Author: miles

Upcoming meetings

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Upcoming meetings:

BFM Planning Meeting
Tuesday, October 23, 2012 6:30 PM
PCC Willow Creek – Contact us for the room number
Agenda: Plan for 10/29 Board Meeting

School Board Business Meeting
Monday, October 29, 2012 6:30 PM
BSD Administration Center
Public comment at the beginning of the meeting.  Please stay for the entire meeting.


Oregon chief education officer Rudy Crew talks education reform with Washington County parents

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Oregon chief education officer Rudy Crew talks education reform with Washington County parents

Andrea Castillo, The Oregonian

Oregonians need to begin thinking of education like a market economy, said Rudy Crew, Oregon’s chief education officer. Parents and students must speak up about what they want before improvements can be supplied.

 

Crew spoke at a public town hall meeting at Liberty High School in Hillsboro on Wednesday night.

 

He said parents are typically quiet until their children are affected negatively. But they need to begin asking for change, rather than simply showing up to discussion forums.

 

“Speak up and be constructive,” he said. “You are a demand market, not a supply market.”

 

The best way for parents to provide input is to organize in a way that maximizes communication, he said. Parent teacher associations and organizations are examples of such a venue but have been far too passive in the past.

 

Crew said budget cuts shouldn’t result in cutting arts and extracurricular programs. Rather, budgets need to be reworked so that they are getting the absolute most out of their money because cutting creativity leaves adolescents vulnerable to the pressures of a “seductive world.”

 

He said the state’s funding formula needs to be reevaluated.

 

“We fund things on how many bodies walk through the door,” he said, “not how well they did when they walked out.”

 

Crew said Oregon has strong leadership in public education, but needs change in order to close the achievement gap.

 

“It almost sounds like something out of Dickens,” he said. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

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Public Testimony by Jennifer Mohr
School Board Business Meeting
Beaverton School District Administration Building
September 24, 2012

To the School Board:

For over 4 years, district officials have attempted to reduce music programs at certain small elementary schools using the argument that this would create more “equity” of experience for students at schools of various size.  The reasoning was that a school of 300 students “didn’t need as much” music/pe/library as a school with 800 students… yet all had been assigned one full-time music teacher, one full-time pe teacher, and one full-time media specialist.

Since our elementary schools in Beaverton have never actually met the nationally recommended minimum of 90 minutes of music instruction per week, my friends and I have always found it interesting that the district would see fit to balance programs by taking away from music staffing at small schools rather than adding to the large schools.  Be that as it may, this year was billed as the year to create equity … to create a “school district” rather than a “district of schools.”

In your packet, you will find a copy of the draft schedules provided by the district during the budget process this spring.  Tonight, I am here to report that these drafts have become a reality, and they expose an ugly truth: the drastic cuts to our music programs this summer have created even more disparity between the schools.  While children at Bonny Slope see their music teacher for 45 minutes once every 8 days (and have a total of 21 music lessons for the year), children at my own school get music once every 6 days (total 30 lessons), children at Barnes get music once every 4 days (total 40 lessons), and children at Aloha-Huber Park get music twice every five days (total 70 lessons).  This disparity is real at schools throughout the district, depending on school size.

Since children at Aloha Huber now have music for 45 minutes twice a week, they are finally meeting the nationally recommended minimums.  When the district finally does decide to create equity, this should be done by bringing all schools up to the national minimums using a model like the one at Aloha Huber.

Also, please note that our curriculum is now vastly out of balance.  During the 6-day specials rotation that is common at average-sized schools, children now sit behind a computer for their 45-minute “specials” twice as often as they have pe and twice as often as they have music.  Of the 6 days in the rotation, children spend one day in the library, two at computers, one with the counselor, one at music and one at pe.  Yes, the counselor is now used in the specials rotation at my school and at least 16 other elementary schools.  She teaches “guidance lessons” to regular homeroom classes of 30+ students during 45 minute sessions all day and has only 45 minutes per day to actually do counseling.  Last year, as an elementary counselor, she had over 4 hours a day to provide responsive services.  All of these counselors are now down to 45 minutes per day.  The dramatic changes at the elementary level have created unacceptable levels of imbalance and inequity and should be corrected immediately.

Jennifer Mohr
Music Teacher
Cooper Mountain and Fir Grove

2012-13 School Meetings

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Please mark your calendar for the following 2012-13 School Board and District Meetings:

 

School Board Business Meeting

Monday, August 27, 2012 6:30 PM

BSD Administration Center

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

School Board Business Meeting

Monday, September 24, 2012 6:30 PM

BSD Administration Center

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

District Listening Session

Thursday, October 4, 2012 7:00-8:30 PM

Location TBA

 

School Board Work Session

Monday, October 8, 2012 9:00 AM

Health & Science School

18640 NW Walker Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

School Board Business Meeting

Monday, October 29, 2012 6:30 PM

BSD Administration Center

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

School Board Business Meeting

Tuesday, November 13, 2012 6:30 PM

BSD Administration Center

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

School Board Business Meeting

Tuesday, December 11, 2012 6:30 PM

BSD Administration Center

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

School Board Business Meeting

Monday, January 14, 2013 3:30 PM

BSD Administration Building

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

*Budget Committee Meetings TBA

 

District Listening Session

Tuesday, January 22, 2012 7:00-8:30 PM

Location TBA

 

School Board Work Session

Monday, February 4, 2013 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Sunset High School

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

School Board Business Meeting

Monday, February 25, 2013 6:30 PM

BSD Administration Center

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

School Board Business Meeting

Monday, March 18, 2013 6:30 PM

Mountain View Middle School

17500 SW Farmington Road, Beaverton, Oregon 97007

 

School Board Business Meeting

Tuesday, April 9, 2013 6:30 PM

Aloha High School

18550 Southwest Kinnaman Road, Aloha, OR 97007

 

District Listening Session

Thursday, April 11, 2012 7:00-8:30 PM

Location TBA

 

School Board Work Session

Tuesday, April 30, 2013 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Location TBD

 

*School Board elections in May — Are you registered to vote?  Is your 18+ year old child registered?

 

District Listening Session

Thursday, May 16, 2012 7:00-8:30 PM

Location TBA

 

School Board Business Meeting

Monday, May 20, 2013 6:30 PM

BSD Administration Center

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

School Board Business Meeting

Monday, June 3, 2013 6:30 PM

BSD Administration Center

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006

 

School Board Business Meeting (TBA)

Tuesday, June 18, 2013 6:30 PM

BSD Administration Center

16650 SW Merlo Road, Beaverton, OR 97006