Bruce

Dallas County is going to miss Bruce Sherbet. I can't help but wonder if the timing of this change has anything to do with SB14?

Anyhow, Clay Jenkins http://judgejenkins.com/ will certainly learn that decisions have consequences.

Retail sales tax collection data

before and after the beer and wine referendum in DeSoto:

Quarterly Sales Tax Historical Data

Quarterly Sales Tax Report

City of DE SOTO -- All Industries

De Soto

Year Quarter Gross Sales Amount Subject to State Tax Outlets

2002 1 163,618,768 52,699,320 570

2002 2 174,341,865 54,061,290 592

2002 3 180,288,545 57,129,117 586

2002 4 204,938,799 52,877,812 973

Total 723,187,977 216,767,539

2003 1 149,470,775 50,298,462 582

2003 2 169,423,431 50,054,671 573

2003 3 178,662,536 50,260,404 572

2003 4 208,500,184 50,386,387 953

Total 706,056,926 200,999,924

2004 1 151,258,644 47,699,672 584

2004 2 180,142,151 46,604,013 601

2004 3 191,601,782 49,248,749 603

2004 4 217,856,299 46,237,951 955

Total 740,858,876 189,790,385

2005 1 167,110,307 45,542,289 601

2005 2 224,323,895 47,208,542 625

2005 3 196,466,396 47,391,601 625

2005 4 259,859,774 45,115,971 990

Total 847,760,372 185,258,403

2006 1 199,952,742 42,461,697 756

2006 2 186,205,833 44,119,976 775

2006 3 204,419,481 50,623,813 823

2006 4 241,349,801 52,902,622 1,267

Total 831,927,857 190,108,108

2007 1 174,089,778 49,870,445 785

2007 2 182,991,133 50,683,307 818

2007 3 201,739,442 51,384,234 814

2007 4 251,588,464 51,824,826 1,233

Total 810,408,817 203,762,812

2008 1 198,581,485 52,682,992 801

2008 2 210,417,053 55,961,637 815

2008 3 214,169,543 52,282,887 816

2008 4 310,211,015 51,166,884 1,137

Total 933,379,096 212,094,400

2009 1 165,747,663 46,454,003 748

2009 2 182,936,760 54,026,918 797

2009 3 180,605,104 51,247,541 796

2009 4 297,807,755 53,089,982 1,085

Total 827,097,282 204,818,444

texas.gov Statewide Search from the Texas State Library State Link Policy Texas Homeland Security

Susan Combs, Texas Comptroller • Window on State Government • Contact Us

Privacy and Security Policy Accessibility Policy Link Policy Public Information Act Compact with Texans

Teaching mixed messages

Novelist Cory Doctorow on how teens are taught privacy

Kids' relationship with privacy is really confused; they're told by teachers and adults that their privacy is paramount, that they should stop disclosing so much information on Facebook and so on. And then they go to schools where everything they do is monitored; there's mandatory spyware that takes every click they make, every word they utter and sends it back to teachers and headmasters for disciplinary purposes

The problem with privacy is the same problem as with smoking: the consequences of doing something that's bad for you are a long way from the action itself and so you don't learn.

That's the Doctor(ow)'s diagnosis. Pity he doesn't offer a prescription...

Who holds school systems accountable, if not the board?

Conroe news discusses their situation.

However, board members ultimately are elected by the voters, who are the taxpayers, and those trustees first have a responsibility to them.

Two items in the Rules of Conduct undermine those duties to the taxpayers.

One item states board members shall refer to the superintendent any and all complaints received from residents, including students, parents and employees, where any action by the administration may be required.

Another prevents board members from conducting investigations on their own of complaints by residents, including students, parents and employees. Any decision to conduct an investigation, and the manner in which an investigation is to be conducted, rests with the superintendent or the board.

As an elected official representing the public, board members should be allowed the opportunity to do their due diligence and look into matters entrusted in them by the public, including parents, students and staff members. Potential whistleblowers within the district also must be afforded some protection in coming forward with a complaint. That protection lies with the school board, not the administration, where the complaint may be targeted.

A comment:

In reference to the referral of complaints to the superintendent (assuming the complaint is not about the superintendent) you miss the point entirely. If the Board fails to process complaints in this fashion they WEAKEN their ability to hold the superintendent accountable for results. Hypothetically, if the Board handled all complaints then the superintendent is "off the hook" for ANY outcomes. The Board's duty is to assist their constituents resolve complaints through the proper channels - not handle them.

On the second issue of conducting investigations, ANY Board member actively involved in an investigation must recuse themselves (step out) of any hearing the Board conducts on the matter. In legal terms, they are tainted by "ex parte" information. Since a citizen would naturally complain to a sympathetic Trustee, that Trustee's involvement in an investigation would "knock out" a supporting vote if the issue should come before the Board.

I'd like to hear comments on both sides from Lancaster-ites...

ONE FORTY SIX

http://dallas-area-schools.blogspot.com/2010/05/children-at-risk-2010-high-school.html

The scary thing is, now there's room to go downwards...

Case for Crafts and Trades Education?

Even if you are college-ready, should you go?

Federal statistics show that just 36 percent of full-time students starting college in 2001 earned a four-year degree within that allotted time. Even with an extra two years to finish, that group's graduation rate increased only to 57 percent.

Spending more time in school also means greater overall student debt. The average student debt load in 2008 was $23,200 - a nearly $5,000 increase over five years. Two-thirds of students graduating from four-year schools owe money on student loans.

Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder blames the cultural notion of "credential inflation" for the stream of unqualified students into four-year colleges. His research has found that the number of new jobs requiring college degrees is less than number of college graduates.

Vedder's work also yielded something surprising: The more money states spend on higher education, the less the economy grows - the reverse of long-held assumptions.

"If people want to go out and get a master's degree in history and then cut down trees for a living, that's fine," he said, citing an example from a recent encounter with a worker. "But I don't think the public should be subsidizing it."

Vedder says nothing here about the ratio of economic growth to spending on secondary education...

Seated.

We're off to a good start. A whole school board meeting from start to finish in 32 minutes.

There's $325 wasted:

A candidate who worked as hard at campaigning as at frivolous litigation would, in my opinion, have better success at the polls.

Sunburned and exhausted.

Thank you to a dozen or so volunteers who carried me over the line. Herman and Sondra, Jessica and Polly, Cornell, Nannette, Sue and Marie; Barbara D., Frank H., Casandra, Kim and the rest of the HOA friends, Joe, and others I'm right now I'm right now still too tired and sunburned to remember.

Thanks especially to my three kids and my incredible wife. I could not survive a day without you.

Teacher preparation

At the April 5th Lancaster ISD board meeting, we saw that LISD depends heavily on new teachers, recently graduated, with little actual classroom experience.

The Dallas Morning News today cites a study from the National Council on Teacher Quality showing recently graduated new teachers are "not adequately prepared for the classroom."

The NCTQ quotes President Obama's Secretary of Education and former Texas hot shot Arne Duncan: "“ By almost any standard, many if not most of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities

of the 21st century classroom.”

Key findings:

1. The number of teachers capable of making the kinds of gains necessary to close the Achievement Gap between white, middle class children and poor, minority children is small—roughly only one in seven teachers.

2. The group of teachers that is most likely to impede student progress is first-year teachers, regardless of what kind or how much preparation they have had.

3. Research looking at formal teacher preparation in the aggregate (not individual programs) has yet to find that teachers who have formal teacher preparation are more apt to be effective than

teachers who have had little to no preparation.

4. a. We know that low admissions standards let too many teachers into the profession who lack the requisite skills to be effective.

4.b. Teachers who don’t know their subject matter can’t teach it.

4.c. Teachers who don’t know how to manage their classroom and who don’t have other basic professional skills are unable to be effective.

4- conclusion These problems are all traced back to poor teacher preparation.

Specifically in Texas, the NCTQ found:

- The most consistent feature of teacher education in Texas is a lack of consistency. Rather

than consensus there is inter-institutional confusion as to what it means to fully prepare a teacher for the classroom.

- The content preparation of many Texas teachers is inadequate.

- Many education schools patronize their teacher candidates, placing a high value on “edu-tainment” at the expense of rigor and intellectual engagement.

-An inattention to output data suggests too little reflection on program improvement.

TEXTBOOKS

The NCTQ says:

"4. Textbooks galore. Perhaps no other feature exemplifies the chaotic nature of teacher preparation than the number of textbooks used to teach the same content matter in courses taught across the state. While most fields of study adopt a few standard, seminal texts for teaching students the basic foundational principles of the discipline, that’s not the case here. We counted no fewer than 256 textbooks used in 198 courses we evaluated for reading instruction. The most commonly required books are used in no more than six courses, with 71 percent of the texts used in only one course. One might conjecture that there are that many great reading textbooks out there. But of the 256 reading textbooks in Texas, only 17 were deemed to be adequate core textbooks by literacy experts, meaning that they accurately and

thoroughly cover all five components of effective reading instruction. In fact, we found only one program that steered entirely clear of textbooks that contained errors or important omissions on how to teach reading."

RTWT

Report on the 22nd April Candidate forum

Megan Gray writes the summary.

There's theory and reality.

Reality wins.

Y'know, if barely-post-stone age shepherds 6000 years ago could teach kids to read so that by age 13 they could read the parchment scrolls at "minyan" -- how much new and improved technology does it take to accomplish a similar task in a post-Gutenberg, post-AlGore-internet, society?

Reading. What a concept.

Early voting starts today -- 9 a.m. Polls stay open until 5 p.m.

High Stake Testing

The Colorado legislature is considering education reforms that would tie teacher evaluations and job status to how well their students do on state exams.

Discuss.

This is for celebrity jocks who might want to use schools gyms, stadium, arenas, etc

Priorities for scheduling the use of school facilities shall be as follows:

1. The regularly scheduled educational program, including instructional activities; meetings, practices, and performances of school-sponsored groups; and staff meetings related to official school business.

2. Meetings and other activities of school support groups organized for the sole purpose of supporting the schools or school sponsored activities [see GE].

3. Meetings and other activities of groups made up primarily of school-aged children.

4. Meetings of employee organizations [see DGA].

5. Meetings and activities of other groups on a first-come, firstserved basis.

The use of school facilities by District patrons is permitted for meetings of educational, civic, or social nature intended to promote the public welfare and not conflicting with school uses or local and state laws or regulations.

Church groups may be permitted to use school facilities for services provided such usage is short-term in nature.

Any use of school facilities shall require the designation of an adult who shall assume responsibility for the proper care of school property.

School buildings and facilities are available for use by school related organizations without charge.

Strangely, local policy does not seem to allow celebrity jocks access to facilities just on the verbal say-so of the board president...

What's the point of abstaining?

Remember Larry Lewis's pay raise of December, 2006? This was the last meeting attended by (later convicted embezzler) Eugene Smith,the district chief financial officer. At this time, Larry Lewis knew the required annual audit would not be completed on time. He apparently did not share his knowledge with the board.

Trustees voted with 5 in favor of awarding Dr Lewis a 4% pay raise. One trustee was absent. And one voted to abstain.

What's the point of abstaining?

If you have knowledge of a problem, or even suspicion of a problem, why abstain?

Abstaining is usually reserved for a situation in which a trustee has a conflict of interest. Like, if the district is seeking to buy property and the trustee is an agent, broker or realtor for the seller. Then, of course, abstain.

But why, if there are legitimate objections to an action, not vote?

It seems to me a trustee ought to have the courage to speak truth. And when the circumstances warrent opposition, vote NO.

A wimpy trustee doesn't help a weak superintendent.

Again, recapping simple steps for improving board operations:

I want current board members thinking about this stuff. We have to start the next year without wasting a meeting.

I'm also thinking of another way to speed up executive sessions and reach consensus, faster. Stay tuned...

1) MEET 2nd MONDAYS!

2) QUARTERLY REPORTING!

3) FOLLOW UP!

4) TRANSCRIBE CLOSED MEETINGS!

5) USE PRE-PAID SERVICES!

6) PARTNER WITH THE CITY!

7) OPEN ENROLL LOCAL STUDENTS!

8) SELL SURPLUS ASSETS!

Blast from the Past

Check out comments, here.

I have, more or less, defended Carolyn Morris from critics. She needed the help. I'm sorry it has to come to a fight.

The point isn't about persons or personalities. It's about safe schools, accountable officials, financial prudence, and overall academic goodness.

It's about change. For the better.

Carolyn Morris on TV ( well, YouTube)

Ms Morris explains her vote regarding Superintendent finalist Michael McFarland, in six parts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au8i0eItUlA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd-T3LcH388 (see, especially, about the one minute, 13 second mark.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkAUYyVTGTQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUPl65GhXDw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stp4bHY4WtU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB19IW6PjSI

Next, we'll look at Marjorie King's discussion of Dr McFarland.

The fame of new stadiums

This Dallas Morning News article was picked up by the Boston Herald

The new Allen , Texas , ISD Eagle Stadium will have two large scoreboards, a video screen and a sunken horseshoe design that includes 18,000 seats. It will have a wrestling workout room, an indoor golf hitting area, four large concession stands and six sets of restrooms.

But wait. What about the retractable roof?

The Allen dome isn’t happening, but the $59.6 million football stadium will be a radical upgrade. The current Eagle Stadium, built in 1976, has permanent seating for 7,400 and can squeeze in about 14,000 with rented bleachers.

"We felt like with 18,000, not having enough seats wouldn’t happen more than once or twice," Allen ISD athletic director Steve Williams said. "We didn’t feel like we’re getting a whole bunch of things that other schools aren’t getting."

With a plaza and a Wall of Honor, Eagle Stadium will have a little more panache than most. But although some people still envision high school stadiums as a slab of concrete topped with a set of aluminum bleachers, it hasn’t been that way for a long time. Virtually all the big-school stadiums built in the last five years, in places such as Lancaster , Dallas , Midlothian, Mansfield and Little Elm, have included video scoreboards and large pressboxes with areas for coaches, media and hospitality suites.

They are creeping closer to the look of college stadiums, but maybe that’s because high school football is creeping closer to the look of college football. More schools are building indoor practice facilities, and more teams are playing in games set up for TV.

It’s not just football, either. In 2006, the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD near Houston opened the Berry Center , which included an 11,000-seat stadium and an 8,300-seat basketball arena. The Dallas ISD has the 7,500-seat Ellis Davis Fieldhouse, a facility that’s nicer than some college basketball arenas. It opened in 2005 with the 12,000-seat John E. Kincaide Stadium, which were part of the Dallas ISD’s first new multipurpose athletic facility in four decades.

Four decades from now, the Allen ISD expects its new stadium to still be in use, and not just for football. It can be used for graduation ceremonies and other big events, such as band competitions. It can be rented for playoff games and it could be a concert site, ...

I'm sure that's what Jerry Jones told the city of Irving, too.

What happens when five years after it opens, a facility is no longer "state of the art"?

Lancaster unemployment rate highest in area

KERA, our local NPR news radio outlet,reports that the Lancaster unemployment rate is in double digits.

The unemployment rates for the state remained at 8.2 percent in March. It dropped slightly in North Texas to 8.3 percent. But some area cities are faring better than others, as KERA's Shelley Kofler reports.

Dallas has a jobless rate well above the state average. It's 8.8 percent in Big D, Cedar Park andGrand Prairie . Unemployment is higher still in Duncanville and in double digits in Lancaster where it's 10.9 percent.

North Texas employment appears strongest in Coppell, Denton and Flower Mound where the jobless rate is below 7 percent.

Will better schools help? I sure hope so.

Can You Answer These Questions About Your District?

Things a trustee should know according to The Texas Association of School Boards

Is there an adequate fund balance in the General Fund, Debt Service Fund, and Child Nutrition Fund?

�􀂄 Are monthly cash flow projections prepared?

􀂄 Are budget reports provided to all stakeholders?

􀂄 Are budget amendments current?

Is there a business office procedures manual

and/or administrative guidelines?

􀂄 Are comparisons made to other districts?

􀂄 Are there a number of deficiencies in Annual

Financial and Compliance Report and

management letter?

􀂄 Have all concerns from the prior year’s

management letters been resolved?

Any significant variances between budget and actual

revenues and expenditures?

Do you believe your trustees, at present or for the past decade, would need a conservator,if they had gotten these questions under control?

What is a "hearing" ?

The state of Maine is flexing its political muscles, if not its political brains, at their school system, with a controversial proposal to eliminate single-gender bathrooms, lockers, and sports teams in the public schools.

The bit that bothers me isn't a stupid policy. Policy comes and goes (or should, and except in Lancaster.) But when the political leadership schedules a "public hearing" -- with the public, naturally -- and does not allow questions from the public, then there's a problem.

From news reports:

... the commission again came under fire for not doing enough to inform Mainers of the vote, and for not allowing the public to speak at the hearing where it was held.

“We found out about this hearing by accident. We were never informed of it,” said Celeste, who was the first person to speak out at the March hearing.

“When I went to the hearing I expected to ask, ‘Why are they doing this?’ And they said that they weren’t going to have public hearings,” he said. “I said ‘Mr. Chairman, it’s getting late, when are we going to be able to ask questions?’ and he said, ‘You can’t.’”

When the bureaucracy refuses to "hear" the public at a public hearing, it is time for a change.

How many public hearings are supposed to be held IN LANCASTER? But aren't?

Students playing catch-up as they hit college

An article by Holly Hacker in the Dallas Morning News addresses how well local high schools prepare local kids for local colleges.

Each year, tens of thousands of Texas students land in this academic purgatory – no longer in high school but not ready for college. About 40 percent of recent high school graduates in the state's public universities and colleges need at least one remedial class.

In the Dallas County Community College District, which includes Brookhaven, about 70 percent of recent high school graduates need remedial help in at least one subject – reading, writing or math. In more affluent Collin County , about 40 percent of graduates enrolled in the local community college need remediation.

"The school districts that send the area's highest proportions of graduates who need extra help include Dallas , Irving , Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Cedar Hill and Lancaster . "

Yet those high school graduates have passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. And most must take a college-prep curriculum.

Local Problem with "No Child Left Behind" Federal Title I grants and programs

We do a poor job of following NCLB rules because we’ve never set local policy. The policy that should guide is is EHBD Local Which we haven’t touched since 1997. We’re 13 years behind.

On March 2009, without regard to policy, our board voted for “reconstitution plan” at High School under Bobby Parker. Anybody seen the changes? The high school has gone from a 7 period day to a 4 by 4 block back to a seven period day. We turned over about one fourth of the teaching staff – by attrition. We spent a bunch of federal money on a summer 2009 seminar for all the teachers to sit and watch powerpoint slides… This is 'reconstitution'?

Nivens was the principal and is the principal. Better than Randolph, very true. But is the 'strong man' actually making progress on a plan?

It seems to me situation at the high school is so chaotic that 'reconstituting' the place happens whether we want it or not. I suggest we get our planning and budget process under control and constitute a STABLE set up.

Safety and Health at schools

Here we have ANOTHER example of board not following it’s own policy and not updating local policy as needed. The master policy is BDF LEGAL from 2009. By state law and this TASB policy the Board must appoint a permanent council of parents to advise about sex education policy. The parent’s committee is called the Safety and Health Advisory Council. (SHAC, “shack”) LISD instead makes the SHAC just one more “other duty” for the child nutrition Specialist. And we have NEVER created a local policy on the questions.

Policies FFI Local and FFH Local define and attempt to deal with bullying and sexual harassment, generally. But without the regular review of incidents by the Safety and Health Advisory Council, their summary reports to the superintendent and board, and board action, the board is --by their own design-- isolated and ignorant of what's going on in the schools.

Lunchroom in chaos as students jump on tables, chant, and play "king of the mountain"? Not documented. Not addressed. Students knocked down and their pockets rifled? Not reported, not considered, notn solved.

The board can't fix the schools until safety issues are resolved -- and that means following their own policy to know what's happening.

Sporks?

Again.

The school was charging twenty five cents per spork. Upon instigated investigation, Texas Agriculture Commission agent in charge of school lunches got himself told that school was charging twenty five cents for the SECOND spork.

Oookay.

Now, the question is, why doesn't the Lancaster Child Nutrition program follow it's own rules?

According to Board Policy CO-Local (1989) the superintendent or his designee (in this case, Paul Walker) suggests meal (and spork) prices. But the board is responsible to APPROVE the suggested prices. Or, implicitly, correct outrageous pricing suggestions. Like charging twenty five cents for a 2 cent spork.

As far as I can tell in the board meeting minutes, the board hasn't approved any prices.

Now, if they don't want the responsibility, shouldn't they at least change the board policy to give away that power?

Seatbelts on Buses?

Board policy CNC(LEGAL) from 2009 requires us from this year on to buy only school busses and activity buses with seat belts – PROVIDED that TEA pays for the extra expense. TEA has to decide on the safety issue, the Texas legislature has to decide on appropriations from taxes or federal grants, the federal Transportation people have to decide whether to make grants – and all our bus buys funnel through Dallas County Schools agency anyway. The local board is hostage to higher powers on this.

There’s been interesting academic work just recently done on the issue, in Minnesota. You might google for a study completed for St. Paul by a guy named David Peterson: see what you think. Then let me hear from you.