Jan 11th Meeting and 2nd Semester

Happy Second Semester, everyone!

Freshmen-Congrats on your first finals.
Sophomores and Juniors- No sweat.
Seniors-Woohoo! It's free fallin' from here on out.

So... in the mad craziness of cramming for my finals (Mr. Dominic's Calc BC final-- BEWARE!) I never got a change to write about January's board meeting.

January 11 was an exciting and emotional night, for the board and for me personally. I realized while I was speaking about 4K how incredibly important education is. We're lucky in the US (specifically, in Madison) to have a good public school system but while our goal is that EVERY child graduates with the skills to become a knowledgeable and successful citizen, the sad truth is that this doesn't always happen. Our goal on the board is to change that.

When I first saw the Strategic Plan numbers, I thought to myself "Wow, how can the Board expect to get 100 % of kids performing at grade level on the WKCE's? That's impossible." But I realized that the point of a goal is to shoot for the stars. Anything less than 100% wouldn't be good enough.

Anyways. The meeting:

4K--Support for 4K was strong from the community, local day care providers and board members. But we can't ignore the economy and the continued cuts from the state budget for education, and the Board struggled to find a way to provide 4 year old kindergarten without taxing Madisonians to death. We also had to decide whether or not to implement 4K this year or in 2011.

For the first time since I've been on the board, I found myself completely unsure how to vote. I usually look to the board members for guidance, but on this one everyone was torn. I had to just trust myself, and remember the students. What I concluded was that however many dollars it takes (10, 20, 75), that amount of money is nothing compared to the priceless value of educating a child. 4K provides the incredible opportunity of teaching the children in our district who don't have the money for expensive preschool, or whose parents work and don't have time to teach them their times tables at age three. 4K gives all children a chance to get ready for kindergarten. Finally, 4K in the long run helps tax payers and puts us closer to closing the achievement gap.

I felt that we couldn't wait another year. So did Marj Passman, Ed Hughes and Beth Moss. But with one board member absent, the vote to start 4K this year tied, which means no action. The Board voted again, this time postponing 4K until 2011. This was a disappointment for me, but also a victory to know that our district will soon join the thousands of others providing 4K.

Charter School:
The Board gave members of the Environmental-focused middle school proposal group direction to continue planning and come forth with a detailed proposal at a later date. Keep posted!

Tomorrow is the annual State of the District address. IT will be held at 5:30 in the gym at Wright; also on cable TV.

Tuesday night, Student Senate, 6 Pm. Be there!