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?