Kitsap Education

Bruce Ramsey writes in the Seattle Times today about the loss of classes in industrial arts – auto shop, woodworking etc. – in public schools. His column brings up many salient points about why schools need to continue to invest in technical education as they try to make all students college-ready. It’s amazing to me, as Ramsey reports, that Seattle School District does not have a skills center like West Sound Technical Skills Center here in Bremerton.

An update: I was walking through Barnes & Noble today and happened upon a book called Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford.

Here’s an excerpt from the Publishers’ Weekley review of the book: Philosopher and motorcycle repair-shop owner Crawford extols the value of making and fixing things in this masterful paean to what he calls manual competence, the ability to work with one’s hands. According to the author, our alienation from how our possessions are made and how they work takes many forms: the decline of shop class, the design of goods whose workings cannot be accessed by users (such as recent Mercedes models built without oil dipsticks) and the general disdain with which we regard the trades in our emerging information economy. Unlike today’s knowledge worker, whose work is often so abstract that standards of excellence cannot exist in many fields (consider corporate executives awarded bonuses as their companies sink into bankruptcy), the person who works with his or her hands submits to standards inherent in the work itself: the lights either turn on or they don’t, the toilet flushes or it doesn’t, the motorcycle roars or sputters. With wit and humor, the author deftly mixes the details of his own experience as a tradesman and then proprietor of a motorcycle repair shop with more philosophical considerations.

Quite appropriate for the conversation today, don’t you think?

A draft of the common national educational standards is now available. Washington is one of 48 states working on an effort to establish the standards. Lots of folks have a reason to want to chime in – for all the obvious reasons PLUS Education Secretary Arne Duncan and President Obama have made it clear that those states open to this sort of change will be considered for some of the $4 billion Race to the Top funds.
This story in Education Week gives a great overview of the proposed standards. This information from OSPI gives the state of Washington view.

Klahowya Secondary School English teacher Danyell Laughlin will find out today if she’s been named 2010 Washington State Teacher of the Year.
State Superintendent Randy Dorn will make the announcement at the Experience Music Project in downtown Seattle at 1:30 p.m.
The new Teacher of the Year will represent Washington in the national Teacher of the Year competition. The national honoree will be announced by President Obama in the spring.
Other nominees include: James Loucks, West Valley High School, ESD 101; Madeline Dunn, Garfield Elementary School, ESD 105; Kenneth Roberts, Fort Vancouver High School, ESD 112; Heather Rader, North Thurston Public Schools, ESD 113; Michelle Kelly, Kent Elementary School, ESD 121; Aimee Simington-Pearce, McLoughlin Middle School, ESD 123; Thomas Robinson, Chelan High School, ESD 171; and James Yoos, Bellingham High School, ESD 189.

Before he came to the North Kitsap School District last school year, Rick Jones was the superintendent of Burlington-Edison School District in the Skagit Valley.

That district is currently teetering on the edge of insolvency because since 2000 it has accumulated nearly $9 million in debt to buy school buses and two pieces of property. The BESD board voted to take on non-voted bond debt in three different situations in 2000, 2004 and 2007. Board members hoped the community would approve a bond measure to help pay off the debts. Alas, after being asked multiple times voters have declined, most recently at the end of March this year. 

A few months ago, the BESD board hired John Fotheringham (you might remember him as the consultant on the Bremerton superintendent search) to investigate the problems and make recommendations on how to fix it.

Fotheringham gave a report to the board last week. Read Kate Martin’s story in the Skagit Valley Herald here. Read Fotheringham’s full report here.

North Kitsap is the third local school district to begin talking about a school support levy for the February 2010 ballot. Schools in Bremerton and Central Kitsap will also run levies on that ballot.

NK School Board members will get some information from district financial staff and talk about levy rates etc.at  the regular meeting Thursday night beginning at 7 p.m. It will be held at the administrative offices, 18360 Caldart Ave. in Poulsbo.

Please click here to read the school district report about the levy proposal.

At a forum Monday night for candidates for three seats on the Bremerton School Board, one audience member wanted to know what folks thought about a policy used by the Bremerton School District when hiring employees. New employees must go through a fingerprinting process and quick Washington State Patrol background check before they can work around kids. They then are conditionally hired until another background check, this time by the FBI, is completed. It takes about three months.  Read the policy here.

Some people in Bremerton are not happy with this policy. Many of them, including all the candidates at the forum Monday except incumbent Cynthia Galloway, worry the policy puts kids at risk.

A quick check of other surrounding districts policies finds the exact same policy in place (even the same number – 5005.)

North Kitsap School District Policy 5005

North Mason School District Policy 5005

Sequim School District Policy 5005

I could not find online board policies for South Kitsap, Central Kitsap or Bainbridge.

Thursday morning: CK Board member Christy Cathcart was kind enough to email me a link to the CK policies, though I still can’t get to it from the website. She must be a magician. Anyway, I read through the policy 5005 for CK and a couple other policies in the same area but could not find a reference to background checks. Here’s the link if you care to search for yourself. I’m sure CK has a way of doing background checks, I just haven’t found it yet. If you do, let me know.

As you can see by looking at the links and comparing them to Bremerton’s policy 5005, they are from “boilerplate” policies. This is because public school districts in Washington get their policies from the Washington State School Directors Association, a policy organization that helps schools interpret and comply with state laws.

Tonight the League of Women Voters hosts a candidate forum for the Bremerton School Board races. The event begins at 7 pm at the Norm Dicks Government Center in downtown Bremerton.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) the North Kitsap School Board will hold a community forum to discuss policy governance, a new operational method of running school board business. The meeting will be held at Kingston High School at 7 pm.

 Board members and Superintendent Rick Jones want to give information about policy governance and then hear what folks have to say about the proposal. The board discussed the issue at the last meeting on Sept. 10, but I was the only non-staff member in attendance at that meeting. Board member Melanie Mohler in particular asked for two public meetings (one in Kingston and one in Poulsbo) because she wanted more community awareness and input. For background on NK’s policy governance proposal check this story.

I went to the Bremerton School Board meeting Thursday night to listen to what board members and citizens had to say about the upcoming school support levy. The levy will be on the Feb. 9, 2010, ballot. From discussions, the levy will be a renewal of the current school support levy that was approved in 2006.
There was some concern expressed about the economy and how it has affected property values and whether it would affect voting. Board member Louie Mitchell, noting that unlike his neighbors his property assessment went up this year, said despite the economy, he was confident Bremerton voters would renew the levy. He also noted that BSD has been conservative in the past when asking for money in the levy, creating goodwill with the community.

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This was sent tonight by North Mason Superintendent David Peterson:

Bus B-13 was rear-ended downtown Belfair today as the driver was taking elementary students home at the end of the day. There were no injuries to any of the 17 kids on the bus. We brought in another bus to complete the run and get the kids home. The driver of the other vehicle had no apparent serious injury, but was transported to the hospital to be checked out.
Bus accidents are pretty rare for us. We have one or two per year, and they are typically minor. In nearly every case, someone runs into one of our buses. Each and every time, our staff respond extremely well, just like this time. Our driver took great care of the kids. Our mechanic and transportation director got to the scene as soon as they could. Staff called the parents of the students on the bus to let them know about the accident and the delayed trip home. We brought another bus to the scene to safely transfer the students and get them home with the shortest possible delay.

Good work, drivers and staff. Thank you.
David Peterson, Superintendent

Last week I posted an email I received from Public Agenda, a non-profit, non-partisan research group. It prompted a meaty discussion on education reform that brought some new commenters to Kitsap Education.

So here’s another one, though it’s more fun than anything.

Please, please, please let me know if you particpate in this (whether you’re a teacher, parent, grandparent, administrator etc.) This would be an awesome project for people who school their children at home. I would LOVE to do a feature story on a local entry on this contest.

HOLD ON TO YOUR OVEN MITTS!

The first Punctuation Baking Contest will highlight the celebration of the
6th Annual National Punctuation Day (NPD) on September 24, 2009.

NPD is celebrated in schools and businesses throughout the world with
activities, games, programs, and contests. It has inspired people to pay
attention not only to their p¹s and q¹s, but also their commas, semicolons,
and ellipses. NPD reminds us of the importance of proper punctuation for
communicating clearly at home, school, or at work.

NPD has received worldwide media attention since former newspaperman Jeff
Rubin founded the holiday in 2004, with newspaper coverage from Manila to
London and from Seoul to Seattle, in addition to broad radio and TV coverage
in the United States ‹ including a short segment on Regis and Kelly in 2008.

NPD is recognized by Chase¹s Calendar of Events and listed in its sister
publication, The Teacher¹s Calendar, two directories published by
McGraw-Hill.

RULES FOR THE PUNCTUATION BAKING CONTEST:

- Entrants must send a recipe and a sample of their cookie, cake, pastry,
doughnut, or bread baked in the shape of a punctuation mark to National
Punctuation Day, 1517 Buckeye Court, Pinole, CA 94564.
- Entrants must send two print photos ‹ one putting the item in an oven
before baking and the other taking it out when it¹s done. Make sure we can
see the baked goods clearly.
- First-, second-, and third-place winners will receive a box of non-edible
NPD goodies, and all entrants¹ photos and recipes will be published on the
National Punctuation Day website (www.NationalPunctuationDay.com).
- All entries must be received by September 30, 2009.

The NPD website ‹ in addition to highlighting the latest in literacy news
and featuring incorrectly punctuated signs from all over the world ‹ serves
as a resource that helps educators teach good writing skills and helps
students understand the basics of punctuation. Business people worldwide use
it as a reference guide.

³Casual shortcuts bred by e-mailing and text messaging have no place in
school papers or professional business writing,² Rubin says. ³In the
business world, words have power and help decision-makers form impressions
immediately. Careless punctuation mistakes cost time, money, and
productivity.

³There¹s an epidemic of poor punctuation in the United States, much like the
Swine flu. It¹s too bad there¹s no vaccine to prevent it.²

HOW TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL PUNCTUATION DAY

What can you do to participate in National Punctuation Day on September 24!
1. Go to www.NationalPunctuationDay.com and become familiar with punctuation
rules and issues.
2. Organize punctuation activities at your school, library, or office.
3. Share punctuation peeves with founder Jeff Rubin at
Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com.
4. Send photos of incorrectly punctuated signage to Jeff Rubin at
Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com
5. Forward this news as a way to spread the importance of proper punctuation.

To learn how schools and companies can participate in National Punctuation
Day, or to schedule an interview with Jeff Rubin, the Punctuation Man, visit
www.NationalPunctuationDay.com, call Jeff at (877) 588-1212, or e-mail Jeff
at Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com.