legislativenewsletter

Here's a conference principals might be interested in checking out.

Preventing the Unthinkable: School Safety Seminar
Manistee, MI

By Jim Ballard
MASSP Executive Director

I had the pleasure of recently sitting at a discussion table with the Chief Academic Officer for the MDE, the Educational Advisor to the Governor, the Chair of the Senate Education Committee, and the Director of State Scholars. The topic was the implementation of the Michigan Merit Standard/Curriculum.

State restructuring efforts for NCLB often take a back seat to the more comprehensive reforms. Look for State Superintendent Mike Flanagan’s remarks in the last paragraph of this Wall Street Journal article.  READ MORE

By Jim Ballard
MASSP Executive Director

SB 1107, 2008-09 School Aid has passed the Senate and is now in discussion before the House Appropriations sub-committee for Education. I’d be surprised to see movement of the bill to the full Appropriations Committee until after the report to this committee by the legislative finance research staff as to how much money they think is in the state check book is completed. There are still some things kicking about.

Finding ways to fix Michigan’s dropout crisis is the focus of public hearings that began May 8 as part of a statewide initiative to increase the number of high school graduates to stabilize a weak economy.

Sen. Wayne, Kuipers, bill's sponsor

...That was the concept in the original SB 842. The bill has an entirely new look today, but still is causing some big concerns within the education community.

By Marshall W. Grate
A public school district must exercise caution in monitoring off-campus speech. In Layshock v Hermitage School District, (WD PA 2007), a public school district was held to have violated the First Amendment rights of a senior high school student when it issued a 10-day suspension for his creation of a parody profile of the high school principal on the student’s MySpace.com website during non-school hours at the student’s grandmother’s computer.

by Andre F. Mayes

Upholding the principle that students do not “shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate,” a California state court judge recently blocked a middle school from enforcing a strict dress code policy. Scott v Napa Valley Unified School District, No. 26-37082 (Cal Super Ct July 2, 2007).

In 1998, Redwood Middle School adopted a student dress code policy to control an emerging problem with gangs in the school.

From the Executive Director
Jim Ballard

The next ten weeks is the season for non-renewal for school administrator employment contracts. If your contract is at risk, please call us early in the process.
Please, don’t wait. More than once I’ve had members call asking for help and telling me that the Board meeting was scheduled that afternoon!
Please, know your contract. You wouldn’t believe the members we speak with who don’t have a contract, don’t know where their contract is, or haven’t read their contract.

A divided House Education Committee—split by timing questions rather than concept—has reported legislation that would increase the dropout age to 18.
The measure, House Bill 4042, would require students currently in the 7th Grade to complete all graduation requirements or attain the age of 18 to leave school.