Lawrence school board looking to 'reinvent' district
Lawrence Township School Board is considering a measure to increase student
achievement and could cut more than $3 million from its ailing budget.
Administrators presented several ideas to the board during a work session
Monday, said Superintendent Concetta Raimondi. Nothing has been decided, and
further discussion will take place at the board's 7 p.m. meeting Nov. 23.
The district has worked two years on what it calls an "elementary redesign" plan,
Raimondi said."We're trying to reinvent the district to be high performing, high functioning," Raimondi said. Even though national trends for the last two decades have placed sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students in one middle school, more recent studies show that sixth-graders have better test scores and thrive better in an elementary setting.
"Our sixth graders are not flourishing as we'd hope," Raimondi said. The studies show sixth-grade physical and emotional maturity is closer to their fourth- and fifth-grade peers rather than eighth-graders, Raimondi said. A decline in enrollment should leave enough space in elementary schools to keep sixth-grade students there one more year, Raimondi said.It would also allow the district to consider closing one of its three middle schools, a move administrators estimate will save $3.5 million and could close the district's more than $3 million budget gap. Savings would come from cutting utilities, teaching, staff and administrative positions. The elementary and middle school shift could happen as early as the 2010-11 school year, Raimondi said. Administrators also presented several other options for the board to consider, but putting sixth-grade students back in the elementary schools was the most seriously considered.
Other options included closing one or two elementary schools, which would save
$800,000 to $900,000 a year but only address budget concerns, creating a
ninth-grade campus and using the current high schools as an upper campus for
older students and a lower campus for younger students, Raimondi said.
"We are looking at options as I'm sure every school in the state is with the economic forecast," Raimondi said. "The ultimate goal is for student achievement and to achieve the best scenarios for the students."Should IPS try to reinvent itself or reincarnate itself?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Reinventing IPS
The Star has a story this week about how Lawrence Township Schools are "reinventing" themselves.
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IPS definitely needs to reinvent itself. It tries to pretend its negative image is due to racism or negative stereotypes, but that's simply not the case. System-wide, the culture of IPS is hostile to prospective families and to education excellence as a whole. Look at the IPS website compared to the other districts. Try to e-mail a teacher or administrator from IPS, and then look how easy it is on the township sites. Look at the opportunity for excellence in those other schools. Compare the clusterf*** of IPS administration to the efficiency of other districts. IPS accepts things like missing busses and lost paperwork and rude office staff in a way that simply doesn't happen in other districts. Walk into any IPS school and then walk into a township school. The hostility and indifference in the air at IPS schools is so thick that you sense it when you walk in the front door. Not just the kids, but the staff. In every way, IPS reaffirms that IPS is the school district only appropriate for those who can't escape. There is no attempt to convince parents or students that it can be trusted to do its part if parents and students do theirs. (I'm a parent who gave IPS my best shot for many years, but finally gave up and put my kids in private school.)
ReplyDeleteIPS cannot even figure out a way to pay employees on pay day and pay them the right amount. It is too late to reinvent IPS. What we need is a dignified funeral and let our students move on to schools with superintendents who care and school boards who are more than just figureheads. School boards that will demand accountability from the superintendent and his top administration is a must.
ReplyDeleteOh please we have been reinvented so many times I can't keep up, select schools, small learning communities, community schools. It dizzies the mind. How about we reinvent ourselves as a system interested in doing what is best for kids, and teachers. Lets stop the smoke and mirrors and care about the outcome for every student who walks in the door. As a certain principal is fond of saying "they don't care how much you know till they know how much you care".
ReplyDeleteThese are students not widgets, and we need to respect what is in their best interests instead of all this publicity seeking.
My best year was just after the sixth graders left. Poor little fifth graders took exactly one year to rise to the top of the food chain amd become behavior problems.
ReplyDeleteThe worst? When they returned/stayed. Then we had TWO grades full of kids who wanted to run the school.
But, having been in a middle school, that was no place for most of the sixth graders, either.
Does anyone know statistics of Perry's Sixth Grade Academy? I'd be curious to learn of its impact, be it positive or negative.
Yes, IPS accepts incompetence as the norm. Case in point, just this week Mary Louise Bewley forwarded an email from one of the elementary schools. Apparently this elementary school had misplaced (aka 'lost') several students' cumulative folders. If that's not bad enough, Bewley sent out the kids' names in a district-wide email. What a bunch of clowns at the Ed Center and in our school offices.
ReplyDeleteTry to locate pacing guides by visiting the IPS homepage. The entire website appears designed around 'adults' and how important they are. Pacing guides are buried deep within the IPS Divisions under a constantly changing link. Why must IPS have pictures and bios of the Ed Center administrators? I'd prefer an easy-to-navigate website that is educator/student/parent friendly.
why pics and bios of the ed center elite? in spite of all of the pr, they believe they are the top of the pyramid. hello!!! the kids are the top! the further your office is from the kids the lower you should be on the totem pole-they don't get it and the building support staff don't either.
ReplyDeleteIPS lacks esprit de corps. The Ed Center is a toxic facility filled with toxic administrators and board members. It's all about them, their titles, their power, their conferences afar, their standing in the community, them, them, them.
ReplyDeleteIPS has been reinvented, reincarnated, recycled, and removed from reality for years. It is broken, and all the king's horses and all the king's men can't put it together again.
Then leave.
ReplyDeleteYour suggestion is mean spirited. Part of the problem for IPS is that too many people, staff and parents, are rejecting the failed policies and programs of Eugene White and voting with their feet. White is lucky that he has as many dedicated teachers left as he does. You can only kick someone so long and so hard before they leave.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you leave because of failed policies and programs, no matter who is responsible for them? There are still the kids who are your true reason for being there. I'd say leave if you aren't willing to love and care about the best interest of the kids first. To quote Dr. White you "shouldn't be working in the new IPS. Why? Because by accepting the profanity she is hurting students and setting them up for failure. If a dean accepts a threat on her life and does not suspend and place the student up for expulsion, she is enabling the student to prepare for failure, jail or some other sad reality. We can change Manual; we must care enough to stop the madness. It takes courage and true love to get it done."
ReplyDeleteGlasser calls this both love and social responsibility. And IPS from the top down could use a good dose. This probably belongs on the other thread, but I don't understand how someone who wrote the quoted citation can then turn around and talk about "return on investment" as it relates to the outcome for students. This is a cold and calculating way of approaching students. Every student who puts on an IPS uniform and participates in a sport is a winner, they are overcoming the odds, presented by poverty, peer pressure, lack of parental support and a myriad of other issues. Their participation is a triumph.
If you think IPS is so "broken", then leave. I guarantee your attitude has crept into your classroom and infected your students. IPS students deserve better than you.
ReplyDeleteThey deserve better than what is represented by this blog, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteThat is your problem. You think you can assess a person's teaching ability by reading 2 or 3 sentences that he/she might have written. I think your attitude of arrgoance and superiority is more harmful to our students.
ReplyDelete