Hello everyone:
Lots of news to share!
1. District Goals: APS is updating the goals we want for our children! So we are holding a series of public meetings to get your input on where we should direct our efforts. But before you attend one of these meetings or submit your ideas, I encourage you to look at this link and read the 43-page document that details the goals as they were written in 2008 and the progress or lack thereof made: https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicAgenda.aspx?ak=1000056&mk=50031107
District 2 will meet on Tuesday, Sept. 20, at LBJ Middle School at 6811 Taylor Ranch Dr. Thank you, principal Mike Bachicha, for welcoming the district to LBJ. I want to see you there!
2. Finance Committee Meeting, Tuesday, Aug. 22: I continue to scrutinize the cash disbursements for the district each month. The cash disbursements are eye-opening.
I noted in our Finance meeting a few things:
-- Kudos to APS for reducing the cell phone costs since March ($12,139); May ($7,377); June ($3,519). That's a great start.
-- Kudos for parking cars and saving the district some $13,000 each year.
-- I have requested a list of all boards/agencies that APS Board members sit on to see how much we pay in dues. For one example, we pay the Mid-Region Council of Government an $18,000 annual amount. This is the committee I sit on as a representative of APS. I merely want all of us to ask: How does our membership and the cost of the membership directly help our APS students? If we cannot answer concretely this question, then we shouldn't be paying the dues. Period. So we'll see where the Board goes with this request.
3. District and Community Relations Committee: Aug. 23: We are analyzing how our schools engage parents and the community in the education of our children. We heard from Marie Hughes dads, who patrol the school and help keep it safe. Thanks to all the Dads who are out there helping patrol and keep the traffic moving at various elementary and middle schools! This is just one area where we see family engagement taking place. Can APS and our schools do better? Of course. So we are looking at what schools do offer a lot of parent support and which schools could use some help. This will take some time but I do want everyone to know that APS is very actively pursuing this and I will keep you posted on what we do about it.
4. Background checks for Volunteers: I do want to emphasize to our school principals and our community that the background check policy -- if it is not followed correctly -- could be a deterrent in helping families feel welcome in our schools.
The policy states (G.13; revised July 2011): Albuquerque Public Schools shall conduct background checks, based upon fingerprint identification, of all prospective employees.
Albuquerque Public Schools shall conduct background checks, based upon fingerprint identification, of all district contractors and contractor employees who may have unsupervised access to students.
Albuquerque Public Schools shall conduct background checks, based upon fingerprint identification or other personal identifying information, of all volunteers who may have unsupervised access to children.
This policy does NOT mean that ALL parents must have a background check. Please make sure that you are not enforcing a policy in excess of what is required. That is, if you have parents who are shelving books in the library or helping a teacher in the classroom, that parent may not need a background check if the parent is always with an APS employee.
The policy specifically states that only parents with UNSUPERVISED access to children must have a background check. I am hearing from some parents in our community that their schools are requiring a background check at a cost of $18 for any parent who wants to help on campus. That is not true.
5. Special Board Meeting, Aug. 26: The Board was given an overview of what the state is looking at as far as a new school grading formula. I have said before that I advocate an A to F grading system for our schools but I am disappointed that the proposals still rely on the Standards Based Assessment to grade schools. That's not much different than what we have now. Here is a short overview of the two plans being discussed: https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?ik=31602886
1. I am disappointed that other factors that may determine a school's success are not considered in the grading system; i.e. enrollment in extracurricular activities, parent evaluations of teachers, parent involvement, teacher evaluations of school administrators, etc.
2. In the grading evaluations being considered, a school would have to show growth in any given subgroup in each category of the test. Factors like the growth in a school's free/reduced population or special ed population would be considered.
3. For schools that have subgroups already in the high proficiency range, if there is a decrease in any particular year, that school would get dinged for that. So my example: At LBJ middle school, the gifted kids in 8th grade English scored 100% proficient last year. If the 8th-grade gifted students scored this year at 85% proficient (bringing down the special-ed category as a whole), would LBJ get penalized for that???
And just so you know, APS and the state Public Education Department advocates the plan called "Thing 2." The plan called Thing 1 is advocated by smaller school districts.
6. Funding Cuts: Finally, there is a group of West Side parents who are planning to protest in Santa Fe during the special session. We are angry that funding cuts of 3% statewide have impacted our kids' classrooms. I personally felt the sting of funding cuts these last two weeks: first, when my daughter's 2nd-grade classroom got five new students for a total of 26 students. Secondly, the amount of paper reams, paper towels, hand soaps, hand sanitizers and Kleenex boxes my family had to purchase was a bit stressful on our finances! Our schools need more of our financial help and many parents are already pinched. It's ridiculous.
Our anger is two-fold:
1. We need MORE PARENTS, TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS to write letters to our district officials and to our state officials. The message is simple. To the district: Continue to CUT THE FAT. To the state: INCREASE FUNDING FOR EDUCATION.
I am working diligently with district officials to find efficiency savings. The district is very responsive to my requests but I also think it would help greatly to have you writing letters advocating more cuts to excesses. Do you see wasteful spending at your school that maybe we don't know about? Do you have an idea for how to cut expenses this year so we can put the money toward needed areas next year? If you do, write me! I will pass along your ideas to the relevant district officials.
Please add your voice to the growing chorus of parents who are wanting to get more involved and make our voices heard both here in Albuquerque and in Santa Fe. I will be writing more about details of our plans next week. We hope you will join us with letters or by protesting with us at the Capitol!
Many thanks and have a great week,
Kathy
Kathy Korte
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