From: Elizabeth Aeschlimann [mailto:e.aeschli@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 3:56 PM
To: e.aeschli
Cc: Marianna Sylvester; jacklivramento; Deborah Roher; cabadaaa@verizon.net; Marsha O.; Renee Ledbetter; Marion Oliviera; jpateach@aol.com; jbarboza_8; Carol Montero; Carol Montero; Scott Spencer; Rabbi Kanter; rdwilson1; Rance Gillespie; gsylvia; maliac@ix.netcom.com; Margaret Dias; rosanna frances; Suzanne Sullivan; MICHAEL BLAIS; Kristen Kalbrener; plcnoah9@aol.com; berg1776@verizon.net; mark-8@comcast.net; Kristen Grime; musiconwheels@comcast.net
Subject: UIA Education Updates
Hi all,
I hope you are saying cool in this weather! Last week, a group of leaders (Mark, Kristen K., Mike, Sr. Marianna, Marsha, Justine, Dorothy, Diane, Renee and Jack--and anyone is welcome to jump in!) began meeting to plan the Small Autonomous Schools Working Group meetings, where we will work out the details of the policy for Small Autonomous Schools (SAS) with the Mayor, the Superintendent and the School Committee members who were at our action. The first SAS Working Group meeting will be August 18.
In just two weeks we have had many conversations and thought a lot about our strategy. One big development: we decided to invite Dan French, from the Center for Collaborative Education who spoke at our Education Forum, to be the expert who guides the Working Group through the details of the policy decision-making process and facilitates the meetings to make sure we stay on track and everyone is heard. We are working on putting together the funding for this. See notes with more highlights from the past two weeks below, put together with the help of Marsha.
And finally, on August 10 at 7pm (location TBA), we will be having a UIA-wide meeting to give a more complete update, and to get everyone's input about the plans we have made for the Working Group and the policy UIA hopes will come out of those discussions. I'm looking forward to seeing you all then.
Be well,
Liz
WEEK IN REVIEW - JULY 20
SAS - Small Autonomous Schools
CONVERSATIONS AND KEY LESSONS:
Carolee Matsumoto - Education Consultant on NB Education Roundtable
• Remember it’s OUR process
• Hash things out now we so we get some decisions made
• Create subcommittees to work more efficiently and keep some people out of the way
Dan French - Education Consultant from Center for Collaborative Education
• Define policy in more detail (learn from Boston’s mistakes - creating too general a
policy)
• Either need Working Group to work out details:
- what an RFP (Request for Proposal) would be
- timeline
- necessary outreach
- exact autonomies OR
• Have faith in another body that will take care of those details once policy is approved
• Could serve as expert and facilitator for $10,000. (negotiable)
• If hired, would provide consultation, facilitation, and writing to assist Working Group
to develop a policy and supporting materials on Small Autonomous Schools to
present to NB School Committee for their review and consideration, including:
- Facilitate all Working Group meetings to ensure they’re productive and make
decisions through consensus
- Provide technical consultation on all aspects of designing a SAS policy and
getting it approved by School Committee
- Provide resources to Working Group to help them better understand key aspects
of SAS
- Ensure that the drafting process is inclusive and representative of the group’s
consensual thinking and agreements
- Be the primary writer of the SAS policy and any supporting materials that the
group is charged with, including an RFP (Request for Proposals), timeline for roll-
out, and a process for approving new small schools
- Ensure that the Working Group is adequately prepared for presentations to the
School Committee
Meg Maccini - Education Consultant
• Currently a doctoral student at UMA Amherst - affects availability, travel time costs
• Has experience with Horace Mann Charter schools
• Former teacher, principal, member of subcommittees in discussions with School
Dept. to define autonomous schools
• Has experience working with state
Linda Morad - Mayoral candidate spoke at Education Roundtable (group of concerned business and community leaders)
• No well-defined education policy
Jon Mitchell - Mayoral candidate
• Unveiled a defined educational platform
- Expand home visits to all schools
- Allow more budget and staffing autonomy for principals
•We will be working on a strategy for meeting with all the mayoral candidates and making sure they know our views on education, as well as hearing their ideas
Linda Fiorsy - Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in MA
• Explained that liaison between NB schools and state has been chosen
• Plan Manager is Desi Nesmith from Cambridge Education; began working with Supt.
Francis recently
• Plan Manager has no authority; serves as resource for the district; therefore, we
must go through Supt.
Nate Everett - NB teacher and leader of design team that attempted to create a pilot
school but withdrew application in frustration
• Identified barriers:
- Getting clarity from Supt. who kept delaying decisions, responses
- Lou St. John (union pres.) protecting status quo
- Convincing teachers that SAS is doable so they take the risk
- Institutional history between district and union - control issue
- Showing how SAS are “budget-neutral”
- Staffing autonomy changes current hiring policy based on seniority
• Advice on overcoming barriers:
- Have a clear vision for students
- Define specific details
- Share power with teachers
- Push from the bottom up - making sure that the parents are aware, informed, and
supportive
• Opportunities:
- Current contract negotiations
- Federal Race to the Top $$
- Mayoral election
- Plan Manager
Justine, Rosie, & Beth - UIA leaders and NB teachers
• Will speak to teachers who could be supporters and have some power
- Approach teachers who may be interested in designing schools
- Ask teachers “What is your dream school?”
• Beth and Justine will meet with union pres. Lou St. John
- to hear his objections to SAS
- to invite him to join the Working Group
7 comments:
The teachers that work with the UIA are traitors or "useful idiots" that have been duped by an anti-teacher organization that operates under the guise of being a religious group.
I understand Mr. Everett's application for NBHS was REJECTED! I thought religious people weren't supposed to lie.
The UIA are well intentioned but being mislead by the usual suspects. It is also unfair to call the teacher's names. However, others mentioned in the minutes are up to their old tricks, jumping in front of any group, hearing, meeting, or reporter to sell their magical cures that would fix it all if not for the obstruction of the union, administration and so on. As the Innovation school issue shows, some people are quite comfortable in this role, never having to succeed in developing their plans past square one. If it doesn't succeed, you just run to the newspaper and roundtable and blame the obstructionists. It's the age of accountability after all.
Nate - I want to drop 20 pounds and run the Boston marathon. Who can I blame if my plan isn't good enough?
Are you kidding me?
All I can say is this email is an example of why these so-called education experts should not be running the show...any English teacher worth his/her salt will tell you that the grammar is atrocious! I for one would like my students to be more effective than that as future leaders of the United States!
Don't drink the KoolAid! Figured those who are following blindly needed a reminder of what happened in Jonestown.
As other comments note, Mr. Everett's application should have been rejected. This does not preclude the fact that it is important to learn from the experience of others, whether their experience in the process has been a positive or negative one. As teachers, many of us have had to change our approaches (which we thought were wonderful at the time) to best serve our students. We should not view our need to do this as a "failure" but as an opportunity to grow, learn, and create the best learning environment for our students. Teachers are always learning from one another, and as teachers, our work environment is in a constant state of change. Just as we modify our environments within a classroom to meet the needs of our students, as teachers we need to broaden that vision, and look at the school system as a whole(clearly the system is being observed and commented upon by many sources outside the city). Some models do not meet the needs of all of our students. Wasn't this true when we opened co-teaching/integrated classrooms, as well as classes for students on the autism spectrum? This one model, Small Autonomous Schools, should not be seen as a "fix" for the system, but as an option for some students for whom the present model is not most effective. To view it in any other manner is not being honest with ourselves. 09 August, 2011
Post a Comment