I was e-mailed some documents that give a little more detail about the Manual High School restructuring plans, and I thought some of my readers might be interested in reading them:
Draft Cover Letter for MHS Final Report
Final Report Draft
MHS Restructuring Plans and Recommendations
MHS Restructuring Recommendations for Special Education
They’re generally adopting the Talent Development High Schools model from Johns Hopkins University. Plans call for lengthening the school day by 45 minutes and school year by five days, requiring parents to commit to one parent activity per month, and reorganizing the school into “academies.” They also want to make Manual a “choice school,” meaning anyone in the district can attend. They would provide bus transportation to all students attending Manual, no matter where in the city they live. That will make for an interesting bus schedule.
Some other things they want to add are a “publicly funded health center and expansion of a child care center in the facility to served [sic] both staff and parents’ children ages birth to five,” “a full time business liaison coordinator to work with members of the business community and school personnel,” and facility improvements “to support small learning communities, culture and climate, and increased security.”
No cost information is included here, but according to the Journal Star’s article:
Additional operational costs of the program, if implemented at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year, were estimated at about $810,000 beyond the current $4.9 million operational expenditures, Treasurer Guy Cahill said Monday. More cost details are expected by the board’s Jan. 22 meeting.
What are your thoughts on plans to restructure Manual High?
They want parents at one activity a month? What planet are they on? You’re lucky if you get most 150 parents to one activity a year. Then again, maybe they’ll send a SWAT team to get them. Not as far fetched as you think if you are following what happened a few days ago in Colorado. Plus a taxpayer-funded (that’s what they mean by “public”) “health care” and birth-5 day care center, where they can shoot little kids full of vaccines and psychotropic drugs at taxpayer expense, producing huge profits for the drug companies and good little zombies for teh school. And then there is “increased security”. Let me think, would that be fences, guard towers and perimeter dog patrols, or just a moat filled with alligators? “1984” is coming, it’s just a little late.
Mouse: Manual would be a choice school. That means parents would have to select manual as their choise and agree to the terms. Parents who don’t follow th erules could find their kids attendintg somewhere else …
My worry is what happens to the other schools that aren’t “choice” schools … do they get stuck with the kids whose parents don’t give a damn?
Expanding the school day by 45 minutes seems inadequate to me. Seems it ought to be enough for an least one additional period. And five additional days is hardly the same as year-round.
45 minutes probably is one additional period.
Class periods are 50 minutes. Supposedly, Hinton is really planning to turn Manual into a charter school (even though he did not disclose this fact to the public) and that would include shortening class periods and then adding one additional period to the schedule.
As far as choice goes, according to what Gorenz said Monday evening, students in the MHS attendance area who do not choose to attend MHS, may enter a lottery and be randomly selected for any available openings at the other three high schools. Gorenz made it very clear that students could not simply choose to go to PHS for example. If PHS only had 6 openings for the next school year, the 6 individuals will be selected by a lottery drawing.
So, what happens if more students choose not to go to MHS than there are seats available at the other three schools? What happens then – do the lottery “losers” have to attend MHS? And, how do we know the lottery will be honest, open and above board?
So King Hinton is planning to make MHS something close to a charter school? Isn’t that what Paul Vallas is doing in New Orleans? I wonder if Hinton also will follow suit and cut central staff like Vallas is doing? Of course with a highly paid superintendent coupled with three more also highly paid associate and assistant superintendents there just might be merit in cutting some obvious fat – both literally and figuratively!
Here is a news piece reported in the 1-9-08 publication from the Association of School Board Officials (ASBO).
New Orleans district cuts central office staff in reform effort.
The AP (1/9, Bohrer) reports that New Orleans’s Recovery School District (RSD), “which took over dozens of public schools in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, is cutting 26 jobs within its central office, a move that Superintendent Paul Vallas said is in line with his goal to create more ‘charter-like’ public schools.” Enrollment in the district has continued to grow throughout the year as people settle in recovering areas. Officials initially hired more teachers than needed to start the year, but “will still have to hire 50-60 teachers this term to keep up with growing enrollment and keep class sizes down,” according to Vallas. The central office is “giving RSD schools greater autonomy in such decisions as hiring staff and choosing their own curricula and transforming the central office from a micromanagement role to a support system for schools that also holds them accountable.” Officials intend to cap central office spending at five percent of the district’s budget.
^oo^~
45 minutes should be a period. Some schools have longer periods, but there is good research that 45 minutes is optimal for most subjects. As for the
“And five additional days is hardly the same as year-round,” needless to say I vehemently oppose year-round school, as it is the ultimate New World Order goal to eliminate non-governmental influences on children (churches, little league, the hated Boy Scouts, etc., etc.). I don’t care what excuses and rationalizations you use, you might as well get your head out of the sand and face it – that’s what it’s all about.
This is off topic, but the debate aired on WMBD tonight and hosted by the Young Republicans just finished and I think John Morris did the best.
As most of you know, I initially was behind Jim McConoughey, but I have since thrown my support to John Morris. I was pleased to see him do well tonight. I hope you will give him consideration when you vote February 5th.
Someone please give Mouse his Haldol because the paranoia is kicking in big time. New World Order … cheese & rice … give me a break!
No one is going to stop you from taking your kids to Church on the weekends or going to Boy Scout camp for a week during a vacation period. If you’re that up in arms about it, send your kid to a private school or homeschool them.
The purpose of year-round school is to keep troubled kids out of trouble and to avoid the wasted time spent in August & September catching kids up on everything they forgot over the summer.
I think year-round school might be an idea whose time has come. However, with the exception of Mouse, I don’t think most of the opposition will come from the conservative end of the spectrum. I have a feeling it would be the teachers and their unions that would fight such proposals tooth & nail.
Billy and PrairieCelt, direct and on point. The IB program offered some students a way out. This should open up the flood gates. What they are going to need at Manual is a full-time Lottery Administrator.
C.J. – thank you for providing the details. I count on your blog to provide the full story.
George — You’ve got to be kidding.
not kidding
Does this mean that if enough kids choose other 150 schools besides Manual that they will finally be able to close the doors on one of the high schools?
I don’t believe Mr. Hinton is proposing Manual be converted into a charter school. A charter school is definitely needed in Peoria, but a REAL charter school. A charter has to be a program that is run separately from the District 150 Board of Education. A charter school has to have autonomy, which is what our failing schools need. Our kids need to be in a school where union chains are not hanging overhead. We need the authority to get rid of teachers who are not cutting the bill. We need ACCOUNTABILITY!
It means the Administration & BOE are limiting the number of MHS students who will be allowed to attend one of the other three schools.
This appears to be some sort of attempt at containment. The real question is who decides how many openings are available at any of the other three high schools and what is the basis for the “containment” criteria? If this criteria is based on the physical capacity of the other three buildings, that is one thing, but if the criteria is based on more subjective elements, how does the public evaluate whether or not the process is equitable and free of prejudice?
The decision to close one of the other three high schools may be influenced by the cost of restructuring MHS. During Monday’s BOE meeting, the following information was presented by Gorenz and Cahill.
Cost to the ed fund for the restructuring of MHS, had it been implemented during the ’07-’08 school year, was $890,593. This figure was based on current salary schedules and included projections for the longer day/longer year configuration. They stated there would be an additional $88,000 cooling costs (per year) once air conditioning was installed and that the expense of air conditioning the building would be $4M. The talent development model was projected at $150,000 over four years. Providing laptop computers for 500 MHS students (3-year lease agreement) was projected to cost around $800,000 (this estimate included infrastructure upgrades, professional development and training). The total of those projections is $5,928,593. This figure is over and above the $4,899,000 operating budget for the current school year. As was pointed out during the meeting, the proposal approved by the BOE had no cost figures associated with the provisions. Essentially, the BOE approved Phase I of the restructuring plan without knowing the projected cost and to which funds or grants these additional costs will be allocated. How is that prudent financial management?
It is reasonable to expect that there will be significant expense involved in turning MHS around. But, we are looking at an additional $6M now and that figure will increase as the other costs are determined.
The BOE and Administration may decide to close one of the other three high schools because if they don’t, they won’t be able to undertake this expensive restructuring.
There are two other district high schools – PHS & WHS – that may enter restructuring within the next two years if there isn’t dramatic improvement in their test scores. Are we to assume that restructuring these schools will also cost in excess of $6M? Is the BOE and Administration even thinking about this eventuality? Of course, the fastest way to deal with failing schools is to close one, perhaps this is really the plan, after all they set the precedent with White & Blaine.
What about the middle schools that are in restructuring now – what is the plan and costs for those buildings (Lincoln, Trewyn, Loucks & Sterling)? There has been very little heard about this since last spring. If the primary and middle school students continue to perform below grade level and these problems aren’t addressed, how can we expect any of the high schools to succed regardless how much is spent reorganizing them?
PrairieCelt,
BRAVO – as usual your points were clearly stated. This is a scary scenairo for 150’s future isn’t it? It just proves once again how shortsighted and incompetent Hinton is, yet he is still able to lead that BOE so blindly down the path! I guess the adage applies here that in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king! ^oo^~
the Knight has their talking points down pat.
Why can’t one of the criteria for tranfer be student performance. If a promising Manual student would like to take advantage of advanced placement classes offered at Richwoods then he or she should have that opportunity. It seems that students who really wish to try and improve themselves should be able to transfer to an environment that is supportive of that goal. That being said, the 10 Ten graduates of Manual High School last Spring were headed to good colleges and had big plans similar to the Top Ten of other area schools. I do not believe the District 150 education system is as flawed as everyone seems to claim. It is difficult to imagine exactly what new methods the Distirct might devise to substitute for the essential parenting and financial stability that is lacking in so many of its’ students lives.
Why won’t feral cat and prairie celt come out of the closet to reveal themselves? They seem to have all the answers and are quick with the critcism, but who are they that we should trust them?