Education Notebook

Finalists for Teacher of the Year named

The ten teachers have been named finalists for Minnesota Teacher of the Year.
Two of them are teachers from southeastern Minnesota: Katy Smith, an educator at Goodview School in Winona Public School's Early Childhood Family Education program; and Mark Nechanicky, a fourth-grade teacher at Lakeview Elementary School in Albert Lea.
The winner will be named on May 1 at a banquet at The Northland Inn in Brooklyn Park.
The other finalists include: Joyce Bauman, a kindergarten teacher at Cold Spring Elementary School, ROCORI; Scot Hovan, a physics teacher at Mahtomedi High School, Mahtomedi; Mary Pereine, a history teacher at Chaska Middle School East, Eastern Carver County; Peter Redmond, a language arts teacher at st. Louis Park High School, St. Louis Park; Christi Schmitt, an elementary school teacher at L'Etoile du Nord French Immersion School, St. Paul; Laura Sharp, a music teacher at Little Canada Elementary School, Roseville; Megan Speers, a history teacher at Wayzata West Middle School, Wayzata; and J. Scott Urban, a government and history teacher at Mankato West High School, Mankato.
The contest started with 108 teacher candidates from across the state. A panel of 23 representatives in business, government and non-profits have narrowed the list to 10 finalists.

REA statement

We weren't able to include the statement by REA president Kit Hawkins in today's paper after licensed teachers agreed to give back $900,000 in staff development funds to help plug the district's $5 million budget hole. Our print deadline had passed, so I include it in my blog: 

REA is very appreciative of the time licensed teachers took to express their position on the allocation of staff development funding to the general fund.

Teachers voted in support of the allocation of staff development dollars to the general fund because it was the right thing to do. We are not out of the woods yet. The district must plan for next year without knowing what funds will be provided by the our legislature. There are specific categorical aids such as Title One funding and Integration aid that cannot be counted on. Positions are funded by those dollars so even with staff development dollars supplementing the general fund, there will be staff placed on unrequested leave.

REA elections

When Rochester teachers vote starting on Monday and ending Thursday, the will be doing more than voting on whether to part with staff training dollars to help the district repair a $5 million gap.

They will also be electing a new crop of leaders, including REA president. Kit Hawkins, the current incumbent, is running for a second three-year term. She is being challenged for the post by two teachers from Willow Creek Middle School, Carrie Ekert and Michelle Bacon.

The results of the voting on both the staff development question and the REA election will known by March 25. 

Duncan says 82 percent of schools could 'fail' under NCLB this year

Education Secretary Arne Duncan told Congress today that his department estimates that 82 percent of America's schools could fail to meet education goals set by No Child Left Behind this year. Duncan urged Congress to fix the law before the next school year begins so that the schools and students most at risk get the help they need.

 “No Child Left Behind is broken and we need to fix it now,” said Duncan during testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

 “This law has created a thousand ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed. We should get out of the business of labeling schools as failures and create a new law that is fair and flexible, and focused on the schools and students most at risk,” Duncan continued.

No Child Left Behind requires all U.S. public schools to meet annual targets — called Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) — aimed at making all students 100 percent proficient in reading or language arts and math by 2014.

 

District to hold input sessions for next superintendent

Rochester Public Schools on Thursday will hold three community input sessions that will be used to develop a profile for the next superintendent.

The events will be held at 7 p.m. at three schools, Gibbs Elementary School, 5525 56th St. N.W., Kellogg Middle School, 503 17th St. N.W., and Willow Creek Middle School, 2425 11th Ave. S.E.

Thursday is also the deadline for community members to fill out a survey that will be used as well in developing the characteristics of the next superintendent.

The Rochester School Board hired School Exec Connect to assist the board in its search. The firm is expected to take the information from the input sessions and survey forms and present the board with the information at its March 18 meeting. The board began its search soon after the district's previous superintendent, Romain Dallemand, accepted a new post in Macon, Ga.

Once the profile is completed, the recruitment of candidates will take place from Feb. 15 to April 27, which is expected to lead to five or six candidates presented to the board by May 3. The board hopes to have a new leader installed by July 1.

 

Dallemand plans cabinet shake-up

This is a blog devoted to educational developments in the Rochester area, but since former Rochester superintendent Romain Dallemand was such a central figure here for nearly four years, some might be interested to know what he is doing in Macon, Ga.

As Macon.com shows, Dallemand, who took the job as Bibb County superintendent two months ago, is moving quickly to reorganize his cabinet. In fact, it suggests he is moving faster than he ever did in Rochester to bring about change:

Romain Dallemand, the new Bibb County school superintendent, intends to present a reorganization plan to the Bibb County school board later this week that will mean big changes in the system’s administrative offices, including some longtime employees.

"We're going to implement change right at the central office," Dallemand told board members.

Dallemand told the board that would happen by the end of March, so he's running ahead of schedule. It's possible that the reorganization could include dismissals and reassignments.

"What he chooses to do as far as his staff is his choice," Board Member Gary Bechtel said.

School trends in Rochester

You may have missed the article on Saturday (it lacked a graphic to draw the eye), but a recent enrollment report released by Rochester Public Schools reveals some intriguing trends over the last decade.

I highlight a few of them:

• Home-schooling and charter schools remains popular options and are growing within the district. The number of home-schooled students rose to 453 students in 2010, compared to 362 in 2001. That's a 25 percent increase. Charter school enrollment also grew, to 401 students in 2010 from 199 students ten years ago - a 101 percent rise.

• Online learning takes a small percentage of students within the district but it is growing. In 2002, there wasn't a single student in an online program. Now there are 115 students.

• Private schools have been losing students over the last decade, most likely because of economic concerns. There were 2,656 students who attended private schools in 2010, a 15.9 percent drop from the 3,142 students who attended in 2000.

New interim super reflects on job

Rochester interim superintendent Jackie Silver has had an opportunity to observe a number of superintendents during her more than two decades with the district. Now two months into her role as interim superintendent, Silver is learning that there are some lessons that can only be learned by doing the job. She shared her thoughts about what she had learned in a recent message posted on the Rochester Public Schools website:

1. It is not as easy as it looks.

2. No decision will make everyone happy.

3. There are incredible people working in the district.

4. People DO watch the reruns of School Board meetings.

5. Everyone knows what a teacher does; many people do not know what administrators do.

6. Visting schools and attending events to observe students in action is the best part of the job.

To read the full message: go to