Along time ago on a television far away, a Wendy’s commercial once ended with Clara Peller asking “Where’s the Beef?” after peering at a very small burger on a rather large bun. You get the impression reading Amanda Pinto’s article in the Hour today, that the BOE bun was rather large. I can almost hear Dr. evil Corda saying, “This is what we are going to do, we’ll fluff up the presentation and create some understanding.” Oh joy, he brought out the powerpoint. Crank up the victrola, the good there show was about to begin.
Ready?
A districtwide reading plan that provides a “specific, diagnostic, remedial reading program” at the secondary level, according to Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Karen Lang, will also be applied. A reading program specific to middle schools will also be developed, Corda said.
“(We want to) develop curriculum benchmarks and assessments,” Corda said, adding that the district will increase assessments in social studies, reading, writing and technology, with a professional development focus in technology and writing across curricula.
Right. Assessing, assessing and re-assessing is just asinine. How about doing things that will actual increase instruction as in smaller class sizes, more support for teachers instructing, and basically some more reading hours that have no fill in the bubble distraction at the end of it? Lang has missed her calling. She could have a comfy job at FEMA assessing emergency response while flood waters are raging. Kimmel, in earlier meetings was concerned about reading specialists and with good reason. It doesn’t take an instruction specialist to know that increasing time spent reading will improve a child’s ability to read. And in the proverbial, DFWI, the plan is now to change reading instruction district wide even though not all schools are underperforming. In-fact it is West Rocks Middle school that is underperforming, so you would think special attention should be paid to that principal and the 2 vice principals that clog the educational arteries over there.
Then we get to new and improved 2007-2008 budget.
Another facet of Corda’s new district plans includes a “revision of budget document to create greater transparency of planned expenditures,” according to his slideshow presentation.
During the somewhat contentious budget process, $6.7 million was sliced from the education budget.
“While I think we have made significant progress in providing information, we are going to, as they say, kick it up a notch and be very explicit about how dollars are used,” he said.
Board of Education member Bruce Kimmel asked for such clarification later in the evening when reviewing two pages of budget transfers — largely from one account to another account within the same school — presented to the board.
Kimmel said he was disturbed by the volume of transfers just seven weeks into the fiscal year, particularly at Marvin Elementary School, where an amount of $82 was transferred from the textbooks fund to the fund used for dues.
“They already have $420 in that fund so am I to assume it has been spent already?” Kimmel asked.
Schools Chief Operating Officer Stuart Opdahl acknowledged he was also surprised by the number of transfers so early in the year.
However, he said funds within schools are largely up to the discretion of the building principal and that the funds in the dues account were likely encumbered or expended.
Spending at the beginning of the year typically hits harder because that is when purchase orders are filled, he said.
The largest line item on the budget transfers list was $4,000 for new teacher manuals; the rest fell between $82 for Marvin dues to three items for $2,500 — all transfers into instruction supplies and materials from accounts referred to as No Child Left Behind Supplies and Instruction District Travel.
“There’s nothing here that’s significant dollars,” Corda said.
OK, I’ll explicitly ask, “Where’s the Beef?”. Where is the supporting documentation that would enable the acting, and I use that term loosely, Chief operating Officer, Stuart Opdahl, to actually know what the supporting budget expenditures are during a BOE meeting. Tom Hamilton arrives at Council meetings with a thick book of every kind of report to answer questions just like the one Bruce Kimmel asked last night. Opdahl doesn’t know and Corda doesn’t care. Two bamboozlers only missing the paper hats on their heads as they serve up a very small BOE report on a rather large powerpoint bun.
No one, and especially the BOE members, should be fooled by this slide show. Keep demanding details, and supporting documentation. Corda, Opdahl and Lang have proven they have zero credibility.
source: The Hour, BOE bandies policies about Amanda Pinto, August 21, 2007
