Kitsap Education

Education is getting a lot of ink and attention around the region these days. Here’s a sample:

Back in August I wrote about a controversy in the Seattle School District over the adoption of a new, uniform math curriculum. A lawsuit grew out of the controversy and now a judge has ruled that the district must revisit its curriculum choice, Discovering Math, with a critical eye.

The Seattle Times published a fantastic piece yesterday on AP classes.

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The Kingston High School Buccaneers Marching Band took third place, and $2,500, in the KZOK Battle of the Bands contest. The contest results were announced this morning on KZOK on the Bob Rivers Show.

This was Kingston’s first entry into the Battle of the Bands contest. The school is only three years old and band director Adam Campagna said the money will be well used for equipment and clinics for the students. Read more about that in this previous blog entry.

This is the third year for the Battle of the Bands. First place winner Puyallup won $10,000; second place Union will receive $7,500.

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The Kingston High School Bucs Marching Band came in second in text voting in the KZOK The Rock Woodfired Pizza Battle of the Bands. View their video rendition of Golden Earring’s Radar Love here.

As one of the top 10 bands from across the state, the Bucs will now be judged by four celebrity judges to determine if they receive a prize in the contest. The Facebook page for the contest has a lot of great information.

Celebrity judges are: Andrew McKreag of the The Presidents of the United States of America, Geoff Tate of Queensryche, Gerard Schwarz, conductor of the Seattle Symphony, and  Brad McDavid, director of athletic bands at the University of Washington.

Top prize in the contest is $10,000; second prize is $5,000. The “No School Left Behind” Prize is $2,500. Fourth through seventh place bands get a pizza party worth $750 .

When I interviewed band director Adam Campagna about the contest back in December, the young director was hoping KHS would rise to the top of the competition. Working in high school just three years old means Campagna is really building the band program from the ground up. If KHS wins any money in this contest, it will be used to buy music and boxes for transporting uniforms, as well as putting on clinics for students.

Band booster President Rich Wendt called me tonight with the awesome news that Kingston was second in the top 10 bands. He was very excited and said the community has really rallied around the band, texting votes in religiously. Wendt reported that even while pumping gas he’s recognized as a band booster and informed by folks that they’ve been voting.  He must be doing all the right things. KHS is one of the smallest schools in the contest and yet it placed second in the volume of text voting. Go Bucs!

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King County Judge John Erlick ruled today that the state of Washington does not fully fund education.

Read the AP story here.

Read the actual decision here.

Is this decision really a game-changer though? A generation has passed through Washington public schools since the Doran decision – the last landmark school funding lawsuit in 1977. Have we really made gains in school funding since then? Many folks would say no.

There are several other mechanisms  working on changing school funding.  The Legislature’s Quality Education Council is working on a solution. Advocacy groups such as the Partnership for Learning and the League of Education Voters are trying to find new ways to pay for public schools. Legislators have set a new deadline of 2018 for a reformed school funding system.

So we have deadlines and advocacy groups and experts and legal rulings … we’ve had these things in one form or another for many years. What’s missing?

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Big thanks for Kitsap Sun reporter extraordinaire Steven Gardner for spotting something ed-related and sending it my way. A new report from the Journalism Center on Children and Families finds that high stakes testing and zero-tolerance policies in schools actually accomplish the opposite effect for which they were intended. The policies results in jail time for kids.

Here’s a link to a column about the study. Read it and let me know what you think (as if I’d have to ask!)

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It was very interesting to read the comments prompted by a story by Tammy Adamson-McMullen about the January term at West Sound Academy,  a private school in North Kitsap. “Jan Term” offers WSA students the opportunity to take different classes: belly dancing, for example. Read Tammy’s story here. There were commenters celebrating WSA’s forethought to offer classes to kids that would spark their interests beyond regular academic pursuits. And there were folks who found the whole idea frivolous.

It made me think again about watching the food science classes at Ridgetop Junior High (a public school) in Central Kitsap. I spent most of the late morning/early afternoon today watching the eighth- and ninth-graders working in teams to create special dishes as part of the school’s second annual “Iron Chef” competition. Basically it was a lot of organized chaos with food sciences teacher Kathryn Wilkie in charge. The kids worked in three teams to create some amazing dishes: apple mulligatawney soup; apple-brined pork loin; chicken liver and apple pate; green apple chutney; apple cake with caramel sauce; homemade baguettes etc.  You can read all about it in this story.

The one thing that stuck with me throughout the time that I watched these kids was their level of enthusiasm. Everyone had a job and everyone was very focused on doing it well. These teen-agers spoke enthusiastically about making ice cream, brining meat, using a crockpot. Justice, the student assigned to clear all the plates, did so with flourish. They were all really into it.

So here’s my question: Are these classes, these “Jan Term” efforts, worth it?

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It’s 9:30 on Tuesday night and I made the mistake (or strategic move, however you care to view it) of checking my work email, kitsapeducation@yahoo.com.

Sun Web editor Angela Dice, who apparently works all hours too, had just sent me an email letting me know that my post about advertising on school buses had spurred a nice little conversation on the Sun’s Facebook page. I was jazzed, as it’s always fun to get lots of comments on anything you write (the Delilah v. Mormons controversy notwithstanding.) Now if I could just lure all these nice Facebook people over to the Kitsap Education blog … hmm

Here’s a link to the conversation: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bremerton-WA/Kitsap-Sun/133049345480?sid=394df381b8fe568d677c6be33ddefabd&ref=search

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Senate bill 6466 proposes allowing school districts to place advertising on school buses. Read all about the bill here.

Of course this brings up the commercialization of schools. Good thing? Bad thing? Depends on who you ask. Advertising can be pernicious, especially with regard to children. Remember the Joe Camel controversy?

Then again the money provided to the schools from the advertising could help fill the gap between what the state provides for school transportation and what it actually costs. So that’s a good thing, right? Or maybe not as folks who are critical of state education funding would say it’s one more way for the state to abdicate its responsibility for proper school funding.

As usual, there are no easy answers ….

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Schools get a lot of different awards for a lot of unusual reasons, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a school district being named “business of the year” by the local Chamber of Commerce. Please feel free to correct me if I’ve gotten this wrong and school districts are being recognized by chambers all over the place.

Over the weekend, the North Mason Chamber of Commerce named the North Mason School District its business of the year.

Here’s the email NMSD Superintendent David Peterson sent out this morning.

On Saturday evening, the North Mason Chamber of Commerce presented NMSD the award of 2009 Business of the Year. There are 430 (or so) businesses and organizations that are members of the Chamber, all of which were eligible for selection. The Chamber selected us. It was a wonderful honor to stand with NMSD Board Members Mike Gaudio, Art Wightman, and John Campbell as last year’s winner, Jerry Reid, made the formal presentation.
The reasons are many. Our contribution to our local economy and our charitable giving are, of course, important to the Chamber of Commerce. Our “shop locally” attitude, especially in terms of our capital levy work and other vendor selections, is also significant to the Chamber. We make an effort to work with local companies, stores, and other vendors whenever possible, and it is noticed in a big way. Also influential to the Chamber are the dramatic improvements in our public image, improvements in academic achievement, our recent election successes, and more.
This is a big deal, and we are very proud to be recognized by our Chamber of Commerce. Our staff and leadership have been, and continue be working hard on improving the success of students and support of families. To have this work noticed and acknowledged by the community leaders of the NM Chamber is one more step in our continuing effort to Build the Pride.

Not too many short years ago, the NM School Board was in disarray and the district’s reputation was not favorable. Have things turned around in NM that much in just a few years? My sense, as a reporter anyway, is that things are better. Superintendent David Peterson is particularly responsive and open to talking about NM schools and education issues in general.

Let me know, kitsapeducation readers.

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A consortium of school districts from across the state filed suit alleging that Washington does not appropriately or fully fund public schools. Read more about the specifics of the lawsuit and the group, known as NEWS (Network for Excellence in Washington Schools,) here.
Now a decision in the case will be given by Judge John Erlick on Thursday, Feb. 4, in his courtroom at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. Stay tuned for the next segment in the saga of funding for public schools ….

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