Eyes Wide Open

 

Eyes Wide Open

 

 

     Public education in Maine, and the nation, has slowly been chipped away at by politicians. It is time for all of us to consider our next steps in supporting it. Retired public school teachers...it is time to give back. Stand up and make your voices heard. You and I can tell the stories of children and the positive benefits of public education done right. Let the erosion of our schools stop. Many of us taught in schools much different than the schools today. It is hard to say when the turning point was, but  'public education has been in increasingly hot water' long enough. (Do you remember the boiling frog syndrome? If you drop a frog directly into boiling water, it will try desperately to jump out to survive... if the frog is swimming in water that is slowly increased in temperature, it won't notice until the water has reached too high a temperature and will perish unknowingly?) The slow imperceptible danger to public education has been increasingly revealing itself.  School employees have been treading 'water of higher and higher temperatures' trying to stay afloat buffeted by shifting budgets, political mandates, and big business creeping in, aided by politicians who care not a whit about student achievement, but care immensely about supporting private business and lining their pockets with public money. It is time for all who believe in public education to see the true motives of those who are claiming public education has failed. It has not failed. Public education is a cornerstone of our democracy. Public education is not too costly.

     We can start right here in Maine and reveal the true motives of LePage's proposed budget. He has not been an advocate for public education since the day he took the oath of office as Governor of Maine. He attempts to destabilize public education. He imports foes of public education into the executive and legislative branches of state government. He pursues funding reductions and shifting. He abhors employee/teachers rights. He undermines effective leadership locally and at the state level. He has refused to nominate a Commissioner of Education, and thus the Department of Education has for several years lacked true effective leadership. His first Commissioner of Education brought the same tactics used in Southern states to create legislation, policies and procedures for Maine that mimic those in Southern states. This Commissioner hightailed it for greener pastures out of Maine as soon as a lucrative offer presented itself. Then an interim Commissioner was appointed, then made Commissioner, then fell ill and left the post. Another interim. Then a proclamation that he (LePage) himself would be the Commissioner of Education AND be the Governor at the same time. Now another interim.

     When Maine student achievement rates are compared to student achievement rates in Southern states, Maine students rank higher. Maine high school graduation rates are among the top 15 in the country. Why would Mainers want to emulate schools in the southern part of the US? Public schools in Maine have been making positive changes with regard to closing the achievement gaps that exist. The persistent geographical, racial, and income disparity that exists in parts of Maine is brought to school with the children who live within these areas and is reflected in their achievement rates. Yes, let's work to address this. Let's do it in a way that doesn't penalize every public school in Maine. We can start by letting schools keep their Federal Title 1 money that is intended to be supplementary money to address the learning needs of students who live in poverty. The state of Maine actually DEDUCTS this amount of money from their school subsidy.

 

     I would also echo support for state funding priorities made in the PICUS report that legislators commissioned several years ago and the most recent Blue Ribbon Commission on School Funding and Student Achievement seemed to be coalescing around:

 

1. Supporting programs for children who live in poverty, including afterschool and summer programs;

2. Supporting full day publicly supported programs within our schools for 3 and 4 year olds, thus creating public pre K - 12th grade educational opportunities;

3. Supporting additional embedded professional development opportunities for teachers.

  

     Let's not allow LePage to derail these recommendations. Let's tell our legislators to recall the PICUS report they commissioned and fund public education appropriately.

 

     Governor LePage has said he will call for an end to the use of the school funding formula, the Essential programs and Services or EPS formula, in his proposed 2017 budget.  I haven't heard about any alternative way to determine future state education subsidy to towns and cities across Maine. Whimsical budgeting. The PICUS report found the EPS to be equitable, even though it found Maine underfunds education statewide by $350 million. To do away with the funding formula will likely further exacerbate the financial difficulties of some Maine communities to fund education in their areas. LePage doesn't like the way the formula defines the amount of money schools need to offer basic services. I don't know many people who only want a basic education for their children. Federal and state politicians have for years been yelling for excellent education for all students. Why should we only acknowledge funding for just a basic education?  In a previous budget, LePage unilaterally altered the EPS and included the costs of teacher retirement within the formula which didn't exist before, essentially reducing school budgets across the state by this amount.  (See my Oct. 19, 2016 'Experience Counts -School Funding' post; Oct. 29, 2016 ' Question 2 and ESP Funding Formula' post for more details on EPS)  I was a member of my town's local school board in the early years of his first term. He started by angrily calling for local school boards to work with him. Translation: I don't like local school boards.  He boisterously demanded that school superintendents 'get out of his way'. Translation: I don't like school superintendents. He has attacked the school teachers unions. Translation: I don't like unions. His goal is to weaken local control and employee protections by any and all means so that he can further erode the institution of public education. His call for one statewide teacher contract to address funding disparities - just smoke and mirrors. One state (politically controlled) contract will weaken employee protections, opening the door to further destabilization and destruction. He threatens to withhold money if he doesn't get his way. He, like many Republicans across the country, wants to eliminate having to pay for public education and transfer money spent supporting public education to the private sector, ie. businesses. (Diane Ravitch exposes this in her book, "Reign of Error" - I highly recommend this book for understanding the insidious historical attack on the institution of public education.)  

This year LePage has proposed to eliminate the funding formula that is used to determine state school subsidies. Specifically, he wants to eliminate funding for 'System Administration'. This pays for school superintendents and school boards. Wouldn't you say this very conveniently fits into his plan? Without these leadership entities, public schools will not only lose local leadership, but protection from political harm. The next step will be to weaken the teacher union, as has been done in other parts of the country. These actions so very conveniently follow the same paths as in other parts of the country where the attack on public education is further along in its path of destruction.

 

     Let's acknowledge that education is expensive and costs have increased over the years. What has not increased in cost? Food - increased.  Shelter - increased.  Utilities - increased. Etc. The cost of living has increased so it is reasonable that the cost of education will also increase along with all other costs. To attack education because it is costly, is disingenuous. The attack is meant to destroy public education. That would truly be a major blow to our society.

     Next up....president and federal education appointees who use money and political power to support politicians who are not friends of public education. Politicians who support big business.

 

    

 

     

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

 

Town Action Needed

 

 

     The January 10, 2017 Times Record contained articles describing issues that bear careful attention. First, "Town (Brunswick) Faces Tough Choices Over Fate of Aging Schools". Next, "Democrats Skeptical, Republicans Supportive of Gov. LePage's Budget".

  

     The town of Brunswick has a history of procrastinating when having to make difficult choices. By procrastination, I don't mean the time to carefully research and consider all options, in a  reasonable number of public meetings for all citizens to hear the facts, research, options considered and recommendations from town staff and Town Council, School Board, and other advisory groups. It is just plain hard for this town to make a decision and then implement it. There are many divergent viewpoints, people now forming groups, all wanting their way, with little room for compromise. Washington is not the only place where things drag out, resulting in unnecessary cost inflation to the taxpayers. Our 'beautifully balanced' town of Brunswick is home to projects that cost more than they should due to delay, masked as citizen participation and transparency. At some point, decisions have to be made and forward movement is necessary.

    The headline, "Town Faces Tough Choices Over Fate of Aging Schools" implies that work still needs to be done to arrive at a course of action to address two of our aging public schools. In fact, the School Board has spent considerable dedicated time in public meetings discussing the research, data collected, many options. After many starts and re-starts, the School Board came to a consensus recommendation and presented it to the Town Council. The recommendation to the Town Council  included a repair and renovation bond project to address major facilities deficiencies in two schools. Additionally, the School Department applied for, and received, Revolving Renovation monies from the state to address the most serious deficiencies in these two schools. Here's the link to the Brunswick School Department's facilities planning activities dating back to 2011: http://www.brunswick.k.12.me.us/facilities-study/  The Town Council rejected the School Board's first repair/renovate recommendation, indicating the School Board should re-evaluate and return with a recommendation that included building a new school. Some councilors' statements, "Go big or go home", "if we are going to spend that much just to repair, we should build new to get the best use of our money invested" were made. Another year passed where the School Board engaged in more architectural studies, with a careful eye kept on managing the cost of a new school. Again, the School Board met in public, discussed and debated the merits of additional options and arrived at a recommendation for a new elementary school to be built and repair/renovations to be made at the Junior High School. Town Councilors followed School Board deliberations, some even attending the meetings. The School Superintendent and the Town Manager stayed in close contact, meeting regularly and sharing information. When this second recommendation was presented to the Town Council, the brakes screeched loudly. The very same 9 Councilors are now saying more time is needed to study the financial implications of the recommendation and implying, perhaps, the School Board need to go back to the 'drawing board'.  The town's Finance Department has also studied the proposals and cost. The town's Finance Director and the school department's Finance Manager shared information and numerous models of tax impact were developed and publicly discussed. Yes, this will be expensive. It is a given. What more is needed?  We can argue about the pros and cons of the proposals. To what end? For how long?

 

This is the point at which a decision needs to be made. The schools need action. We need to send this to the citizens for either an approval or denial. Either we invest to build a new elementary school/ repair the Junior High or we invest to make major repairs/renovations to these two schools. Waiting will only increase the cost of whatever course of action taken to address the facilities deficiencies in these two buildings. Waiting to see if Brunswick schools will climb to the top of a statewide application for construction of a new school is a long shot, at best. Waiting will only increase the chance that a facilities mishap occurs and shuts down one or both of these schools and an emergency plan will have to be enacted. Think....double sessions of school; moving 5th graders into the junior high school where there is room even though the building is in need of repair; moving some of the junior high classes to the "new" high school (which is 20 years old!); leasing other space to hold classes; buying enough modular classrooms to accommodate however many classes might be displaced if a facilities mishap occurs. All of these less expensive, but still costly, options were considered but rejected.

 

My next upcoming post will be dedicated to the state's budget proposal, particularly education, health, and welfare.  Local agreements, local control should be pretty easy compared to coming to statewide agreement on proposals that will substantively change public education. Let's start by quickly finding common ground to move forward on our local schools issues and then coalesce around protecting public education.

 

 



Why Do We Hire Professional Educators?

 

Why Do We Hire Professional Educators?

 

 

I often ask myself this question, "Why does the town of Brunswick hire any professional to work in our schools?"  My personal view is that it takes skillful, dedicated professionals who persevere in their jobs, under often difficult situations. Gone are the days when we can say people who work in education do so because they can have summers off. Today those who work in education put in long hours throughout the year. School calendars may have markers that say school ends sometime in June, but effective educators work throughout the entire year. Collaborating with their colleagues on curriculum development, lesson planning, school initiatives, analyzing the never-ending data collected on student achievement, communicating with parents and other community members (it does take a village to raise a child), creating schedules that eke out every possible learning moment for students, financial planning/budgeting, and more. Please notice that most of these activities do not include any direct contact time with students. When you consider that educators spend most of their day in a classroom with students, you might curiously ask when they do all the things I just listed in the previous sentence. The answer: before and after school, the weekends, and during the summer months. So, yes, here are some adjectives that describe educators: professional, persevering, dedicated, motivated to make a difference in a child's life. Multiple children's lives. Education matters in people's lives. It opens doors to a lifetime of opportunities.

 

So why would Brunswick want to hire professional educators? Answer: to use their skills and passion to create stimulating learning opportunities for both kids and themselves; to be creative thinkers and make learning meaningful and interesting; to be critical thinkers to solve problems and issues that arise in our schools.

These are highly professional, dedicated, skillful resourceful people working in the Brunswick School Department - teachers, administrators, and a wide array of support personnel (from classroom assistants to nutrition staff to bus drivers to secretaries to nurses to mechanics to....on and on). Every one of them are teachers in their own way. They all contribute to the development of students who become skillful, creative, critical thinkers.

 

There is one more task that all these professional school employees do that can take even more perseverance. That is to deal with the political bodies and individual activists who use political organizing to influence the operations of our schools. I am not talking about shaping the vision for our community schools. I am not talking about the individual parent-teacher relationships that are formed in order to better serve individual children's learning and social needs. I am not talking about legitimate volunteers who selflessly give their time and/or resources to the schools and seek NOTHING in return. No fame. No recognition. No 'resume building' accolades. No social ladder climbing. No political points.

 

Every day school staff enter their schools trying to keep the 'political buzz' at bay in order to bring the day's learning opportunities alive.  They must reduce the clamoring noise of those who believe the school budget is excessive. They must soften the sounds of the citizen voices at the public podium who have a specific disagreement about something happening at one of the schools. They must cushion the many 'I have an idea that would be good for our schools' and artfully integrate it.

 

Every day school staff open the doors of our schools and classrooms ready to spend the day with children smiling, laughing, talking, singing, dancing, moving.....And then do the same the next day and the day after. Year after year.

 

Let's not let the political buzz get too loud.  Let's let the professional educators we hire do what they do best and celebrate with them all the good things happening in our schools.