Dulce & Mesa Vista/ Both School Districts Look for Bond Mill-Levy Help in 5 February Elections
By Louis McGill
Rio Grande Sun Staff Writer
December 20, 2012
Mesa Vista Consolidated School District and Dulce Independent School District will be asking voters in February to approve taxes to go toward school improvements and maintenance, along with the school board elections on February 5.
- Voters in Mesa Vista School District will have the chance to vote for both a two-mill levy and a general obligation bond.
- Voters in Dulce will be able to vote on a two-mill levy.
According to state law:
- general obligation bonds are bonds issued by school districts to generate funding for the purpose of erecting, remodeling, making additions to and furnishing school buildings, purchasing or improving school grounds, or purchasing computer equipment and software for student use.
- A two-mill levy, also referred to as a public school capital improvements tax or SB-9, allows districts to levy a property tax of up to two dollars of every $1,000 of taxable value for a maximum of six years.
These funds can be used for a variety of uses, many of which overlap with the purpose of general obligation bond money.
These uses include:
- erecting, remodeling, making additions to, providing equipment for, or furnishing public school buildings;
- lease payments; purchasing or improving school grounds;
- maintenance of school buildings and grounds, including technical training and certification of personnel and payments to contractors but excluding salaries of school district employees;
- purchasing activity vehicles for transporting students to extracurricular activities; and
- purchasing computer hardware and software for student use.
Mesa Vista's general obligation bond would generate as much as $4,320,000 for the district.
Neither would result in increased taxes on property owners in the District, according to Mesa Vista School District Superintendent Tracie Phillips.
Mesa Vista School Board President Marvyn Jaramillo said his district plans to spend that money on a "top ten" list of projects outlined in its five-year plan.
These include:
- the modernization of Ojo Caliente Elementary and Mesa Vista Middle School;
- upgrades to middle and high school science labs;
- basketball court replacement and a new security system at El Rito Elementary School;
- upgrades to the high school gymnasium;
- relocating the District's main offices to Ojo Caliente campus;
- building a bus barn;
- upgrading the maintenance shop;
- a variety of Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades throughout the district.
Phillips said these projects would be funded by the bond, while the two-mill levy would primarily go toward maintenance. Money from both funds would go towards technology upgrades, however.
Despite the tough economy and looming possibility of federal tax increases, Phillips said she believes both measures are important to keep their district's facilities safe for students. She said she believes this should be the district's number one priority. Deferred maintenance has caused quite a few problems, she said, especially at the Ojo Caliente campus. With the age of the buildings, the buildings could become unsafe without upgrades and maintenance.
"We need to make sure our kids are going to school every day in facilities that are safe and adequate," Phillips said. "We need working water fountains. We need buildings that are properly built and insulated, that have adequate rest room facilities, just the whole picture."
Some Ojo Caliente facilities in bad shape
Jaramillo said Ojo Caliente Elementary is high on the Public School Capital Outlay Council rankings, currently listed as the 18th most in-need of repair in the state, which will entitle his school district to state matching funds for improving the school. However, he did not know what the match would amount to.
Board member Fernando Gurule agreed with Jaramillo. Some of their facilities were in poor condition, Gurule said. He cited electrical and plumbing problems among his worries.
Improving these facilities would benefit everyone in the community, because it would benefit the community's children, Gurule said.
- "Their kids have to be in those buildings to learn in, and it's been proven in the past that if you have a good environment to learn in, your grades and all that will improve," he said.
However, board member Marcos Garcia said it is up to the voters to determine whether or not they want to pay more taxes.
"Times are very hard and every penny counts in today's economy," he said. "Families are surviving check to check and it doesn't look any better down the road neither."
Board member Joe Gurule did not return repeated calls for comment, and board member Joshua Archuleta could not be reached.
Dulce Superintendent Jim Lesher said his district's mill-levy would be the continuation of an old tax rather than the imposition of a new one.
However, the tax will go up roughly 20 cents, from $1.796 last year for every $1,000 of taxable property value back to $2.00.
Lesher said the mill-levy had been $2.00 per $1,000 from 2007 to 2011, but the state adjusted it down slightly. If the tax is renewed by voters in February, the tax will again be back up to $2.00.
However, he said if the state decides to adjust it again, this could be changed in the fall. He said, according to his business manager, the school district doesn't have any control over such a change.
"It can't go up, but it could go down from the $2.00," he said.
Dulce spending yet to be determined
The money generated by the tax would go primarily toward funding maintenance work around the district, furniture replacements and updates, and technology upgrades. That is what the tax is designed for, he said.
However, he said these projects will be determined as they go along, as needs arise, rather than set out beforehand.
Even with relatively new buildings, Lesher said maintenance problems can crop up at any time. He gave the example of a boiler breaking recently. Instead of coming out of the operational fund, money to repair this unexpected problem came out of the two-mill levy fund.
"There's always issues," he said. "A boiler motor goes out, and you replace it. You don't have a choice to replace some things."
Lesher said used furniture as an example of another unexpected cost. He said his district usually doesn't see a lot of expenditures on furniture, but if a desk breaks it needs to be replaced, or if the district has a sudden surge of students, as it did last year by growing by 27 students, they may have to purchase new furniture altogether.
With technology, he said they try to keep their computers up to date because he didn't think students should be trained on obsolete equipment and software.
Even with the hard times, he said he believed people still needed to support the educational system.
"We need to support our schools and keep them going," he said. "We need to take care of them while we have them."
Board president David Montoya said voters should support the tax because that money is going towards the children of the community.
"I think your big asset is your kids," he said. "They're the ones who are going to be the future here eventually, and so we need to take care of them and give them the best education we can and support them so they can hopefully take care of us in the long-run."
He encouraged people to exercise their right to vote in the election.
When asked about the tax, Dulce school board secretary George Loretto and board member Adrian Notsinneh declined to comment and board Vice President Bob Cooke was surprised to hear it would be on the ballot.
Board member Connie Gomez could not be reached for comment.
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Deming/ La Cosecha: Teachers Contribute to Dual Language Conference
Deming Headlight Report
December 19, 2012
An email calling for presentations was sent nationwide last May inviting teachers and administrators to present at this year's La Cosecha (The Harvest) dual language conference.
The email came from La Cosecha organizers, Dual Language Education of New Mexico. Director of Bilingual Education for the Deming Public Schools, Michael Chávez, forwarded the information encouraging Deming teachers to consider submitting a proposal to showcase their classrooms.
- "We have a lot of great instructional practices happening in our district that would make for an informative presentation to any conference," said Chávez.
- A total of 6 DPS staff members participated in conducting presentations in leadership, parent involvement, team teaching and music in the classroom at this year's La Cosecha conference held earlier this month in Santa Fe.
Chávez started the Deming presentations alongside former Torres Elementary School principal and his wife, Vicki Chávez, with a presentation on a leadership model for dual language implementation. Drawing on their experiences, the two are in process of developing a leadership model for building and district administrators titled, "Cultivating Hope through Leadership."
- "There are a lot of resources for dual language classroom teachers, but very few for administrators," said Chávez.
Their goal is to refine their model and have it published in the future. Later in the event, Chávez was invited to participate in a panel discussion of district administrators from across the country. His role was to share the Deming Public School's coordination of district-wide professional development in sheltered instruction in reading and mathematics.
Charles Scanlon's presentation, "Partnering with Parents without Borders," was also held during the event. Scanlon spoke about overcoming the barriers of communication at Columbus Elementary School with the parents in the village of Palomas, Mexico. One of the tools to overcome the challenge is the use of Skype. Skype is a computer program that allows individuals to chat with each other using audio and video.
Scanlon's presentation included a picture of principal Hector Madrid and instructional leader, Armando Chavez communicating through Skype with a parent group in Palomas.
Later, Deming High School teachers Kristy Hays and Marina Santana conducted a presentation titled, "A Framework for Developing Literacy across ESL and Spanish Language Arts in Secondary Education." Hays and Santana spoke of the inclusion of sheltered instruction in the dual language program at DHS.
- They each shared lessons that included literacy strategies taught in both English and Spanish as well as presenting hands-on activities and differentiated instruction.
- Hays and Santana both received requests from districts in Oregon, Chicago and New Mexico to conduct their presentation in each of these districts.
Columbus Elementary teacher, Karen Juarez, also presented with the help of her husband Jerry Juarez. Their presentation titled, "Super Charge your Lessons with Music and Academic Vocabulary Development," gave attending teachers ideas on how to transform their instructional lessons by engaging students and teachers in developing musical lessons that develop academic language. Participants received examples developed by Juarez for teachers to use when they returned to their classrooms.
Toni Hull, Instructional Leader at Deming High School, conducted a roundtable discussion in her role as Teacher Ambassador Fellow for the U.S. Department of Education. The roundtable discussion was designed to engage dual language educators in a discussion about transforming the teaching profession so that it may better serve our communities as we prepare a new citizenry that will fully participate and succeed in our country and the world.
Former Chaparral Elementary School teacher, Laura Krol, presented on the last day of the conference. Krol, who is now teaching in El Paso, conducted a presentation titled, "Impacting Student Achievement with AIM4S3 Implementation."
- Her presentation focused on the dramatic increase she experienced in individual student and class achievement after implementing AIM4S3 in her second grade math classroom at Chaparral Elementary.
- Achievement Inspired Mathematics for Scaffolding Student Success or AIM4S3 is an instructional framework that uses sheltered instruction to aid in comprehension of mathematical problems and concepts.
As La Cosecha 2012 wrapped-up, Chávez encouraged those who presented to hone their presentations and resubmit to present at next year's conference. He also encouraged those who attended the conference as participants to consider submitting a proposal to next year's conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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ABQ/ EDITORIAL: Accountability, Results Justify School Spending
ABQ Journal
Dec 21, 2012
It is trite but true, especially in this time of holiday reflection and national tragedy: What a difference one person can make.
Nowhere is that more evident than in education, where one involved and energized individual can change the course of hundreds, even thousands of lives.
That's why Gov. Susana Martinez's plan to ask legislators for $4.74 million in targeted funding for programs that train principals and district leaders to make data-driven decisions, that encourage businesslike efficiency and that have principals at higher-performing schools mentor those at lower-performing schools, makes sense.
And why on a larger scale that her request for $142 million in additional education spending deserves consideration.
- It is understandable taxpayers will view the plan with skepticism - they should. They already spend billions annually on education - $2.4 billion this fiscal year.
- And it is understandable individual districts want all - not just $67.7 million - of this new money funneled directly to them via the state funding formula.
So it is important the new expenditures be driven by best practices and proven results. As Rep. Jimmie Hall, R-Albuquerque and a member of the Legislative Education Study Committee points out, to date districts "have not shown results for me to justify giving them money above the line without any supervision."
Yet that should not discount the state's individual school success stories. Despite overall abysmal proficiency and graduation rates, there are cutting-edge educators like
- Laguna-Acoma Junior-Senior High Principal Tom Trujillo, who took part in the leadership training and helped bring his school's math proficiency up 16 percentage points in one short year.
- And Anthony Elementary Principal Linda Perez, who didn't get the memo on poverty and Spanish-speaking families equaling poor performance, and has delivered one of the top five schools in New Mexico along with extraordinary reading and math proficiency rates - 70 percent in math and 62.4 percent in reading compared to statewide math averages of 51 percent and reading averages of 43 percent.
- And Griegos Elementary Principal Tom Graham, whose school has been recognized nationally for high achievement. And former Tohatchi Elementary Principal George Bickert, who took his students' proficiency levels to among the highest in the state.
Those kinds of results deserve reward, one way of ensuring they are replicated.
- One piece of the funding plan - $11.3 million - is earmarked for "rewarding highly effective teachers and principals" under PED's new teacher evaluation system.
Martinez has not yet submitted her budget for the Legislature to consider, and her funding requests are preliminary. But as education chief Hanna Skandera says, it is important to finally "have an expectation of return on investment." And that investment is in our kids.
Skandera says with the proposal "the governor is holding herself accountable for what she's recommending."
And accountability and results should drive any new - if not the current - education spending.
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Washington DC/ Data, Evidence and Digital Learning
By Karen Cator [Director of the Office of Educational Technology]
US Department of Education
December 19, 2012
Have you noticed lately that MOOCs are all over the news? It's hard to imagine that just a year ago, most people had never heard of Massive Open Online Courses-courses that hundreds of thousands of people all over the world take online, free of charge and that are rapidly growing in number. With this kind of opportunity comes the responsibility to ensure that these and other learning resources are quickly and continuously improved based on the best data available. Luckily, more and better data is emerging as digital learning becomes commonplace.
Change happens big in technology and it happens fast. And when public money is being spent and students' futures are at stake, it is crucial that changes also happen smart. Our new report, Expanding Evidence Approaches for Learning in a Digital World [Expanding Evidence Approaches for Learning in a Digital World], calls for smart change by presenting educators, policymakers, and funders with an expanded view of evidence approaches and sources of data that can help them with decision-making about learning resources.
The report:
- discusses the promise of sophisticated digital learning systems for collecting and analyzing very large amounts of fine-grained data ("big data") as users interact with the systems.
- proposes that this data can be used by developers and researchers to improve these learning systems and strive to discover more about how people learn.
- discusses the potential of developing more sophisticated ways of measuring what learners know and adaptive systems that can personalize learners' experiences.
- describes an iterative R&D process, with rapid design cycles and built-in feedback loops-one familiar in industry but less so in education (however, the report provides numerous examples of applications in education). An iterative R&D process enables early-stage innovations to be rapidly deployed, widely adopted, and-through continuous improvement processes-refined and enhanced over time. This means that data collection and analysis can occur continuously and that users are integral to the improvement process.
- encourages learning technology developers, researchers, and educators to collaborate with and learn from one another as a means of accelerating progress and ensuring innovation in education.
In the spirit of an iterative development process, we are posting this report for public comment.
- Does the report resonate with your view of the emerging digital learning landscape and the data?
- Do you have examples of evidence gathering methods that use emerging data?
- Are the recommendations the right ones for enabling progress?
- Do you have other thoughts and ideas on the topic of data, evidence and digital learning?
We would like to hear from you!
Thanks to our Technical Working Group and Expert Advisors:
This report was developed collaboratively, in partnership with a Technical Working Group of learning technologies experts. We wish to thank Eva L. Baker (University of California, Los Angeles), Allan Collins (Northwestern University), Chris Dede (Harvard University), Adam Gamoran (University of Wisconsin), Kenji Hakuta (StanfordUniversity), Anthony E. Kelly (George Mason University), Kenneth R. Koedinger (Carnegie Mellon University), David Niemi (Kaplan, Inc. ), James Pellegrino(University of Illinois, Chicago), William R. Penuel (University of Colorado, Boulder), Zoran Popović (University of Washington), Steve Ritter (Carnegie Learning), Russell W. Rumberger (University of California, Santa Barbara), Russell Shilling (Department of Defense, United States Navy), Marshall S. Smith (The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching) and Phoenix Wang (William Penn Foundation).
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Washington DC/ Wisconsin Study: Promise Pell Aid in 8th Grade
By Joanne Jacobs
The Hechinger Report [Hechingerreport.org]
December 20, 2012
Promising low-income eighth graders federal aid to pay future college expenses could motivate them to prepare for college, enroll and persist, predicts Accelerating College Knowledge: Examining the Feasibility of a Targeted Early Commitment Pell Grant Program, an analysis by Robert Kelchen and Sara Goldrick-Rab of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Students who qualify for a free school lunch in middle school are very likely to qualify for a Pell Grant in college - if they enroll, the study finds.
- The persistently low college enrollment and completion rates of youth from poor families are partly attributable to their uncertainty about whether college is affordable.
- In the current system, concrete information about college costs arrives at the end of high school and is only available to those who complete a complex application.
- Evidence suggests this timing affects students' motivation and ability to adequately prepare for college.
Simplifying the eligibility process to make an early Pell promise would increase the program's costs by approximately $1.5 billion annually, researchers predict. However, "benefits would exceed the costs by approximately $600 million."
For years now, philanthropists have guaranteed college aid to low-income students who complete high school, notes Inside Higher Ed. Recently, some towns and school districts have launched "promise" programs, which guarantee "some amount of college money to students who meet certain prerequisites."
The researchers estimated that the guaranteed program would increase high school completion rates by about 10 percent, and that college retention and completion rates would increase by another 3 percent.
Since more educated workers earn more and pay higher taxes, an early Pell promise would more than pay for itself, the study concludes.
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Washington DC/ Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg Donates $500 Million for Education and Health
By Jason Tomassini
Education Week {Edweek.org]
December 20, 2012
As the $100 million he donated to the Newark, N.J., schools makes its way into the district there, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday he will donate $500 million of his company's stock to education and health causes.
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation, an organization that manages philanthropic donations, received 18 million shares of Facebook stock for a valuation of just under $500 million (though that valuation has varied quite a bit during the company's up-and-down IPO).
Zuckerberg made the announcement, naturally, on his personal Facebook page, without providing specifics on what the money would go toward beyond "education and health." Those two areas are the major priorities of another technology tycoon, Bill Gates, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Both men, along with their wives, have signed "The Giving Pledge," a promise to donate "the majority of their wealth" to philanthropic causes.
Recently, another signee, Star Wars creator and LucasFilms Ltd. owner George Lucas, announced he would donate much of the $4 billion generated from the sale of his film company to education-related causes.
Wealthy business leaders have long been attracted to education philanthropy as a way to fund the country's future and, in turn, generate a better workforce (or, as some say, to influence education policy; but that's a story for another day). But a recent wave of philanthropists such as Gates have been more targeted with their donations, focusing on returns on investment.
Zuckerberg's contribution to Newark is managed by a local nonprofit, the Foundation for Newark's Future.
- The money is only unlocked if matching private funds are raised, and there are specific focus areas where the money can be spent.
- The donation has created new schools and teacher programs but sparked concern that it is part of an effort to privatize the district (as Zuckerberg himself notes, 11 of the 15 new schools created are charter schools).
- Most notably, Zuckerberg's donation will pay for the merit bonus system that is part of Newark's new teachers' contract. It will be interesting to see if there are similar stipulations for this larger donation and whether it is targeted toward specific geographic locations.
Zuckerberg's full announcement:
Two years ago, [my wife] Priscilla and I signed The Giving Pledge, committing to donate the majority of the money we earn to charity.
Our first major project has been around education reform with Startup: Education in Newark, NJ. I'm really proud of the work we've done there, helping leaders like Governor Chris Christie and Mayor Cory Booker sign the most progressive teachers contract in our country, opening four new district high schools, 11 new charter schools and more.
Today, in order to lay the foundation for new projects, we've made a contribution of 18 million Facebook shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Together, we will look for areas in education and health to focus on next. I'm hopeful we'll be able to have as positive an impact in our next set of projects.
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Washington DC/ OPINION: Bringing Technology to the Classroom
By Deborah Gist [Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education]
Huffington Post
December 20, 2012
Let's imagine if a person could come back to us from the past. Let's imagine if a student from one hundred years ago could join us today and visit one of our schools. What would she see as she looks around?
For the most part, our visitor from the past would feel quite at home in most of today's schools. She would see classrooms with the teacher in the front of the room and with school desks lined up in neat rows. She would see books on shelves in each classroom and on every student's desk. She would see students taking notes on paper and doing assignments using pencils. And in many schools, she would see that the clock still determines when classes begin - and when they end.
Today's schools may be similar to the schools of 100 years ago, but today's world is entirely different from the world of 100 years ago - even from 10 years ago.
Today, we live in a high-tech, global economy. Technology, the Internet, the World Wide Web, search engines, hand-held electronic devices, and social media all put us in touch with people, places, information, and ideas - instantly, and all the time. Technology has opened access to the world and provided a world of resources for our teachers and students.
Our world and our expectations are changing rapidly. The skills our students need to succeed are dramatically different today from what students needed 10 years ago. To prepare our students for success in the 21st century, we must change the way we support our teachers and students. To transform education for the 21st century, we need to rethink learning, rethink schools, and take advantage of all of the resources available to us.
One step in transforming education is ensuring that all schools are ready to embrace and use technology. As Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education in Rhode Island, I am proud to say that our state has taken dramatic steps to welcome technology into the classroom - not as a tool, a resource, or an add-on but as an essential element in the process of teaching and learning.
In February, on a snowy New England Saturday morning, more than 300 educators, students, and interested members of the community came together for a day-long conference that we called "Innovation Powered by Technology." At this conference, we put out a call to Rhode Island schools, seeking a school community in which the teachers, parents, and students were ready to lead the way and become a model school for innovation and technology.
Following the conference, we developed a grant application, and in May we awarded our first Innovation Powered by Technology grant to the Pleasant View School, a high-poverty, persistently low-achieving school in Providence.
During the next two years, the team at Pleasant View will:
- implement an extended daily schedule for targeted, small-group learning;
- increase student-centered instruction and instructional time;
- allow students to spend a portion of their time in school with online learning;
- make content come alive with integrated multimedia experiences through technology;
- enable students to proceed with learning at their own pace;
- support teachers in their ongoing professional development, during the school year and through the summer; and
- communicate regularly and engage with parents, including access to free digital-literacy classes and other online programs.
As this pilot school moves forward, we have taken several dramatic steps in Rhode Island to invest in technology and to build a policy framework that supports virtual learning.
This year, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln D. Chafee proposed, and the legislature approved, a $20-million technology bond that, during the next four years, will provide wireless access to the Internet for every classroom in Rhode Island.
In September, the Rhode Island Department of Education signed an agreement with CDW-G, a leading technology company, to make available to all schools at an excellent price Lenovo laptops, software, technical support, and teacher training. This agreement will provide all students and teachers with the tools they need for virtual learning and for the new state assessments that Rhode Island will implement in 2014.
In July, the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education passed regulations to establish "comprehensive and coherent policies" on virtual learning. Among many other provisions, these regulations require us to provide greater access "to quality online content" and to "support access to online learning opportunities" for all students.
In short, we are using innovations powered by technology to transform education in Rhode Island.
Imagine if you could step into the future and visit one of our public schools 10 years from now. Imagine where our students and teachers will get their information and what resources will support learning. Imagine the ways in which we will personalize learning experiences for each student. Imagine how our students will be able to benefit from digital learning - opening up a nearly infinite number of advanced courses in world languages, sciences, engineering, and the arts. Think about how our schedules could be made more flexible, with instruction available to students at any hour day or night, or on any day.
We are asking all of our educators in Rhode Island to take this imaginary journey into the future - and to bring that vision into our schools today.
We are proud of what we have accomplished in Rhode Island, and we are proud to be one of the states that is leading the way when it comes to using technology to transform teaching and learning.
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