator Rebekah Warren has introduced a constitutional amendment banning for-profit charter schools. You can read more about it in annarbor.com, and/or you can read about it at michiganradio.org.  I definitely like the idea of banning for-profit charter schools; I'm not sure how I feel about a constitutional amendment. But I'm glad she's pushing the issue--currently, four out of five charter schools in the state are for-profit! Why are they making money off of our children?

The cap on charter schools is still being debated, and you still have an opportunity to make your voice heard through Michigan Parents for Schools (or on your own). Get your friends in western and northern Michigan to use the MIPFS link as well and contact their legislators.


The anti-bullying bill has passed the Senate. It's not perfect, but it's better than what was originally proposed, which had huge exemptions. Listen to this Michigan Radio interview with Sen. Gretchen Whitmer of East Lansing regarding this bill.

Also, if you feel like listening to things, this NPR interview with Norbert Juster, the author of the Phantom Tollbooth, is really delightful. NPR has got this "Backseat Book Club" just started, which is essentially directed at kids, and The Phantom Tollbooth was last month's selection. The December Book Club selection is a book called Breadcrumbs. Read about that here. [Does anyone else remember--and miss--the NPR show Kids America? With characters like Dr. Rita Book? I miss that show.


And a couple of other notes:
There's so much going on! It's hard to keep up, and not nearly enough reporting going on. (I see my role as a color commentator, as they say in sports news.) Having said that, you should feel free to send me your news tips to rlk234 (at) gmail.com.

If you comment anonymously, think about giving yourself a name in the body of your text (as, for instance, YpsiAnon and Anon4 have done)--that way I know it's "you" when you comment more than once. Thanks!

Transportation...Again

Lots of questions still remain about busing in the Ann Arbor school district.

1. Who to call for complaints?
Answer: Robert Allen (Deputy Superintendent and former Interim Superintendent) says that people with complaints about transportation can call his office: 994-2250.

2. Why am I getting reports of 4 kids to a seat on certain bus routes?

3. Why am I getting reports that kids who live beyond the 1-1/2 mile walk zone cannot get buses because no routes have been assigned to them?

4. Is it true that special education kids who need assistance getting into the buildings are not getting assistance because the "bus drivers don't have enough time?"

5. When will the WISD provide information on how much the district actually saved last year; and what it costs to get additional bus stops or buses?

6. After all is said and done--what is the plan for evaluating these transportation troubles, and who will be involved in the evaluation? [Hint: I hope there will be some non-school-board-member parents involved.] As my ninth grade math teacher was fond of saying, "It's o.k. to make mistakes, but it's better to make different mistakes every time."

Overheard in a school office, one administrative staff to another after hearing yet another complaint about the buses:

"Everybody hates transportation now."

I had to interject, "Well, people don't hate the bus drivers."

"No," the staff person agreed. "People don't hate the bus drivers."

Transportation Redux

If you've been following Ann Arbor's transportation issues, you know that:
1. Back in the spring, the powers-that-be suggested cutting all high school transportation in order to save money.
(There was a Big Outcry.) 
2. The upshot was, that the Board of Education decided to establish "common" bus stops--for the most part at elementary schools and in some areas on the edge of the district.
3. (There was another Big Outcry.) This was from people who are just now realizing that their kids are going to have to get up super early and walk to a bus stop at a school, perhaps a mile or more away from their house (the district walk zone is a  1-1/2 mile radius). There may not be sidewalks; by late fall it will be dark; and if the bus pickup is a 6:45, they may need to wake up at 5:45 a.m.

You can read more here.

I'm all for common stops--but who thought up that they should definitely be at existing schools? In the case of concentrated subdivisions, it might make more sense to have them there. Is there any data from last year that could tell us about actual usage patterns?

Right now the district is saying:
a) We'll meet with parents again on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria of Clague Middle School.
Great! The early meetings have been populated largely by people from Arrowwood and Foxfire, but I highly doubt those are the only parents concerned about this.

b) There's a video from the new superintendent on the Ann Arbor schools web site where she says that all decisions will be guided by safety concerns.

Great! This shouldn't be a popularity contest. I have to put in my two cents here: first of all, safety concerns are different in the morning and the afternoon. In other words, I would be concerned about my daughter walking a mile, by herself, in the dark, at 6:30 a.m. I wouldn't have those same concerns at 3 p.m. So potentially, stops could be added in the morning and not in the afternoon.

View Larger Map
Second, there are some other safety concerns if you're enforcing walking to school. For instance, this past year in March, there was a 1/4 mile of Maple Road--near the roundabouts, between where school property ends and houses start--where the sidewalk was unplowed and piled high with snow from the road--for over a month. Yes, you can see it on the map. Students faced a choice of slogging through two feet of snow or walking in the road. I couldn't figure out who owned this property... (the city? the road commission?) but I'm sure it's just one example. If we really expect kids to walk to school, we need to enforce sidewalk clearing.

c) Last, the district says, they won't make any decisions until after school starts.
What?! Why not?! If you are being guided by safety concerns, then those safety concerns exist on day one. 

Finally, it's worth noting that I don't believe that the district has yet received--or released--any information about whether their privatization switch to the WISD saved them money, and if it did, how much. I hope we'll get to see those numbers soon.

Athletics in AAPS: Safety, Title IX, Process

I think this message from Liz Margolis and the Ann Arbor Public Schools is so important that I am sharing it in its entirety. I suggest that you read through to the end, at least in part because that's where I put my comments.

Dear AAPS Families, This message explains high school athletic changes for next year due to budget reductions.  

AAPS High School Athletics  2011/2012

            The Athletic Directors at all respective High Schools in Ann Arbor have been pondering budget reductions.  The economic reality facing the Ann Arbor Public Schools are a result of continued State Budget Reductions. AAPS is reducing the 2011/12 budget by $15 million. Last year the district reduced by $18 million and the previous years reductions of $35 million occurred. Funding from the state continues to impact all areas of public education, in the classroom and on the athletic fields.
            These cost cutting measures translates into fewer resources to effectively operate all of our athletic programs resulting in the elimination of teams/programs.  We can no longer provide adequate resources for all 35 programs and are forced to reduce the athletic budgets.  We will be sharing the following information with parents and students via an email in the next few days. Please review this information. It is very likely that you will get questions from parents. We all need to be consistent with our response. Always know that you can direct any questions to me.

Budget Reductions:
All three high schools will contract with an outside agency (Michigan Rehabilitation Services) for athletic trainer services.  Each school will receive two certified athletic trainers who will provide the services we currently have in place.
Reduction in half time secretary in the athletic office
Coaches who are not employed by the district in another capacity will be paid through a third party management service.  The coaches will remain the same but employed by the outside services.
Ice hockey teams at each school will be responsible for the first $12,000 for ice time rental.  Skyline will implement this system when hockey is started in 2011.

Since 1990, freshman teams as well as the following sports have been added to the Ann Arbor Public Schools Sports Menu.
Men’s and Women’s Bowling (all high schools)
Crew (all high schools)
Figure Skating (Huron and Pioneer)
Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse (all high schools)
Dance (Skyline)
Men’s and Women’s Track received a third assistant coach position
The following programs will no longer be funded by the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

All Freshmen Sports with the exception of Freshman Football.  Safety issues were a major concern with the freshman competing in football at the junior varsity or varsity level, thus we will continue to run a 9th grade football program.
Fall Crew is eliminated.  (All high schools).  (Crew was the only sport to have two seasons funded).
Dance (Skyline)
Cheer (Huron)
Figure Skating (Pioneer and Huron)
Field Hockey (Second J.V. team at Pioneer/Huron will no longer be funded).
Men’s and Women’s Bowling (All high schools).
Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse (All high schools).
One assistant track coach (Huron and Pioneer as Skyline was not yet fully staffed).
Transportation to schools in Washtenaw County with the exception of Football and Track.  (Equipment concerns).

Options for Club Sport Status
A club sport is defined as an athletic program participating in interscholastic competition operated directly under the supervision of the high school building principals and funded outside of the athletic department budget.  Club sports originate only with the approval of the building principal and athletic director.

Requirements to achieve and maintain club status shall include
1.Demonstrate adequate student interest, defined as double the minimum squad size.
2.If the faculty sponsor is not the coach, the building principal and/or athletic director will approve a qualified coach.
3.There will be no minimum number of opponents or contest required to achieve or  retain club status.
4.It is not necessary for all district high schools to offer a given club sport for that club sport to be offered at one of the high schools.
5.Club sports and coaches will comply with all Michigan High School Athletic Association and Ann Arbor Public Schools rules and regulations.
6.Other factors to consider are costs, safety/risk, and Title IX participation.
7. Varsity letters will be awarded by the school and paid for by the club

Athletic Club Team Sign - up
1.     Draft a charter and have it approved by the building principal
2.     Provide the building principal with a proposed budget, which must be approved by the principal – It is recommended that the club become a 501(c)3 organization
3.     Be sponsored by a faculty member
4.     Provide the building principal with an approved transportation plan and insurance plan
5.     Complete an annual program reports
6.     Adequate administrative resources and physical facilities be available
7.     Turn in (4) copies of eligibility list (divided by team)
8.     All club members must have current physicals
9.     All club members must meet the Districts eligibility requirements
10.  All club members must pay an insurance fee
11.  All expenses are to be paid for outside the Ann Arbor School System, for examples;
                        Coaches Salary                                    Rentals          
                        Transportation                                        Awards          
                        Supplies                                                Uniform
FAQs
1. Were all the cuts consistent across all three high schools? Yes
2. Can a Varsity sport that's been cut move to club status? Yes –if funds are raised to support the fees and the requirements are followed. See above
3. How much of the overall school budget is athletics? 1%      
4. Once a team is a club can they go back to funded status? Yes
5. Since the JV coach quit can I fill that spot without having to interview? No, interviews must take place for any open coaching position including open club sport positions.
6. Whose decision was this?
The Athletic Directors were instructed that the school athletic budgets were to be reduced by $475,000. Athletic Directors were asked to assess the reductions and make recommendations to administration. These cuts are just part of the $15 million AAPS is making in response to the decrease in funding from the state.                                              8. If a team is a club do they have to pay the "pay-to-participate" fee? No, if the sport now has “club” designation participants do not have to pay the  “pay-to-participate” fee.
9. How much money has been cut from athletics over the last two years? $1.6 million has been reduced from athletics over the past two years, which  includes all three high schools.

I understand the need for most of the cuts, and some of them--such as cutting freshman sports, now that we have a third high school--make sense to me. But as is so often the case, I'd have to say that I don't agree with the process that was used. Where were parental and student input? I--even as a parent of a current athlete--didn't hear a word about this until today. I wonder if the parents of some of the teams that are being cut (e.g. lacrosse, bowling, figure skating) had been consulted? How convenient to share this after the schools have essentially closed for the summer. 

On the transportation issue, I foresee a lot of problems with cutting transportation to all school competitions in Washtenaw County. That includes schools that are nearly 20 miles away, and will require parents to take time off from work to transport their kids.  The alternative (for at least some kids) is to let them drive their friends.
In the past few years I've had two children get their drivers' licenses. However, between child #1 and child #2 the Michigan rules for younger drivers changed. The new regulations:

Prohibit a driver with a Level 2 graduated driver's license (GDL) from operating a motor vehicle carrying more than one passenger who is under 21 years of age, unless:
    a. passengers are members of the driver's immediate family, or
    b. travel is to or from school or a school-sanctioned event.

Now, admittedly, these student-athletes would be driving to and from school-sanctioned events, so they aren't asking students to break the law. But as a parent, I have to ask the question--would this law have been enacted if it was safe for teens to drive large groups of kids? [Don't be a smart aleck and answer, "Well, maybe, given our legislature!"] Statistically, it's not nearly as safe. Just ask the Centers for Disease Control. Their Teen Drivers fact sheet says:

The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among 16- to 19-year-olds than among any other age group. In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely than older drivers to crash.⁴

Among teen drivers, those at especially high risk for motor vehicle crashes are:

• Males: In 2006, the motor vehicle death rate for male drivers and passengers ages 15 to 19 was  almost two times that of their female counterparts.¹
• Teens driving with teen passengers: The presence of teen passengers increases the crash risk of unsupervised teen drivers. This risk increases with the number of teen passengers.⁵
• Newly licensed teens: Crash risk is particularly high during the first year that teenagers are eligible to drive.⁴

(My auto insurance company seems to know these facts, too--my insurance is a lot higher than it used to be.) I don't want to be overly melodramatic about this, but on the other hand, I'm not interested in risking kids' lives.

There are some significant Title IX concerns embedded in these decisions. First, I think it's more likely that the reason they are continuing transportation for track is that football is only a boys' sport, and if that was the only sport being privileged by transportation "safety concerns" they felt they needed to balance that with a sport that serves both girls and boys. The track teams are a natural choice because they are large teams, and they have both genders.  

Should basketball retain the freshman teams? They field the smallest teams and often "cut" the most kids at tryouts.

Second, I wonder if the cuts to all freshmen teams except football in any way violates Title IX?
Third, does the fact that they are cutting more women's sports than men's sports violate Title IX? They are cutting 4 women's and 3 men's sports at Pioneer; and 4 women's and 3 men's sports at Huron. (At Skyline, they are cutting 3 women's and 3 men's sports.) Both Pioneer and Huron have been the subject of Title IX complaints in the past--and the district spent lots of money on those litigations.


I also wonder why there were no cuts made to the middle school sports? What about cutting all sixth grade sports? Reducing the number of middle school seasons to three, from the current five?

But most importantly--it's about the process. Why weren't there public meetings, as there were with the rest of the budget, to discuss the proposed changes? I think feedback might have changed the look of this proposal. For all I know, it still could.

Top Eleven List: Things to Think About Tonight. Or Tomorrow.

1. The tenure bills passed the House. All of them. One major change, given how many layoffs have happened this past year...the seniority rule of "last in, first out" changes (this was pushed by a group championed by Michelle Rhee, the highly controversial former Washington DC superintendent). Another bill limits topics that can be bargained to wages and benefits.  I think this could be a sea change for many school districts. Read more about it in this Grand Rapids Press article.
As far as evaluation goes, of course it is important. It also strikes me that many principals are lousy at it. Principals are typically trained to be administrators, not managers. If we're going to ask them to be managers, then we'd better make sure we're training them on that!
It also highlights for me how disorganized the teachers, and teachers' unions have been. And by the way, it has always surprised me how many Republican teachers I know. And there are plenty of teachers who live in districts represented by Republicans. So tell me--do those teachers agree with the new laws? Or did they just forget to press their Representatives? 

2. I've written previously about how Carolyn King broke the Little League barrier for girls nationally in Ypsilanti.  Well, it turns out that there is a very elite all-girls' baseball team (yes, not softball) called the Dream Team--and they are coming to play in an elite baseball tournament in Ypsilanti this very weekend! Read about it in this Detroit Free Press article. What's even better is that you can go watch them, as well as some other very good teams, this weekend--and it's free! These are very high-level teams. That story reminds me that my older son had a girl on his baseball team for several years, and she was just as good as the boys. . . better than some of them.

Details of the tournament, from the Detroit Free Press:

Check out the Dream Team
WHERE: The Michigan Major Elite will be held at the baseball fields at the Eastern Michigan Recreation Complex on 100 Westview Street in Ypsilanti.
ADMISSION: Free
WHEN: The Dream Team will play at least five games in the tournament, which features 28 teams of 13-year-olds:
Friday: Brighton Black on Field 1 at 2 p.m.
Friday: Great Lakes Cardinals (Canton) on Field 2 at 8 p.m.
Saturday: Boys of Summer (Ohio) on Field 3 at 10 a.m.
Saturday: Strongsville Stallions (Ohio) on Field 3 at 6 p.m.
Sunday: Consolation and championship games, beginning at 8 a.m.

3. Scarlett News--I was sorry to hear about the sudden death of the science teacher James Bryant. I had met him, but I had no idea that he was an Olympian!

4. The special education department (SISS) has at least two vacancies right now--Bill Harris is moving to Eberwhite to be a principal and there is another vacancy. Parents with special education concerns should make sure to keep an eye on the process of filling these positions. The other day I heard a story about a parent whose child has an IEP. The child was not doing well in school. They had a parent meeting a couple of weeks ago and one of the teachers says, "Oh, so s/he's a visual learner?" Umm. Yeah. That's what the IEP says. Teachers, read the IEPs. That's what they are there for--so you can tailor your teaching to the needs of the students you are teaching. Parents, don't be afraid to be your child's advocate...even if you have to keep repeating yourself!

5. I recently heard that the number of graduate students in the University of Michigan's elementary-school-age one-year Masters and Certification program (El-MAC) has dropped substantially. So maybe people are getting the idea that there are very few jobs out there. . . I've written before about how we are training too many teachers. 

6. I'm glad to hear that busing won't be cancelled for kindergarten or high school students in Ann Arbor. Although I understand the rationale for asking high school students to walk further, in my neck of the woods,  for Skyline students that would mean walking down a fairly busy street (Newport) with no lights or sidewalks while it is still dark out in the winter. It would only take one hit-and-run accident to change the whole cost-benefit analysis. I'm glad the school board has recognized this!

7. Speaking about millages. . . did you know that even though we approved the special education millage, it is still not enough money to keep special education funding flowing at the same rate as last year? Read the background here. Since special education funding is mandated, that means that money needs to come from somewhere--and yes, that somewhere is general education. What, you say? How could that happen? Well, I believe it was the WISD board that put this millage on the ballot. Why did they decide to ask for less money than last time? I believe it's because the WISD board operates behind the scenes. Nobody elects them; nobody goes to their meetings; nobody gives them any feedback about their ideas. By "nobody" here I don't actually mean "nobody." I'm referring to the general public that bothers to give the Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Dexter, Milan, Saline, Whitmore Lake, Lincoln, Willow Run, Chelsea and Manchester boards of education a piece of their minds. That public process sometimes keeps school boards (which are, after all, just groups of people) from making bad decisions. [Yes, not always. It was a bad decision to offer the incoming Ann Arbor superintendent such a high salary, and the school board was told that. On the other hand, the school board was also told it was a bad idea to cut high school transportation, and they listened.]  Scott Menzel, I hope you are planning on making the activities of the WISD more public. 

8. The Manchester School Board is conducting a non-traditional search for a Superintendent (they have informally identified a preferred candidate). The first interview will be June 21. Read about it here. In addition, according to the Manchester Enterprise article, the next regular school board meeting is scheduled for at 6:30 p.m. June 20 in the Ackerson Building and will begin with the budget hearing.

9. School of Choice enrollment for Ann Arbor fell short. Surprise, surprise. Remember when I discussed the school board and administration's rationale for not opening up the high schools to school of choice students? I was pretty critical of their reasoning. You know, Ann Arbor school board, there is actually still time to do that. And if not this year, there is always next year.

10. It looks like James Dickson has joined the Ann Arbor Journal/Heritage Newspapers and has been assigned the local schools beat. I believe he was one of the layoffs from annarbor.com a couple of months ago. I personally welcome any additional coverage of local school districts. They deserve much more coverage than they get, despite the best efforts of Kyle Feldscher (annarbor.com); Jennifer Coffman (Ann Arbor Chronicle); Tom Perkins (stringer for several local news sites); and other freelancers. I appreciate all of you!

11. Do you know what the #1 post on this blog has been? It's (very) hard for me to believe, but a lot of people apparently want to know why some female softball players wear bows. Yup, that's right. I invite you to read my post, No Bow Lesbo, to find out the answer.