Cutbacks where?

This morning's AP article on the rising cost of gas for school buses had one line (somewhat unrelated to busing) that I found telling:

And in North Carolina, Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools teachers have scaled back the number of field trips this spring to save fuel, transportation director Binford Sloan said.
(emphasis added)

"scaled back"?? Am I the only parent whose child has not had a field trip, ever? Or if the class went on a field trip, it was parent-funded?

I don't in any way dismiss the difficulties schools across the country are having with rising fuel costs, whether to fuel the buses or to heat the buildings. But field trips around here have been few and far between for quite a number of years, whatever the fuel costs. They've become an unimaginable luxury to the city-funded budget. It just show exactly how deep the cuts have gone that we can't even conceive of cutting field trips. We've gone much deeper into essentials than that.

And then there's the Minnesota district that plans to run a four day week next year. (An option not available to us without civil disobedience, incidentally, as Massachusetts regulations cover days in school as well as hours in learning)

Update on the superintendent search

A message came out earlier this week to parents:
Any parents who wish to be part of a parents' focus group regarding the search for a new superintendent should respond to 508-799-3032. All parents are welcome at the meeting of this focus group on Tuesday, June 3 at 4pm in room 410 in the Durkin Building.
Meeting at the same time will be the students' focus group in the library at the Durkin Building.

All wishing to attend should respond to the above number, and should fill out the Leadership Profile Assessment on the WPS website. The assessments can be brought to the meeting or forwarded ahead of time to Helen Friel.

Anyone, parent or not, attending or not, is welcome to fill out a LPA.

From high up in the peanut gallery...

You may not have seen him, but Clive McFarlane (who until recently had the education beat) was at the education hearing on Tuesday; he weighs in today.

He's having fun, but he doesn't take issue with much that was said by the public.

A few things to keep an eye on...

As we move through the rest of the budget (the last hearing is next Tuesday; should that all be approved, the City Council will vote on the entire budget on June 10), there's a few things that we should keep an eye on:

1. That $250,000. It looks as though the votes are there to put it into education, but it isn't in the education budget yet. As it's been sent to finance committee, it will probably come up at some point next week, 'though that could be during the City Council meeting (they can adjourn to finance) or during the hearing, I suppose. The conversation around this could well be telling.
2. Where that money goes. The lack of clarity in explaining the arrangement of class sizes, for example, was a bit much. We all know things change, averages are averages, and so forth. A number is helpful. How far will this get us? On the road to where? (in Who-cester's humble opinion, this would involve having Brian Allen handle more questions)
3. Rhetoric that's only rhetoric. As nice as it is to hear someone finally admit that this isn't enough for the Worcester Public Schools, unless they go on to say, "So we need to give them more funds!" (perhaps even make the radical connection with the tax levy), it doesn't get us any further. Beware of letting the rhetoric sweep the connection with reality away.
   
4. Where any future money goes. There was an exchange between Councilor Rushton and Deputy Superintendent Mills that really seemed to be taking us down the primrose path in terms of where any extra money that turns up goes. Programs with UMass and WPI are all well and good, but let's focus, shall we? We have crumbling buildings. We have traveling nurses at the elementary level. We have no full-time librarians in elementary schools. We are putting our middle school librarians on half time. We are years behind in buying books. Let's get the basics underway before we get fancy.
   

T&G opinion piece

Who-cester was going to comment on the lead opinion piece in today's paper, but it looks like Wormtown Taxi has beat me to pretty much everything I was going to say.

(If Jeff keeps this up, he's going to drive us straight out of business!)

The only thing I'd add is that the WPS are adding as many as 1000 students next year (the fall 2008 entering kindergarten is significantly larger than the spring 2008 graduating senior class). If you do the math there...well, that "per student" number gets even smaller.

The T&G doesn't get much splashier than this

Front page center, with photos...

Those of us who believe in the public process were troubled by the mayor's efforts to limit comment on the education budget. Initially, she was going to limit the public to two speakers. Eventually, she allowed seven, and Vice-Chair Rushton, on taking the chair, allowed a few more. There was further effort, mainly in response to Councilor Rosen's remarks, to hurry things along and get it done.

This is the largest portion of the city budget. It has direct bearing on the lives of one-seventh of the city residents. It determines the direction of our city, the location of businesses, the local tax levy, and untold other decisions made about our city, large and small. If anything should be discussed, fully and at length, in the City of Worcester, it is the funding of public education.

To do otherwise is entirely contrary to the mayor's oft-cited position of openness. She has been much better about this than previous administrations, but last night's efforts were, to say the least, a troubling return to the previous stifling.

Audio and video of finance hearing

For those who couldn't be there or who want to go back over it...

http://worcesteractivist.org/wiki/City_Council_Finance_Committee_Meeting%2C_2008-05-27

Going up sometime today!