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DISTRICT SAYS FOUR DAY WEEK SAVES, IMPROVES LEARNING

In the face of almost certain drastic cuts to education funding, one tiny, rural school district in Montmorency County made a proactive decision this winter to lower its costs any way it could, which included trimming a school day. But while the four-day week started as a cost saving measure for Atlanta Community Schools, officials quickly realized the intangible benefits of giving students longer class times and Fridays off far outnumbered the estimated $50,000 a year the district could save, said Superintendent and Principal Teresa Stauffer.

MARCH 13, 2010, 1:37 P.M. ET

Obama Outlines Sweeping Education Revamp
Wall Street Journal

By NEIL KING JR. And BARBARA MARTINEZ
[Obama] AFP/Getty Images

Obama's education revamp would set firmer standards for success while lifting nearly all the measures that the Bush law used to try to prod change at failing schools.

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration plans to upend how the government measures and encourages success in the country's public schools as part of a sweeping proposal to rewrite President George W. Bush's signature No Child Left Behind law.

Anyone who has been following recent changes is school law knows that two new elements are now required to be part of the evaluation process – student performance and year evaluation. Most of our members have been held the to student performance standard for a number of year. Where we hear the most squeals are the yearly evaluation expectation.

When the teachers union and District go to the bargaining table this new expectations are to be put in the agreements – for all that have responsibility for student outcomes. That includes classroom teachers, building administrators, central office staff, and the school superintendent.

The question is – how do we do this?

RETIREMENT BILLS INTRODUCED – With just three weeks left to meet her deadline, legislation enacting Governor Granholm’s proposal to encourage eligible public employees to retire was introduced this week in both chambers. Legislation creating the incentive retirement program for state workers was offered in the Senate while the House received proposals doing the same thing for school employees. In an interesting twist, the House measures—which Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) said would be taken up—were introduced under Republican sponsorship. Ms.

FOCUS REMAINS ON BUDGET – Most of the legislative attention this week was focused on the budget—and the lack of money to fund the spending legislators would like to approve. It also became clear that despite an increase in the number of joint hearings between the House and Senate subcommittees, there will not be a consensus approach to the budget process between the two chambers with conference committees still playing a pivotal role in the final decision. The process saw some spending plans move forward, with most of the activity centered on education issues.

Update on Math Credit and Personal Curriculum
February 12, 2010

Yesterday at the Oakland Schools Math Council. Val Mills, one of the math consultants, clarified the changes in the math requirement. These clarifications came from Ruth Ann Hodges, from the Michigan Dept of Ed.

Some of the main points are the following: In addition to students being able to take Algebra 2 either in one year (for one credit) or over two years (for two credits), students may take it over 1.5 years (for 1.5 credits). The third option is designed to accommodate districts that want to spread the CE's over 1.5 years. We don't offer the third option, so that really doesn't affect us.

To increase access to Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) tests for low-income students, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) has applied for and received a federal grant.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/OEII_AP_test_fee_reduction_announcement_sy0910_03-11-10_314229_7.pdf

The Senate School Aid Appropriations Subcommittee reported their budget for FY 2010-11 this afternoon. The budget includes a reduction of $118 per pupil in addition to the $165 per pupil reduction contained in the current year budget. This budget is based on $195 million in additional general fund revenue that the Senate proposes to add from an unspecified source. Additionally, the Senate proposal lowers the MPSERS contribution rate to 17.08% by relying on “an increase in employee contributions” and “other reforms” to generate savings.

A list of the Senate proposals in key line item and boilerplate sections follows:

· LINE ITEMS
o Foundation allowance: reduced by an additional $118/ pupil from current year level

HUDSON, Mich. — A federal court jury awarded $800,000 this week to a Hudson Area Schools student who was harassed and sexually assaulted. An attorney for the school district said an appeal is likely.

The award is compensation for the loss of a normal high school educational experience and the mental anguish the boy suffered, said attorney Terry Heiss of Ada. The lawsuit claimed harassment started in the sixth grade when the boy was called names such as “gay” and “faggot” and ended with a locker-room sexual assault when he was a high school freshman.

The question posed to the jury, Heiss said, “was whether or not the district had actual notice of all the sexual harassment and whether or not they were clearly indifferent.”

The State Board of Education appears ready to follow Governor Jennifer Granholm's and others' leads in developing a proposal for funding education.

The board discussed a variety of proposals for increasing revenue and reducing costs to school districts based in large part on proposals offered by a variety of school and policy groups that have testified before the board over the past couple of months.

But members appeared to agree that proper financing of education requires additional funding in addition to cost reductions.

"Even the business leaders said it: we cannot solve the problem by cuts alone," said board President Kathleen Straus (D-Detroit). "It seemed to me there was a consensus that we have to modernize our sales tax system."

The Michigan Education Association (MEA) says the teachers' union would have "sold its soul" had it signed off on the Race to the Top legislation (RTTT) without reviewing the entire document. And MEA President Iris SALTER complains the state school superintendent did not "collaborate" with the union on the document.

State Superintendent Mike FLANAGAN disagrees, and says he is disappointed that for "ten months" the teacher's union failed to attend the monthly meeting of the Education Alliance, where fifteen other education groups worked out problems such as RTTT.

Flanagan said he offered to meet privately with the MEA and its board of directors at anytime to iron out differences.

Frome MDE

By Frank DeFrank, Macomb Daily Staff Writer  Click here for link to the story

Administrators to take unpaid furlough days, reduced benefits totaling $880,000

More than 100 Utica Community Schools administrators will absorb concessions next school year totaling nearly $880,000, district officials announced this week.

Administrators will take as many as six unpaid furlough days during the 2010-11 school year and pay 20 percent of their health insurance premiums.

The concessions are part of an attempt to offset an anticipated $33 million budget shortfall next school year.

Tuesday, March 9th, we finally get to see the bill that is to make the retirement changes proposed by the Governor. It is a House Bill but I don't know at this writing who is the sponsor. That will be announced this afternoon in session.

Attached is the Bill and the Legislative Summary. If you're a detail person you have some interesting reading.

Jim Ballard

MirsNews, March 8, 2010

The Senate may vote to restrict teacher and superintendent salaries as a way to limit administrative costs.

Sen. Bruce PATTERSON (R-Canton) is the sponsor of a bill that would place a ceiling on teacher and superintendent pay based on legislative and gubernatorial salaries. The proposal is receiving sharp criticism, however.

"I know this is a populist thing -- let's put a cap on executive salaries -- but I don't know of a superintendent in this state living the high life based on the salary they make," said Bernard TAYLOR, superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools. "I understand the sentiment, but you would limit the amount of talent that Michigan would be able to attract for public schools.

Detroit News: Sunday, March 7, 2010
Editorial: MEA's sabotage kept Michigan out of Race to Top finalists

It's hard to argue with the White House's decision not to include Michigan among the 16 finalists for the first round of federal Race to the Top education grants. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said repeatedly that heavy weight was given to applications from states where all parties were committed to reform.

Michigan can't even pretend to qualify under that standard. It bickered for months about whether to adopt the required reforms. Even after it did, the arguing and obstruction continued.

Place the blame for the loss of the much-needed grants squarely on the Michigan Education Association. It sabotaged the state's application at every step.

SENATE FAILS TO QUASH PAY RAISE – As promised, Senate Republicans held a vote this week to rescind the scheduled pay raise for unionized state employees and, despite polling showing strong public support to kill the raise, the effort, also as expected, failed to garner the required two-thirds vote for passage. The current employment contract calls for a 3-percent pay increase for unionized state employees and the legislature has until April 11th to reject the raise—time which Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) said after the failed vote would be used to hold daily votes on the issue until the question is either

ORS Director Stoddard Presents to MASA/MAISA Joint Legislation Committee

Michigan Office of Retirement Services Director Phil Stoddard gave a presentation on Governor Granholm’s retirement reform proposal to the MASA/MAISA Joint Legislation Committee on Wednesday. Committee members took advantage of the opportunity to ask Director Stoddard several pointed questions about how the proposal would impact Michigan’s schools. They received direct answers and, in the end, voted to support the reform proposal in concept, though the committee took a position in opposition to the concept of a multiplier increase because of the cost to the system.