Monrovia School Link ~ Number 188 ~ February 14, 2007
The hot news is that there'll be full-day kindergarten in the fall. More below. Also, it was kinda fun to go back and attend a board meeting after being gone quite a while. I thought President Bryan Wong did a great job keeping things moving. I spoke to him after the meeting and he said he wants to try to have one really meaty discussion at the end of each meeting, like tonight's discussion of full-day kindergarten. I was also - surprisingly - rather impressed by the creativity shown in coming up with the new "Physics of the Automobile" class. Don't snear just yet. Read about it below; I think you might be impressed, too!
~brad@sacklunch.net
FULL-DAY K ~ This fall Monrovia will have a new full-day kindergarten program, so children in the program will get an hour-and-a-half longer day and will get out of school an at the same time as their older first, second, and third grade siblings. In listening to the discussion, it appears there has been a lot of demand for the lengthened program, and the only worry on the part of the board was the cost, about $45,500 in start-up costs and $155,000 in continuing costs. After some back and forth about the money and to what extent that might be offset by the additional revenue from the state that would come from having more students, Board President Bryan Wong said that if the program causes parents to enroll an additional 24 or so students (who could be handled without hiring more staff), the program would come within $30,000 to $40,000 of paying for itself. Then Superintendent Louise Taylor mentioned that if some of the students stuck with the district that it would pay for itself. I dunno. That sounds a bit understated to me. If just a few of each year's kindergarteners stick with the district that means 12 YEARS of extra money from the state. Anyway, the district is going to begin letting parents know about this option right away.
MORE ADA ~ The board got a report about how its plan to increase attendance by one percent is going. Since the district gets paid by the state on the basis of Average Daily Attendance (ADA), a one percent increase in attendance would mean an extra $300,000 for the district, according to Chief Business Officer Linda Dempsey. So far, she said, there has been an average one-quarter percent improvement, though it has not been exactly evenly distributed. Tied for first place are Monroe and Santa Fe. In last place, Mayflower. Here are the numbers for the regular schools:
Bradoaks + .21%
Mayflower - .01%
Monroe + .55%
Plymouth + .23%
Wild Rose + .36%
Clifton + .24%
Santa Fe + .55%
MHS + .02%
Board President Bryan Wong said increasing attendance is one of the best ways to increase revenue since there is no cost to it. So he asked parents to schedule their children's doctor - and other appointments - for after school or on days off.
BUDGET ~ Speaking of money, Linda Dempsey said that for 2007-08 the district will have about $42.2 million, about a million more than last year.
ENROLLMENT ~ While attendance is up, enrollment just keeps slipping. Boosting attendance while enrollment slides seems a bit like swimming against the tide, though maybe the all-day kindergarten program can help. Anyway, here are the numbers:
2002-03 - 6,696 students enrolled
2003-04 - 6,569
2004-05 - 6,438
2005-06 - 6,265
2006-07 - 6,247
2007-08 - 6,126 (projected)
2008-09 - 5,954 (projected)
2009-10 - 5,824 (projected)
CAR PHYSICS ~ When I first heard of the proposed new high school course, Physics of the Automobile, it sounded a lot like an inflated title for "auto shop," but as I read the report and heard the discussion I was pretty impressed with what seems to be a very cool and innovative plan. The idea is to teach physics using the automobile. Listen to part of the description: "Students will learn about mechanics, energy, fluid dynamics and thermodynamics using the many systems of the automobile." Assistant Superintendent Jim Coombs said the district has been working with University of California officials to get the course approved by the UC, which means the UC system would accept the course as a really truly physics class. Superintendent Louise Taylor said the UC folks were initially skeptical, but got excited about it after discussing it. Wong said it is a "fantastic way to teach what is often perceived as a stale subject." I tend to agree. Any time you make vague theory more concrete you make it a lot more interesting.
ASTRONOMY ~ In addition to auto physics, the district approved an astronomy course at the high school. Coombs said that unlike most schools, Monrovia High is blessed in having its own observatory, which - while old - is being improved by volunteers. He said the telescope was taken to be refurbished and the refurbishing company wanted to buy it as an antique - not because it was bad, just old.
SUMMER SCHOOL ~ The board set the dates for summer school as June 18 to July 26 for high school classes and June 18 to July 19 for elementary and middle school programs.
RSS ~ Now you may recall that in a foolish fit of enthusiasm last issue, I commended the district for having an RSS feed on its web site. Well, I'm going to take part of that back. I went and actually subscribed to the RSS news feed and found the most recent item was of Betty Sandford resigning from the board, dated waaaaaay back in September 2005, when woolly mammoths roamed the earth. Now I know the district has sent out a lot of press releases since them, and every one of them should be up there and linked to using RSS.
Also on the Web at www.monroviaschoollink.com