White Flight

An article in the Wall Street Journal (20Nov05) about white flight from a high school in Cupertino CA. Cupertino is a upper middle class community south of San Francisco in Silicon Valley.

An Asian student population is causing rising academic standards causing many white parents to withdraw their children from the school and some move out of the community.

The school has some of the highest test scores in the state. Although everybody is in favor of high standards in the abstract, not everyone is in favor of having to struggle to meet those standards.

One white mother who was taking her son to an after-school soccer game noticed all the Asian parents arriving to take their children to an after-school study program. A fe years of her son playing soccer while the Asiian kids were htting the books would be bound to create academic disparities.

In the process of looking for "green space" in our quest to improve New Richmond School facilities are we losing our focus on academic achievement? We are not competing with Hudson or River Falls for school campuses, but with India and China for technical excellence. Will our children fall short in the marketplace?

DO Group meeting Dec 7th

The next meeting of the DO group will be December 4th, 7:00pm at Suzanna's Restaurant. The public is welcome.

Stacked Deck

After the first meeting of the New Richmond School District long range planning committee, I was concerned about the makeup of the committee members.

Several posts at ontheborderline.net said, in no uncertain terms, that the committee was stacked in favor of the school district who, the posters, assured us had an agenda for a new high school.

In a sense they are right; of the 22 members, 11 are school district employees and board members. Thus they have the votes for any plan that is put forward if you throw in the WITC member and several business interests.

I'm not going to take that position until I see it developing. I see a need for facility improvement and expansion, but will stay open minded regarding exactly what.

Bill Derrick has already brought developing 25 acres of land behind the high school that had never been considered before. It must be discussed and either dismissed or brought forward as a recommendation.

Maps

I obtained several maps of the land across from East Elementary School. The most interesting shows the flood plain of Paperjack Creek. The west side of Paperjack as it curves south has lower land than the east side. What this means is the should the east side flood there are a number of houses in a sub-division on the west side that are in a good deal of hurt.

For years I've heard that the land on the south side of hwy. GG across from East Elementary was totally unsuitable for a school building. Tell a lie often enough and people begin to believe it.

NewRichmondBlog

The New Richmond School District long range planning committee was held on 11 November 2005; Scott Needham chairman.

Deb Heyerdahl went quickly through the material on past planning committees, the Reinhardt Population Report and other things.

Bob Ziller requested student enrollment based on 6-9 middle school and 10-12 high school. Judy Remington suggested that K-8 neighborhood grade schools be considered. Bob Ziller urged school board to begin a study on year-round schools, charter schools, and magnet schools as vehicles to increase student performance.

Committee adapted the 11-year population projections on NRSD student enrollment.


Scheduled meetings:

2nd meeting November 29th, 7:00pm, and West elementary.
3rd meeting Subject Middle School bldg.
4th meeting Subject high school bldg.
5th meeting Subject District facilities.
6th meeting Subject, possible referendum

That $25,000 payment to the superintendent

The amendment to Dr. Craig Hitchens' contract with the extra $25,000 was "for additional and unanticipated duties related to the April 2005 referendum." See his contract on "ontheborderline.net."

Either Hitchens is one great negotiator or the New Richmond School Board is in over its head. I vote for the latter. I have never seen a job description that didn't have a list of duties including a clause that reads, "...and other duties as may be assigned."

At Hitchens' salary of $55.00/hr, the additional $25,000 would buy 454 hours of effort.

Some questions. When the referendum was assigned did the school board have any idea how much extra effort would be required? Did Hitchens? Why wasn't this task lumped into "other duties as may be assigned"?

It's obvious the school board was in over its head. This needs to be corrected in the April election.

NewRichmondBlog

House resolution HR 571 It is the sense of the House that deployment of U. S. forces in Iraq be terminated immediately. The resolution was defeated 403 to 3; with 3 Democrats voting for it.

Sam Johnson (R-TX) gave an impassioned speech against the resolution and ran out of time. He requested three more minutes and the chairman said the usual: "Without exception-granted" One man yelled an objection and the chairman asked the man to stand. No one did so the extra time was granted.

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) said that the resolution was nothing but a Republican political trick. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) said that Bush was out of the main stream of the American people. Jay Leno said that President Bush's approval rating is down to 36 percent. Three more points down and he will become of Democrat.

NewRichmondBlog

Here we go with the inaugural issue of the New Richmond Blog. Please feel free to post (enter) your thoughts for discussion. After you register by entering your name and password you can post by clicking on "Blog This" in the second tool bar.

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