Education Notebook

Work on new Lourdes High School proceeds

Received this statement from the Rev Kevin Connolly and Ann Felton, co-chairs of the Rochester Catholic Schools Board of Trustees, about the latest developments relative to the proposed Lourdes High School. We had heard about the possibility of a ground-breaking, and they responded with this statement:

Site preparation continues in anticipation of beginning construction on the new Lourdes High School facility. Weis Builders, construction managers for the project, will oversee this next round of site preparation. We have received permission from Bishop John M. Quinn, Diocese of Winona, for the footings to be dug and put in for the new school.

We are awaiting 'alienation of the land' paperwork
to arrive from the Vatican, because the purchase agreement with Mayo Clinic for the sale of the current Lourdes High School cannot be signed until the alientation is done. 'Alienation' is a Canon Law term that means to separate the land from its owner. Any piece of property that is worth more than $5 million must be alienated through the Vatican.

The capital campaign continues and finalizing of financing details is being completed. We are optimistic that authorization will be received to continue building throughout the winter months.

Rochester students win national computer competition - again

BDPA-Southern Minnesota stands for Black Data Processing Associates-Southern Minnesota. It's not the easiest name to remember, but the six high school students who represented the team at this year's national competition make it difficult to forget.

For the fifth consecutive year and sixth out of seven years, the Rochester team took first place in a national contest that measures computer skills. The highlight of the competition is a seven-hour programming project. This year, students were required to create a web application to allow customers to configure and purchase computer orders based on an inventory of electronic parts from multiple vendors.

This year's team included: Hassan Hassan, Zakaria Ahmed, Daniel Sheppard, Herchran Singh and Adwait Walimbe. 

"While our goal this year was to win, I'm most proud of our students not for the first place result, but for their preparation, work ethic and teamwork throughout the year leading up to the competition," said Zachary Garbow, who serves as technical director and lead instructor. 

WSU among 'Best in the Midwest'

Winonoa State University sent out a press statement this week, touting its selection as among the 153 schools named "Best in the Midwest" by the Princeton Review.

It was the eighth consecutive year that WSU has received the designation from the nationally known education services company.

In total, 629 colleges across the Midest, Northeast, West and Southeast were named "regional bests," according to the Princeton Rivew. The schools represent about 25 percent of the nation's 2,500 four-year colleges.

The Princeton Review's annual "Best Colleges: Region by Region: rankings are based on sttudent opinion data from the schools. Students are asked to rate their own school on several issues - from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food - and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students and their campus life.

6 charter schools close, including Studio Academy

Studio Academy, a Rochester's arts-based high school, was not the only charter school to close this year.

As Minnesota Public Radio notes in a recent report, there have been six charter schools across Minnesots to close their doors in recent weeks. 

Lake Superior High in Duluth and Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights were also forced to close, after the state Department of Education refused to grant them new sponsors. 

Other schools on the shuttered list include Long Tieng Academy in St. Paul, Prestige Academy in Minneapolis, Richard Allen Math & Science Academy in Minneapolis.

Studio Academy, which opened 11 years ago, abandoned a legal effort to stop its closure after an Olmsted County District judge refused its request to stay open last week.

Century picked one of America's best high schools

Century High School in Rochester has been named among America's best high schools, according to a Newsweek survey. It was ranked 210 out of 500 top schools in its ability to turn out college-ready students. Schools were evaluated against a yardstick comprised of six major components: graduation rate, college matriculation rate, AP tests taken per graduate, average SAT/ACT scores, average AP/1B/AICE scores and AP scores offered.

Century was among nine Minnesota schools to make the list. Edina, Mahtomedi, Lakeville North, Eden Prairie, St. Louis Park Senior, Andover, Apple Valley and Simley were other top-ranked Minnesota high schools.

The Rochester charter school churn

The charter school environment in Rochester has been churning lately, with the arts-based Studio Academy facing closure (and seeking court intervention to keep its doors open) and a new STEM Academy opening this fall.

Today, the Minnesota Department of Education said it had approved eight new authorizers, three from southeast Minnesota. Authorizers serve a key oversight function for charter schools, entering into contracts with the schools to ensure they do what they say they will do. And as the Studio Academy situation illustruates, they wield considerable power with the authority to close down schools when they feel they aren't performing.

The three area authorizers approved by state education commissioner Brenda Cassellius are Rochester Community and Technical College, Winona Area Public Schools and Rushford Peterson Public Schools. The other entities are Augsburg College, Bethel University, Intermediate School District 917, Wolf Ridge Environment Learning Center and YMCA of Metropolitan Minneapolis.

Under a new law passed by the 2009 Legislature and designed to increase charter school quality and accountability, approved authorizers agree to take on a greater role in overseeing the charter schools they authorize.

Studio Academy appeals decision

Administrators and leaders with Studio Academy, Rochester's arts-based charter high school, met with Volunteers of America-Minnesota this morning in the hope of persuading the organization to change its mind and allow the school to survive.

Up to this point, VOA has given Studio Academy little reason to hope that it will. 

A Studio Academy employee said that SA representatives had met with VOA officials this morning but a decision on the appeal wasn't immediately expected. 

"I'm sure they didn't (make a decision)," the employee said. "They have 10 days to do that."

Studio Academy was notified in March that VOA was not renewing its sponsorship "for cause," meaning that the school would not be allowed to seek sponsorship from any other organization. The decision by VOA, if it stands, is in effect a death sentence for the school.

VOA cited Studio Academy's repeated failure to meet financial and academic benchmarks over an extended period of time for its decision to withdraw its sponsorship.

Since learning that its sponsorship has been withdrawn, Studio Academcy leadership, including executive director Jody Allen Crowe, have been scrambling in an effort to avoid closure. They've contacted a lawyer, held an open house, sought sponsorship from another organization and brought their appeal to VOA in person.

Spokespeople for Studio Academy and VOA were unavailable for comment this morning. 

The Situation Room and Lincoln K-8

The photo has now become famous - of a tense-looking President Obama and his national security team gathered around a live-feed of an operation that resulted in the killing of Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.

It was not more than two months ago that students and faculty of Rochester's Lincoln K-8 Choice School met the president in that same Situation Room during a trip to Washington D.C. That meeting was arranged by Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, who also happens to be a childhood friend of Lincoln principal James Sonju (in the photograph, McDonough is seated between Brigadier General Marshall B. "Brad" Webb and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton).

Since the president's announcement of Bin Laden's death, Sonju said he has talked to virtually every student who made that trip, reminding them that they were in the same room where history was made on Sunday.

"We're just looking at that picture, saying, 'it was pretty crazy to be in that place with some of the players,'" Sonju said.

McDonough is known as a critical player on Obama's national security team. Sonju said he knows McDonough as a friend who lived a couple houses down from his own childhood home in Stillwater, Minn. They grew up playing baseball and football together as kids and went to the same high school.

Sonju recalls McDonough as an "impressive man, very intellectual" but someone who spoke to people in an everyday language that people could understand.

"He was always a leader in the classroom or the field," Sonju said. "And it was always fun playing with him, because he always put it on the field. Just a quality individual.

Sonju says he has thanked McDonough for making the meeting with Obama possible for students and faculty, and McDonough in return has graciously replied with his own thanks to Sonju for making a difference in the lives of children. 

 

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.