by Matt Marquardt –
MASON CITY – The Mason City School Board met Monday evening at the administration building.
The consent items on the agenda were approved unanimously.
Board member Mark Young nominated Tim Becker to resume as Board President, with Board member Bob Thoms seconding. Becker became Board President with unanimous vote.
Becker nominated Young to become Board Vice President. That passed unanimously.
Other appointments to boards were made.
Board meetings were set for the third Monday of each month at 5:30 PM.
Dave Nagel made a presentation on “Data teams.” The school district is participating in a program from the Leadership and Learning Center using a three-person Data Team, or “coaches” that were trained by Nagel.
The program supposedly “validates their professionalism and gives them tools” to succeed.
“Certification training is tailor-made for schools and districts that wish to increase their capacity to offer on-site, sustainable staff development,” the Leadership and Learning Center website claims. “By training your own cadre of staff developers via The Center’s certification training, your school or district can save money while working toward raising student achievement.”
The Leadership and Learning Center says it “is the professional development and consulting services division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a leading global education organization.”
Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services Hal Minear provided the Board with a preliminary report of the beginning enrollment numbers for the 2012-2013 school year. No concrete figures would be available for a few weeks, but he used the word “down” more than once.
After a “Blue Zone moment” with Anita Micich, student achievement goals for 2012-2013 school year were approved. The plan includes the long-range and annual student achievement goals and the action plan for each of the goals.
A 28E agreement between Area Education Agency 267 and the Mason City Community School District for management and operation of the Four Oaks Behavior Program was approved.
Chief administrator of AEA 267 Roark Horn said the program would be “revenue neutral” and not cost the school district anything other than some basic administrative costs which the district already is involved in.
In a related matter, an agreement between Area Education Agency 267 and the Mason City Community School District for the operation of an integration classroom in the Mason City Community School District for the 2012-2013 school year was approved. It was said that the classroom is at Lincoln school and that roughly 3 – 10 students use the classroom each year.
Executive Director of Business and Financial Services Ramona Jeffrey presented information requesting approval of modified allowable growth and supplemental aid for special education services. It was said that “transportation costs went up” and that there were special education cost overruns due to the Federal Government not covering costs as they had promised. These factors contributed to create a negative special education balance of $295,793.58. “That’s our negative special ed. balance,” Jeffrey said. “We spent that much more than we took in for the number of special ed. students that we have.”
A one-mile reciprocal open enrollment transportation agreement was approved.
Administrative reports were presented by Kathryn Schladweiler; an Elementary Education Report by Director of Elementary Programs Michael Penca and a Secondary Education Report by Director of Secondary Programs T. J. Jumper.
Anita Micich presented a report as well.
Watch video highlights of the meeting:
httpv://youtu.be/o51vaEJP7Sg
school district is required by law to eval all kids within the district suspected special ed needs. with four oaks in town now the school is mandated to “partner” with FO. now they are looking to hire a new special ed staff member to cover this requirement.
Intergration classrooms a fed law. the district can be sued if non complient. No choice in the matter…if you dont want special ed in your kids class then pay for a private school with a lower ratio. what if we were to say let the rich kids go to school and generalize the poor kids as more problematic and allow only the rich kids to “move foward” you could say same for diffrent races. generalizing and suggeations of discrimination is society moving backwards. if you wanna be a confederit flag waving hick..stay in the swaps and teach your toothless kids to hunt alligators.
if you help kids in need now then your kids that “move foward” won’t have to shell out tax dollars when the kids who need help cant find a job because they can not read or write or function. Its a simple equation. If you cant figure it out I hope you find the help you need to break it down for you.
What about the 295,000 dollar deficeit – All I read is you pat me on the back -I’ll pat you on the back ! and raise your property taxes – obamama kick the can thing ?
have a special class just for the retards, and let the normal kids move ahead. that’s why we pay school funds, to have the kids taught. no wonder the kids are behind when they have to cater to the short bus losers.
You, sir, are the retard. You are a pathetic loser. You should be in a special class to learn how capitals work.
interesting you criticized my lack of caps, but did nothing to refute my premise that forcing the normal kids to move as slow as the retards inhibits their education and does not allow them to achieve their full potential.
Sir, by using words like “retard” and “short bus losers” to describe innocent children who did not ask to be born the way they are, you forfeited any credibility you had. Your statements are their own rebuttal. The only need for argument is about why Matt Marquardt lets you drag down his credibility to your level by leaving your garbage on his blog.
“The only need for argument is about why Matt Marquardt lets you drag down his credibility to your level by leaving your garbage on his blog.”
Bill, while I don’t speak for the Publisher, I would hope his or her comments stay on-line. The content speaks for itself, and portrays an angry, uneducated person.
While I believe that wholesale immersion of Special Education students is not a good policy (it should be on a case by case basis), it is by no means going to guarantee an accilerated atmosphere if they are removed.
There are still too many students who lack motivation, ability, and or parental support, which are not categorized (diagnosed), that tend to have the same effect. Yet, that has been happening for as long as I have been alive.
There is no need to be crude about it. Instead, perhaps work to increase your kids level above what is going on in the classroom. Challenge them above and beyond as so many parents of successful students have done in the past.
“There, but for the grace of God, go I.”
Words matter. Stop with the names. These kids are precious. It’s your loss that you don’t know this.
be human?? i left my humanity in the jungles of viet nam. i don’t ask. i don’t give. and i have as much right to voice my opinions as the next person. thank you.
I think someone needs to get a petition going to get rid of Micich!
Get rid of Micich and in 2 years the deposit will be gone. It is just poor management to come up with this after a year. Why didn’t they take steps to bring it in line when it was happening. It looks like a set up to try to get more money from the taxpayer. Less students=less money needed so CUT BACK on manpower and salaries like the rest of the world.
Keep in mind now days you are considered special Ed if you have ADHD or have a behavioral disorder aka a bad temper or unwilling to follow directions, or just plain lazy you get to be diagnosed with a fancy title and receive all kinds of aid!!! Schools spen 95% of their time and budget on the the under achieving problem children or the talented and gifted the rest are lost I the shuffle. Not to mention administrator salaries!!!
Less kids, declining enrollment, in debt, time to tax more and give erverybody another raise.