Kitsap Education

make sure to read this story about the lawsuit brought by parents and school advocates over state funding of public schools.

The North Kitsap School Board has deferred a decision to adopt policy governance as its new method of operations. See this story in today’s paper.

For more background, see the 32-page policy governance report on NK’s website and a story that was in the paper earlier this week.

From the Thursday night meeting, board member Ed Strickland’s concern about policy governance’s code of conduct for board members seems like it needs a public airing.

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Washington public education, today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Maybe a little dramatic? Or maybe not.

Literally, as I type this, the members of the new state Quality Education Council are probably standing in line at the espresso stand, gathering their papers, maybe even driving into Olympia toward the Senate Cherberg Building to meet for the first time.

Thirteen people, including four senators, four state representatives, a couple Gregoire appointees and Bremerton’s own Bette Hyde, will meet from 9 am to 4 pm today to begin the work of sorting out how to fund the state’s new definition of basic education, as approved last legislative session in House Bill 2261.
The council will look at financing, as well as other issues, including an early learning program for at-risk children, a new funding  formula for school transportation to begin in 2013, a schedule for changes to the basic education program and the funding to support the changes and a teacher mentoring program. The council will also set goals and priorities for the next 10 years, including ways to eliminate the achievement gap and reduce dropout rates.
If you have a couple extra hours today, tune into TVW, Washington’s statewide public affairs television station, to watch the meeting live. Visit www.tvw.org for local channel listings.

OSPI also put out this press release on the meeting.

I’m wondering if the economy is affecting school supply lists this year? Teachers? Parents?

It seemed a little like my kids’ school supply lists were shorter this year than in the past. Pencils weren’t even on the lists as a local orthodontist (Naumann & Johnson) donated two dozen for each student at our school. 

Teachers, did you ask for less? Parents, are you reusing old supplies or just plain buying less? (I know we are – my kids just sharpened that box of old colored pencils from last year and there’s plenty of glue left in those glue sticks.) Has anyone found a good source for less expensive supplies? From the Sunday ads it looked like Office Max had some pretty good deals.

A bear has been spending time periodically over the past two weeks on the playground at Pearson Elementary. Apparently there are some mighty tasty plums in that area.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife has installed a trap that will be monitored during the week. Over the weekend though, there will not be a trap and the area will not be monitored, according to North Kitsap School District spokeswoman Chris Case.

Might be best to steer clear of Pearson’s playground for awhile. Maybe it’s a good thing that NK doesn’t start school until Sept. 9 this year?

Washington students have historically done very well on the SAT. This year they did it again. Scores for Washington kids were the highest in the nation among states where more than half of the eligible students took the test.

For more information about this story, check here.

Kitsap Sun columnist Rob Woutat wrote an interesting column today on the state of math education. He focused heavily on the “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell links success at math to a cultural indentity heavily infused with hard work, persistence and the simply ability to sit still and concentrate for long periods of time. It’s something worth thinking about.

Woutat also touched briefly on something that has been floating around my desk for a few months. Many of us have probably heard about the controversy in Seattle over a new math curriculum, Discovering Math. It’s now a controversy in Issaquah too.

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The North Kitsap School District will host two more public meetings, on Aug. 25 and Sept. 2, to talk about the establishment of professional learning communities at the high schools and the changes in the schools’ schedules. See the district’s website for more information about the meetings and PLCs.

A meeting held two weeks ago drew a large crowd of concerned parents, teachers and students. Read more about that meeting here. I have a feeling the future meetings will too.

I just talked with a mom today who understands the need for time for teachers to collaborate but who does not like the planned schedule changes. The schedules at each school do vary from day to day and she’s worried the confusion that will create, for teachers and students.

I wrote yesterday about how Washington state’s lack of a charter school law might hurt local schools’ chances to receive federal Race to the Top funds.

Today, Superintendent for Public Instruction Randy Dorn sent out this message:

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