Here is what’s wrong with charter schools…

At last Thursday night’s board meeting, the first order of business was to review and recommend action on a new charter school petition for the California Academic Vocational Academy (CAVA). The concept for the school is under legal scrutiny by SAVA (Sacramento Academic and Vocational Academy). SAVA claims that CAVA ripped off their program, word for word.

If you read SCUSD’s executive summary of CAVA’s application, you’ll get a very clear snapshot of what is wrong with the entire picture of the charter school “reform” movement. All style, no substance.
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Black Parallel School Board Seeks Council Members

Click here for application information

The Black Parallel School Board (BPSB) is a community organization developed to work parallel with the Sacramento City Unified District Board of Education. Its major responsibility is to support the educational growth and achievement of Black students as well as monitor all educational activities and programs of the school district, ensuring that they are compatible with the needs of African Descendant students in the district. Additionally, the Executive Council of the BPSB provides support services to parents regarding the education of their students. The Executive Council members attend school meetings with parents to advocate for their children; provide workshops for parents interested in learning techniques to make learning more successful.

Budget Committee Meeting — Wednesday

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 5:30 p.m.
Serna Center Indiana Room, 5735 47th Avenue

2010-2011 Budget Update

Title I Carryover

Committee/Task Force Status

Qualified School Construction Bond Update

Agenda Here

Dream Money

As many school boards in the U.S. hesitate, Race to the Top dollars come under a deadline. Our school board will discuss it tonight.

In Educational Utopia, here is how our board could appropriate this money and how everyone might work together:

1. E-21 continues as a public program without the majority of its funding coming from corporate philanthropy.
2. Our teachers and their union work to create a pipeline with state and federal agencies to give their collective ideas more bargaining power.
3. The poorest-ESLL (neighborhood) schools keep their doors open.
4. Parents become administrators of district-wide programs that focus on peer-led (grass roots level) involvement.

Special Board Meeting — Tuesday

Under review: An $18 million budget deficit and review of a charter school’s application.

Agenda here

Tuesday, January 12
Closed session begins at 5:30 p.m
Open session begins at 7:00 p.m.

Serna Center
5735 47th Avenue
Sacramento, Ca 95824
Tennessee Community Room

Leave the money on the table

While politicians and pseudo-educators clamor and compete for the Race to the Top funding currently working its way through the California legislature, it would behoove the SCUSD Board of Education to keep one thing in mind:

Money often doesn’t fill a vacuum, it creates one.

Some California school districts will opt out of the take because the Race to the Top mandates will be difficult to implement and fund with a one-time payout.

The best option for our school district is not to enter in to this financial arrangement with the government — in the long run, Race to the Top is a bad bargain.

‘‘I believe that this program abandons our neighborhood schools, the children that live there and the people nearby,” said Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch. ”Even worse, it abandons those very schools that are most in need of our help.”

Off topic but irresistable…

“The Fable of Michelle Rhee” by Jay Mathews.

Once upon a time, there was a young Ivy League missionary with a couple years to kill before getting on with her life’s work. Rather than backpacking through Europe or climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro after a safari in Africa, our intrepid heroine plunged into the mean streets of Baltimore where children who live in poverty test poorly.

One day the Ivy League princess was struck down like St. Paul on the way to Damascus. Sit the poor children in a circle, the voice told her. And sit them in a circle she did.

They forevermore scored like rich children on tests. Just take my word on that. I swear its true. And they all lived happily ever after.