Kitsap Education

Bremerton schools’ spokeswoman Patty Glaser emailed me this morning to let me know that school board President Cynthia Galloway has accepted all the applications from community members, staff, parents etc. who wanted to serve on a task force to help with the superintendent search. Galloway found that the applicants represented a good cross-section of interests in the district.

I don’t know how many people that involves exactly, but Glaser reported at a board study session last night that she had at least 22 applications in hand and more than a dozen phone calls/emails also.

I hope to have a list of names soon.

Civil. Peaceful. Even genial. That’s how I would describe Bremerton School Board’s study session last night, especially as compared to the members’ last few meetings.

The school board members, along with district staff and Superintendent Bette Hyde, sat around a conference table quietly discussing how to find a replacement for Hyde. About 10 community members, including one baby whose charming babble gave the meeting a little meaningful soundtrack, were there to watch. Public input was not allowed last night, but the board will have another study session on Feb. 12 to take public comments on the superintendent search.

Personnel Director Denise Zaske reported that there are about 15 superintendent openings in the state of Washington right now, which is average for a year. Bremerton is probably two weeks behind the other districts’ search timelines, but she said that time could easily be made up.

Zaske told board members to think about how to portray Bremerton schools to candidates, emphasizing the good points – early childhood education, the Spanish immersion program, the new Gates grant, the revitalization of downtown – along with its challenges - the upcoming levy, meeting standardized testing goals etc.

Board member Louis Mitchell  emphasized the importance of having a candid conversation about Bremerton schools with candidates.

“We want someone who is looking for a challenge,” he said.

“We need someone who understands leadership strategies that improve teaching and learning,” said board member DeWayne Boyd.

“And we need a candidate who understands the history of the district as research-driven,” added board President Cynthia Galloway.

Zaske then brought up a few different ways to do the search. District staff could look for a new superintendent, she said, but there is limited time and resources for a full-bodied search. The district could hire a consultant to work with district staff to find a new supe. Or the district could hire a large outside firm to do the work, like Seattle schools did in the last search. The district has about $18,000 to spend on the search, which wouldn’t even begin to pay for an outside firm. Their fees usually begin at $50,000.

Board member Pat Jones dismissed the large independent firm possibility immediately.

“I’ve always been against big expensive searches. I think they are unnecessary,” he said.

Jones also wondered if Bremerton could lure a superintendent away from another district, as Everett schools lured away Carol Whitehead from Bremerton years ago. But Hyde warned against poaching.

“What you sacrifice in that is a lot of process and you could sacrifice transparency,” she said.

Board members generally agreed that hiring a consultant to work with district staff on a search was the best method. Zaske agreed to call the consultants to ask what level of search Bremerton could expect based on its budget and whether the consultants would stay on with the board and the new superintendent after the hire to offer coaching through the first year. The board members agreed to set up in a time in the next two weeks to interview potential consultants.

All in all a normal board meeting – much like the ones I remember when I covered the board five years ago.

It was a tough weather day around Puget Sound, no doubt. I am sure a lot of folks – especially school officials – were scratching their heads this morning over the right decision. And I am sure a lot of parents, kids, staff etc. have strong opinions about whether the right decision was made. I think we can all agree that no matter what the decision, it’s not easy. These are the kind of days I think we can all cut each other some slack. NM Superintendent David Peterson sent out this sweet mea culpa this afternoon:

Dear Families, Staff, and Friends,

Many staff, parents and students had a tough (and sometimes scary) drive to school today. In hindsight, I feel that I may have blown the call this morning. If I put you in a tough spot, I apologize.

Student and staff safety is our highest priority. Parents: you are always free to keep your children home, regardless of my decision, when you believe the roads are unsafe for your child to come to school. Also, remember that the bus is the safest way to school. We have chains, sanders, and terrific drivers who are all well trained. All of our buses arrived safely today. Some put on chains and some were delayed, but every bus-riding student got to school safely.

 About this morning…

If we are expecting a weather problem, transportation director Tom Culliton and I meet/talk at 4:45 AM after driving the roads. We try to make and announce any school schedule changes by 5:15. Today, we didn’t expect a problem and our roads were bare and dry at that time. By the time it started snowing throughout most of the district, buses were already on the road for the high school and middle school students. Once we started picking up kids, we needed to keep going. We cannot abandon kids at the bus stop or return them to empty homes without parents expecting it.

This snow event could not have picked a worse time to start. At 6:00 this morning, Tom and I believed that the normal schedule, on snow routes, was the best choice. Kids were already at bus stops or on buses and the roads were likely to get worse if we delayed 2 hours. A cancellation of elementary schools seemed inappropriate, since the rain is supposed to start mid-day and most elementary kids ride the bus.

Weather decisions are “darned if you do, darned if you don’t” decisions. My rule is, “Run schools if we safely can, for as much of the day as we safely can.” My decisions won’t be 100% right for 100% of our students, families and staff. Sometimes I’ll flat out make the wrong call. If today was one of those for you, I apologize. Again, if you are a parent who kept children home because your particular neighborhood or route seemed unsafe to you, let the school know and we’ll excuse your child’s absence.

 I can’t wait for spring!

David Peterson, Superintendent

North Mason School District

North Kitsap schools are looking for major community input this year when it comes to budget cutting. The district’s website now features results from two efforts – community budget-cutting meetings and blue notes.

The district has hosted two events so far where hundreds of community members and district staff gathered to comb through the budget and rank budget-cutting ideas. Folks were to rank the ideas from “great” to “no way.” The only two ideas that all the groups (community members, classified staff and teaching staff) agreed on as a “great” idea were reducing training for coaches, a savings of $11,500, and eliminating teacher training for Moodle, which is a district communication system, a savings of $1,100. See the results here.

The blue notes submitted to the district are very interesting. Commenters could send in notes anonymously. The district received 264 notes in all. Ideas range from starting a worm composting business with lunch scraps to scaling back the school week to four days. Also suggested is outsourcing custodial work, installing wind turbines at schools, consolidating with South and Central Kitsap districts and closing Pearson and Breidablik. There is a noticeable effort among many commenters to preserve librarians and counselors at the elementaries. Read the notes here.

Buses for the North Mason School District will run on snow routes today.

From Yakima to Everett last week, the talk in education was of the changes new SPI Randy Dorn has proposed for the WASL.

Here’s what some our of neighbors had to say:

http://www.union-bulletin.com/articles/2009/01/25/opinion/daily_editorial/090125editorial.txt

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/767923.html

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2009/01/23/education-chief-s-plan-to-ditch-the-wasl-gets-an-a

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090125/OPINION01/701259940/-1/OPINION#WASL.replacement.critical.blanks.to.fill.in

By the way, I’ve heard that the new WASL names (MSP and HSEP) were chosen specifically because they could not be easily turned into an acronym that rolls off the tongue. WASL became such an adjective for particular ickiness (never mind that it always made me think of that Christmas drink/carol) among detractors that the OSPI folks were trying to avoid a similar scenario. Pretty clever.

I’ve blogged about this before, but I think it’s worth mentioning again. North Mason school folks have posted two videos on YouTube that show the problems with their buildings and why voters should support the construction bond on the Feb. 3 ballot.

The videos can be found here. NM Superintendent David Peterson said he’s heard of school districts making videos before, but usually they are tapes to take to community meetings and show on a TV. YouTube game North Mason a way to reach more people in the community, Peterson said.

This entry is a shout-out to Catherine Ahl in North Kitsap. I’m sure Catherine already has the skinny on this issue, but for the rest of us mortals …back in December, I wrote about an interstate compact Washington was considering adopting. The compact is supposed to ease transition from school to school for military kids.

On Wednesday morning, the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee held a public hearing on SB 5248, enacting the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children was developed by a group that included the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Education, national education associations, and representatives of several states. This is a returning issue from the 2008 session. Last year, the bill was quickly adopted by the Senate, but was hung up in the House after legislators began to realize the potential conflicts with state law and the potential for large unfunded mandates on schools. Rather than adopt the bill, the 2008 Legislature instead established a task force to fully review the Compact and make recommendations about Washington’s entering into it. In order for the Compact to become active, at least ten states need to enact the Compact. At this point, 11 states have enacted the Compact.

SB 5248 would enact the Compact with the changes recommended by the task force. The Compact and the corresponding state law changes would apply only to children from military families in transition. The stated purpose of the Compact is to remove barriers to educational success imposed on children of military families because of frequent moves and deployment of their parents. The bill would assist military children in the areas of educational records, immunizations, school entrance ages (kindergarten and first grade), program placements, tuition (prohibited), residency status and extracurricular activities. Like so many bills introduced each year, the intent behind this one is fine — it’s the details that can cause the problems. This year’s legislation is much better than last year’s version; however, there are still some question-marks. We’ll continue to watch this issue closely.

– Dan Steele of the Washington State School Directors Association

New Superintendent for Public Instruction Randy Dorn has proposed some changes in the WASL, including its name. Probably for the best as WASL has become synonymous with lots of other adjectives that can’t be written in a family blog. But, as an aside, I have to say WASL is a heckuva lot better acronym than SOL (Standards of Learning) in Virginia. When I grew up in the 1980s, if you were “SOL” you were definitely —- outta luck. Not the kind of association educators want to make with a test, but what do I know?

So anyway, Dorn’s propsals basically make the WASL shorter and computerized. The tests will be offered in the fall and spring, not just the spring as is now the case. They will still be required for graduation. The elementary test is called the Measurements of Student Progress (thus MSP.) High schoolers will take the High School Proficiency Exams (HSEP.)

For more information about Dorn’s proposed changes, check out OSPI’s website here. I am talking to local folks today about the changes and will have more specific information in a later story.

I talked with Olympic High School teacher Chris Thorsen tonight at about 7:15 EST after he and his group of 19 students had returned to their hotel after a long day on the National Mall.

Thorsen was buoyant despite bitter cold, long hikes to and from the tour bus and lots of crowds everywhere.

“It was spectacular,” he said. “Obama was very impressive.”

As for the crowd, Thorsen said everyone was generally polite, but the numbers were overwhelming.

“I mean I’ve been to the Huskies and Seahawks games but this was so much more,” he said.

And the OHS kids?

“I am so happy for them. They feel like they’ve really accomplished something,” he said.

The only downside of the day was when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were introduced as they came to the dais on the steps of the Capitol. Some in the crowd booed.

“That was not appropriate. It was not the right response,” said Thorsen. “Obama would not have wanted that.”