Albert Lea Discussion Forum » Printable Version of Topic

Forum: Opinion
Topic: Proposed school calendar 2015-2016
started by: jrhanson_75

Posted by jrhanson_75 on Aug. 22 2014,8:39 am

There has been a petition started to show the school board that the community does not support the proposed calendar for the 2015-2016 school year.
If you could help in passing along this information your help would be appreciated!

Here is the link:
< https://www.change.org/p...etition >

Posted by MADDOG on Aug. 22 2014,8:56 am

Quite a bit of thought put into this letter before it was drafted?

QUOTE

To:
Albert Lea School Board District 241, Albert Lea school board members

We want them to keep the traditional calendar

Sincerely,
[Your name]

Posted by Liberal on Aug. 22 2014,9:15 am

Find out where candidates stand on the issue and vote.

< http://www.albertleatribune.com/2014...l-board >

Posted by jrhanson_75 on Aug. 22 2014,9:40 am

Mad dog-
I felt that keeping it simple and direct was the best approach.
I want the community to leave their own comments/opinion on the petition.
If you don't agree with the petition don't sign it.
If you agree, please feel free to sign and leave a comment there.

Posted by jrhanson_75 on Aug. 22 2014,9:48 am

Thanks for sharing that article! It is a great idea to find out where they stand on the issue.

Posted by MADDOG on Aug. 22 2014,2:58 pm

Nope, no longer live in #241.

I've long time believed though that much of what school districts (not just yours) do are for the benefit of the teachers and their unions and the kids are secondary. Tenure takes money schools could use for paying good teachers and gives it to poor ones. Unions wrap the schools in red tape and create excess baggage for schools. High percentages of teachers literally do nothing and have their assistants they have strong arm bargained for do the work instead.
Teachers have moved the school year into a longer calendar year since they got their way on continuing their education during the school calendar year rather than attending their updating education during the summer months. Teachers unions protect bad teachers and ones that are a < danger to those students >.

Teacher union contracts protect bad teachers records from following them to their next teaching position, thereby letting bad or dangerous teachers continue in a different school district after one school finally rids themselves of the teacher.

Posted by Liberal on Aug. 22 2014,3:08 pm

< http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content...-nation >

Posted by TheHill on Aug. 26 2014,9:06 pm

I don't have a student impacted by this, yet. But on the surface it seems like a good idea. But I am open to learning. Why not change?

Posted by Liberal on Aug. 27 2014,8:34 am

This is Albert Lea and we fear change.

Posted by jrhanson_75 on Aug. 28 2014,10:41 pm

Liberal-
Not everyone here in Albert Lea is afraid of change.
TheHill-
I am not sure what you do and do not know about the proposed modified calendar the school board and Dr. Funk want to pass...but here is what I know.
They have links on the district website to websites that have data about year round school.
Year round school is very different from what is being proposed. They are comparing apples to oranges.
It has been said the goal is to help the children retain information they have learned in the previous year and to make the learning gap smaller.
On the modified calendar the number of student days would be 172-177 depending on snow days. On the traditional calendar the number is 175.
On the modified calendar summer break is 52-57 days depending on snow days. On the traditional calendar it is 62 days. I do not understand why they are wanting to inconvenience families with this change in the school calendar, when we are gaining very little if any additional learning time in the classroom with the modified calendar.
With only 5-10 days taken away from summer I don't believe this will help my children retain what they have learned from the previous year.

I also think it is just silly to build in snow days. This is something that is going to make planning for daycare even more of a struggle for some families.
And what about Parents who are teachers who teach in a different district? They will not be on the same schedule as their child who attends here.
How do they expect to get the kids to come school on the breaks for additional help? Providing lunch is not the answer.
There is just far too many negative points to this change they want to make in our community. I would be all for a change if they had data to support it.

Posted by TheHill on Aug. 29 2014,1:18 pm

I did not realize that the summer break was going to be only five to ten days shorter. I thought that the idea was to break up the time off so that a student want not be out of the classroom for for so many days in a row. I will have to check the website.

And I mean no offense to anyone, but I am not really moved by teachers who teach in a different district. That is a choice they make and the impact on them should carry the same weight as other parents. This should be about students.

So, if there is no benefit, why would the district be considering it?

Posted by albertlea033 on Aug. 29 2014,2:09 pm

The calendar is only an attempt by Dr. Funk to leave some sort of legacy in Albert Lea so he can build up his resume. Test scores have gone down on his watch, so he can't point to that. We don't have a need for new buildings so he cannot leave his mark that way. He wants to get out of town, but his reputation (and inability to turn off his arrogance during the interview process) is preventing it. It's just a resume builder. And good luck with a petition--the school board rubber-stamps Dr. Funk's decisions. If you read the paper today, apparently 4 of the school board's e-mail addresses came back as "undeliverable," and only Linda Laurie replied to the person who started the petition. It doesn't matter--on controversial issues, the board will hide behind the board chair anyway. Considering that Linda Laurie and Bill Leland appear to be clammering every chance they get to sit in Dr. Funk's lap (one of them almost literally), good luck. Get ready for the "Balanced Calendar." Dr. Funk needs to leave his legacy.