Monrovia School Link ~ Number 176 ~ June 29, 2006
Kind of a mixed bag for the schools in the API Base Report that was presented at this Wednesday's meeting. Also, the board got a bit tangled up in parliamentary procedure; it was kind of interesting to watch, but it finally worked its way out. By the way, Maritza is on vacation, so Brad (that's me) is covering the meeting.
~ brad@sacklunch.net
API RANKS AND GOALS ~ The board got a copy of the API Base Report, which sets the goals for the schools to meet for the 2006 school year and shows how the schools rank among similar schools.
In the 1-10 ranking of similar schools Monrovia's performance was kind of a mixed bag.
Awesome work by Plymouth school and good work by Mayflower and Santa Fe, but something went wrong at Bradoaks and not much of anything seems to be happening at Monrovia High. Here are the stats for 2004 to 2005:
Bradoaks - from rank 9 in 2004 to rank 6 in 2005
Mayflower - 8 to 10
Monroe - 7 to 6
Plymouth - 6 to 10
Wild Rose - 7 to 6
Clifton - 9 to 9
Santa Fe - 7 to 9
MHS - 4 to 4
As you can see Bradoaks took a tumble, Monroe and Wild Rose slipped and MHS is just in the doldrums - the low doldrums.
Board President Clare Chesley called the Bradoaks and Monroe results "pretty disappointing" and asked Superintendent Louise Taylor for an analysis for why the numbers went the wrong way.
Note, however, that these are *relative* scores. The schools can be improving in absolute terms, but still slip (as here) when compared to other, similar schools.
On the goals front, two schools, Mayflower and Plymouth, have met their final API goals of 800, so they have no official goals, but the goals for the rest of the regular schools are:
Bradoaks - from 756 now to 758 next year
Monroe - 764 to 766
Wild Rose - 761 to 763
Clifton - 747 to 750
Santa Fe - 727 to 731
MHS - 685 to 691
Superintendent Taylor said she "expects the schools will exceed their goals."
SMILE ~ The board and Chamber of Commerce honored several employees. Charlotte Schamadan, who presented the awards for the Chamber, was in rare form, cracking jokes about loooong educational titles and acronyms (well worth poking fun at, in my view) and asking an honoree who was supposed to have a "welcoming smile" to display it - she did. Anyway, congratulations to the honorees, who are Linda Jones, senior account clerk payroll, district office; Sara Arce, outreach consultant, Healthy Start; Ursula Monteblanco, playground aide, Plymouth Elementary School; and Lisa Dols, teacher, Plymouth Elementary School.
BOND MONEY ~ A few people who were concerned about Measure M money and money from the previous bond issue spoke during the public comment time. They suggested that there may already be a shortfall in the amount of money necessary to complete the high school project, they thought some of the work done using the money from the previous bond was "shoddy" and one man asked for an accounting for the money spent from the previous bond issue. Board Member Bryan Wong said none of the Measure M money has been spent yet, so there can't be a shortfall, and Superintendent Louise Taylor said that the staff at the schools that were upgraded with the earlier bond money feel the work was not at all shoddy.
BUDGET SURPRISE ~ Board Member Chris Rich kind of jolted the other board members when it came time vote on a budget. Instead of making a motion to approve the budget, he made a motion that all the board members get a copy of the "line-item budget" by the close of business next Friday. Board Member Clarence Shaw seconded the motion and then there was this sort of stunned silence from the other board members.
Why? Well it wasn't an item on the agenda, and legally, unless there is some "urgency" to a matter, you can't just vote on it; it has to be put on the agenda first so people can know about it and show up to give their views. But, be that as it may, there it was, Rich's motion, on the floor.
And why did Rich make the motion? Because, he said, he had requested a line-item budget a long time ago from Superintendent Louise Taylor, but never received it. He did not look happy. Taylor said she thought she gave all the board members budgets. No, Rich said, what they got was a summary of the budget. He wanted the whole shebang - all six thick inches of it. He said he couldn't imagine voting on a budget he hadn't seen.
Ah! I see the potential for confusion. What exactly is a budget? I suppose you can have budgets at all sorts of levels, from a lump sum for the whole district to a budget that shows the number of crayons the district buys. I think when Rich asked for a line-item budget he was thinking of something a lot closer to the "number of crayons" type budget, and I gotta say I admire him for being willing to wade through that.
And it's not just the thickness that will make it tough to go through. Chief Business Officer Linda Dempsey said that kind of budget is organized not by department, but by "key code." Oh yuck! But, you know, what Rich is doing might well be a good exercise. If he wades through that thing he oughta have a very good idea of where every dime is going and maybe his fresh eyes will spot a few places to save some bucks.
But anyway, back to the process. Someone suggested tabling the motion, but Board Member Bryan Wong asked, "How do you table something that is not valid?" Then Clare Chesley tried to make a motion to bring up Rich's concern at an upcoming board meeting, but Board Member Clarence Shaw pointed out that there was already a motion on the floor - Rich's.
Anyway, with the assurance that he and Shaw (who also wanted a copy) would get the line-item budget, Rich rescinded his motion and everything got untangled again.
Then, when it came to a vote on approving the actual budget, Rich and Shaw - apparently feeling they did not have adequate insight into it - voted against adopting it.
NOT YET ~ One item on the agenda, to hire an architect for the Monrovia High School project, was postponed to another meeting. If I heard correctly, I believe Superintendent Taylor said that the board wants to hire the WLC Architects firm, but the contract has not yet been completed. I also heard that it could take 18 to 24 months for the state Department of Architecture (or whatever it's called) to give it's approval for the high school construction. That strikes me as idiotic. I'll bet the plans could be drawn up in about six months. Then for the state to take three to four times as long just to *check* the plans seems disgraceful.
USEFUL DISCIPLINE ~ Board President Clare Chesley suggested that at a future meeting the board discuss having the high school use students who are being disciplined to pick up trash around the school grounds. Sounds like a good idea to me!
CONFLICT? ~ Community member Dennis Jones questioned the district's membership in an organization called Foothills Educational Technology Partnership, apparently on the grounds that Superintendent Taylor's husband runs it. Taylor replied that the organization is a consortium of local districts that helps provide its members with technology, like broadband Internet access. She said it has been around for about 15 years and that her husband (an ex school superintendent) was recently asked to run it. She said an attorney (I'm guessing the district's attorney) said that the district's membership in the organization does not constitute a conflict of interest since it predates Taylor's husband running the organization. After the meeting, Jones showed me legal filings that suggest that the organization is only a few years old. Interesting, but I checked Internic and the organization's Web domain was purchased by someone in the Alhambra School District in 1999, well before the dates on the legal filings, so I suspect the documents Jones showed me might simply mean the organization changed its governance structure in the past few years.
NEXT MEETING ~ The next meeting (and I can't guarantee it'll be as interesting as this one - you gotta come see for yourself) will be on July 26 at 7 p.m. Come check it out! Best show in town... except for maybe "Cars," which I thought was a really fun little movie.
Also on the Web at www.monroviaschoollink.com