Highland Academy Pulls Charter School Petition From Consideration

This week's board meeting lasted just under 3 hours. It included a workshop to discuss the Highland Academy Charter School petition and a report on the district's programs and services for GATE students.

I've recorded an audio podcast review of the meeting in which I provide my analysis and clips from the district's podcast. Due to the file size limitations of my website, I've had to split my recording in two parts. The first part covers the workshop and GATE report the second part consist mostly of the closing reports from the President of the teachers' union, Jody Behrens, and the closing report from each of the five board members and my final analysis. 

I am experimenting with a new audio mixing program please bear with me while I learn to improve the quality of my podcasts. I hope you will benefit from my work.

Part 1 Charter School and GATE programs - Click Here (Length 6:14)

Part 2 Closing remarks - Click Here (Length 20:17)

Beaumont Unified Board Agenda Preview for January 24, 2012

The agenda for this week's board meeting is now available on the district's website. I've reviewed it and found some items worth noting. I recorded an audio review, click here to listen.

The board, starting an hour early at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, will be holding a workshop on Highland Academy's charter school petition. They will also be recognizing students with perfect scores on last year's state tests; presenting a report on the district's GATE services; and reviewing the calendar for the 2012-2013 school year.

One other note: I noticed in the facilities report the administration has provided the board members with design plans and cost estimates for the parking lot redesign projects for Brookside and Tournament Hills elementary schools. I find this inconsistent with the message the district's representative gave us at the Brookside Site Council meeting earlier this month. They told us they were still in the early planning stages and still considering all their options. We were told they would schedule a meeting for parents at a time that would enable more parents to provide input. I'm not sure how they could present plans and cost estimates untill a design has been finalized. 

Look for my next report of this week's board meeting on Wednesday or Thursday. I hope to be able to include some clips from the district's podcast. It should be entertaining.

I am trying another vehichle for my reporting, audio podcasts. I haven't been comfortable with my video reports and I think audio makes more sense when I'm just trying to get my message out. Audio files are easier to distribute, easier to share and I don't have to worry about how uncomfortable I look. I still think video will provide value in some situations. Some time next week, look for a video report titled "Running the Gauntlet at Brookside Elementary'. I hope it will give a good representation of what parents experience everyday when they pick up their kids in the afternoon.

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy

Jerry Pournell, one of my favorite science fiction writers, has developed his Iron Law of Bureaucracy which I believe is a very accurate description of government schools. Below is one of his earlier versions of the law.

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that...

In any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representatives who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

In later versions he substitutes "school administrators" as the second type of person. Pournell's law is very similar to the Iron Law of Oligarchy a political theory, first developed by the German syndicalist sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book, Political Parties.

It's the Culture, Not the People

Why am I so  impatient with our local school administrators and concerned about the educational opportunities they are providing for our kids? I have a daughter in fourth grade and a son in first grade. I don't have to tell any parent, no matter how old their children are, that life is short and the time our kids have to prepare for the world we are leaving them is limited. I don't have time to be patient, none of us do.

I believe our problem is the government school culture. This is a culture that considers parent involvement and public transparency interference. It places more importance on meeting minimum legal requirements than public transparency and working with parents. Decades of throwing more and more money at school budgets and employee entitlement programs has developed a mindset in our administrators and public employee union administrators of entitlement. A mindset that believes there will always be more money.

I believe most educators, both teachers and administrators, have their hearts in the right place. I believe our kids' interests are their biggest concern but I believe the government school culture, resulting from too much control by our state and federal governments, is damaging the educational environment for our kids. We elect a school board to provide direction for our administration. I believe it is the board members' responsibility and duty to change the mindset of our administrators and help create a new culture. We don't need board members who embrace the current culture and believe the administration should provide the leadership and direction.

Over the next few weeks I plan to layout, in detail, how I believe the government school culture is affecting the educational opportunities for our kids in Beaumont. I also plan to offer solutions and suggestions. None of this will be new to anyone who has been following my blog but I think through a video podcast, I will be better able to present my position and ideas.

Here is a link to my first podcast on Government School Culture:http://youtu.be/AWFKuPqCNLA

My Video Report - BUSD Board Meeting 1/11/12

In my latest video blog (Click Here to watch) I tell you about a few interesting items discussed in our board meeting this week, In my video I talk about the recognition given to our high school water polo team, the district's effort to get access to more federal stimulus funds and the politics behind the board president selection process

I realized after I was finished that I left out one important issue, graduation tickets.

The mother of one of our high school seniors recently learned that, for the first time in Beaumont, there will be limitied seating for graduation. Even though they will have a larger stadium, the board has authorized the administration to implement a ticket system to limit the number of guest each graduate can invite to the ceremony. It seems like there are some bugs that still need to be worked out but parents need to get on top of this now. There is still time to convince the board to develop a more family friendly process. 

If you have a son or daughter graduating this year make sure you are aware of the details of the ticket process. It may be very difficult to plan the event if you don't know how many tickets you will be able to get until two days before graduation. I remeber when this was discussed last year. It seemed the board and the administration didn't believe there would be any problems with seating this year but they decided to be proactive so in future years we will already be conditioned to the process. At least that is how I remember it.