The North Mason School District will hold another of its bond/levy community presentations on Tuesday (that’s tomorrow) at the district offices, 71 E. Campus Drive, in Belfair. The event starts at 6:30 pm.

Voters will weigh in on the two issues on the Feb. 3 ballot. To read more about the issue see this story from October 2008. The district has also produced two cool You Tube videos about the need for the bond to improve school facilities. See part one and part two.

Just a heads up … all school districts in Kitsap County and North Mason are delayed two hours today due to the snow. Olympic College starts at 10 am. Private schools Silverwood, Sylvan Way and King’s West are all on a two-late start too. Check out schoolreport.org for all the information.

For the past six years, the two cities have traded the first and second spots in the rankings, which analyze six key indicators of literacy (newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources) against population rates for cities with populations of 250,000 or more.

The study does not look at reading test scores or how often people read, but what kinds of literary resources are available and used. This is “one critical index of our nation’s well-being,” says study author Jack Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn.

The findings come at a time when newspaper circulations across the USA are declining, and online newspaper reading is increasing. Miller’s analysis suggests that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the availability of free online news is not to blame for the decline in newspapers’ print circulation — and that neither is the decline in bookstores across the country caused by the rise in online book buying.

Cities that ranked higher for having more bookstores also have a higher proportion of people buying books online, the analysis found, and cities with newspapers that have high per-capita circulation rates also have more people reading newspapers online. Likewise, cities that ranked higher for having well-used libraries also have more booksellers.

“Cities that rank highly in one form of literate behavior are likely to rank highly in other forms and practices of literacy,” says Miller, noting that a literate society tends to practice many forms of literacy, not just one or another.

Preliminary results of a related study examining international literacy paint a less optimistic outlook for the USA. It notes that in per-capita paid newspaper circulation, the USA ranks only 31st in the world, far behind other countries, including Aruba, Liechtenstein and Japan.

The literate cities study is available online at www.ccsu.edu/amlc08

“It’s a snow day!”

For the last four days, while holed up at home with my husband, three charming children and my 9-year-old mutt, who I think has a urinary tract infection based on the number of accidents she’s had in the house, I was trying to think of something funny to write about snow days.

Somehow the comedy of the situation escaped me. Oh, you too?

So let’s go with something John Laird wrote in the Columbian over the weekend.

John Laird Dec 21: School snow days

Sunday, December 21

Several years ago, I arbitrarily decided that the worst job in the world had to be processing lost-luggage complaints at the airport, so I went looking for an interview. I found a sweet, little old man in a tiny, cluttered cubicle next to the baggage carousel, apparently trying to supplement his retirement income, perhaps so his widow could pay for his funeral.

Turns out he was 37 and trying to support a wife and three kids. “Getting yelled at takes its toll,” he sighed.

The second-worst job belongs to the person who decides when schools will close due to inclement weather. This job would be the No. 1 worst job, except it pays six figures. Deciding for or against snow days is a part-time task undertaken by school superintendents. They clearly need some coaching. I am a seasoned, skilled observer of public education, and as grand wizard of the Hazel Dell School Complainers Coalition, I present these snow-day tips for any school superintendent:

n On this particular subject, even the experts have no expertise, so what makes you think you’re so smart?

I mean, we’re talking about weather. Weather! No one — not even the blow-dried prima donna on TV — knows for sure what the weather will be like in five hours. And heck, next to Al Sleet the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman, you, the average school superintendent, are a meteorological ignoramus.

n Whatever decision you make about snow days … it will be wrong.

If you close schools, skies will clear and a Chinook wind will blow in. Kids will swarm the skateboard park while parents hang you in effigy and write letters to the editor calling you a blithering idiot and demanding your resignation.

If you keep schools open, a 100-year blizzard will descend upon your school district (and yours alone because other superintendents were smarter and declared a snow day). One of your school buses, packed with shivering kids, will skid and plunge over a cliff. Columnists will interview your neighbors and sift through your garbage.

n You obviously don’t understand the lofty skill levels of drivers in your school district.

Remember, a large percentage of the motorists who are affected by your asinine snow-day closures are high school students, certainly among the best drivers in the world. Think about these superb motorists, Hot Shot Supe, before you do something stupid.

n Your timing — like the snowman — is abominable.

No matter when you make your big decision, it will either be far too early in the wee, dark hours (and rendered absurd by changing weather conditions) or far too late after dawn (creating havoc among working parents).

n All the other superintendents are smarter than you.

Granted, your schools are better, but the parents in your district wish they could move to the districts where the smart superintendents make all the right snow-day decisions.

n Anecdotal evidence is more compelling than silly science.

You, Hot Shot Supe, hired a special weather consultant? You’ve got a team of geniuses working on this 24/7 to help you decide? You care about the kids’ safety, and you really pour your heart into this decision? Big deal!

Betty Sue Balmy is smarter. She looks outside her kitchen window, sees a clear driveway and knows with full certainty that conditions throughout your half-a-county district are exactly like what she sees in her front yard. And you dare to declare a snow day?

Then there’s Bobby Ray Boondocks, the poor tree farmer who can’t even get down the gravel road to his mailbox because of massive snow banks. He figures it must be like that everywhere. How could you not declare a snow day?

Despite contrasting weather conditions at their homes, Betty Sue and Bobby Ray have two things in common: (1) They never attend open-house events at their kids’ schools. (2) Both of them will show up at the next school board meeting and tan your hide.

n Parenting woes are your fault.

Betty Sue’s brats are getting so antsy, they’re clawing the drapes. It’s your fault for making them stay home.

n Actually, snow is your friend.

When it’s snowing, no one is talking about the WASL. They’re all talking about the idiot superintendent.

As the snow fell and temperatures dropped on Thursday, school districts in North Mason and Bainbridge cancelled Friday classes relatively early in the day. But Central Kitsap waited until later in the evening.

That delay prompted some strong comments on kitsapsun.com:

This from Punkinhead:

“I want to know WHY Central Kitsap is always the last to call it a snow day! Jeez! They were the last to call it today AND at the last minute too!
The roads are horrible and they aren’t going to get any better by tomorrow morning…considering it’s not going to get any warmer, but colder”

And this from jensenp:

“I absolutely hate that Central kitsap always waits until 5:30 AM every single time. ENOUGH!”

And Blondeee09:

 ”I have concluded, that I as a parent I will decide..forget them, if they can’t get their act together…”

I think it’s fair to say that cancelling school is not an exact science. In the past, CK has called off school when conditions turned out to be fine, which of course prompted a different round of complaints.

A few years ago former education reporter Chad Lewis wrote this story that might help explain the thought processes and reasoning behind these decisions.

For now, I say we all hang on tight. This might be just the beginning of a long, cold winter of cancelled school. So this mom, for one, is going to stock up on craft projects, snack foods and patience.

We knew it was coming. Public education makes up more than 40 percent of the state budget. Budget cuts in this area are inevitable. Gregoire’s overall cut in K-12 education is 5.6 percent. If you’re snowed in at home and have some time on your hands, you can read the document here.

Gov. Gregoire’s budget proposal for 2009 includes suspending some of the money given for I-728, which pays to hire more teachers at the K-2 level so classses are smaller. This initiative has been effect for quite awhile - more than 5 years anyway.

I-732 gave teachers modest pay increases. It hasn’t been implemented yet, so delaying this initiative isn’t as difficult as others. This would save $678 million over two years, by Gregoire’s estimates. That’s no chump change in situation where the deficit is $6 billion.

 Levy equalization is another area that will be hit hard. Gregoire’s proposal takes $125 million away from these funds, which the state pays to districts that are property-poor and don’t collect as much tax money from their residents as property-rich districts. Locally, schools in Bremerton, South and Central Kitsap receive these funds.

More and more information on Arne Duncan, President-elect Obama’s pick to lead education, is emerging. What happens in DC might seem long ago and far away to those of us here in Washington state, but schools feel the impact of federal education decisions everyday. From what I’ve read about Duncan, he seems to be a promise of a kinder, gentler federal education policy. Adjectives like “collegial” and “conciliatory” are often used next to his name. Even a leader in the Chicago teachers’ union, who has vehemently disagreed with Duncan on some issues, conceded that Duncan always returned phone calls. It will be interesting to see what happens to No Child Left Behind, which is soon up for reauthorization, under his watch.

A couple interesting things:

Duncan is thought to be open to backing away from the 2014 deadline for “getting all children to standard” under No Child Left Behind. Read this story in the Chicago Tribune.

Duncan isn’t against standardized testing being an important part of public education but he’s also open to using imaginative and innovative ideas to help the schools that are failing, rather than simply punishing the schools, or as was originally proposed in NCLB, turning the schools over to private companies. Read this story in the Wall Street Journal.

A story by the AP in today’s Seattle Times sheds some light on Gov. Gregoire’s plans for early childhood education. The story highlights a study that surveyed parents and educators about the necessity of screening kids for literacy and other academic skills before they enter kindergarten.