Comments on: MDUSD appears to misrepresent some information in letter to parents about special education transportation changes

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 19:07:49 +0000

You make an interesting point, especially in light of the fact that MDEA did not endorse Trustee Lynne Dennler when she ran two years ago, despite her former membership in MDEA. (I’m not sure if retired teachers remain members.)
Dennler surprised nearly everyone by beating Lawrence and other candidates who filed ballot statements. Many believed her win was based largely on her ballot designation as a retired teacher.
Ballot designations appear to make a big difference with voters. Many years ago, Susan Bonilla similarly surprised many people when she won a seat on the Concord City Council — beating out candidates that appeared to have more political clout. Her ballot designation was also a teacher, I believe.
Even State Supt. Tom Torlakson faced a skirmish over his designation as a teacher on the ballot. Some opponents alleged he shouldn’t be able to claim that title, since he was only teaching a short course at Los Medanos College.

By: anon

anon — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 18:34:55 +0000

How does MDEA feel about Brian Lawrence representing himself as an “Educator” as his primary and current vocation on his ballot designation? Wouldn’t MDEA want to reconsider endorsing someone who claims to be an educator when their role has always been to advocate and represent actual dues paying professional and trained educators?

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 19:25:38 +0000

Here is my news brief about Monday’s meeting: http://bit.ly/OJLx8b

By: g

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 18:58:25 +0000

I seem to remember a quote on here about Gretchen Jacobs saying much of her problems at Sun Terrace were linked to “those Holbrook kids” or something like that.

It would be interesting to find out how the Wren staff fared with “those Holbrook kids.”

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 18:30:48 +0000

I believe the state has developed a longitudinal student tracking system that allows districts to follow specific students instead of just looking at overall API growth. Certainly, parents have this information for their own children.
I believe the recently released data on children’s well-being showed that students have a much better chance at academic success if they go to a higher-performing school that is not in a poor neighborhood, even if they live in a low-income area.
So, Glenbrook students sent to Valley View and El Dorado may have had better chances of success than those sent to Oak Grove MS.
Also, many students from the Glenbrook area attend Sequoia MS, which has a high API score compared to most others districtwide, with a diverse student body.
Based on what the Oak Grove whistleblowers regarding discipline told me, it sounds like staff at that school had its hands full just trying to maintain order in the classroom. The discipline issues there severely impacted their ability to teach and students’ ability to learn, they said.

By: g

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:23:34 +0000

NCLB poses an interesting question. I see indications that there seems to be a big decline and failure of achievement at the middle school level.

What happens when you close an elementary school in a low income, very diverse neighborhood, that despite all odds, was finally pulling in API over 800; downgrade many of them to much lower performing schools, and graduate/transition many of them up into very poor performing middle schools?

It would be very interesting to find out how those specific children are doing on API a year later.

By: g

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:06:06 +0000

Theresa: Unfortunately, after a full year of being divided, Holbrook parents are no longer ‘organized’ around the school, and the district knows that. A few parents tried to fight the closure, but even then the PTA president had already moved out of the neighborhood, and was not interested in putting up any extra effort. Why she stayed on after moving is beyond my understanding.

The district knows they have the upper hand against what is becoming an increasingly low income, hard working, Hispanic, black and elderly long-time homeowners area of town.

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 04:19:41 +0000

g: That’s really interesting about Holbrook and Glenbrook. Those families could request that their closed schools be considered their home schools and not their new – far-away schools. The board has the authority to make that kind of amendment to the proposed policy.
At the previous school closure hearings, Trustee Lynne Dennler expressed a desire to help students who were being unduly impacted by the need to travel long distances get to school. It will be interesting to see if she speaks up again on this topic.
It will also be interesting to see if the new board candidates show up and comment on the plan. Although the proposal doesn’t impact high schoool students, Barbara Oaks will now be expected to express opinions about students at every grade level.
The plan may impact students in Bay Point — where Debra Mason lives. I’m not sure if it will impact Clayton — where Ernie DeTrinidad lives — or Walnut Creek, where Brian Lawrence lives.
It will also be interesting to see what Board President Sherry Whitmarsh says. Oak Grove MS, which her children attended, has the opposite problem — students are leaving in droves under NCLB transfers. But since the district receives funding for NCLB transfers, Superintendent Lawrence is not pushing to eliminate it. However, FCMAT recommended (in its unpublished draft report) that the district consider designating specific NCLB receiver schools, instead of allowing students to transfer to any school in the district.

By: g

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 00:09:52 +0000

Dr J: Whether it was intended or not, this will turn out looking (yet again) like a sick, selfish, minority and racially prejudiced plan. Mileage is based from the “home elementary school.” Kids in Holbrook have already had their home school changed to Wren, 1.75+ miles from many of their homes.

Normally those kids would have gone to Glenbrook. Now their middle school is Oak Grove or El Dorado, or ?

THE KICKER:

Under the new plan, using Wren as the “home elementary school” will make it so that they no longer have to transport any of those “one cheek on, one cheek off” students from Glenbrook neighborhoods. Sneaky of them, huh?

But guess who will still get a limo to Holbrook/Anova.

By: g

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 23:54:14 +0000

(untimely ‘enter’ key =) Maybe, they have decided to abandon Schreder’s recent work. If they want to renew his contract, which comes up soon I believe, they may need an excuse to have him “wash, rinse, repeat” his multiple studies of the same issues.