December 2nd board meeting: here comes the referendum

At the Nov 18th BOE meeting, we were told that the Board would meet on December 2nd to narrow the list of six potential sites down to three, and then possibly on December 7th to narrow it even further. Looking at the agenda for the December 2nd board meeting, it’s all about setting into motion things for the future, specifically the new high school site, funding (via a property tax referendum) and increasing the number of kindergarten classrooms.

I have several grave issues with way the Unit 4 future is being planned. I will grant, right up front, that probably most of my concerns center around the fact that there has been little to no realistic planning for the past 40 years, and the current cast of players have inherited both that fact and the mindset that goes along with it. I choose the word “inherited” very intentionally – I think there are a lot of good intentions at many different levels, yet we still have many really big obstacles to work through.

Where to start…..

Nov 18th BOE Meeting agenda is finally posted

Lots of interesting things in here. I’ll hit a few highlights that stand out to me, but you should read it for yourself:

http://www.boarddocs.com/il/champil/Board.nsf/public

 

• Lot’s of Recognitions
• Spotlight video on “building a high quality staff” – not yet on Vimeo so I can’t preview it
• Newly hired high school site selection consultants Gorski/Reifsteck will give their schtick – no presentation available via boarddocs
• District report card – only Bottenfield and South Side made AYP
• Three high school students being recognized as Student Abassadors – interesting program, and I have a number of outstanding questions to Joe Williams about it
• Local software company Codagami won the RFP bid for doing the Controlled Choice program to the tune of $98,500. No word on the actual contract, yet.
• Other Misc items including a number of things about finances (change orders, Tax levy, grants, donations, etc).

 

Curious if anyone even cares about the Choice Policy anymore. 🙂 I mean, I do, but I have not heard much back from readers at all, yet. The final draft is going in the Consent Agenda (meaning, along with ten other items, it gets voted on in bulk). They threw in the fact that Choice program will also assign students for middle schools, and I take that to mean middle school students who are not matriculating from a fifth-grade Unit 4 school (otherwise they would follow the feeder program).

 

Lastly, I have asked for and am still waiting to see the RFP concerning the high school site selection consultant.

 

Unit 4 gives kudos to the BOE and Raspberry Pi's to Kenwood

Stephanie Stuart just put this out:

http://www.champaignschools.org/news-room/article/6364

Truly board members are indeed volunteers; even just being involved on the peripherary as I have been, I know they put in a ton of demanding hours. It is no trivial task, and the feeble of heart need not apply. So my thanks also to Board Members.

My attention was quite piqued when I saw that notice that Kenwood would be getting 7 Raspberry Pi units (one in honor of each board member). The Pi is down to about $25, so this isn’t some huge expense. But that is the beauty of the Pi in the first place – it is an awesome, DIY hobbyist-era miniture computer that is cheap.

For those that might not recall, Kenwood is piloting a STEM curriculum out of the University of Illinois headed up by Martin Wolske. They have debuted the implementation of eToys (again, with strong University support) as reported by the NG with an element of addressing computer learning in the community (again, as reported by the NG, hat tip to Meg Dickinson). I hope to learn more from Avigail Snir at eToys Illinois, Director George Reese, and Kenwood staff Minsoo Park and Todd Lash.

For myself, I have been helping a 4th grade classroom at Carrie Busey with their own exploration of eToys. It is amazing to see the rich variety of how kids tackle problems and challenges. True, computers are not for everyone, and it shows when some kids struggle with the interface. But what I really dig is when another student leans over and teaches their peer.

But I have to confess, perhaps my biggest reason for this post is to brag that my daughter will be doing a demo of the Raspberry Pi at her school’s Science Night tonight; she will focus on a program very much like eToys called “Scratch“. She favors the paint editor and duplicating Scratch into a family. 🙂

where are all the people?

There are several big things floating around, a lot of great achievements and some things to watch out for on the horizon, occluded by various rumors. I am going to try to keep this positive but not in the warm-fuzzy-feelings kind of way, but rather in the look-at-what-we-can-accomplish-together kind of way.

First off, I have to give a big huge shout out to the Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice (CUCPJ); they had a very significant victory over Champaign County’s plans to dump a ton of tax money into new jails. Instead, they have successfully argued for alternative approaches like new re-entry programs and services to keep folks out of jail in the first place. In my own personal experience, I have observed have fundamentally critical these two approaches are, and how severely they are lacking in our “modern” view of criminal justice. The folks at CUCPJ had an amazing uphill fight, but they carried the day. Perhaps what stands out to me is that CUCPJ operated within the confines of a hairy bureaucratic machine, which is no easy task in and of itself, but they did so with aplomb and perseverance.

On the topic of community citizens banding together for the good of the community, a reader forwarded the following story to me as an inspiration for what determined people can do:

http://youpower.democracyforamerica.com/petitions/northbrook-say-no-to-wal-mart

What these two stories tell me is that when people unite together for a shared central belief, they can be powerful. Granted, in both cases you have passionate visionaries who do not waver at the sight at lawyers and persist through obstinate challenges.

With that in mind,

Dr. Wiegand coming to the South Research Park on Tuesday, Nov 5

From the facebook page:

Tomorrow, we will host two Community Conversations with the Superintendent. The first will be held in the morning with representatives from the local trades. The second will be held at the University of Illinois Research Park. We are looking forward to engaging conversations with our community stakeholders throughout the school year!

A longer press release reads:

Champaign Unit #4 School District Superintendent Dr. Judy Wiegand will host a Community Conversation at the University of Illinois Research Park as part of series of informal community meetings be held throughout the school year.

“As Superintendent, it’s important that the work taking place in our schools is leveraging the diversity and expertise that exists within our community,” said Superintedent Wiegand. “The University of Illinois Research Park has put Champaign-Urbana on the map as one of the fastest-growing tech communities in the nation. We want to build strong partnerships with this.”

District and University of Illinois representatives will be on hand to share how Unit 4 is working to integrate technology in the classroom. Research Park employees and community members are invited to ask questions and share ideas how our schools and the CU tech community can work together to build strong partnerships.

“Developing a technologically savvy workforce is critical to our community’s future,” said Laura Frerichs, Director of the University of Illinois Research Park. “We look forward to learning more about Unit 4’s approach to STEM education, and how we can leverage the Research Park and its resources to work together meaningfully towards a common goal. Research Park is excited to welcome Dr. Wiegand and Unit 4 to discuss these issues and hope this event marks the beginning of a continuous dialogue.”

One collaboration that will be highlighted to kick off the conversation will be the work done through the Entrepreneurial Leadership in STEM Teaching and Learning (EnLiST) grant, specifically at Booker T. Washington STEM Academy. These collaborations have included the development of several new high school science courses, middle school science units, and “flipping” classrooms.

“Over the past five years, EnLiST has collaborated with Unit 4 on developing the capacity of a cadre of fifty K-12 teacher leaders through intensive, long-term professional development coupled with the seeding and nurturing of innovative and transformative initiatives,” said Dr. Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Curriculum & Instruction Department Head at the University of Illinois College of Education. “At Booker T. Washington STEM Academy, EnLiST faculty and teacher leaders have engaged elementary students with nanotechnology (3D printing and polymer balls), a “Drones for Schools” program, and inquiry learning in chemistry, entomology, and geophysics, all supported by a network of UIUC STEM faculty and graduate students, high school teachers and students, and BTW teachers. EnLiST continues to support Unit 4 teachers as they create and implement transformative innovations for K-12 students in STEM education.”

The event will be held November 5, 2013 from 5-6:30 p.m. at EnterpriseWorks Incubator (60 Hazelwood Drive, Champaign).

New school report cards (Common Core)

Stephanie Stuart announced the new report cards (and “structure”) actively being both developed and implemented via the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE):

http://www.champaignschools.org/news-room/article/6353

The article gives a little introduction and explains some things parents might expect. Stephanie also highlights several things like how the overall graduation rate has increased by about 5 points, how two schools made AYP and how the district is embracing these changes. Note, this is not about the new Common Core report cards teachers use to assess and evaluate students.

Common Core is a funny thing; I think there is a lot of good ideas and a lot of good potential, but I am also hearing that it is being rushed to implementation way too fast. I intend to write another post that delves into this a little more deeply. This post is about the school report card.

I was not able to find the Unit 4 report card on the ISBE website, yet. The state report card is available. Also, the Illinois Interactive Report Card (IIRC) website has been revamped and is MUCH BETTER! I encourage you to check it out – the Unit 4 report card gives you a lot of “fast facts” that are relevant and some (more to come?) offer relatively easy drilldowns for more information:

http://iirc.niu.edu/District.aspx?districtID=09010004026

Here is a VIMEO of the new report card:

http://vimeo.com/77169762

The Vimeo video makes  a point in regards to using the new report card to learn about the school climate and learning environment. I found that to be a very interesting idea, yet was quite disappointed when I tried to find it. After a bit of digging, I did eventually find a PDF listed under School Environment that shows the questions and responses to the 5Essentials survey, from both teachers and students. However, not all surveys are available for all schools (I did some spot checking, not a comprehensive search).

Overall, I am very much liking the new version of the Illinois Report Card website. Looking to dive into it a bit more.