The RT Thread Part V

[mkcoughlan]

How is the weather??

Fine lots of branches hanging around from Sandy so i tripped alot but other then that fine

[mkcoughlan]

What Disney things do you collect?

I collect Baseballs & Vinymations

I have two whole books full of pressed coins

[wallfan329]

Oh My.! Thanks. Come here to find out about my sister. We best not have weather issues because our crews are gone.

If you want to know anymore PM me...

[wallfan329]

35 more minutes of trick or treaters.

Trick or Treat was moved to Saturday here... The high schoolers are up in arms cause it is our first play-off game. I think that the townships should have gotten together and talked a little more (or pay attention to the schools more)

[mkcoughlan]

Today the pizza place gave us pizza that tasted like throwu p thats a nasty trick to play on halloween well...30$ credit for us!

[fungus_01]

Another successful Halloween done. Tomorrow, the Christmas tree goes up!

[Keasmom]

Tulsa: Peanut Butter Burgers.

I'm not moving to Tulsa.

Oh, gross. I could not find the barfing smilie.

[Keasmom]

Hmmm...Mrs. Conservative...have you seen some of Princess Leia's costumes. They leave little to the imagination.

True, but at least the original covers all the importatn bits.

[Keasmom]

23% of the county she lives in is out of power.

The issue to not having the power fix yet is because the major company that does most of the electricity here in NEO because they sent a lot of the crews have been sent to the EC... They are now shipping in crews for other places.

Even our area is deploying crews northward.

[Keasmom]

OK-Several different topics here. I had to go and look at the board and school websites to get a good handle on those issues.

Special Ed is Federally mandated. My IL state code book is 3 inches thick, the Federal code book is just as large.
States will sight the laws passed by the Feds that are mandatory to be followed. Those are two large high schools with some interesting demographics. The district on a whole has just under half of the students signed up for special education services. Wooba! Each SE student receives their own individual IEP. In order to receive partial funding from the State and the Feds plans must be submitted for SE plans. In order to receive partial funding for the teaching and aide staff paperwork must be filed correctly.

How the heck they pulled this off without hiring a person to coordinate this prior is beyond me. Likely the district has missed out on many grants and funding without someone specifically devoted to this job. It has been 20 years since we have had one and our district is substantially smaller. By the grants obtained by our SP specialist at district the board received 3 times her salary the first year in grants and funding. Your district is fortunate to find a qualified person with only a bachelor degree and a relatively low salary for a qualified SP person. If she had a masters you'd pay more. If she has a doctorate you would pay dearly. With every level of education the staff climbs so does their salary. I find it a good move on the boards part to keep costs lower all the while putting themselves in a position to receive more funding.

Thank you, That actually makes sense.

The gym is what chaps me. The school wanting a new gym, is the school the really rich neighborhoods are designated for. The other one is a lot more of the lower echelon. ER.

[Keasmom]

My son is. Boo!

I hope he is having a blast.

[Keasmom]

WHAT THE something, something, something!?!?!

Exactly. We were both just shocked and appalled.

[Keasmom]

checking in via iphone

still no power home rumor has it coming back on is tomorrow night

Well, that beats a week or better. Just glad you all are okay.

[Keasmom]

And now onto sports: One of the buildings sports building is far newer than the other and size is very different and as a result the offerings are different. Worse is the accident reports and rising insurance costs due to the accidents do to how the aging facility has. Not correcting these issues leaves the district open to lawsuits. The restrooms are a real issue mixing students and visitors together. Concession areas need to stay up to health codes and leaving them like they are not wise.

They are correct. Two different Pots of Money, they are called funds. Once the budget is created you cannot slosh money from one fund to the other, capital funds to Educational funds. It is illegal. So the board can look at the project and not do it because the books are needed, but they cannot buy books with those budgeted capital funds. The laws were created so nobody could pass a budget high in educational funds and steal it for projects.

Now N. IL had a school sealed here for mold. It was closed for almost two years and they put all the students in one high school. If that building is that unsafe and moldy the Regional Office of Education and Public Health should seal the school and address the mold. We have leaky roofs. Spent countless dollars chasing leaks. We have flat roofs and leaks are addressed and they reappear elsewhere. Pain in the butt and budget.

Books I'm not sure how your state handles these. Most of our books are off set by funds we receive from the state and the feds. In some subjects books never ever leave the classroom. Textbooks are expensive and they go out of edition quickly. Others we have one at home and one set in classroom, usually literature and math.
We are migrating over to a Kindle/Ipad process for books. As long as the tech supports new additions that seems to solve the book problem. If the tech is lost or stolen we still own the rights to that edition of the text we purchased. Backpacks will be so light, will also hold assignment on tech device and outline of tests and quizzes. It will eventually work for virtual classroom for sick kids because they can watch class from their IPad.
That we have to workout with the teaching staff yet, they are not onboard yet being video'd while while teaching their students. That will have to be negotiated but that is the direction teaching is going for the future. I could not find the data to show one high school receiving higher dollar amounts in text books than the other school. You need to obtain a hard copy of the budget for the 2012-2013 school year and find the line item for text books and then freedom the dollar amount for text books for each of the two schools. Life span of a text book is generally 5-7 years. We do subject by subject district wide otherwise the curriculum doesn't match district wide or grade to grade. You also have many levels of lets say remedial algebra, general algebra, honors/AP algebra. We have more disappearing text books at the remedial level than the levels combined. Because every 2 years new editions are created by the publisher you can't just replace them. So by the end of the life cycle we have students sharing and the books can't leave the classroom. They can come in early or stay after. Teachers normally xerox their own math problems (copyright issues) and use those for homework. We also buy workbooks so text don't leave classroom. At $100 to $200 per book x 1200 students in each hs in your district, one subject costs a boatload of money.

My old highschool had their own solution to textbooks and still does. Books can be deemed a consumable item.
My old highschool required you to buy each and every text book each year at $500 to $1000 per year per student or you could buy them used if you could get your hands on a current edition still being used. Students who parents were below the poverty line received free books.


Sorry you asked yet?

Not sorry, glad. We need information. I have asked for 6 months for a copy of the budget, and am going to have to use a media friend to get a copy. They act like it is a state security secret, but we have sunshine laws and open book laws. Still. We need information to fight the rotten School board guy-he lies, and lies and was hired to get an agenda accomplished that the parents are fighting. It doesn't currently affect me, cause she goes to a non public, however, in the event that she needs a public school, I want good ones, for her and all the otehr motivated learners. It seems they should have some equality in spending so all the schools are equally good.

[Keasmom]

35 more minutes of trick or treaters.

We went to Hallelujah night at church, and our neighborhood is not usually the one the trick or treaters come to. They usually go over to the really rich neighborhoods on the west side of town, and innundate those neighborhoods.