School Science News for Kids

The state budget likely to be approved by Wednesday will mean that the School District must find another $35 million in cuts on top of those already made, District officials said Tuesday.

To close a $629 million budget gap, the District has made more than 3,000 layoffs and slashed programs and services including school counselors, nurses, arts and music teachers and sports. Individual school budgets are hard hit, and half the central office staff is being eliminated.

In preparing its 2011-12 budget, the District had counted on $57 million in additional money from Harrisburg. Instead, it will received just $22 million extra, Chief Financial Officer Michael Masch said.

“It will be a challenge to identify options in terms of further adjustments,” to the budget, Masch said. He gave no timetable for making the decision, nor did he say what those additional cuts might be.

Gov. Corbett’s initial budget proposal sliced education spending by more than $1 billion, with Philadelphia absorbing a quarter of that amount, nearly $300 million. 

While the General Assembly added $228 million in education aid back into Corbett’s  budget, only $22 million will come to the city, Masch said. The net result is still a 9.7 percent cut in state aid for Philadelphia.

That compares to a statewide average cut for districts of 6.65 percent, he said.

Philadelphia lobbied hard for the restoration of $57 million in charter school reimbursement money, to no avail. Corbett eliminated all charter school reimbursement funds from his budget, and the legislature agreed. Since Philadelphia has more than half the charter schools in the state, it bears the brunt of the impact of that decision.

The additional $22 million to Philadelphia comes from the restoration of $100 million in Accountability Block Grant funds by the General Assembly. Corbett had also wanted to eliminate that funding stream, which has paid for such programs as early childhood education and full-day kindergarten.

City Council and the mayor came up with an extra $53 million for the District but Council specified that it be used for accelerated schools for dropouts and near-dropouts, for maintaining smaller classes in kindergarten through third grade, for yellow bus service for students in District and non-public schools, and for early childhood education.

The level of state aid was not the only tenuous assumption in the District’s gap-closing plan. Another showdown is looming: The budget counts on $75 million in union concessions, primarily asking workers to forego negotiated raises and  other increments.

So far, the District’s five unions have not agreed to anything, and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has threatened to go to court if its contract is breached. The School Reform Commission has the power under state law to cancel collective bargaining agreements and has threatened to do so. The SRC has given the unions until June 30 to reach a new agreement.

Masch said that without those concessions, the District might be forced to lay off another 800 workers.

“I’m not saying that is what will happen, but that’s how many people $75 million pays for,” he said.

The point is simply everyone gets burned out but that does not mean you are failing or that you are doing the wrong thing. Homeschool moms do not get raises, bonuses, vacations or sick days. Of course there will be times we feel burned out. Children are challenging and ever changing so we need to adapt but in the meantime we flounder until we find what works. Does that mean we are ill equipped? No. My husband is a manager for a large company and is constantly telling me that his job and my job are very similar. We manage people, encourage people, and guide people. And you know what? People are not easy to deal with. Thankfully, homeschooling moms have the blessing of dealing with the most important people in our lives on a daily basis no matter the challenges they can bring.

Are you burned out? It is okay to be burned out. What is not okay is not taking care of yourself and thinking that because you are burned out you are not cut out to be a homeschooling mom. Just because you have a bad day does not mean your children do not need the most important teacher in their lives. Homeschooling takes heart and hearts get weary and broken but they can also be restored and filled with joy. Take time to care for yourself and take a break but never think you are failing because things are tough.

LAKE WORTH — Palm Beach State College remains committed to building a fifth campus despite the fact that Gov. Rick Scott recently vetoed the $7.3 million the school planned to use to help build it, the school’s board stressed at a workshop this morning.

The five-member board met at the Lake Worth campus to discuss further options for the campus after Scott’s veto put the project in limbo. This month, Scott vetoed a record $615.3 million from the state budget, eliminating almost 50 capital building projects.

At today’s two-hour meeting, the board unanimously said it supported moving ahead and studying the five properties where PBSC is considering building the long-talked about campus. The properties are in Wellington, Loxahatchee and Loxahatchee Groves.

Since today’s meeting was a workshop, the board couldn’t take action or consider motions. The next meeting in tentatively scheduled for August, said Grace Truman, a PBSC spokeswoman.

The aim is to have a specific vote at their next meeting, Truman said. I don’t know if the vote will be on the specific parcel or whether it will be a vote to authorize the administration to negotiate with property owners. The board wants to make this work.

Anyone know what is happening with Peachtree Hope Charter School?

The Memorial Drive school was approved last year by the now defunct state Charter Schools Commission and was part of the Sabis network of schools. The school had lost its charter because of the recent Supreme Court decision impacting 16 new and existing schools, but had won a years lease on life via a vote by the DeKalb Board of Education.

However,  if you go to the school web site today, you will find only this stark note: This is no longer the website for Peachtree Hope Charter School. Please contact (404) 622-2727 for more information.

I called the number and after many rings, a message came on still identifying the school as part of the Minnesota-based SABIS Educational Systems and directing me to the Web site.  I will check Monday to see if  Sabis pulled out because of the state Supreme Court ruling and whether the school plans to try to soldier on as an independent school.

However, Peachtree Hope is not on the list of schools to be considered by the state Board of Education Tuesday so I am unsure of its status or its future.

Peachtree Hope Charter School and the Museum School of Avondale Estates were granted approval for one year by DeKalb school board, but have to go through the formality of state board sanction. The Museum School is on the Tuesday agenda, but Peachtree Hope is not.

Anyone know what is going on?

Bryce Solid, 14, gets his T-shirt signed by friends on the last day of school at Parkrose Middle School on June 16. New buildings. New windows. New computers.

Every school in the Parkrose School District will see changes thanks to a successful $63 million bond measure, but the biggest change will come to Parkrose Middle School.

That school, built in 1961, will be demolished and rebuilt, thanks to roughly 2,500 people voting yes on the May 17 bond measure.

The bond election was so close that a recount was needed. Ballots were hand-counted for more than four hours on June 3; the bond passed by six votes.

“We are so grateful to the community for their support,” said Superintendent Karen Fischer Gray. “This is really good for kids for many years to come.”

Fischer Gray said the bond campaign succeeded because it relied heavily on volunteers going door-to-door to talk to voters. It was also successful, she said, because the district has a bond retiring. Taxpayers will not pay more money than they already are; they’ll just keep paying the same amount with the new bond.

The current bond expires in December with taxpayers paying $1.25 for every $1,000 assessed value on their property. The average homeowner in the district will continue to pay $200-$250 per year. Roughly 3,500 students attend seven Parkrose schools, including four elementary, one middle, one high and one charter school.

Every school will benefit from the bond, with upgrades to security, technology, roofing and heating/cooling systems. Sacramento Elementary School will get a reworked entry area so there’s more controlled access to kindergarten rooms. Each elementary school will get a “flexible learning space,” which can be used for everything from a gym to concerts.

Students at Parkrose Middle School said they feel jammed. The school was built for two grade levels and 500 students, but currently holds three grade levels and more than 800 students.

“Especially when we go to different classes, it’s really crowded,” said Antonio Quiroz, 12.

Teachers said test scores might even go up, as state testing is done in a lab that is packed.

“The computer space itself is uncomfortable for the kids,” said technology teacher Chris Loesel.

In addition to the crowds, leaking roofs, asbestos-tiled floors, drafty rooms and precariously wired computers plague the school. Gas and water supplies don’t work in the science classroom. In winter, classrooms are cold, while the front office is hot. One hallway flooded so bad in the winter that students had to be diverted through the cafeteria.

“They shouldn’t come to school asking if it’s safe,” said Principal Molly Davies.

As the only security guard for the whole campus, Alonzo White said he’s looking forward to more security cameras.

“We don’t have enough cameras to capture the whole building,” said White, who’d also like to see lockers moved from the hallways into the homerooms.

Teachers said they are looking forward to more space to be able to work with students in small groups.

“It’d be nice to have calmer space,” said language arts teacher Ann Stinson. “With a little bit more space, I could talk to kids in smaller groups.”

It’s undecided how and when the district will build the new middle school. Construction could be on property next to the current school so that students can continue in the current space, or students could be moved into portables while the new building goes up on the same spot.

Gray said she’d love to have the new building ready by fall 2013 — in time for Parkrose’s centennial — but the business manager laughed when she suggested it.

U.S. Dist. Court Judge Samuel Hardy Mays Jr. today granted a motion from Memphis City Schools that prevents Supt. Kriner Cash and board president Martavius Jones from being deposed by the Memphis City Council legal team.

The order from Mays, who will decide the schools merger lawsuit, grants the council its request to depose a representative from MCS, but agrees with MCS lawyers that it does not compel Cash and Jones to testify.

Mays writes that because MCS “has not described with reasonable particularity the matters for examination” of Cash and Jones, it is “the City School Board, not the City Council” that “may designate a person to testify on its behalf. “

That deposition may occur as early as Tuesday. The City Council said it wanted to test Cash and Jones on MCS’s “contentions that it continues to exist” in legal terms, as well as some operational and administrative issues related to the merger lawsuit.

Final briefs in the case still are due on Thursday, with Mays to make a ruling in the subsequent weeks.

The judge is being asked to untangle legal quarrels over the proper path toward consolidating Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools.

SCS and the state contend that merger should follow a path set forth by the new Norris-Todd law. They say MCS continues to exist until the merger, which Norris-Todd says must be guided by a yet-unnamed 21-member planning commission.

The city council, the city and the county commission contend MCS ceased to exist when the council followed a 1961 statute’s guidelines to approve surrender of the system’s charter in February, ahead of Gov. Bill Haslam signing Norris-Todd into law.

They are asking Mays to allow the county commission to appoint an expanded 25-member countywide school board which would guide the merger.