Sunday, December 20, 2009

WITHOUT (much) FANFARE: Alignment "Tent-Poles" for SWEEPING CHANGE Achieved! (NOW to the WORK of CRAFTING the INTENTIONAL-FABRIC for Same)

School reforms finally get through Legislature

State positioned to compete for $400 million in U.S. aid

By CHRIS CHRISTOFF

FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF

LANSING — With $400 million in federal money at stake, lawmakers finally approved sweeping reforms Saturday to reward good teachers, turn bad schools over to the state and allow more charter schools. But the reforms won’t give Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb control over the academically challenged district’s curriculum. Instead, a state reform manager will be named, with authority to intervene in the academically worst 5% of schools.

The legislation also allows two cyber schools — at-home, online curriculums — aimed at dropouts. And the minimum drop out age increases to 18 from 16.

The five-bill package will allow Michigan to compete for up to $400 million from President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top initiative, in cluding as much as $70 million in Detroit. The reforms have been sought for years by some but opposed by teachers unions.

Even if the state doesn’t win all the money, reforms were needed, said proponents. “Today’s action is all about helping kids get a first-class education in a world that demands nothing less,” said Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who spent Saturday urging legislators to pass the bills.

OUR EDITORIAL

Better than expected

Race to Top legislation doesn’t accomplish everything, but it’s a good start to reforming state schools

Getting there wasn’t pretty, and some of it was pure nonsense. But finally, the Legislature finished the job of preparing Michigan schools for a leap in quality and accountability.

Michigan’s Race to the Top legislation, months overdue and needed so the state can compete for more than $400 million in federal dollars, came to fruition on Saturday— nothing less than a holiday miracle for a bitterly divided Lansing.

It is a good package that will bring reform to Michigan classrooms. But whether it goes far enough to win the grants — other states seem to have done more — will be up to the Obama administration.

The Legislature took a measured approach to charter school expansion that is expected to open dozens of slots under the state cap of 150 charter schools.

Under the new law, existing charter schools could convert into “schools of excellence”— and not be counted against the cap — if their students score well on tests.

The existing alternative public schools would either have to exhibit 90 percent proficiency in math and science or 75 percent proficiency if at least half of the students come from low-income households. High schools with 80 percent proficiency in student learn ing and high rates of graduation and college attendance also would qualify for “schools of excellence” status.

Opening more alternative public schools will help push traditional schools and existing charter schools through competition for stu dents and their state school aid dollars.

Overcoming fierce resistance from the state’s largest teacher and school employee union, the Michigan Education Association, Michigan will use student achievement data to measure teacher performance for the first time. This is essential to meeting the White House’s call to move toward a more perform ance- based education system.

The legislation says student progress must be weighed in teacher evaluations, pay, bonuses and tenure. This is not a state requirement for merit pay for teachers, but it certainly gives districts ammunition to demand the practice in their contracts if student achieve ment is stagnant or dismal.

In addition, the Race to the Top reforms imply that teachers with poor performance should not be protected by the tenure law.

Although this is not the straightforward reform of the tenure system that is needed, it is an important legislative admission that the rigid tenure system lets bad teachers hold schools and their students hostage.

There are some disappointments. The Detroit Public Schools’ elected school board and its legislative allies effectively squashed giving the district’s Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb the official legal authority to reform academics, and not just finances.

The need to give Bobb academic control is obvious. This month, Detroit set a new national low in student test scores on a national assessment. House leaders promise to hold a public hearing on the matter in January.

But the legislation tries to make up for this by giving the state more power to take over the state’s worst academically failing schools.

Two cyber schools were also created — in part to meet federal preferences. While such experiments are worth trying, taxpayers de serve to know much more about these schools and how they will be held accountable.

The Race to the Top legislative package is a good start to making Michigan schools better for all children. But the work — on merit pay, tenure and charters — must continue.

Reforms hailed, but issues linger

Bobb doesn’t get control; teachers fear losing input

By CHRIS CHRISTOFF and GINA DAMRON

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

LANSING — Even if Michi gan doesn’t win a piece of the $4.3 billion the Obama administration will dole out to states for at-risk schools, reforms approved by the Legislature on Saturday are worth it, said lawmakers who led the way.

The reform plan had to be in place for the state to apply next month for as much as $400 million in federal grants under the Obama administra tion’s Race to the Top initiative to improve at-risk public schools.

But it’s not a victory for the Detroit Public Schools emer gency financial manager, Robert Bobb, an appointee of Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The legislation does not grant him the power he wanted to control the district’s academic programs.

Instead, a state reform manager will have authority to shake up or close down specific schools based on their students’ achievement.

“The community and ev eryone involved really was looking for the single line of accountability with academ ics that they now have with fi nances,” said Steve Wasko, spokesman for Bobb.

Wasko said the legislation “threatens to dismantle the school district as we know it.” The question of giving Bobb academic authority over Detroit schools will be aired before the House Education Committee on Jan. 14, said committee Chairman Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills. Mel ton, who led House Democrats in negotiating the reform package with Senate Republicans, successfully argued for a state-level school reform manager to tackle failing schools or clusters of schools. Senate Republicans and Granholm preferred appoint ing individual crisis managers who could take over districts’ entire operations — as Gran holm wanted for Bobb.

Opening way for charters

One thing Detroit could see under the reform plan is more charter schools. In fact, Michigan could have a few dozen new charter schools within 10 years under the guidelines.

Currently, state law limits to 150 the number of charter schools established by universities. Michigan has 240 char ter schools in all.

The new law sets high standards for charter schools that cater to large numbers of low income, at-risk students. If the charters meet those standards, the authority that created them can open more schools.

“This bill allows for modest growth of charter schools based on quality,” said Gary Naeyaert, spokesman for Michigan’s Charter Schools. “The state is saying, ‘You have to have excellent academic achievement among an at-risk student population. If you figure out how to do that, we want to do more of that.’ ” Even if the state wins federal grants, it won’t solve what Granholm and others call a funding crisis for public schools.

Public school funding was cut $350 million in the 2009-10 budget and faces a $212-million hit next month.

“This is just incentive money that gave us the impetus to get some reforms done that would not have gotten done in another 20 or 30 years,” Melton said.

Results will take time

Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R Holland, said the full impact of the reforms won’t be felt for 10 years, as more charter schools open, bad schools are shored up or closed and good teachers are rewarded with money. The legislation will allow school districts to judge teachers in part by academic achievement of their students. It doesn’t eliminate teacher tenure laws, but it could affect merit pay and promotions.

“We took big steps toward rewarding high-performing teachers,” said Kuipers, who led negotiations for the Sen ate Republican majority. “But at the same time, you’ve got to get rid of bad ones. We didn’t get there with this package.”

Teachers have concerns

Still, teachers unions were upset with a bill that gives the state reform manager broad powers to take control of individual schools, fire people and impose work rules apart from negotiated contracts.

“This strips employees of their voice in helping students in these struggling schools,” said Doug Pratt, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association. “It is completely inappropriate.”

He said the MEA and AFT Michigan, the state affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, went along with other reforms they have resisted in the past, such as alternative certification for teachers and merit pay.

Reform highlights

■ Expands the number of high quality charter schools (at least 10 over five years), including two online schools.

■ Gives state greater authority to take over up to 5% of schools with worst academic perfor mance.

■ Increases the dropout age from 16 to 18.

■ Allows some professionals to teach in public schools without a four-year teaching degree (example: engineers teaching math).

■ Permits schools to give merit pay to teachers based in part on the academic performance of their students.

Next steps in the Race to the Top

■ Governor signs the bills.

■ State identifies underper forming schools.

■ State officials develop federal Race to the Top application by Jan. 19.

■ Feds announce first-round winners in April.

■ Feds announce second round of grants in September.

EXAMPLES OF WHAT’ S AVAILABLE

■ Detroit Public Schools: $70.6 million

■ Flint Community Schools: $6.3 million

■ Southfield Public Schools: $724,197

■ Warren Consolidated Schools: $938,853

■ Ecorse Public Schools: $519,020

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Hold the Drumroll.......and prepare for the Cymbal Crescendo! (These guy's are even bad-actors at theater-Film at Noon)

POSTED: 6:50 P.M. DEC. 18, 2009 | UPDATED: 4:29 A.M. TODAY

Legislature works past midnight, but no decision

BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU

The Michigan Legislation departed the Capitol after midnight for the second straight day early Saturday, unable to complete work on school reforms aimed at qualifying Michigan for up to $400 million in federal stimulus funds.

Leaders from both the House and Senate

pledged to be back at their desks this morning. But tempers flared near the end of Friday's session as Senate leaders accused House negotiators of trying to insert last minute changes into an agreement reached 24 hours earlier.

"They're starting to ask for changes," saidSenate Majority Leader

Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, "We're not going to re-negotiate the whole deal."

Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills, denied those charges, describing modifications being made to the legislation as "tweaks."

"We still have a deal," he said.

Lawmakers arrived at the Capitol Friday evening, after having departed about 1 a.m., ostensibly to begin voting on so-called Race to the Top bills. Instead, they spent their time listlessly waiting, chatting and sleeping, in part because the actual legislation had yet to be printed.

The content of the bills - to expand charter schools, address chronically struggling schools and inject greater accountability for teachers and staff - had been agreed to in concept by House and Senate negotiators early Friday.

In theory, it would allow for the creation of about 30 new charters in areas where existing schools have under-performed, tie teacher evaluations, pay and job security to student performance and create the framework for state-appointed officials to takeover management of failing schools.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm

said Friday afternoon that she endorsed the conceptual agreement and would sign it if it reached her desk.

That remained an open question early Saturday.

The complexity of the legislation, coupled with a myriad of side issues (such as raising the high school dropout age to 18 from 16 without parental consent), kept a small army of lobbyists at work along with the lawmakers and their staffs.

Bishop said Democratic House leaders "just got to tell us. Do you want to do it or not? We don't want to blow it up."

Melton, who said he had had three hours of sleep in the last 48, said not to worry. "We're going to get it done. This is about 20 years of reform packed into one year. But we're going to get there."

Contact DAWSON BELL: 517-372-8661 or dbell@freepress.com

Friday, December 18, 2009

Turning the Page (From the Money Conversation to a Fresh, Insighful, Introspective Message of Hope by merely DOING the RIGHT THING) A SEA CHANGE to SEE CHANGE!

HAVE A LITTLE FAITH IN DETROIT’ S KIDS

One of the biggest problems facing the Detroit Public Schools is the lack of faith that some of its employees have in the children.

That is the word from Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the district’s chief academic and accountability auditor, who has spent months completing an extensive and not-yet-released analysis of how the district educates students.

There is nothing wrong with the city’s children or parents that cannot be remediated, she said. But there must be a sea change in the way district employees — from top to bottom — deal with their clients.

“Sometimes people revel in the despair,” she said in an interview where she gave a sneak preview of her findings. They include:

■ Children in the same grade with vastly different and defi cient curricula.

■ A lack of progress reports to parents.

■ A total failure to evaluate and improve the performance of struggling teachers.

But the saddest thing Byrd Bennett discovered in conversa tions with hundreds of students, teachers, parents and principals? Some people just don’t believe in the kids.

“There has got to be a suspension of their disbelief that children can achieve,” she said.

What kids need: A dream and a chance

Barbara Byrd-Bennett recalls being a 19-year-old volunteer teaching reading to inmates with life sentences at the prison on Alcatraz off the coast of California.

“They were in there for life, and I could still see the hunger in their eyes,” she said. “They wanted to learn.”

Byrd-Bennett, chief academic and accountability auditor for the Detroit Public Schools, said she has seen that same hunger in the eyes of some DPS students. She also heard directly from ded icated teachers, heroes who work their butts off and still want to be even better, to reach kids more.

“You can’t move a district until you … change the culture of a district, and the culture doesn’t change until people begin to change,” she said.

For months, Byrd-Bennett has quietly guided the finan cial decisions of DPS emer gency financial manager Rob ert Bobb while examining all aspects of academics and teaching across the district.

Her extensive, not-yet-re leased audit shows that decades of poor administration, little communication with parents and inattention to students have left standing a district that is a monument to chaos, a district that will take years of innovation and a sea change in attitude to fix.

“There has got to be a suspension of their disbelief” in these children. “If you can get a group of people to believe in the children and their parents, you can change things.”

Where are the standards?

Among the problems Byrd Bennett outlines in her audit:

■ The district does not use the uniform, core curriculum system that was designed to keep all students on the same pace.

Students at one school learn more — and more effectively — than kids in the same grade at another school.

“As a parent, as a kid, I should know that in ninth grade, here are the core requirements. In order to move from freshman to sophomore, I need to complete this num ber of classes. And there’s something deeply wrong when you think foreign lan guage is an add-on.”

■ There is little regular communication between teachers and parents, and few progress reports on how students are doing.

■ There are no standard, uniform evaluation tools for teachers or principals.

“I don’t know any job that where you’re never evaluated, assessed or helped and supported,” she said. “That is obscene.”

■ Many teaching methods used in the district are out dated, some from the 1970s.

The good news, Byrd-Bennett said, is that “as I went into schools and talked with teachers, I found that people are hungry for the support.

People want to know how to do a good job. People want to know how to get out of the frozen ’60s and ’70s teaching methods.”

■ There is a belief among many employees that DPS children are inferior students. Rampant social promotion, a statewide problem, places students in classes where they are ill-equipped to learn and mainly mark time until they drop out. Teachers must deal with students who are years behind in reading and math, who have behavioral problems or, in the case of a teacher I recently reported about, had a class of 28 stu dents who were on 10 different reading levels. And I get heartbreaking e-mails from teachers who have to adapt their teaching plans to the arrival of students at different academic levels all through out the year.

“What I’ve learned is that the academics have been subordinate to finances here for longer than anyone could have imagined,” Byrd-Bennett said.

There is nothing wrong with the children or their parents that cannot be remediated, she said. But there must be a sea change in the way district employees — top to bottom — deal with their clients.

“Sometimes people revel in the despair,” she said in an exclusive interview. “I’ve said this over and over. There has got to be a suspension of their disbelief that children can achieve.”

Core course requirements should be the same at every high school, but students should have the chance to try different career paths without affecting their college prep.

“But people push back and say these kids won’t do that.

They don’t believe in these kids.”

The gift of a dream

Byrd-Bennett has found what’s wrong. When she releases the final academic audit, we better pay attention. This time.

“Sometimes a superintendent, an associate sup has to stand for the kids. All the adults have their representation. We are the union for the kids. I’m the union rep,” she said. “Every kid I’ve met wants to learn. I’m the kid from the low-income projects of Harlem. The difference was: There was a group of significant adults who believed that I could be some thing better. … “Nobody has suspended their disbelief.”

I remember those dreams.

Every adult on my street in Tarboro, N.C., had that dream for me. They lived it.

They made me live it. I always saw beyond that street.

Now we must give that gift to Detroit kids.

■ CONTACT ROCHELLE RILEY: RRILEY99@FREEPRESS.COM

“IF YOU CAN GET A GROUP OF PEOPLE TO BELIEVE IN THE CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS, YOU CAN CHANGE THINGS.”

BARBARA BYRD-BENNETT, chief academic and accountability auditor for the Detroit Public Schools

Drumroll Please! Political Grandstanding 101 (Cue-up "Hail to the Victors" Film at 11)

Statewide

School reform talks to resume this afternoon

Gov. Jennifer Granholm and legislative leaders will resume negotiations this afternoon on school reform measures aimed at qualifying Michigan schools for up to $400 million in federal stimulus funding.

Progress on some issues, which negotiators for all sides declined to identify, was announced just after midnight. Still at issue are what kind of limits to place on the creation of new charter schools, differences over teacher tenure protection and how to deal with schools or districts in crisis, such as Detroit.

The Legislature had been scheduled to adjourn for the year Thursday night.

He said, She said: "A Case for the Criminally Inane"

December 17, 2009

http://detnews.com/article/20091217/POLITICS02/912170439

Education talks resume after showy press conference in Lansing

KAREN BOUFFARD
Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing --Finger-pointing gave way to theatrics this afternoon in the turbulent battles under way in Lansing over education reforms needed to qualify for $400 million or more in federal Race to the Top funding.

About 40 House Democrats flanked Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, and Education Committee Chair Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills, at a lunchtime press conference called to shame Republicans back to the negotiating table. Republicans stormed out of talks about 8 p.m. Wednesday night, led by Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, after negotiation stumbled over the issue of charter schools.

Asked if the Democrats had picked up a phone to ask Kuipers back to the table, Melton said, "As far as they know, we're still down in the conference room. We didn't walk out on them; they walked out on us."

After further prodding from reporters, Dillon whipped out his cell and dialed Kuipers directly: "We want you to come back to the table and negotiate," Dillon said. "I'll be in my office right now."

Dillon announced about an hour later that talks had resumed. "We're back in business," Dillon said.
Kuipers, in an interview with The Detroit News this morning, charged that the House and Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration aren't fully committed to winning the money -- and presented as evidence problems Michigan had meeting last week's deadline to file an optional letter of intent to apply for Race to the Top funding.

Jan Ellis, spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said the problems were not on the state's end. When they tried to send the letter to Washington expressing their intent to apply for the money, the computers were down at the U.S. Department of Education, so the letter never was sent.

Melton said Kuipers' criticism of the Department of Education is meant to divert attention from Republicans' lack of cooperation.

"The department is fully engaged in this -- (State School Superintendent) Mike Flanagan has had his staff working around the clock on this," Melton said. "The real (issue) is the Senate walking away from negotiations.

"It's an optional letter, and the House and the governor are fully committed to this."

The letter was optional and won't jeopardize Michigan's chances of winning the money, Ellis said.

She said the purpose of the form was help the U.S. Department of Education prepare for an onslaught of state applications expected by the Jan. 19 deadline for the first wave of funding.

"This was not an application -- it was a letter of intent that was optional, and that we tried to file at least three times, and their system was down," Ellis said, referring to the U.S. Department of Education's computer system.

"There was no requirement and they know we are going to apply" for the money.
Ellis said the department has since sent in the letter.

Because Michigan's notice was not received by the U.S. Department of Education by the deadline, the state was not listed among states planning to apply for the first round of funding. Applications for Phase I funding are due by Jan. 19; states not ready to apply by then will have another opportunity later in 2010.

Senate Republicans walked out on negotiations on education reform legislation late Wednesday, bringing a halt -- for the moment -- to talks about education reforms linking teacher pay to student test scores, opening more charter schools and other measure the Obama administration has outlined as requirement for Race to the Top cash.

Conference committee meetings slated for 9 a.m. this morning were swiftly recessed since there were no deals for members to debate.

Melton said this morning that Republicans, led by Kuipers, walked out after House Democrats wouldn't budge on the Senate's plan to open 100 or more additional charter schools in the state.

"The Senate just wants to get a wish list to do as many charters as they want, and that's not what Race to the Top is all about," Melton said.

Kuipers said talks failed over a number of issues, not just charter schools.

"We have a number of outstanding issues, and we weren't making progress on any of them," Kuipers said. "I just said, 'We've been talking for six hours. We're not making progress. When you're willing to get serious, let us know.' "

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Ready, Fire, Aim: SHOOT Merely the SMELL of MONEY can Become INTOXICATING!

The Pontiac Board of Education is hoping its investment in a lobbying firm will generate more equity in funding for the district, which is being forced to cut $25 million over five years to eliminate its deficit and stabilize its budget.

Pontiac school officials want Governmental Consultant Services Inc. to help win more equity in state school funding so the district can catch up to its neighboring districts, some of which receive $500 to $5,000 more per student in state school foundation operating grants. In the past year, some trustees and administrators have pointed out that Pontiac is a donor district. This means the school system, which includes portions of communities such as Auburn Hills and Bloomfield Township, puts more funding into the state school aid pot than it gets back.

That occurred with Proposal A in 1994, which changed school funding from a system supported by each individual district to a statewide system in which local revenue is put in a pot and distributed by the state. The goal was to bring up funding for the poorer districts without hurting the wealthy districts.

Oakland Schools’ June 30, 2009, state aid report indicated Pontiac received only $592 of its total $7,384 state aid per pupil from the state and $6,791 from local tax revenue.

In comparison, Birmingham schools was listed as receiving a total of $12,188 per pupil. Of that, $5,678 was in state aid and $6,509 was in local tax revenue. Bloomfield Hills district received $12,268 per pupil, with $6,038 in state aid and $6,229 in local revenue. Another issue important to the Pontiac district is the use of Title 1 funding that is restricted to programs to help students in high poverty areas achieve in school.

School officials launched an effort a few months ago to win more flexibility in the use of millions of dollars in Title 1 funds so it can be used to pay teachers and keep schools operating. Trustees contracted with two legal firms and Oakland Schools has been supporting the effort.

Board President Damon Dorkins said trustees are confident representatives of Government Consultant Services will work well with state Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills, in his efforts to help bring more equity to the Pontiac School District. Melton agrees. In an interview Wednesday, he said that the corporation has helped him advocate for Pontiac schools in the past. The consultant service is contracted for two years at $2,700 a month beginning Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2010, and then $3,000 a month beginning Jan. 1, 2011, through Dec. 31, 2011, and on a month-by-month basis after that.

The group is expected to advocate on behalf of the district and its interests at all levels of the Legislature and state government.

The lobbyists will work closely with the district to identify and prioritize issues of importance and to help establish, prioritize and refine the district’s legislative agenda.

Contact staff writer Diana Dillaber Murray at (248) 745-4638 or diana.dillaber@oakpress.com.

IF we Can't SIMPLY Do the RIGHT THING for our Children, Perhaps we can do it for the MONEY!

The Michigan Legislature is coming down to the wire on some major educational reforms. The changes are badly needed but giving them extra urgency and prominence is the fact that if approved, they could bring in some additional federal education funds.

Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills, chairman of the House Education Committee, says the regulations are in a joint House-Senate conference committee and that lawmakers agree on 90 percent of them. Melton is looking for compromise on the other 10 percent and we urge the legislators to be accommodating.

The proposed changes are common sense and we believe would help improve the state’s educational system. But they need to be passed Thursday, before the Legislature adjourns for the holidays.

One of the more controversial regulations requires that administrator and teacher evaluations and raises be based, in part, on student performance. Since it’s an educator’s job to teach youngsters, why not pay them based on how well their students learn?

Another regulation would create an alternative certification route for teachers that allows for groups such as Teach for America, and the New Teacher Project to come to Michigan. These are nationally known organizations that have stellar reputations for educating children.

The legislation would allow for the closing of charter schools whose students aren’t performing well and mandates kindergarten for 5-year-olds who turn 5 on or before Sept. 1.

One area still in discussion would give individual schools, among the lowest 5 percent performing schools in the state, the ability to begin the school year prior to Labor Day. The prohibition on holding classes the Friday before Labor Day would remain in effect for all schools.

A state law passed in 2005 requires public schools to start classes after Labor Day so families could extend summer vacations and tourism-related businesses could have teen workers available into early September. It was a provision sought mainly by Michigan tourism interests, along with the agriculture industry.

We certainly support the tourist and farming interests. But this is a reasonable regulation that wouldn’t be a bad option for all school districts, not just the low performing ones.

Melton says another regulation some legislators are balking at is raising the dropout age from 16 to 18. Those opposed are concerned about the possible extra cost, but today’s young people need all the education they can get and requiring them to go until age 18 is just prudent.

All of the changes are geared, in part, to qualify Michigan for up to $400 million in federal aid through President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top competition.

But as Melton says, and we agree, “I would support these reforms even if we don’t get the federal funds. This is 20 years of reform in a year.”

We urge our lawmakers to approve these reasonable changes in our educational system, first because they are badly needed, and second, because they may help Michigan garner some available federal funds. The money certainly is badly needed.

Melton is adamant about passing the entire package of bills, at least in some reasonable form.

“I will find a compromise. I’m not going to let this die,” he says.

Good. We hope he’s successful.

THE 1% SOLUTION!

Principals and other administrators in Pontiac schools have taken a 1 percent pay cut and a step down in their health insurance coverage in a new agreement ratified by the union.

The new contract for the 28-member Pontiac Association of School Administrators was approved by the Pontiac Board of Education Monday night. It expires in 2011.

Pam Farris, principal of Herrington Elementary School and president of the association, said the group wants to help the district succeed.

“We decided to give 1 percent in pay starting in January to June and 0.5 percent until the new fiscal year starting July 1,” Herrington said.

The administrators have also agreed to a change from MESSA Super Care health insurance to the MESSA coverage held by teachers, which is a less expensive version than administrators had in their last three-year contract that expired in 2007.

That means the administrators’ copays have increased from $5 to $10, $10 to $20, and $100 to $200.

Administrators who want to maintain their Super Care coverage can do so at their own expense and have the difference deducted from their paychecks. MESSA, a nonprofit organization, has provided health insurance coverage to public school employees for 50 years.

Superintendent Thomas Maridada II said last week that he is putting a priority on reaching concessions in employee health insurance that is costing the district $10 million this year and is expected to go up to $11 million next year. Each bargaining unit is being asked to select another insurance that is comparable but will cost the district less.

Pontiac schools must file a plan by Feb. 15 with state school Superintendent Mike Flanagan on steps to be taken to reduce the deficit and achieve a balanced budget within five years.

“We gave concessions because we wanted to be trailblazers,” Farris said. “We are the leaders. We are speaking every day for children. We feel as a unit we have to give something back in order to help this district become stable and help students be successful.

“We truly believe in this community and we believe in the schools and we want to be successful. The majority (of members) agreed to do it. It was the right thing and the right time,” Farris said.

The union had been at the bargaining table for two years trying to negotiate with several different administrative teams with no agreement.

“We came together and thought really hard about what we want, about how we can protect everyone from layoffs. It is a win-win situation,” she said.

Farris is hopeful that the district will turn around under current restructuring and redesign efforts.

“I think with the new administration, there’s a vision, a clear understanding what is needed in order to help children be successful,” she said.

Contact staff writer Diana Dillaber Murray at (248) 745-4638 or diana.dillaber@oakpress.com.

PSD Deficit Money Issues (Reprieve!)

State school Superintendent Michael Flanagan has agreed to give the Pontiac district until 2014 to eliminate its deficit and achieve a balanced budget.

Flanagan has also agreed to officials’ request to extend the filing deadline for the five-year deficit elimination plan until Feb. 15. Pontiac Superintendent Thomas Maridada II had asked for the filing extension because of the lateness in finalizing the state aid plan for school districts.

Even as late as last week, Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm announced that a $127 perpupil reduction in school aid payments to school districts is being paused, meaning it could still go through or be canceled at a later date. Without the pause, state officials would have processed the reduction in the Dec. 20 school aid payments.

The state had already cut by $165 per student the state aid for October and November in checks distributed to school districts last month.

Maridada, Interim Associate Superintendent of Business and Finance John Dietz and the Pontiac Board of Education met for almost four hours two nights last week working on options for reducing expenditures by more than $25 million over the next five years to achieve the goal of a balanced budget by 2014. The deficit is close to $15 million this year because of cuts in state aid and declining enrollment.

Without Flanagan’s approval, the district could have been faced with cutting expenditures by that amount in as little as two years.

Maridada is putting a priority on reaching concessions in employee health insurance that is costing the district $10 million this year and is expected to go up to $11 million next year.

Although a 10-percent pay cut was also included in a list of assumptions for the fiveyear budget, Dietz said last week that assumption and others are only “what if ” scenarios.

“The Pontiac School District has not asked its employees to take a 10 percent reduction in salary, nor was it our intent to do so,” Dietz explained.

“The ‘what if ’ scenarios spoke to if the district did not take other measures in cost cutting, it may eventually lead to this scenario,” he said. “They were provided to the board to share various options that would possibly occur over five years without any attention to cost cutting now.”

Maridada and trustees say it is necessary to not only stop the flow of students out of the district but to increase enrollment. They are convinced that achieving quality programs will attract more students to the district, which would also attract more state funding.

Among the many options discussed during the two night meetings to reduce expenditures were: Consolidating services with other entities; working out an agreement with SMART for transportation; reducing bus routes; working out an agreement with Oakland Schools for busing across district boundaries; leasing and renting vacant properties; fees for use of facilities; and getting grants for urban gardening.

They also discussed reducing pre-school classes to half days because funds for a fullday program have been cut, opening a tuition-paid latchkey or preschool program, closing an elementary school, selling vacant property and adjusting payroll periods.

Race On to Get the Money (How about the Race to Capture the Student's Imagination, Creativity and Innovation?)

Michigan’s Legislature will vote Thursday on a series of bills that could make the state eligible for up to $400 million in federal grants for schools.

“(The Obama administration) has basically said: ‘You can get paid to do these reforms now or wait and be forced to do them later,’” said state Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law by the president in February, $4.35 billion was set aside for the Race to the Top Fund. The fund is a competitive grant program designed to encourage and reward states making substantial gains in education and education reform.

“This is about 20 years worth of reform that we’ve done in the last year and a half,” Melton said.

The series of bills to be voted on will change a variety of things regarding the state’s education system, ranging from increasing the drop-out age from 16 to 18 to requiring teachers and principals to be evaluated and compensated based on student performance.

“You have to start using student data and growth models to evaluate teachers and principals,” Melton said, adding that too many teachers are rated “exemplary” in schools that aren’t producing results. “The state must start taking data and linking it to the teacher.”

Individual districts and unions will be able to negotiate how teachers and principals are measured, he said. “These districts will have to find a better way to do assessments,” Melton said. Teachers and administrators who do not have the appropriate tools to provide a good learning environment — like books, paper and other school supplies — will be given an avenue to contact the state. The state may then contact the district to ensure the supplies will be provided or create a fund to pay for the supplies and withhold the equivalent amount from the district’s state payment to reimburse the fund.

“It’s called the teacher’s bill of rights,” Melton said, adding that he’s heard of teachers having to go 65 days without books for their classrooms.

A new mandate would also be created that requires children who are 5 years old on or before Sept. 1 to attend kindergarten.

Currently, a child can be 6 years old before having to enter school.

Programs like Teach for America and the New Teacher Project, which are alternative routes for people to become certified teachers, will also be allowed in the state’s schools by the new legislation.

The legislation also requires the state to intervene in districts that have schools performing in the bottom 5 percent statewide. Melton said he is sure that some Oakland County schools fall into that category.

Also, laws regarding charter schools will also see changes.

While the state will Melton maintain its cap of having 150 charter schools in operation, it will be a “smart cap.”

“The smart cap means, if you’re one of the 150 charter schools and you’re performing well, you can expand,” Melton said.

High-performing charter schools will also be encouraged to open up more high schools, since there are fewer charter high schools than there are elementary and middle schools.

“We want those best providers to start operating high schools as well,” Melton said.

The state superintendent will have the authority to shut down charter schools which are in the bottom 5 percent as far as student achievement.

Melton said the state senate has agreed to about 90 percent of the legislation, opposing things like the drop-out age increase and new kindergarten age requirements.

“We’ll find a way to compromise,” he said.

Melton said it’s imperative for the legislation to be passed on Thursday, before the legislature leaves for its winter break because the deadline to apply for the grant is Jan. 19, 2010. However, if the state is denied its application, there will be a second phase during which the state can reapply.

The state can be awarded up to $400 million.

If it receives the full $400 million, half will go toward Title 1 districts, which are generally in poverty-stricken areas. The state superintendent will then have discretion in awarding the remaining $200 million to other districts.

Contact staff writer Karen Workman at (248) 745-4643 or karen@oakpress.com.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Small School within a School Internships

Superintendent Thomas Maridada II and school board President Damon Dorkins are proposing four or five niche schools in the Pontiac school district through partnerships with universities, organizations and businesses.

If all goes as proposed, Maridada and his team will create three to four schools per year with “unique and unprecedented partnerships” beginning next fall. They will focus on a specific field of study and have a capacity of 500 students. The community will have a say in what type of niche schools should be opened in the district.

School officials have hopes the schools — along with the Promise Zone scholarships guaranteed to Pontiac graduates — will attract more students to the declining district.

“Our students have already told (the district) what they want and we have not addressed it. You can’t have one class and call it an academy,” he said, referring to the efforts to open academies at the high school.

“We have to give them a thirst to want to come to school, make it so compelling” that students in Pontiac schools, charter schools and schools in another districts want to study in the niche schools, Maridada said.

A “niche” is defined by Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary as “a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted.”

The schools would be run by the partners and have their own school boards with members selected according to their area of expertise. But the Pontiac district will be involved in the selection of teachers. And partners running the schools will have to follow the guidelines and be accountable to the Pontiac Board of Education.

“The board could be a group of doctors or dentists who would create a curriculum for health and partner with the high school and create internships,” Maridada said.

Students would apply to a particular school because of their and their parents’ interests. They might be selected by lottery if there were more student applicants than capacity allowed.

According to the timeline presented to the board, Maridada plans to hold a community forum in January to give his state of the district address when he will provide more information about the concept.

On Target (But Late)

Will Democrats and the state’s most powerful teachers union inadvertently bring school vouchers to Michigan? Could these historic protectors of Michigan public education ultimately drag it under?

Watching what is taking place in school districts across Oakland County and the state make the question quite relevant. How ironic and tragic would it be if the Michigan Education Association, Democratic lawmakers, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a dozen or so Republicans (backed by the MEA) and a busload of complacent school superintendents and school boards ultimately helped bring vouchers to Michigan’s public schools?

How could that happen? The answer is simple. Taxpayers are fed up. Michigan residents, who are experiencing the pain of disruptive and transformational change, expect high-quality education and sensible action by our governor and legislators to put teaching, learning and children ahead of power, control and politics. They also are quite aware how change is impacting them and how the system is protecting the status quo.

When I served as state superintendent of schools, I sounded the alarm in 2004 that our current system of funding schools was unsustainable in the face of the sharply rising costs of health care, pensions and the large number of small school districts.

Shortly thereafter, I was forced out of the position by Granholm, assisted by a major shove from the MEA. If action had been taken when I recommended change, Michigan schools could have saved an estimated $4.5 billion to be invested in 21st century education initiatives by now.

Now fast forward to 2009 and house Speaker Andy Dillon’s ambitious proposal to bundle all public employee health care plans into one, with the potential to save up to $1 billion per year. His bold plan prompted MEA officials to immediately “declare war” on his efforts.

Even if Dillon’s savings estimates are off by 50 percent, we are still talking about significant money that could and should be redirected to the classroom. There is a desperate need for sensible reforms in government at all levels and specifically in our schools.

The foundation on which our public infrastructure was built (the auto industry) has been eroding for two decades and has imploded in the last year.

What we once had is now gone. We have a new reality of less revenue to support what we have had in the past. Changes need to be made, and have been denied for too long, to adjust to this new reality. Our public schools cannot be, and are not, immune to these new realities.

We must control rising health care benefits and pensions, and share services and consolidate local districts.

The actions by the MEA, standing in the way of sensible reforms and browbeating and cajoling legislators, local school boards and superintendents in light of Michigan’s new economic realities, ultimately will be self defeating.

The MEA might win the battle — but it is at great risk of losing the war.

Michigan’s constitution prohibits using government tax support for private or religious schools. In 2000, a voucher initiative was put on the statewide ballot. Opponents, led by the MEA and local school boards and using the public school establishment as foot soldiers, defeated this assault by a margin of 69 to 31 percent. It was a sharp setback to pro-voucher forces, and many thought it was the final nail in its coffin. Not necessarily so.

In November 2010, Michigan voters will be asked if they wish to hold a constitutional convention and rewrite the existing state constitution. Polls show there is massive dissatisfaction and anger toward Lansing, and voters just might take the opportunity to force change.

A metro newspaper quoted Lt. Gov. John Cherry as saying, “People are not happy with the capacity of state government to solve problems right now. … I don’t think the votes are there” to enact reforms. Sadly, the lieutenant governor is right, and the taxpayers might take matters into their own hands — and that ought to concern all the special interests in the halls of the Capitol.

When the “I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore” crowd gets rolling, major change might be in store for Lansing. The public understands that education matters and is willing to invest in results.

However, when they see data from the national ACT college admission test that shows Michigan ranks 42nd among the 50 states on the composite score (49th on English, 44th on math, 49th on reading, 41st on science), they question whether the current system is taking us where we need to go to be competitive in the global economy. This, coupled with the resistance to sensible change, is a prescription for a revised voucher initiative or some other massive assault on public education.

The status quo is quickly disappearing as a sensible option.

Michigan is in stiff competition to receive an estimated $600 million from President Obama’s “Race to the Top” federal education funding initiative. It is one of the new president’s most innovative tools to spur states to overhaul the change-resistant school culture and prepare our children for a hypercompetitive economy.

Without serious structural changes that push more of Michigan’s existing resources to the classroom, our state will be hard pressed to demonstrate that it is committed to change and deserving of these new, targeted stimulus investments. Michigan has until the end of this year to submit its application to the feds. How do we stand out among the states when we are content to muddle along?

When other states are raising their innovative sails high, it appears, once again, that Michigan is content to drop anchor in the past.

Our students will confront a changing, disruptive, information-and-technologically driven global economy that requires innovation, creativity and talent. Are we investing our limited state resources in ways that will ensure that they are prepared for this future? The answer, under the current power structure in Michigan, is a resounding no!

The rest of the world is not sitting idly by waiting for us to get our act together. At a time when ideas and work can, and do, effortlessly move around the globe, the states and nations that get their system of education right will prosper in the 21st century. We are on the wrong track in Michigan.

Death spiral

Michigan is caught up in a perfect storm of losing people, businesses and the taxes they pay. Michigan gets less populated, less educated and poorer because of people and business fleeing our state. Since 2001, out-migration has cost Michigan 465,000 people, the equivalent of half the population of Detroit. The rate of exodus, one of the worst in the nation, is accelerating. Nearly 109,000 more people left Michigan last year than moved in. It is reported that our state loses a family every 12 minutes, and the families who are leaving are the people the state desperately needs to kick-start our economic rebound — young, well-educated, high-income earners. It is change-or-die time for Michigan schools.

Many school boards and administrators have been conspirators with the MEA to avoid change. As long as money could be extracted from taxpayers via local millage votes before Proposal A in 1994, and from the governor and state Legislature ever since, everyone has been content to maintain a virtual state of homeostasis.

Our state continues to lose jobs in roaring tsunamis and replace them in teardrops. Even if our economy improves dramatically, we simply cannot afford the cost structure under our current system of public education. Covering the rising cost of pensions and health care for our schools would require up to a half-billion-dollar investment per year ($300 per student times 1.7 million students) for the foreseeable future. This leaves no money for schools to invest in programs and services that will prepare our students for the future. Schools have not seen an increase of this magnitude for years; hence, superintendents and school boards have become “Pac-Man,” gobbling up or cutting other school functions to pay for escalating health care and pension costs. This is unsustainable.

The governor and Legislature should either have the political courage to adequately fund the status quo or make the necessary changes.

There have been countless studies and recommendations from distinguished organizations to address the structural funding crisis facing our schools, including: The Center For Michigan (www.thecenterformichigan.net); Business Leaders for Michigan (formerly Detroit Renaissance) (www.businessleadersformichigan.com); Citizens Research Council of Michigan (www.crcmich.org) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy (www.mackinac.org).

In addition, Granholm appointed a bipartisan Emergency Financial Advisory Panel, co-chaired by former Govs. William Milliken and James Blanchard and stacked with knowledgeable Lansing insiders, that offered recommendations on how best to avoid ongoing budget crises like Michigan is experiencing now. Granholm never acted on her panel’s recommendations.

Each of these groups spells out ways for Michigan to make sensible changes while fairly supporting its teachers and public schools that are vital to our economic rebound and prosperity. The time for studies, delays, debates and talking is over. We need the governor and legislators to act.

The MEA has considerable clout in Lansing. It underwrites Democrats and Republicans alike and is calling in its chips to prevent change. As an example, newly elected state senator and former state Rep. Mike Nofs has been a longtime supporter of the MEA and was endorsed by the union in his recent successful special election Senate bid.

At a time when Michigan and the schools the taxpayers support demand adaptability, creativity, flexibility, innovation, problem-solving and versatility, what we have from the MEA and the politicians they have supported is rigidity, conformity, protectionism and standing pat for the status quo.

Those who profess to support public education should take notice: If you give people a choice … they may take it.

New three Rs

Historically, we spoke about the three Rs of education: Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. We need the new three Rs in Michigan education: Reform, Restructure and Reinvent. There should be no agreement on the fourth new R — Revenue/taxes — until these structural changes are well under way.

Suggesting such ideas has brought the wrath of the MEA down on my head, Dillon’s and others who dare to speak truth to power. Many public schools across the state are financially wobbly today due to the strain of inadequate state funding that has not, and cannot keep pace with rising health care and pension costs, especially when combined with limited or declining enrollment coupled with the inaction to consolidate school districts.

To make matters worse, the state continues to take in less sales tax revenue than projected, so dollars for the school aid fund will be hundreds of millions short as the new year begins. To add insult to injury, the current Democratic plan to slap a Band-Aid on the current school-funding crisis by tapping the federal stimulus money set aside for next fiscal year is simply postponing the day of reckoning.

In addition, Granholm’s plan to further tax tobacco, tax bottled water and close tax loopholes is anemic, at best, and will not raise enough revenue to stop the bleeding. It is the equivalent of plugging the hole in the Titanic with a wine cork. Even if these “revenue enhancements” are enacted, school funding will remain in crisis.

While some might doubt that our system of public education could topple, it is increasingly unstable, unbalanced and ultimately unsustainable unless bold structural changes are made to alter its present course. This will require the type of real change and leadership from the governor, Legislature and state school board that has been lacking to date.

The MEA is intent on not altering course and will attack change advocates as anti-Democrat, anti-teacher and anti-labor. I am none of the above. In fact, I was a youth advocate long before becoming a Democrat. I support these changes because doing nothing will bankrupt our schools and state, and drag our children under in the process.

As the health care, pension and school district consolidation (and other) reform issues are debated in the coming months, lawmakers need to ask themselves — and be asked by taxpayers — whose side are you on? Will they stand up for the teachers’ union and the status quo or take a stand for our children and the collective future of our state?

It would be sad as well as ironic if those professing to support our public schools and children ended up destroying both. Inaction has consequences, too. If backed into a corner, voters will choose change.

Tom Watkins of Northville served as Michigan superintendent of schools from 2001 to ‘05. Read other Watkins works at www.domemagazine.com.

Pontiac Schools 21st Century Small Schools