Hello all:
Here are the highlights of this week and what I think is good information for you to know:
1. Yvonne Garcia, principal of Volcano Vista High School, has been named principal of Rio Grande High School for the 2010-11 school year. Congratulations to Ms. Garcia! A committee similar to the Rio Grande H.S. committee that selected Ms. Garcia will be formed of Volcano Vista community members and a similar process will be undertaken. As I get details, I will inform all of you.
2. The Quality of Education survey results are in, and the results show that a vast majority of parents are satisfied with their children's schools and the education they are receiving in APS. That's a great thing! The board is looking at the five survey questions the district asks for next year's survey. If you recall, there are 20 questions asked on those surveys. Ten questions come from the state Public Education Department. Five come from the district. Five come from your school. Some of us on the board may rejigger the wording in a few of the district questions to make them all-inclusive for every student. For example, one of the questions asks: The school staff does a good job teaching my child to read and write. Some board members expressed a comment that for a high school parent, that question might read: the school staff does a good job teaching my child English literacy. After all, we hope our children are reading and writing by high school!
3. Community stadium meetings: We will present a new proposed drawing of the stadium and where it sits on the 110 acres of land to the Tres Volcanes Neighborhood Association on Tuesday, March 29, at 6:30 p.m. at Ladera Golf Course's banquet room.
This meeting will be attended by APS officials Brad Winter (chief operating officer) Karen Alarid (facilities executive) and city councilors Ken Sanchez and Dan Lewis. I will be there, as will West Side state Sen. Sander Rue. Also to be present will be the architect who will modify the stadium design and the current landowner.
The district is preparing a Sharepoint presentation and packet to offer attendees during our presentation. The presentation will include the new proposed drawing of the recreational facility, including the stadium's new proposed location on the 110 acres that APS is purchasing.
The meeting is at the Ladera Golf Course Banquet Room on Tuesday, March 29 at 6:30 p.m.
Brad Winter and I will also be at the West Side Coalition of Neighborhood Associations meeting on Wednesday, March 30 at 7:45 p.m. at the Taylor Ranch Community Center. We will offer the same information to the WSCONA.
4. These are the highlights of the Finance Committee Meeting of March 21:
-- You should check out the APS checkbook online: https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicAgenda.aspx?ak=1000056&mk=50021518
This shows all dispursements made by the district for the month of February. The checkbook is offered at each month's finance meeting.
-- May I also suggest that to find all meetings/agendas/documents for board meetings at:
http://www.aps.edu/about-us/board/meeting-archives/meetingsfolder_view?past:int=100&-C
Meetings are posted 10 days in advance (or more). Agendas are posted at least 24 hours in advance, with supporting documentation provided.
At the above link, you can find past archived agendas as well as future agendas to access the documents presented to the board for discussion/approval/etc.
5. Also, the board approved for the month of February the sale of broken equipment at public auction. Once approved by the board, damaged or broken APS property (mostly technology items) is sold in bulk and the money from the sales is put back into our capital funds. It was asked whether equipment to be sold can be sold to students, parents, etc. The answer is no: It violates the anti-donation clause AND all the equipment is broken with the hard drives removed by APS before sale.
6. FY12 budget update: We do not know what our state equalization funds are yet. We are awaiting the governor's signature on House Bill 2, which funds public schools in New Mexico. Then the Public Education Department has 20 days to assign our per-student rate. When we have these, we will be able to tackle the very hard road ahead.
It was made clear, however, that no matter what state officials say, the cuts ARE indeed going to be felt in the classroom. Teachers are going to be taking home less money in their paychecks as they will pay more for health care and contribute more to their pension funds. That hurts our students because it hurts our teachers, especially if teachers are inclined to leave the field because of the hits to their pocketbooks. I personally met two teachers at a West Side elementary who told me they are teaching overseas next year because the pay is better.
Budget calls for schools will be done Monday. Schools are being asked to cut 4.9%. Administration is proposing 12.8% in cuts.
Dr. Analee Maestas, David Robbins and I have asked for a department by department look at budget cuts/consolidations in administrative functions. I'm sure other board members will be happy to get the information as well. We want to see what our administrative departments have proposed cutting. With the grim forecast, there is no doubt cuts will occur at the schools too. We have been told we will receive this breakdown by the end of April -- so we can evaluate the information before receiving the district's proposed budget in May.
Stay tuned as our budget process unfolds.
7. For your information:
-- The Capital Outlay, Property and Technology committee meetings will be the first Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m. beginning in April.
-- The Policy and Instruction Committee meetings will be the second Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m.
-- Finance Committee meetings will be the third Tuesday of each month at 7:30 a.m.
-- District and Community Relations Committee meetings will be the fourth Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m.
-- Regular board meetings are at 5 p.m. on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month.
8. We have three community members who have expressed interest in reporting to District 2 the goings-on of the Student Health Advisory Council, which is a district council mandated by the Public Education Department. The three District 2 constituents are Elizabeth Romero, April Arviso and Carol Bouloy. They are working on tag-teaming or alternating the meetings, which are held the fourth Wednesday of each month from 5 to 7 p.m. at the APS headquarters in Uptown.
Please know that anyone from District 2 is welcome to join these three in attending and reporting to our constituents!!
This week's March 23 meeting was attended by April Arviso. She offers the following summary:
The Tres Volcanes N.A. will oversee logistics of how this meeting/public discussion will be coordinated.
I participated in the Health/Reproductive Health Education Committee. The group is focusing on developing a recommendation to the APS School Board to open discussions, with their constituents, about health education guidelines, including reproductive health and the distribution of condoms in High Schools.
The committee would like to teach children healthy lifestyle choices beginning in kindergarten. Providing educators with guidelines and standards, previously developed by the Public Education Department, to teach health issues. They feel developing a healthy attitude about their bodies and choices, early on, will prevent many of the issues that arise during middle school and high school. The committee felt that by delaying health education until sixth grade, many unhealthy habits have been established and would be difficult to change.
Regarding condom distribution through health centers in high school. There is some division between the committee members regarding the morality and motivation of this issue. Members against this policy feel it would encourage children to engage in premarital sex without discussing the issue with their parents and would rather not have this option available. Members in support feel it will keep the children healthy with regards to STDs and teen pregnancy prevention. It was emphasized that condoms would only be available through the High School health centers and not be distributed like candy or in openly displayed baskets. Both sides had data and arguments about each other's opinions and comments. Suzanne Gagnon, Health Education Committee Chair and SHAC Chair, was open to making any changes regarding the written recommendation she had written.
The entire committee met afterward to discuss SHAC's Mission Statement and Vision. Behavioral Health and PANAC provided information regarding their committee meeting progress. Finally, Suzanne Gagnon opened the discussion with the Health Education Committee's, rough draft, recommendation to the APS School Board. It was decided that the SHAC Committee must vote to approve the final recommendation.
I found out to become a member you must complete an application, which I have, and attend three meetings.
Therefore, the Health Education Committee needs to research positive and negative outcomes of condom distribution in High Schools using peer review journal documentation only. They also asked one health educator from Jefferson Middle School to seek input from other health educators regarding Health and Reproductive Health Education in Middle Schools. She should also discuss how they would feel if they had their own in-service session to discuss the health information taught to the students. A vote to approve the recommendation, as is, was tabled until more data could be found regarding condom distribution. The recommendation is not ready to be presented to the School Board but will be fine tuned with supporting data.
One concern was how the School Board members would meet with members of their districts to discuss this issue. Would there be open meetings? How would the be announced/advertised? Or would constituents have to be invited to a meeting? Another concern was how the board members would present this information in a transparent manner. It wouldn't seem transparent if the Health Education program was presented in detail followed by "we are also proposing the distribution of condoms in HS."
The Health Education group had the largest number of participants. However, I noticed not too many stayed for the full meeting afterward.
The next meeting is on April 27th.
Respectfully,
April Arviso
9. Here is the link for next week's meetings. The agenda for Monday's District Relations Committee meeting has been posted: http://www.aps.edu/about-us/board/meeting-archives
10. Finally, thank you to West Mesa High School principal Ben Santistevan and staff and to Helen Cordero principal Ellen Griffiths and parents for welcoming me to their schools this week!
Thank you all for your interest in District 2 goings-on. Feel free to distribute my updates to your community groups and encourage others to email me so I can add others to our distribution list.
Have a very nice weekend,
APS District 2
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