Ken Weir 2004 BCSD Position Paper

By Ken Weir

Adequate and up-to-date student housing and facilities.

Fully credentialed and highly trained teachers.

Smaller class sizes in classrooms that are supplied with sufficient consumables and support materials.

Funding focused on implementing best practices.

Efficient, effective and proven methods for dealing with the root causes of discipline and safety issues.

Innovative ideas and programs.

• We have a successful and experienced management team in place to guide our District.
• Micromanagement by the Board has ceased.
• Many appointments and favored positions of the past have been eliminated or restructured.
• Board operations have been restructured.
• We were one of the 1st large districts in state to fully implement K + 3 class size reduction.
• We have added three campuses to ease overcrowding and the downtown school.
• We implemented after school and Saturday school tutoring long before the State programs.
• We doubled the enrollment of Summer School - Now Summer Camp & Summer Camp Plus - to provide an opportunity for those students that required additional instructional time.
• We established a Jr Hi/Middle School Reading program.
• We implemented an extended kindergarten academic program that produced students scoring 30% higher than their peers.
• We have established on campus 3-R's centers to assist with remedial activities.
• And, we are currently piloting a limited 7th grade at Downtown School and hopefully will add 8th grade next year.

• In 1999, 17 of our schools had an API score of 499 or less. In 2003, none of our schools had an API score of 499 of less.

• In 1999, 7 of our schools had API scores of 600 or better. In 2003, 22 schools had an API score of 600 or better. 5 of those schools scored between 700 + 799 and one school was over 800.

I have personally adopted the motto "Learning is job 1." for my next four years. Every action that I consider and every vote that I make will be based upon enhancing and improving student achievement.

While my previous terms have not been easy, my next term will be particularly difficult. We have made many difficult decisions in the past few years and fortunately we have made the right decisions. We have implemented non-threatening changes and have experienced success.

But, the non-threatening changes have now been exhausted and the decisions that lie ahead will challenge the institutions of public education. This will require Board members with proven leadership skills and the vision and tenacity to consistently move forward.

Some of the issues that we will face during the next four years are as follows:

• Adequate, modern and up-to-date student housing and facilities.

A few years ago, the District hired a firm to perform a facilities study and another firm for a population study. The results showed that we currently have a critical need for at least one new elementary school and a new middle school. The study also showed that construction should have began this year.

We also hired a polling company to sample the community interest in a bond for new facilities.

Then, the worst budget crisis in the history of California hit and the opportunity for a bond faded away for a number of reasons. First, California's budget crisis and its public implications made the possibility of passing a bond virtually impossible.

Second, it takes a 100% commitment from administrators, teachers, support personnel, and parents to rally the support to pass a bond. Because of the impending budget cuts, it was clear that some or all groups were going to be upset and less than 100% committed to the bond.

Third, it takes general fund money to open new schools and it was clear that there would be no general fund money for this purpose.

So the plan was not pursued. But the problem and has not gone away. We are still in need of a bond for building schools. This is a serious issue and must be addressed. We need to have our facility and population studies checked and updated. We need to have another poll to insure that we are not spending money on an issue that is doomed.

And, we need to do this now. Because the next issue that we must address during my next term may alienate at least one group's support of a bond.

• Fully credentialed and highly trained teachers who are encouraged through incentives to teach at sites and grade levels that best complement their talents and skills.

In fact, some would consider the mere utterance of this statement heresy and start piling firewood at my feet.

Simple as it may seem, this statement refers to merit pay, transfer rights, site assignment, grade level assignment, skill evaluation, and site principal rights. There are those in our District who would fall on their sword instead of acquiescing on issues viewed by them as employee rights.

Be that as it may, the fact is that unless we can make at least some inroads into these issues, our opportunity for continued success is at risk.

We have very talented and skilled teachers in our District that are needed in our most challenging schools and these teachers should be well compensated for accepting these difficult assignments.

We have teachers in our low performing schools that are good teachers yet do not have the skills needed for that particular school. These teachers need to be placed in a school where they can be successful.

We also have some teachers that should not be teachers. These teachers need to be dismissed and replaced with highly skilled teachers.

Through all the accountability systems in place at the Federal and State government, it is the site principal that is on the front line of accountability when it comes to the success of a school site. Yet, this same principal has very little choice over the staff assigned to his or her school. This cannot be allowed to continue.

These are the issues that must be dealt with and these are the issues that could jeopardize a bond election. We must have strong and experienced Board leadership in order to be successful.

• Smaller class sizes in classrooms that are supplied with sufficient consumables and support materials.

Budgets are basically developed based upon the prior year. They are adjusted for known (or assumed) changes in revenue and known changes in expense items. Any excess revenue is then available for labor negotiations and what's left over is available for class size reduction, consumables, and support materials.

The problem is that there is hardly ever anything left over.

We have to begin considering critical needs and support issues with input from all concerned parties before we begin the budget formation. These issues must be given the same priority of consideration as compensation and benefits.

We need to begin reducing class sizes in our 4th through 6th grades. Some contend that there is no evidence that smaller class sizes equate to higher student achievement. However, if you study our test scores, when our third graders move to fourth grade, their test scores fall. This may be attributed to any number of factors, but I am confident that class size is at least an important part of the reason this happens.

We also need to supply our classrooms with the resources necessary for student success. Good teachers, even great teachers, are handicapped when necessary materials are lacking.

We can be successful and create a better work environment if we change our methods and use the funding available to us more effectively.

This may not seem like a huge challenge but I have been advocating for this change for 12 years. Because of this persistence and my plans to remain on the Board, it looks like we may now be able to adjust our budget process, begin discussions with interested parties, and actually address these critical needs in our next budget.

• Funding focused on implementing best practices throughout the District.

The school site personnel and site based committees then design plans, within certain guidelines, on how to best spend this money for the needs of the school.

While the plans are well intended and some have produced modest growth, the gains achieved when compared to the dollars spent have been disappointing.

I want our schools to always seek best practices and efficient, effective, and proven strategies for overcoming obstacles and problems. This is a difficult issue because it represents a change in thinking, a change in habits, and a change in culture.

We all have comfort levels and routines and change threatens both. But it is clear that more of the same will not get us to where we need to go. As Stephen Covey puts it - one definition of insanity is to due the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

We have highly skilled and talented professional in our District and our charge is to move them toward change.

• Efficient, effective and proven methods for dealing with the root causes of discipline and safety issues.

It has always been true that you cannot teach a child that is not in school. But, it is now true that, even though you have staffed, provided textbooks and materials, and have support available for the entire student population, you will not receive the revenue to support those expenses unless the student is in school each and every day.

This penalizes schools in various ways. If a student is sick, the student should not be at school risking the health of the other students, the staff, or the recovery of the student. Beyond this, there is any number of legitimate reasons for a student to miss a day or two of school through no fault of the student, parent or school. Yet, it is the school that is penalized.

This has also affected the discipline of students. Schools are encouraged to handle student discipline problems in school, yet we have no way to address the root causes of the discipline problem. Students are sent to the office only to be shortly returned to their class.

One serious student discipline problem can waste 25% - 65% or more of the classroom teacher's time while the rest of the students in the class are denied the instruction that they need and deserve.

I have been advocating for a proven program based upon best practices to be implemented in our District's most needy schools on a pilot basis for the past year. Indications are that this opportunity may be soon be upon us.

• Innovative ideas and programs such as duplicating a successful Downtown School 7th and 8th grade program at other District elementary schools.

Downtown School is a great example of such an opportunity.

We have the opportunity to create and refine a model 7th and 8th grade program at a minimal cost, with a small number of students, in an atmosphere that enjoys great administrative, teacher, and parental support. I have every confidence that this exercise will be a great success.

We have other elementary schools in the District that have available space and strong administrative, teacher and parental support. Happy parents at these schools will likely have a desire duplicate the 7th and 8th grade model developed at Downtown School.

At the same time, this would help ease some of the overcrowding at our middle schools and junior highs while providing a great educational experience for our students.

This is one recent example of how a little "out-of-the-box" thinking may have a very positive impact on our students.

These are a few of our biggest challenges for the next four years. Success will require leadership, vision, articulation, conviction, integrity, knowledge, experience, and passion.

I believe that I have successfully demonstrated each of these traits during my tenure on the Board and I would appreciate your support during this campaign and your vote on November 2nd.

Thank you.