Tuesday's school board meeting includes two hot topics: An update on 2007 bond spending and a report on new state standards and exams.
The report on how CMS has spent the $517 million in school bonds that voters authorized is a lead-up to updating the district's long-term construction plan. The board is slated to discuss how it will set those priorities Tuesday, with rankings of specific projects presented March 26. (March 26 is also when Superintendent Heath Morrison says his staff will give the board a revised school safety plan, after realizing belatedly that the $33.7 million plan approved last month would delay other 2007 projects.)
Staff will also fill the school board in on how the new state exams that debut this spring will affect technology and teacher training (read the presentation here). The new exams will feature more open-ended questions, and will eventually be given online. The old EOG and EOC tests were all multiple choice. The conversion promises to be complicated; I've been hearing horror stories about the complexity of bubbling in and scoring the new tests.
So Tuesday's session might be worth tuning in, either on CMS-TV 3 or online. The meeting starts at 6 p.m., and it will open with public comments. Last month's comments revealed concerns among many faculty and parents at Albemarle Road Elementary School about the district's plans to bring in more mobiles to cope with crowding. Morrison told me recently that finding a better solution is high on his priority list for new projects.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Testing and construction: Tune in Tuesday
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17 comments:
Should be a joyous meeting. CMS has figured out how not to get results of the end of year testing until October of the following school year. So in October we find out little ALbert really should not be in the 6th grade as he should have been held back to 5th. Without the calendar end test results you may as well not even test them. CMS wont know what the kid can or cannot master until 3 months into the next semester. This should really sit well with the teachers who get fed a steady dose of kids below level.
The problem with delayed results is real, but it's not a CMS thing. It's statewide.
Whoa Ann and Anon! CMS does know almost right away which students did not score 2's on the initial tests. Because they start within a week, reinstructing little ALbert how to retake the test.
This was the only thing I was with Gorman on. We should not have been allowing kids to retake the retests and moving on up unless they had had some unusual circumstance at home or personal sickness that might have prevented at least their usual effort at schoolwork.
Missouri, that has been true in the past, but this year they will not know in time so they have suspended the retesting for 2013. Again, this is statewide. Blogged about it in December: http://obsyourschools.blogspot.com/2012/12/no-second-chances-on-2013-exams.html
Looking for teacher comments.
I would say that within 4 weeks of the start of school, a teacher knows if that student will be able to be promoted to the next grade at the end of the year and will be able to be successful in that next grade.
The changes from the capital plan re-do can't be underestimated. The current (old) plan is $2.5 billion over 10 years - $250 million a year. The new plan is limited to what the County can afford to pay which CMS has been told is no more than $65 million year (or a $650 million 10 year plan). This means that 3 of every 4 dollars now in the $2.5 billion plan has to come out. Expect lots of bickering over how to balance suburban-urban interests. The 'security' package is in lieu of building Highland Creek Elementary. CMS has been told by the County Commission to choose one or the other, not both.
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THAT CONSTRUCTION REPORT IS GOING TO BE INTERESTING……IF ANYONE CAN MAKE SENSE OF IT.
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I recently heard that it will be near impossible to give a report on the available balance from the 2007 bond. It has to do with the County's reluctance to sell bonds over the last few years. There was quite a bit of construction paid right out of the annual tax collections.
That totally defeated the purpose of bonds.
The logic behind selling bonds is to spread debt over time thus leaving more funds for immediate needs. Operational dollars are immediate needs.
This is a situation that no one should be happy about. First it is a broken promise. But on the other hand the interest on the construction was avoided. Double-but, the difference between current money paid and lower yearly payments on bonds might have put more money into teachers. Triple-quadruple-holy cow-Batman buts; how are the next promoters of any bonds going to be able to promise the public anything?
Here are a few factoids to put in your back pocket for tomorrow night.
$300,000/day 365 days a year/for 10 years. Prior to the 2007 bond that was exactly what CMS spent for school construction 1995 to 2006. That's exclusive of COP built schools.
Based on the plan presented to the Bond Oversight Committee recently, the new daily spending could be as high as $430,000/day.
I guess you might consider tomorrow's construction report a pre-test for a projected November 2013 construction bond.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
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The BOE will be more concerned about the next big bond vote for over a billion dollars.
Any new bond talk for the next 10 years should be immediately squashed.
ANON 8:53- Is correct. And its not a statewide problem and does not have to be as SC uses the same system CMS and state are starting and dont have the problem. In the first 2 weeks of a class year you have no idea if a child is going to learn in the year to be promoted. Everyone who has a clue about education knows that CMS is going to do everything they can to promote the students. Even if it is a poor decision. I know parents who took kids out of CMS , because CMS would not hold the child back.
Show me a teacher who thinks they know after a few weeks of school who will pass and who won't and I'll show you a bad teacher.
Ann, Is there a way I can watch the board meeting online or on CMS TV after it has aired? I won't be able to watch it tomorrow night but am very interested in what they have to say about the testing. Thanks!
Morrison and the BofE
FALSE PROPHETS
Bolyn, Or CMS could refurbish some of the closed schools that sit unused. As the County continues to pay corporations to relocate to Charlotte CMS is eventually going to need more schools. Bond money won't be available for many years to come that's frank their are way too many holes to fill. The teachers and classrooms can only handle so much to capacity. It's actually a good thing that a lot of the new families moving to the region are living outside Mecklenburg county to ease the pain. Only thing that hurts is those hue tax incentives we keep paying out so they can go home to SC night. Keith W. Hurley
Ann, it would be interesting to do a piece on how much instructional time is lost from standardized testing. I'm in awe that an additional 4.4% of our instructional time this semester will be taken away (on top of already giving final exams) to give these common assessments. It seems ridiculous to take away time that teachers could use to go into depth about content and replace it with testing. Lack of time = Lack of Depth = CMS Students performing poorly on college entrance tests...which matter more for our students in the long run (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/10/19/3605211/act-shows-most-nc-students-arent.html)
7:39... It should be noted schools with large ESL populations and/or numbers of students with disabilities require more test time due to special modifications for those students. At some schools, it takes half the students twice as long to complete testing due to accommodations.
Yes, 5:22. If you go to that link for online meetings anytime afterward it'll be archived. I'm pretty sure they also do reruns on CMS-TV but I don't know the schedule.
CMS TV ?
Millions wasted for a bunch of old Gorman talk shows.
Great stewards of my money CMeS!
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