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PAUSD BUDGET

Thank you 1,400+ PAUSD parents and PTAers for participating in the PTAC PAUSD budget survey. With $5 - $10 million in cuts ahead of us, your thoughts will most assuredly help the district and school board with the difficult decisions that lay ahead. The survey results provide a wealth of information about what.s on everyone.s mind as PAUSD begins difficult budget deliberations. We are compiling the results and will present them at the January 27th PTAC Meeting (9am-11am at 25 Churchill Ave., Palo Alto), and we will post them here. There is a study session open to the public on February 9th that will include the Board of Education trustees and Superintendent Kevin Skelly. Again, thanks.

For survey results and overview, click here.

Helping Our Kids Thrive: Supporting Students' Social & Emotional Health

The Palo Alto Council of PTAs' #1 goal is to "Advocate for, promote, and support student social, emotional and physical health." It has been for years. Hundreds of volunteers across our district work towards this goal every day.

As parents, we recognize that issue touches our kids from kindergarten through their senior year in our school district and beyond. Today, in our community, we worry more than ever about our kids and their social and emotional health. With four deaths by suicide in six months our families are shaken.

Over the past several months a number entities from across the city have collaborated to address the issues associated with the cluster of deaths by suicide at the train tracks. Among the many agencies participating are the City of Palo Alto, Palo Alto Police Department, Palo Alto Unified School District, Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford University, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Adolescent Counseling Services, Youth Community Service, Caltrain and others. The PTA brings the voices and energy of thousands of families to the table.

Interested in learning more? Click here.

California's New Race to the Top Education Laws

PTAC wrote to PTA members last month, concerned about part of the fast-track legislation California was considering enacting to position the state for Federal Race to the Top education funds.

The California Senate and Assembly passed competing bills in November and December which they reconciled the first week of January
(SBX5 1 and SBX5 4). Both were signed into law by the governor on January 7th.

Key elements of California's new legislation:

Open Enrollment
  • Students at 1,000 of the state's worst-performing schools may enroll in other school districts ("Open Enrollment").

    Low-Performing Schools
  • Four significant interventions for California's persistently lowest performing schools: close the school, convert it to a charter, replace the principal and up to 50 percent of staff, or replace the principal and implement numerous other major changes, including enhanced staff training and financial incentives for top teachers.
  • Parent "trigger" allowing parents at up to 75 failing campuses to force one of these four specific interventions -- or a more general fifth option demanding a major restructuring of the school's governance -- by collecting signatures from more than half of students' parents or guardians.

    Math and Language Arts Curriculum
  • Create a 21-member Academic Content Standards Commission -- a majority of members who will be public school teachers -- to consider this summer adopting the same new curriculum standards in English and mathematics that other states are considering adopting. If adopted, California expects that new math textbooks will be in K-8 classrooms for review starting August 2012 and new language arts textbooks starting July 2013. Districts will have a year to test the new books before purchasing them.

    Other parts of the legislative package include improving data collection to ensure that a student's academic growth can be tracked from year to year; finding ways to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education; and allowing student test scores to be used in evaluating and making employment decisions about teachers and administrators, subject to collective bargaining. The new law also requires California to create alternative credentialing programs for non-teachers who want to teach science, technology, engineering, mathematics or career technical education.

    Open Enrollment

    The Open Enrollment provision was passed after significant modifications were made to the initial proposal.

    As enacted, likely starting this summer, families of students in any grade attending the 1,000 lowest performing non-charter public schools in the state (out of ~ 8,000 schools statewide) will be sent a notice advising them that they may apply to specific schools or programs in school districts of their choosing outside their home district.

    Generally, school districts are required to accept .Open Enrollment. transfer applicants by March for the following school year, but a school board may adopt specific written standards for ruling on these transfer requests which consider:

  • The capacity of a program, classroom, grade or building, or
  • Adverse financial impact.

    • A school board may reject a transfer application if it determines that the transfer would negatively impact a desegregation plan or their district.s racial or ethnic balance if consistent with state and federal law. Students who have not satisfied the entry requirements for a magnet school or gifted program they applied to also may be rejected.

    Senator Simitian has said that 70 percent of the state funding associated with these students will travel with them to their new districts starting their second year of enrollment. The funding will be approximately $3,500 per student per year.

    How to Learn More

    Contact either:

    State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto). He will undoubtedly be speaking about this at his "Education Update" Saturday, January 23, from 10 - noon in the Palo Alto Unified School District Board Room, 25 Churchill Ave (RSVP at www.senatorsimitian.com or call 650-688-6384, 408-277-9460 or 831-425-0401).

    PTAC VP of Advocacy, Lauren Janov, janovLL@yahoo.com, (650)326-4060.

    Artworks from Reflections