RUSD officials urge partnership with Bright Horizons

Racine Unified will be offering a combination day-care/preschool at a former RUSD elementary school, Caddy Vista, and will be outsourcing the operations of the early childhood education center. It turns out there was only one legitimate bid for the outsourcing of the Caddy Vista early childhood project – Bright Horizons.

Bright Horizons is a nationally accredited institution with centers all over the country; and the Racine area is home to one of them. The SC Johnson daycare facility (located near Armstrong Park) is one of those facilities. I am certainly not suggesting any corruption; I am simply stunned by the coincidence. It seems that our “business” relationship with SC Johnson (and others in RAMAC) is becoming more and more layered by the minute.

Have school districts found a way around those pesky revenue caps?

Will RUSD soon be on this list?

While I was reading the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel recent article detailing the exponential rising of tax levies for Wisconsin school districts’ Community Service Funds, I could not help wondering how long it will take before this phenomena affects the residents served by RUSD.

Recently (this past spring) , RUSD created a Community Service Fund; this was explained away to the public as a revenue enhancement for the district. The Racine JT has already reported that the newly established fund (which does not have a revenue cap) could pay for the Lighted Schoolhouse program.

I am not arguing that such programs are not beneficial to the community, I am just wondering if this is not a back-door way of raising taxes. There may not be a need to cut any outrageous spending, district personnel will just move certain expenses from the operating fund to one (like the Community Service Fund) which does not have a revenue cap!

RUSD board meeting documents not very enlightening

In reviewing the agenda for this evening’s RUSD regularly scheduled meeting, I found it interesting that neither the PDF file of the board packet materials nor any addendums contained any mention of the details of item 11b, the awarding of the Caddy Vista outsourcing project.

As you may recall, RUSD may be reopening Caddy Vista to serve as location for its expanded 4-year-old kindergarten program. This location would also have before and after-school daycare (available for an additional fee). Unified will be outsourcing the operation of this to a private business, so I am interested in any details of this new government-private business relationship.

However, there are numerous pages in the board packet materials addressing how RUSD is doing making “good” global citizens out of our children and ensuring that they are developing a “strong sense of self-worth”. I, for one, am glad that the board and administration have decided to work in an open environment and post their meeting materials online (insert sarcastic tone here).

I missed this meeting , but will talk with friends that did attend and post any information (if necessary) later...

Is Universal Preschool the Answer?

The debate continues on who should be responsible for preschool – should it be the parents’ responsibility or should the burden fall on the already overtaxed taxpayer? As you are aware, RUSD is expanding their 4-year-old kindergarten (preschool) program this fall.

RUSD does not currently have the space to provide preschool, so it is partnering with other early childhood centers and “leasing” space. Now we find that the Early Childhood Educational Lab at Gateway will be another RUSD 4-year-old kindergarten site. Since Gateway is also funded by tax dollars, isn’t this a case of one taxing authority (RUSD) subsidizing another taxing authority (Gateway)? Just thinking out loud, but will the portion of our property tax that funds Gateway go down or is this what I will call “double dipping”?

The program is not new; preschool has been provided to the children that would benefit the most for years. Instead of just creating more space for the neediest and most vulnerable children of our community; RUSD has made it possible for ALL children to enjoy “free” preschool. I am not stating that early childhood education is not crucial to future success in school; I know that it is. But creating yet another entitlement program for middle class families that can afford “traditional” preschool is not the answer. Our educational system is already strapped for cash and is extremely dysfunctional, why add more fuel to the fire? I think that RUSD needs to fix K-12 education before tackling any new educational initiatives.

Preschool, or 4-year-old kindergarten, is not "free". It is paid for by local and state tax dollars; there may not any out of pocket expenses for the parents, but it is hardly “free”! Remember the old phrase “There is no such thing as a free lunch?”

Free speech lives on in RUSD

After the two articles included on the JT website today, I expected to see Brent Killackey at the RUSD board meeting tonight if only to provide some additional information to his original story, Unified board targets member. Imagine my surprise to find a completely empty media table in the Central Office conference room. Come on JT, isn’t it your responsibility to report?

To summarize tonight’s meeting, Julie McKenna made a motion to completely REMOVE this item from the agenda. This motion passed 5-3. The board members that passed Julie’s motion were: A. Clobes, B. Dey, R. Bangs, J. McKenna and D. Nielsen. The board members who voted against the motion and (keeping the agenda as written) were: S. Kutz, R. Carlsen and T. Baumgardt.

Also worthy of mentioning are the plethora of referrals that came at the end of the meeting. In order for an issue to be addressed at future meetings, a referral must be made first; some of the referrals I found very interesting:

Don Nielsen made a referral to get the Attorney General’s legal opinion on the ethical and legal use of electronic communication (email, blogs, etc.)

Brian Dey made a referral for an update on the “Betsy Kippers” clause. You might remember this as a source of contention for many when the REA contracts were ratified earlier this spring. The clause allows the REA president to perform union activities (for up to 179 days) on taxpayer dollars (where the REA will subsidize a substitute teacher at a much lower rate of pay)

A. Clobes made a referral for administration to study the legal ramifications of Caledonia forming their own school district. This referral is similar to the one Brian Dey made at the last meeting when he asked the CEO to prepare a financial impact statement regarding the same issue.

And finally, the board voted to adopt the changes in the Governance Policy. Guess what item was pulled out? Drum roll, please……. GP-11! GP-11 is the Process for Addressing Board Member Violations. It would seem that many want this issue reevaluated; I think that is a very good idea. Don’t you??

Should RUSD prepare for a secession?

Rumor has it that a certain rabble-rousing school board member made a very interesting referral at the end of the June 26th board meeting. He asked for an initial impact statement from administration outlining the impact Caledonia seceding would have on the district.

What do you think the chances of Dr. Hicks actually doing this? It is my guess roughly
1:1,000,000…

I think that this will need to be addressed soon; should RUSD deal with it now or wait for later?

Do the district administrators deserve a bonus?

Excuse me for the belated breakdown of the recent Journal Times article, but I was out of town and have been busy trying to catch up with all the news. However, I do want to chime in and voice my opinion on the latest district decision to give the administrators a one time 2% raise in pay.

According to the JT article,” the one-time payment is identical to a provision in the teachers' contract for 2005-06.” However, as I understand it, the provision in the teachers’ contract was based on the fact that they had previously given back 2 days of pay in a previous contract cycle in order to balance the budget.

As one board member pointed out administration did not give up two days pay, so why the bonus? The office and maintenance workers took a pay freeze; shouldn’t the administrators do the same?

D.A. refuses to file charges against Education Racine, Inc.

RealDebate over at RDW has an interesting piece on how the Racine County District Attorney refused to file charges against Education Racine, Inc; this organization openly and blatantly violated Wisconsin campaign laws. As you might recall, Education Racine Inc is an umbrella organization of RAMAC and is responsible for sending out numerous mailings advocating for the passing of the June 6th RUSD operations referendum.

This is the same District Attorney who refused to file charges after similar circumstances occurred in the April 4th school board elections. If we cannot make the highest ranking law enforcement officer hold law-breakers accountable for their actions, how can expect any more from the other local officials?

Can the RUSD officials be any more arrogant?

Here we go again, it was reported recently that the administrators are planning a retreat at the very posh Lake Lawn Resort, which is located in Delavan. This annual event was cancelled in 2005, with former RUSD spokesperson Linda Flashinski stating "It's important that we be sensitive to the fiscal concerns in our district. We have a spending freeze on, and we are looking at every expenditure very carefully in these tight budget times."

The April 2005 article also stated that no tax dollars were to be used to fund the retreat, even though later in the article it was mentioned that the district accounting practices would not be able to show this directly. Stepien explained this further by stating “That fund consists of 25 percent district money earmarked for staff development and 75 percent funding from outside sources - federal and state grants, special education funds for staff development and corporate donations”. It is my belief, that ANY staff development funds should NOT be used for events at golf resorts.

Now, we find that the event was not canceled, but merely postponed to this summer, with district officials citing losing the $18,000 deposit as a reason for not canceling the retreat.
This is the same annual event that a principal was raiding the school’s fundraising accounts to purchase door prizes for the administrative retreat. A day or two at a resort isn’t enough; they have to have door prizes too?

Ironically, questioning the 2003 $36,000 payment to Lake Lawn Lodge is what brought me and others to address the school board the first time. My neighbor drew the short straw and made a very eloquent case on why spending $36,000 for an administrative retreat is not the appropriate use of tax dollars in light of the district thinking about closing schools (Olympia Brown, Wind Point and Winslow were on the short list of schools to be closed at that time). Her passionate plea brought everyone to their feet in applause.

This annual event was almost canceled in 2004, but they did not, which caused more uproar in the people who were paying attention. Finally, in 2005 this event was canceled. It is my belief that it was canceled because more people started to realize what is actually going on in this district. Now in 2006, the retreat is back on…

Do our district officials really think that this is “water under the bridge”? (they seem to be very fond of this phrase, by the way)

And if the event is truly corporate sponsored, why should it matter if we “lose” the $18,000 cancellation fee? Tell me that our business partners (SC Johnson, Modine, Twin Disc and other members of RAMAC) cannot afford a combined loss of $18,000? Can you say “tax write-off”, anyone? Our CEO’s arrogance is beginning to show again, the question is what are we (or the board) going to do about it?

The Making of an Obsession – Part 1 of 17

Well, my pity party is over – I would like to thank all of you who came. Back to the issues that mean the most to mothers across the country – crafts (insert sarcasm here). In honor of our nation’s birthday, I thought I’d pass along a crafting idea that the whole family can do together. Here is the link to a patriotic wind chime you can make with your children. For those of you who do not want to channel Martha, I thought I would provide a brief (?) history of how Brenda became ‘obsessed’ with the underbelly of RUSD.

As mentioned earlier, I was happily ignorant until about 5 years ago when I started hearing grumblings about the new teaching strategy, Continuous Progress, and the highly paid consultants that were bringing it to our district. When I pressed RUSD staff for more information, I was given the name of the head consultant – Dr. John “Jack” Champlin. Once I verified he was indeed highly paid (by looking at 6 months worth of RUSD payment vouchers; thanks again Armin and Mike for telling me this information was available for free at the library), I did a quick Google search to find more about Dr. Champlin and his staff.

What I discovered was disturbing to say the least. The very same Dr. Champlin that was directing our reform process was once the superintendent of the Johnson City (NY) district where his reform measures were considered controversial and critics of the plan correctly forecasted that the plan would “be remembered as a failed experiment.”

In the May 1999 edition of the Education Reporter, there is a story detailing the demise of Champlin’s OBE reform plan and why it failed to raise test scores as promised.
The similarities between Johnson City and Racine are astounding:

“Veteran teachers and administrators told horror stories of how he ruthlessly brushed aside anyone and anything standing in his way”

Many teachers and principals feel the same way; Continuous Progress (same plan, new name) has been shoved down the throats of our educational professionals.

He blamed its failure on the loss of will to "sustain significant change."

Dr. Hicks, our own superintendent, is now blaming the teachers for the lack of improvement in our test scores.

I challenge each and every one of you to spend a little time on the internet and find out a little more of Outcome-Based Education, and then ask yourself this question – “Is this really the best approach for all of our children?” Remember, the acronyms keep changing as each approach is deemed a failure. What was Mastery Learning (ML) is now Continuous Progress, and we still have 3rd graders that can’t spell ‘was’ and 4th graders reading at 1st grade level. No wonder we haven’t seen the promised test results, we have 4th graders who have never seen 4th grade material in the classroom.