As our nation, state, and community continue to struggle through economic difficulties, nearly every person has been forced to make many tough decisions over the past few years. Tonight, the Canby community weighed many variables before determining it was not either able or not willing to support additional funding for our schools.
The proposed Local Operation Levy was to be a bandage to partially defer further program reductions. However, future decreased funding from the State of Oregon may necessitate these cuts independent of the Levy outcome. Based upon tonight’s results, the district will move forward within our means like many families have been doing. However, before we do, I would like to thank the community for their support and consideration over the past few months. Many people have listened intently, informed themselves, and thoroughly weighed the issues before casting their ballot. To each of you, I again say “Thank you”.
My only regret is that Canby was placed in the position to have to ask our community for their financial support. Years ago, the state took over the duty of school funding. It is long overdue that the state step up and fulfill their responsibility. Until that time, Canby schools will continue to do our best with the resources available to provide the best education possible to our students.
Serving the Community,
John Steach Ed D.
Sitting in the first day of AP Biology, our teacher, Mr. Harbour, walked in holding a beaker filled with a murky liquid containing small brown blobs occasionally rising to the surface and then descending. He explained that these were sewer lice collected from the local drainage ditch that ran near the school. He stated they were actually delicious, ate one, and offered a taste to any student who was willing. After much coaxing, several students allowed him to pluck one from the beaker and place it in their mouth. Eventually he allowed a student to share that these “sewer lice” were actually raisins floating in Mountain Dew soda. His life lesson; listen to what people say but continually question current knowledge to improve understanding.
I also vividly remember a day when Mr. Fankhauser brought a coffee can into his chemistry class with a cup of baking flour. He first tried to light the flour using a candle with little success. He then put the flour and candle inside the coffee can, quickly placed the lid on top and then squeezed an aspirator attached to the bottom. To our surprise, flames erupted from the can blowing the lid to the ceiling. He then shared this as an example of how grain elevator explosions occur. His life lesson; anything can be dangerous if you don’t take the time and effort to fully understand it.
During this teacher appreciation week, I now reflect back upon the people who influenced how I think and view solving problems. It is these people who taught much more than facts and dates but taught how to approach issues such as those facing the Canby School District today. Their life changing moments helped prepare me to meet these challenges.
I’m certain everyone has similar memories and stories of the teachers who positively influenced their lives or their children’s lives. It is often difficult or too late to maintain contact with these teachers to give them the thanks they deserve after we realize the impact they have made. So this week, please take a moment to thank the teachers today who have dedicated their lives to teaching our youth how to address tomorrow’s challenges.
Serving the Community,
John Steach, Ed D.
The Canby Educational Foundation (CEF) was founded in January 1997 as a non-profit corporation. The original seed money of $100,000 was the result of a generous donation by Lee Larson of School Bus Services, Inc.
The volunteer Board of Directors established the functions of CEF to be:
1. To enhance the cultural educational opportunities for students of the Canby School District.
2. To acquire financial resources for students, faculty, and staff of Canby School District in their efforts to improve educational opportunities.
3. To assist in expanding the property or equipment of Canby School District.
4. To carry out other supportive activities for Canby School District, which are included within the Articles of Incorporation.
As a result of the generosity of Virginia Resch and Alice Klohe, CEF has established a permanent endowment of $600,000. The annual net earnings from the endowment, donations and fundraising activities have historically been approximately $35,000. These funds are used to enhance the educational opportunities of students in the Canby School District. During its years of existence, CEF has contributed approximately $375,000 as educational grants, which has included but is not limited to computers, books, calculators, special speakers, field trips, art, language development, and tutoring.
One of the largest contributions was $60,000 for sound amplification systems in every grade and middle school classroom. This program benefits not only the hearing disabled but also all students within the classroom. As a result there was a measured increase in academic achievement and communications.
Currently, the CEF is funding a Community-Based Education Program where community members are connected to teachers for classroom enhancements or community based projects. The goal of these connections is to increase our student’s critical thinking skills through real applications of their course work. In just its first year, this program will serve over 1,500 students.
The primary fundraiser of CEF is the “Spring Fling” where a published author speaks about his or her book and comments on education and life skills. This year the “Spring Fling” is May 10th. Visit the CEF web site for ticket and sponsorship information. http://www.canbyedfoundation.org/
Educational grants are limited by the earnings from the perpetual endowment, donations and fundraising. While there are more applications than available funds each year, the CEF does their best to support student needs. This is one group that is truly making a difference to the education of the Canby students.
Serving the Community,
John Steach, Ed D.
At last evening’s School Board meeting the first draft of next year’s budget was presented. Since the outcome of Levy ballot measure (3-393) will not be known until May 15th, the administrative team developed two budget drafts. One draft includes levy funding and one does not. With reduced state revenue from enrollment declines and increased cost of operations, both drafts contain cuts from the current budget. While the administration and the Board will continue to refine these outlines up to the point of final budget adoption, restoring any item would require reductions in other areas.
To minimize the possible reductions this year, the district is using all available, remaining cash reserves. These budgets also take into account $1.2 million in savings through teacher and administrator furlough days and unpaid holidays.
Even with Levy funding, the following reductions are being proposed:
• Reduce the equivalent of 5.0 full time teaching positions,
• Eliminate the Elementary child care busses,
• Eliminate High School & Middle School busses within 1.5 miles, and
• Further reduce building and department budgets.
Without Levy funding, the following changes are also proposed:
• Reduce the equivalent of 7.5 full time teaching positions,
. o Increases average class size by two students per class,
. o Creates six additional required elementary combination classes,
. o Prevents continuing Dual Language Immersion program into 7th Grade,
• Reduce Library coverage to 30 minutes per class per week with libraries closed outside of these times,
• Eliminate Elementary PE and replace with guided recess,
• Eliminate Elementary buses within 1.0 mile of each school,
• Eliminate Ackerman security position, and
• Eliminate Middle School Intramural Sports (BPMS & 91).
In releasing information, I am trying to balance providing the most accurate information possible with not unnecessarily worrying any individuals about their employment status until the outcome of the ballot measure is known. However, since some potentially impacted people can likely interpret the impact on them from this information, several conversations have occurred prior to this message that I wish were not necessary. I would like to thank those individuals for their patience and understanding.
Serving the Community
John Steach, Ed D.
The Canby School District is in the process of developing our budget for next school year. Monday night will be an informational meeting on the budget starting at 6:30 pm at the CHS 4th Street Center. David Moore and I will be presenting information on public education funding and budgeting. Everyone is welcome to attend.
The district will be working over the next two weeks to develop the draft budgets. One budget will be developed assuming levy funds are available and the second will assume levy funds are not available. The difference between the two will be additional reductions of $800,000. The Board has affirmed the priorities of the vision team as a framework for developing the budget. The Board also authorized the use of the remaining cash reserves to minimize the level of cuts required.
Related to the budget, I will be hosting three informational presentations on the upcoming Levy measure. If you are interested in learning more about the basis of Local Option Levies and the specifics of this ballot measure, please come to one of the following:
• Tuesday April 10th, 7:00 pm @ Baker Prairie Middle School,
• Wednesday April 11th, 7:00 pm @ Carus Elementary School, and
• Tuesday April 17th, 7:00 pm @ 91 School.
Please help ensure that every vote is an educated vote. That is the strength of a democracy.
Serving the Community
John Steach, Ed D.
Over the past weeks, I have had the privilege of participating in a variety of student programs. Many in Canby perceive these as standard student expectations. However, as a newcomer to the district, I find them extraordinary experiences coordinated by extraordinary people. I will take a chance in naming several people but realize there are scores of individuals making these programs possible. Even named say they are only a small part of the overall programs.
Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) requires teams of four to read 16 novels and answer comprehensive content and detail questions. Canby recently hosted the region-four tournament. Hundreds of students in grades 3-12 participated in hopes of qualifying for the state finals. While many community volunteers supported the event as moderators and coaches, two people made this tournament a success.
Linda Fukasawa + Jan Woodworth = OBOB.
Each trimester, economics students at Canby High participate in an International Economic Summit putting classroom learning to a real-world test. Student pairs, acting as economic advisors, research and develop a plan to improve their assigned country’s standard of living. During the two-hour summit, they form trade alliances, engage in trade deals, and apply for long term development projects. As a reviewer of these project proposals, I was impressed with the students’ research, preparation, and presentation skills. Other schools have visited to see this program but were deterred by the amount of work involved, and thus have not duplicated it.
Ken Gex + Erin Walsh + Isabelle Waia’u = CHS International Economic Summit
CHS also recently hosted the OSAA District Speech & Debate Tournament. This two-day event, incorporating 13 categories of speech as well as debate, brought hundreds of participating students to Canby. CHS placed first overall. Congratulations to the seven CHS students moving on to the state competition.
Debbie Groff = Speech & Debate
Every CHS sophomore must participate in the Future Focus class and program. The components of this program combine into a student career planning portfolio and Mock Job Interview. Each semester, dozens of community volunteers interview multiple students to provide feedback on their job preparation and interview skills. Future Focus serves to define students’ career aspirations with an accompanying pathway for achievement of their goals.
John Young = Mock Interviews
These are just a few examples of student programs requiring critical thinking occurring every day in Canby. Beyond these large scale events, teacher created projects permit students to perform real life work such as “film pitch” presentations based on novels or conversion of short stories to radio productions.
Behind each and every program is an outstanding educator.
Serving the Community
John Steach, Ed D.
Across Oregon, the week of March 5-9 is designated Classified Employee Appreciation Week. This is intended to recognize individuals who perform vital roles in educating our children. Without their efforts, schools would not be able to function.
Most mornings, the first people to enter the schools are the Nutrition Services staff in order to prepare thousands of breakfasts and lunches daily. For some of our students, Nutrition Services provides the only warm meals they eat during the week.
While not district employees, First Student bus drivers are the first school workers most of our students meet each morning. Bus drivers not only get students to school safely but also can set the tone for the student’s entire day with a warm smile and greeting.
Instructional Assistants fill a variety of roles including classroom support, safety supervision, translation, one-on-one student support, library services, technology support, and student security. As staffing levels have decreased due to budget reductions, Instructional Assistants individually take on more responsibility each year.
Canby is known across the nation as a leading innovator in instructional technology use. Our Instructional Technology department keeps the infrastructure working to support these devices and maintain connectivity. With an attitude of “Yes, we can make that happen”, they turn ideas and visions into reality.
Those who really run the schools and the district are secretaries. Not only are they the public face of the district but they also control vital information for all district operations via daily communications and data entry.
Our seven maintenance staff protect the largest community investment in Canby. They repair, maintain, and upgrade over $160,000,000 worth of facilities. An additional person maintains and operates the auditorium equipment for all of the plays, concerts, and other events. Similarly, our three groundskeepers maintain over 140 acres of grass and landscaping at an amazingly high standard. All of these people show a great deal of pride and ownership in their work.
Each night, our custodians ensure that instructional spaces are ready for the next school day. The custodians not only keep the buildings clean, they also handle minor maintenance repairs and complete small projects to support instructional staff.
I encourage everyone to acknowledge employees who often appear invisible when they do their job well. Please take the time to stop and join me in saying, “Thank you for a job well done!”
Serving the Community
John Steach, Ed D.
This Wednesday, February 29th, our middle school students will have the opportunity to hear from an individual who has significantly impacted the entire world. This event will bring the first of five Nobel Laureates to grace Baker Prairie Middle School over the next five years.
Between 1989 and 1994, Frederik Willem (F.W.) de Klerk served as the seventh and last State President of apartheid-era South Africa. President de Klerk was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with Nelson Mandela for his role in ending apartheid.
Baker Prairie has been preparing students for this event in many ways. Signs around the school remind students to “Think Globally, Act Locally”. Assignments have focused on learning about President de Klerk and the impact he has made. The band has been practicing the National Anthem of South Africa. Student leaders have been learning the customs of South Africa to ensure their greetings and behaviors honor our guest.
However, the lessons we hope students learn through these interactions extend beyond the preparations. Through hearing individuals describe facing great opposition with integrity and conviction, we hope our students reflect upon their own current and future actions.
To commemorate these events and provide a lasting reminder of these values, a Baker Prairie peace monument has been established. An existing round planting bed in front of the school was modified to accommodate paving stones in the shape of a peace sign and three basalt pillars. These pillars will be inscribed with the name and date of each "honored" guest over the next five years.
Donations are covering the project costs and Dove Creek Nursery donated the labor for the peace monument. This adds to the impact of the monument knowing that it was created by the goodwill of our community and people doing the right thing.
Serving the Community
John Steach, Ed D.
This week I presented a State of the Schools address to the Chamber of Commerce. After eight months with the district, it was good to reflect on the District’s composition, strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and future. Below are some of the highlights of the address with links as often pictures are worth more than words.
Composition:
Canby students are 68% white and 26% Hispanic. Like much of the state and the Pacific Northwest, our population is becoming more impacted by poverty. The last decade has seen the number of students qualifying for free & reduced lunches nearly double. Canby is not immune from the trend. Presently 43% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunches and of these over 400 are considered homeless. Every day we work to meet the educational needs of every child independent of their circumstances.
Strengths:
Canby is a national leader in the use of technology as an instructional tool. Each month teachers and administrators visit Canby to lean how to duplicate our success. The following link will show you examples of what they see in our classrooms.
Classroom Technology In Use
In addition to strong core academic classes, Canby High School has some amazing career and technical education programs. Follow the attached link to see these programs first hand!
CHS CTE Programs
Challenges:
The state has reduced its level of funding to Canby by $2.76 million per year since 2008. As a result, Canby has reduced staff by over 13%, postponed all new curriculum materials adoptions, and reduced the length of the school year. A Local Option Levy will be on the May 15th general election ballot. Revenue from this Levy would fund student school days, smaller class sizes, and instructional materials and staff time for implementation of new state academic standards. To find out how this Levy may impact you, check out our Levy calculator at the following link:
Canby Levy Calculator
Serving the Community
John Steach, Ed D.
• $811,000 in year one,
• $513,000 in year two, and
• $414,000 in year three.
At the end of three years, the Levy would expire unless replaced by another voter-approved levy.
The Board resolution was prompted by cuts to Canby’s state schools fund of $2.76 million per year since the 2007-08 school year. Over this time the district has reduced teachers by 12%, support staff by 13%, administration by 22%, postponed all new curriculum materials adoptions, and reduced the length of the school year. The local option tax revenue would be used to fund student school days, smaller class sizes, and instructional materials and staff time for implementation of new state academic standards.
Recall from my education funding blog series that local tax revenue is subtracted from the state schools fund allocation for each district. However, Local Option Levies are not a part of that calculation. In other words, all collections stay in the district, unencumbered by the state, and more importantly, entirely within district control. Therefore, the Local Option Levy is the sole source of revenue available to school districts outside of state school funds to address issues of class size, school days or instructional materials.
As you may remember, Canby passed a bond measure in 2004 for the construction of Baker Prairie, replacement of roofs, and technology infrastructure upgrades across the district. While the approval and collection of bonds and levies are similar, the spending of these funds is governed by different rules. Bonds revenue expenditures are limited to buildings and equipment that qualify under the state definition of capital projects (similar to restrictions on federal categorical funds). Voters must authorize the district to sell bonds through a vote. The sale of bonds generates funds under the promise to repay the bondholder for the loan of the money similar to a mortgage or a home equity loan. Bond proceeds cannot be used for general operating expenses such as staff, instructional materials or school days. These monies can only be used for buildings and equipment.
While both Bond and Levy funds must be authorized by local vote and stay entirely within the local community, they are two completely different entities. An easy way to remember the difference between bonds and levies is “bonds are for building while levies are for learning”. To learn more about “Levies for Learning”, visit the Canby School District web site at: CSD Levy Information
Serving the Community
John Steach
Please remember January is School Board appreciation month, so take a moment to thank our Board members for their commitment to the community and our students. Too often Board members receive only complaints and no recognition for their voluntary service.
In the previous three blogs, I have explained how districts receive approximately 94% of their operation funding. The remaining 6% comes to the district through federal grant funds. A majority of these grants are annually renewable, non-competitive, but come with requirements for their accounting and use.
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) governs the largest single grant. Canby received $911,725 (plus $3,544 for staff training) this year to provide services to students with documented learning disabilities who are educated according to Individual Education Plans (IEPs). Federal IDEA funds supplement the state double weighting for a total of just over $3 million to serve these students.
Back in August, I discussed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 and how it was reauthorized in 2002 as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In addition to the NCLB accountability rules, the Act has multiple subsections or titles that define grant programs targeted at specific student populations. Based upon our student population, the Canby School District receives money for the following grants:
• Title I-A – Students of Poverty (Initially $730,549 but cut by over $30,000 after start of year). District poverty is determined by census poverty data and funds are distributed to schools according to free & reduced meal %.
• Title I-C, Migrant Program ($197,982)
• Title II – Improving Teacher Quality ($165,027)
• Title III- English Language Acquisition Grants ($95,956)
Three other minor grants the district receives are the Carl Perkins Vocational Grant for Career and Technical Education (CTE) ($22,689), the Mckinney-Vento Homeless Grant for transportation of homeless students ($15,900), and the Vocational Rehabilitation Grant for post high school special education student career training ($81,490).
The free and reduced breakfast and lunch program is also funded by the federal government. Individual meals are tracked daily and submitted monthly for reimbursement. This year, the district expects to receive $635,000 for lunches and $250,000 for breakfasts. Combined with the money collected for paid meals, the Nutrition Service program operates within its revenues and neither adds to nor takes away from other program funding. Districts are not allowed to generate revenue from Nutrition Services to fund other programs.
To place these amounts into perspective, the total current “average” teacher cost (which includes wages, benefits, FICA, PERS, workers compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, and substitute costs for absences) is $78,358 (only 62% or $48,917 is salary). Applying this to the migrant program grant equates to two additional teachers with some Instructional Aid support (at a cost of $5,978.50 for one hour support each school day) for the entire district.
Defining these grants are volumes of federal statutes outlining requirements for which students may receive services, program staff training/certification, program information/data collection, and reporting/audits for each program (If you think this blog is long you should look at ESEA). Typically, between 4-7% of each grant can be applied to “overhead”. This pays for staff time to collect, organize, and report all required audit information annually. While it is unfortunate that it takes considerable effort to apply for and maintain each of these grants, we will continue playing by the rules to provide this additional student support.
Serving the Community
John Steach
In the last two blogs, I have shared the foundation of how the state determines the amount or revenue a district receives for each student. However, to complete the picture of Oregon State school finance there are a few more variables to discuss that still must fit into the overall amount allocated by the legislature.
A question some people don’t understand is how local revenue impacts school funding. The state defines local revenue as a combination of local property taxes, federal forest fees, common school funds, county school funds, and state managed timber sales that are collected within the boundaries of each school district. Local property taxes are by far the largest contributor and are capped at a maximum of $5/$1,000 of assessed property by ballot measure 5 (1990). In Canby, this currently accounts for over $11 million of the district revenue. However, these local collections do not increase the funds available to the district. All local revenues are totaled and then subtracted from the total amount the district is to receive from the state. So while it appears on the surface that local property taxes impact local school districts, they are essentially pooled at the state level and used to reduce the reliance of the state on other revenues to fund education. Local revenues only increase education funding in their ability to increase the overall state budget making the K-12 percentage a larger amount.
The only local revenue that does not decrease the state contribution is a local operating levy. If passed, the local levy does increase the total amount of revenue for a district and is not offset by the state in any funding formulas.
As it is common for more experienced teachers to be paid more, the state acknowledges this in the funding system. Each district calculates the “average” years experience of all teachers and reports this to the state. The state then calculates a total average experience which districts use to adjust their revenue. The formula multiplies $25 per student times the difference between the district average and the state average (positive or negative). This is another case of shifting funds from one district to another without adding to the total.
Another component of funding is the state transportation grant. Districts are “reimbursed” for 70% of their actual qualifying costs. While this provides incentive for districts to minimize their transportation costs, it also assumes that part of the general revenue will be spent on transportation. For Canby this translates to an additional $2.0 mil in funding with the district carving $860,000 (30%) out of the state revenue.
To add to the uncertainty of school finance, districts start to receive revenue based upon their estimates for the year. As the school year progresses, these estimates are replaced with actual data causing adjustments in revenue. These adjustments can continue well into the following year with dollars continuing to be added or taken away. One protection districts have in the formula adjustments is a guarantee that the ADMw (see last week’s blog) used is the higher of the current year or the previous year. This “extended ADMw” gives districts time to adjust to sudden unforeseen enrollment declines.
So 1.294472237543 will continue to be refined and adjusted by the state through March 2013 to ensure that the state allocates exactly $5.733 billion to education independent of need. In the end, this makes 1.294472237543 both a figurative and literal irrational number.
Serving the Community
John Steach
In case you are interested, the last three blogs have explained the entire state-funding sheet that is presented below. You now should be able to understand each of the terms and variables that determine the revenue Canby receives.
Last week I presented the basis (or lack thereof) used by the state of Oregon to determine the amount of public school funding. While Oregon does not have a defined minimum basic education funding level, the state funding formula does acknowledge and partially fund the different needs for a variety of students.
To accomplish this, every student is initially counted as one student for every day they are enrolled in a public school district. Districts track their enrollment on a daily basis and report the “Average Daily Membership” (ADM) monthly based upon these counts. For each ADM in this current school year, districts will receive approximately $5,900.
After counting each student as a whole or 1.0, the state then sets criteria that students must meet to qualify for additional funding. Students who qualify and are enrolled in an English [as a] Second Language (ESL) program are weighted an additional 0.5. This means the district receives $1.50 for every $1.00 that it would receive if they were not enrolled in this program or approximately $8,850. It is expected the additional $2,950 is spent providing the ESL program needs for each of these students.
Similarly, students who qualify for Special Education services and have a documented Individual Education Plan (IEP) are weighted an additional 1.0 or receive twice the funding as students not on IEPs. Students enrolled in Pregnant/Parenting Programs are also weighted an additional 1.0. Those students living in poverty (using a threshold well below qualifying for reduced or even free school lunches) and those students in foster care are weighted an additional 0.25. Students who qualify for weighting in more than one area are counted in all applicable areas.
It is noteworthy that the funding for Special Education students is limited to a maximum of 11% of the total district student population. If a district has more than this proportion of Special Education students enrolled, they are legally obligated to provide the needed services, but do not receive funding to support these services.
The state also acknowledges that small remote schools are not able to take advantage of certain economies of scale. As small schools often do not have enough students even when combining grade levels to fill a classroom, the funding formulas include double weighting for both “remote elementary schools” and “small high schools”. Canby does not qualify for remote or small school funding.
Similar to the ADM reporting, districts track the daily numbers for each weighted subgroup. The weighted numbers are then totaled and reported to the state as Average Daily Membership Weighted (ADMw).
So on the surface, it appears the state of Oregon has developed a mechanism that addresses the needs of specific categories of students and has provided funding to meet those needs. If the value of $5,900 were based upon what is needed to provide a basic education program for a standard student, this would be true. However, this amount was determined by dividing the total state revenue by the total state reported ADMw.
In other words, the weighting of students does not generate any more revenue for districts. Whether $5.6 billion is divided by ADM or ADMw, it is still $5.6 billion. Instead, weighting merely shifts funding from one district to another.
Serving the Community
John Steach
P.S. Please remember that Tuesday, January 3rd has been added back as a full student school day.
As stated in Article IX, Section 1 of the Washington State Constitution, “It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex”. This language is among the strongest of any state constitution in the United States in supporting public education. In fact, this language has been used as the basis for three landmark court decisions where the state of Washington was sued for not meeting its paramount duty of funding education. These cases resulted in the legislature defining “Basic Education” which must be funded above all other government expenditures.
In defining Basic Education, the Washington legislature has adopted formulas that calculate and fund minimum numbers of teachers, support staff, administrators, and non-employee related costs to create a basic education program. These formulas are based upon student to staff ratios and estimated costs of school facility operations. As an example, teachers are funded according to class size ratios (20.4 students per K-3 teacher and 21.7 students per 4-12 teacher). The total number of teachers is then converted to a funding amount through a state salary schedule that includes education and experience steps. This theoretically provides full funding for a basic education program for all students.
There are a variety of things not included in Washington’s definition of basic education such as extracurricular sports and activities. For these, local communities have the ability to pass maintenance and operations levies to locally fund desired items beyond the basic education program. This local levy limit was initially capped at 12% of the state revenue to ensure relatively equitable programs exit between districts. In recent years, the state increased this limit to 28% resulting in the case of McCleary v State of Washington (2010) that found the state was again underfunding basic education.
I provide this information not to suggest the Washington formulas are perfect (which the McCleary case indicates they are not), but to underscore that Washington has documented reasoning and justification for public education funding levels. Recently, when requested to produce a reduced state education budget for a special session to revise the state budget, Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn responded to the Governor, “I would like to, but cannot as I would be violating the state constitution in doing so with that amount of money”.
By contrast, the amount of money provided for public education in Oregon is determined at the state level based upon what is available within the overall budget. Since the Oregon constitution does not identify education as the state’s paramount duty, public education must compete with all other agencies for the available revenue. Rather that relying on formulas or minimum standards, the decision is left up to legislators and those that influence their decisions. So, as we continue to see reductions through this recession, we know how much revenue Canby will receive annually, but do we know whether it is enough to provide a basic education for our students?
Serving the Community
John Steach
Historically, Canby has either served our high school students on the Canby High campus or bussed them outside of the community to contracted service providers. Our goal with establishing the Academies is to provide a quality education to all students in an environment where they can succeed within our district. The space created at Ackerman has allowed us to accomplish this goal.
All three Academies have several common elements. The school day is more concentrated with shorter passing times (2 minutes), a shorter supervised lunch (15 minutes), and an early dismissal time (12:45). Regular contact is made with each student’s parent or guardian. The three Academies each have a homeroom teacher, but rotate through all three teachers during the day to ensure highly qualified teachers teach all subjects.
Alpha Academy: Some students have a difficult time interacting with large groups of students. In this Academy, students are able to focus on most of the traditional curriculum including math, reading, writing, art, and technology. Additionally, Alpha students spend time working on service learning and social behavior skills. While a regular diploma is the goal for these students, all diploma options are available.
Delta Academy: This Academy serves students who, for a variety of reasons, are unlikely to complete a regular diploma by the end of their senior year. In working toward either a modified, extended, or alternative diploma, their classes also focus on social skills and communication development. Many of these students were served outside of the district in the past.
Omega Academy: For students who have struggled with being successful in the large comprehensive high school environment, we are creating a location with a small school culture and feel. Often, these students are dealing with life issues on Maslow’s hierarchy that interfere with their focus on learning. As many of these students are trying to recover credit for past incomplete classes at the same time they are taking new classes, the program provides greater flexibility and guidance. Students in this Academy are striving to complete the requirements for a regular diploma on time or be ready to pass the GED by the completion of their senior year.
Without the support of the Academies, many of these students would likely drop out of school and not graduate. The bottom line for the Academies and these students is that we are trying to meet their specific educational needs.
Serving the Community
John Steach
![[Ackerman Academy students work on a service-learning project. Expect to see the reader board updated weekly with an inspirational quote selected by the students.]](http://blogs.canby.k12.or.us/uploads/entry_images/steachj/iPhoto_Library.jpg)
Ackerman Academy students work on a service-learning project. Expect to see the reader board updated weekly with an inspirational quote selected by the students.
Education reform has taken many different forms since it was brought to the forefront of America’s attention by the 1983 report A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. While each effort has taken a different approach, ranging from individual school autonomy to overall system accountability, the overall goal of each effort has been to improve the education of all students within public education. The most recent reform effort, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), builds upon the foundation of these earlier reforms in its attempt to create a system where student failure is not an option.
For more than a century the standard approach to student assessment and grading has been the use of the bell curve to sort students according to their capabilities. Teachers would commonly communicate to students that the class would be graded on a bell curve. Students would then be assigned letter grades based on their performance relative to the rest of the class with some A’s and F’s, a few more B’s and D’s, and a larger amount receiving C’s. Each student then accumulates a grade point average that will be used to determine college entrance and possible future job placement possibilities.
With NCLB’s focus on educating all students, a paradigm shift is needed to abandon our long-standing belief that grades (which hopefully correspond to student performance) should follow the traditional bell curve. Believing this is possible is not difficult once we acknowledge that the bell curve occurs with random events (which I hope does not describe our educational system). By applying interventions and assistance to targeted students, we eliminate randomness and therefore create order. If we are successful, all students will meet standard and the bell curve will become a vertical line.
Acknowledging this change in thinking is a good first step forward. However, embracing and incorporating it will take time and effort. Some of the obstacles that must be overcome in the months and years ahead to move beyond the bell curve are:
• Changing existing expectations from colleges and the general public of traditional grading practices,
• Moving beyond grouping students by age to a flexible system based upon level of mastery,
• Integrating higher education opportunities within K-12 for students who master all standards early, and
• Determining how to assess college entrance requirements or increasing the capacity higher education to accommodate the increased percentage of students who are capable and interested in college.
Clearly we have not answered all of the issues that will arise if we are able to meet the NCLB challenge. However, that will be a good problem for us to solve.
Serving the Community
John Steach
The TV news crews were filming their last interviews outside the nearly empty Omni room before packing up their cameras and heading north. While inside, in sharp contrast to the previous three hours, the Thursday night Board meeting quietly continued on to its next agenda item, a district financial update.
At their October 20th meeting, the Canby School Board had just rose to the occasion in discussing the controversial issue of whether or not to allow the county funded School-Based Health Clinic at Canby High School to prescribe and dispense birth control. The decision to not change current policy and thereby not prescribe or dispense birth control from the SBHC came after months of gathering information. This included public surveys of both the community and students. In total, input was received and reviewed from over 1,000 individuals during the process.
The two hours of public input during the meeting was as polarized as the survey results had indicated and as the media desired. However, as Board members presented their positions and reasoning, a common theme emerged. This theme, which aligned with all public comments and the goal of the students who presented the proposal, was the ultimate desire to reduce or eliminate teen pregnancy in our community. Several Board members commented that they hoped the public dialogue created by this issue across our community, as well as the greater Portland area, might help achieve this goal.
So as our community moves forward in the wake of controversy, some are likely disappointed that the SBHC policy was not changed. Others are frustrated that the board even considered this issue. But rather than view the glass half empty, I hope people choose to reflect upon the positives.
• The community became more aware that teen pregnancy is an issue that impacts some students in Canby.
• Abstinence was affirmed as the only guaranteed option for preventing teen pregnancy.
• For teens not choosing abstinence, the community cares enough to discuss options to help them.
• The community evaluated the availability of birth control for teens and was able to identify viable locations.
• Some parents were prompted to discuss sex and abstinence with their teens and share their values within the home.
• The process of public government was successfully exercised.
Like the district going on to the next agenda item, the community will move forward onto tomorrow. However, let’s hope that rather than relaxing with controversy behind us, we continue to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves and devote the energy needed to support our youth in making decisions that will eliminate future teen pregnancies.
Serving the Community
John Steach
Note: The Board also discussed the possibility of a Local Operating Levy at last week’s meeting. Specific issues addressed so far were the timing of the election (May 15th, 2012), the length of the Levy (potentially three years), and whether to set the Levy based upon a rate or amount. Still to be discussed at future meetings will be the use of the funds and the total amount requested. Information collected through the on-line survey will help the Board in making these decisions. Comments may also be submitted directly to the district office.
Last week as another group of teachers and administrators were touring Canby schools and learning about how we have integrated technology into teaching, I made a comment that caught some of them off guard. The comment was that Canby has taken a Microsoft approach toward innovation. As these educators were here to see the application of Apple/Mac devices, the quickly asked me to explain my comment. The origin of this comment aligns not with what we are using in the classrooms but rather how Canby got started and how it has grown.
The first similarity is the encouragement to try something new and innovative. It all started four years ago with an innovation grant were a teacher wanted to try something new and the district funded her idea. With these grants, the district philosophy has been similar to a James Cameron quote: “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” By allowing teachers the flexibility to reach for the stars in their own way, their desire to help students has created much greater motivation than any administrative mandate could ever accomplish.
This was one of several grants that year that were created to encourage teachers to explore new ways to improve instruction and learning. Most of these grants resulted in their desired improvements although some have had a broader impact than others. Through her trial and error experiences, other people became quickly became interested.
This is where the second similarity occurs. Like Microsoft, Canby allows our staff time to work together in flexible small groups to analyze our problems, identify possibilities, work through them together to find the best solutions possible, and then evaluate the development and implementation of these ideas. Wednesday morning Collaboration Team time was where this one innovation began to spread first across the building and then across the district. As teachers were exploring together ways to improve the delivery of instruction, conversations would turn to how through innovation grants other teachers had used technology to create additional ways to deliver the same core curriculum and allowed for greater differentiation. As the use of iPods has spread, more people have brought more ideas to the table for discussion.
We are now to the point were Canby not only uses technology but has started to drive the development of many applications to meet our needs. Teachers constantly want the devices to do more and more and are even contacting “Ap” developers to make suggestions for improvements and these suggestions are being incorporated. Even our students are creating new ways to combine Aps to accomplish assignments and there are then being shared by teachers through Collaboration Teams for continual improvement.
So when districts ask Canby how to duplicate what we are accomplishing we respectfully reply that you can’t. What we tell them they can do is to create the environment and resources for the outstanding and innovative staff that have committed their lives to the education of students to come out of isolation and work together without a fear of failure but with a hunger for success.
Serving the Community,
John Steach
For anyone who has read Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, the number 10,000 has a special significance. In this book, Gladwell devotes chapter two to presenting examples from the Beatles to Bill Gates to support how it took 10,000 hours of practice for these individuals to truly master the skills that made them famous. With the Beatles, they started off by playing at clubs in Hamburg, Germany between 1960 and 1962 as background music for eight-hour blocks to time. Gladwell states, “by the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, in fact, they had performed live an estimated twelve hundred times.” Between practice and performance, they had exceeded the 10,000-hour mastery mark.
As I continue to learn more about the difference between Washington and Oregon public education, I often reflect upon this number, 10,000. In Washington, the state constitution ensures that the “paramount duty” of the state is to provide ample provisions for the education of the children residing within its boarders. This is the strongest constitutional language in the nation and has been supported by court cases, which have defined “basic education” that must be funded (this isn’t to say that Washington is without their own financial issues). This includes 180 instructional days of six hours of instruction for every student along with a minimum of 1,000 hours (500 hours for half time kindergarten) of direct student contact time per school year (accounting for half days and conference time). Recent changes require 1,080 hours per year but have been delayed due to lack of funding.
It only takes elementary level math to calculate that Washington students receive a mandatory 11,500 hours of instruction in their public education career (well above Gladwell’s 10,000 hour threshold for mastery). By contrast, after the budget reductions at the start of the current recession, most Oregon schools have reduced the number of instructional days to below 170. Along with this reduction in days, the minimum instructional hours were reduced to 990 hours for grades 9-12, 900 hours for grades 4-8, 810 hours for grades 1-3, and 405 hours for kindergarten. I’ll save you that math and provide the grand total of 10,395 hours (Yes, Gladwell would still by smiling).
While the number is still greater than 10,000, it concerns me that Oregon education is attempting to achieve the same goals with 1,105 less instructional hours than Washington (more than a full school year). This lost year of instruction puts a great burden on educators as we work to meet NCLB standards, close the achievement gap, strive to meeting common core standards with other states, and prepare students to compete globally.
In response to this challenge, I have seen the teachers in Canby striving to make the most of instructional time. This relates to both the structure of the school day schedules as well as use of time within the classroom. I have overheard staff members articulating that two minutes per day of student time adds up to a full day by the end of the year stressing the value of instructional time.
To expand the number of hours to be more commensurate to other states, until we are able to restore the reduced school days we must work to find ways to extend learning beyond the formal school year. This last summer for some students this took the form of summer school. At Canby High School we are providing additional time after school for students needing extra support. However, even these programs come at a cost and are not able to reach all children.
This week, the district and the Canby Education Foundation will be interviewing candidates who are interested in helping make connections between the community and the schools as another way to expand instructional time. It is our vision that the Co-laboring Education concept developed by the vision team last year will become a reality and that through this we as a community can make up the opportunities of the lost year for our students and make 10,000 seem like a much smaller number.
Serving the Community,
John Steach
This past week, the principal of Jefferson Elementary School in Richland WA (yes, my former district) came to visit the Canby School District to see what I had mentioned to her last spring about the use of technology by students in our schools. She brought her third grade team as well and the district’s IT network administrator to better understand how teachers are using i-Pods and i-Pads as tools for instruction with students and prepare to make a request of their school board to follow Canby’s lead.
For the past three years, the Canby school district staff members have quietly developed a way to use current technology as a way to connect with students and expand the way they teach. As we walked through classrooms, we watched students reading their own writing into their i-Pods, listening to themselves, and then editing their own work while the teacher circled the room and provided assistance to students as needed. In another class students were researching national monuments to learn their locations, characteristics, and history.
This tool is natural to use for this generation of students. The training component for kids consists of telling them to take 15 minutes on the first day and see what the device can do. By contrast, our teachers are provided a full day to learn how to develop lesson plans and publish these through i-tunes (sorry for the proprietary plug) for student access through the device “ap”. Not only does it change the way teachers instruct and students engage, it has other benefits as well. For students who are absent, they can use their device to access the previous day’s assignments and lessons.
While this was a significant event for this group of educators, it was another day in the classrooms in Canby where teachers and students went about their work, interrupted for a moment or two to answer a question from a group of strangers interested in how their classes function. The way that these students hardly notice when people enter and leave the classroom (based on their staying engaged in learning) indicates that this is not an uncommon experience. In fact, tour requests have become so common that the district has set specific days and consolidate multiple groups to minimize the impact on staff time to answer their questions.
The tour last week was an individual school. However, next month, the Idaho State Superintendents’ Association is sponsoring a visit from multiple school district superintendents accompanied by their technology directors and teachers. Idaho, like most other states, is working to restructure their education system in a way that recognizes the role of technology in our lives today. They have selected Canby as a model for what they hope to achieve.
What I tell people when asked about Canby schools is “to believe this, you need to see it”, which is why they are coming. It looks like the word is getting out.
Serving the Community
John Steach
![[Richland principal Bobbi Buttars watches Canby students using i-Pods to assist in editing their own writing.]](http://blogs.canby.k12.or.us/uploads/entry_images/steachj/DSC_0445.jpg)
Richland principal Bobbi Buttars watches Canby students using i-Pods to assist in editing their own writing.