When a school board looks to refine policies regarding use of the social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, establishing a line between personal and professional lives is difficult. One school district is experiencing such difficultly while others schools districts are discouraged use altogether.

Community Engagement

School districts looking for additional methods to communicate with the community are using Facebook to start a conversation.

Social Media Stories for Week of March 5 is a post from: Effective Governance Teams

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California didn’t make the cut for taking home cash in the first round of the Race to the Top competition for federal stimulus funds for education.

Sacramento

Democrats in the Legislature took a step toward restoring $900 million of the more than $2 billion that Gov. Schwarzenegger has proposed to cut from K-12 schools and community colleges. The “gas-tax-swap” bill would hold the schools harmless by raising the percentage of the general fund that must go toward K-14 schools. The Governor hasn’t said whether he would sign the bill.

A bill in the California Legislature would give three school districts more freedom in how it spends state money. The bill would relax spending restrictions on state funds for up to three eligible districts as part of a pilot program. The added flexibility would begin in 2011 and run through 2014. The bill was introduced by Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, and sponsored by the Long Beach Unified.

Reforming State and Local Governance

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said he is prepared to ask the Legislature to put California Forward’s proposal to lower the vote requirement for passing a budget on the November ballot.

With 80 initiative proposals currently circulating throughout California, Secretary of State Debra Bowen today reminded voters of their key rights and responsibilities when deciding whether to sign petitions.

A new study says the economic downturn has prompted 17 states to make cost-cutting public pension reforms during the last two years — lower benefits for new hires, extended retirement ages and bigger payments from workers. California is not among them.

School Districts Impacts

The list of March 15 notices is over 35 school districts.

Los Angeles
The Los Angeles school board  unanimously approved sending nearly 5,200 layoff notices to teachers, administrators, counselors and nurses, as the district looks to close a $640 million budget deficit for the next school year.

Murieta
Murieta staff expects about 175 teachers to get layoff notices, including some who have been with the district since 2003.

Pomona
The school board has voted to send out preliminary layoff notices to 321 certificated employees. Of the 321 employees due to receive notices, 293 are teachers.

Chino Valley
Teachers and students are reeling from a school board decision to close the Chino Valley Unified Adult School on July 1. In addition the Board is expected to approve the release of about 87 preliminary layoff notices.

Placentia-Yorba Linda
The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District has reached a tentative furlough agreement with the group that could save the district $1.6 million. In exchange for the 10 furlough days, which amount to about a 2.1 percent pay cut this school year for most of the employees, the district has agreed not to lay off any more support staff during this school year and to not lay off more than 5 percent of staff in the 2010-11 school year.

Brea Olinda
The Brea Olinda Unified School District could be sending layoff notices to more than 30 teachers and an unknown number of classified employees to help resolve a projected $3.5 million deficit due to ongoing cuts in state funding.

Calaveras
The elimination of two dozen teachers - the equivalent of 23.12 full-time positions – would save the district $1.2 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, said Calaveras officials.

Paramount
The Paramount Unified School District wants employees to take four unpaid furlough days next academic year as part of a plan to cut $3.2 million from its 2010-2011 budget. In addition, the board could decide to warn 10 elementary teachers and two intervention teachers that they may lose their jobs at the end of the school year.

Modesto
The board voted 6-1 to begin layoff proceedings for more than 300 teachers, counselors, nurses and librarians, setting up negotiations with employee unions.

Castro Valley
The Board approved just over $5 million in cuts from next year’s budget, which will eliminate about 50 teaching and management positions in the district.

Lompoc
Every employee of the Lompoc Unified School District just lost eight working days from the 2010-11 school year. The question of whether to accept the furlough decision now will be posed to the labor organizations.

Ojai
The board approved layoff notices for 51 certificated employees at a meeting Tuesday night. The list includes about 40 full-time classroom teachers and five full-time support and administrative positions.

Twin Rivers
Twin Rivers Unified School District trustees discussed whether to issue pink slips to more than 400 employees. Of those proposed layoff notices, 226 were to be given to classified employees – clerks, custodians, library workers, bus drivers and maintenance personnel and their supervisors.

Oxnard
Prompted by proposed state funding cuts, Oxnard School District trustees approved a list of layoff notices for about 30 teachers.

Walnut Valley
The Walnut Valley Unified School District board of trustees voted Wednesday night to notify 54 elementary school teachers and about 30 high school educators of their possible layoffs for the 2010-11 school year.

News Impacting CA Schools for the Week Ending March 5 is a post from: Effective Governance Teams

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California March 15 Notices 2010

March 15 Notices is a post from: Effective Governance Teams

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A coalition of education organizations and nearly 100 school districts has called on U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to deny Gov. Schwarzenegger’s request for a waiver to cut K-12 spending as much as he proposes. If Duncan buys their argument, the governor would have to come up with an additional $850 million for schools.

In a proposed change to the No Child Left Behind law, the Obama administration would require states to adopt new academic standards to qualify for federal money from a $14 billion program that concentrates on impoverished students.

Sacramento News

The Legislative Analyst Office has released its fiscal analysis of the four propositions appearing on the June 8 primary ballot.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has issued its analysis of the state’s education budget in two reports: The 2010-11 Budget: Proposition 98 and K-12 Education and Higher Education.

Reforming State and Local Governance

The Open Primary initiative which will be opposed by the Democratic and Republican parties will be on the June ballot. Considering both parties will be opposing it maybe enough reason to vote Yes to change things in Sacramento.

School District Impacts

Lake Elsinore
Members of the union that represents nonteaching personnel in the Lake Elsinore school district voted to reject a proposal to take a pay cut to help save jobs.

Bellflower
The Bellflower Unified School District plans to close a school, increase K-3 class sizes to 30:1 and have employees take unpaid furloughs next school year in an effort to trim about $9 million from its budget.

Sacramento City
The Sacramento City Unified School District is facing a $30 million deficit and are looking at increase class sizes from 25 to 30 students in kindergarten through third grade, trim adult education and eliminate all school counselors and psychologists.

Vista
The school board voted unanimously to eliminate more than 165 teaching positions, let go of 61 other teachers on temporary contracts and lay off 34 more part-time teachers to close a $18 million deficit.

San Francisco
More than 900 San Francisco schoolteachers, administrators and other staff members – nearly twice that of last year – are in line to receive layoff notices in the next few weeks as district officials prepare to cover a $113 million deficit.

Bassett
The school board voted to approve the layoff of 24 teachers and an additional 23 administrators may lose their jobs or be reassigned to other positions to address a $2.5 million deficit.

San Rafael
San Rafael school officials voted Monday to send layoff notices to 22 elementary and 15 high school district employees, including 26 teachers to address a $1.4 million deficit.

Poway
Angry teachers and others who work for the Poway Unified School District packed a special school board meeting at which trustees made an opening three-year contract offer that would reduce pay for all employees by a total of 7.5 percent to address a $24 million deficit.

Bakersfield
The school board approved a proposal to cut the equivalent of 120 full-time positions, mostly teachers, as it tries to close a $5.5 million cut from next year’s budget.

Stockton
Stockton Unified trustees voted to send layoff notices to 200 teachers to address a $28 million deficit.

Temecula
The Temecula Valley Unified School District board voted to approve eliminating 149 teaching positions to address a $26 million deficit.

Oceanside
The adminstration is recommending program reductions of more than $7 million by laying off employees and cutting programs as well as working with employee unions to negotiate nearly $12 million in savings by reducing salaries and benefits to address $19 million deficit.

Downey
The Downey Unified School District plans to increase class sizes in first through third grades and suspend some middle school sports programs to address a $5.5 million deficit.

Santa Ana
Santa Ana Unified trustees to eliminate up to 126 certificated jobs for the upcoming school year to address a $46.9 million deficit.

San Diego
To offset an anticipated $87.8 million deficit in next year’s $1.2 billion operating budget, the school board approved $63 million in tentative cuts. Negotiations continue with bargaining units.

Castro Valley
Staff is recommending increasing class sizes, eliminating athletic programs, and reducing the number of counselors on campus to address a $5.1 million deficit.

Rowland
The Rowland Unified School District may cut 43 teaching positions and enforce staff furloughs, pay cuts and a shorter work year in an attempt to close a $7 million deficit.

Upland
Upland Unified is considering an increase in K-3 class sizes from 24 students per class to 29 students per class to address a $15 million deficit.

San Juan
The San Juan Unified School District board voted Tuesday night to issue 605 layoff notices to address a $40 million deficit.

Chula Vista
To address a $15 million deficit, the Chula Vista Elementary School District is proposing an 8 percent, districtwide salary cut and may lay off up to 459 staffers.

Liberty Union High School
Everything from salary reductions and larger classes to layoffs of guidance counselors and librarians is on the chopping block as Liberty Union High School District trustees prepare to slash $3.8 million from next year’s budget.

News Impacting CA School Districts Through February 26 is a post from: Effective Governance Teams

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LinkedIn is considered a social networking site for professionals and has over 50 million members. If you have not created a profile on LinkedIn, I would encourage to consider it. It is a good place to network with other professionals in your community. If you already have a profile on LinkedIn, you can join a LinkedIn groups School Board Trustees and network with other school board trustees.

Schools and the Classroom

Rather then wait for the adults to provide access to student information, a high school senior created an iPhone application that provides class schedule information, grades and more.

A college professor blogs about the pros and cons of a new trend where colleges are allowing seniors to provide a video as a part of the admissions process .

Social Media Stories for Week of February 26 is a post from: Effective Governance Teams

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If you are a GMail user you may have noticed a new feature in your email: Buzz. This maybe a game changer for social media as Google enters the fray.

Schools and the Classroom

Should a school district be allowed to activate the webcam when any of their student issued laptops are reported lost or stolen? A lawsuit in Philadelphia filed this week will begin to decide the matter.

A Wake County middle-school teacher may be fired after she and her friends made caustic remarks on a Facebook page about her students, the South and Christianity.

In the 1983 movie War Games, a young Matthew Boderick gained access to the nation’s defense systems. Did the same thing happen when bored Chinese students hacked into Google? Do you want to a play a game?

Community Engagement

The simple act of asking for others opinion via a survey is the first step in the engagement process. The next step is sharing the results so a conversation can begin around shared values. This process is happening in Sacramento.

Social Media Stories for Week of February 19 is a post from: Effective Governance Teams

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The White House and the Department of Education have announced a new Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge and are inviting public schools across the country to compete to have President Obama speak at their graduation.

Sacramento

The state Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would require Amazon.com and other online retailers to charge sales tax on purchases in California, generating an estimated $107 million a year. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed to veto the measure when Democrats proposed it last year, and it stalled in committee. But Democrats reintroduced it Thursday in a tax enforcement bill that was part of a $5 billion budget package moving through the Legislature.

Reforming State and Local Governance

Labor unions have contributed 1 million dollars into a proposed ballot measure that would change the legislative vote requirement to pass a state budget from two-thirds to a simple majority. The committee is backing the “On-Time Budget Act of 2010”. The proponents have until May 10 to gather valid signatures from at least 694,354 registered voters in order to put the proposed constitutional amendment on November’s ballot.

A few weeks ago, a statewide ballot initiative petition signed by a California voter named Michael Ni was delivered to the clerk’s office in San Mateo County. Strange as it may sound, this is no exaggeration: Ni’s John Hancock may reshape American politics forever. Ni did not sign his name on a piece of paper. His signature was electronic. The anticipated legal case could turn on semantic questions raised by applying century-old rules to 21st century technology. What constitutes a “signed” petition under the state Constitution’s requirement that a petition must be “certified to have been signed” before it can be put on a ballot?

School Districts Impacts

Los Angeles USD
Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines proposed shortening the current school year by six days to help the district save $90 million during its financial crisis. Cortines said he has already come up with various cuts and furloughs to bring the district within $100 million of that goal – and the $90 million saved by shortening the school year will almost close the gap entirely. In an effort to save jobs and soften the impact of budget cuts to classrooms, Los Angeles Unified approved placing a new $100 per parcel tax on the June ballot. The limited parcel tax would generate $92.5 million per year for four years .

Lake Elsinore
The union that represents nonteaching personnel in the Lake Elsinore school district has agreed to take an 8 percent salary reduction in exchange for a pledge from the district to limit the number of classified employee layoffs. Nearly 200 teaching jobs in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District were eliminated in a unanimous vote by the school board. Among the jobs eliminated were nearly 200 certificated positions, including 133 elementary school teachers, 51 middle or high school teachers, counselors, a nurse and a psychologist. Before approving the layoffs — which could be reduced through further negotiations with employees — board members criticized the teachers union for failing to reach an agreement on concessions and avert so many job cuts.

Newport-Mesa
The Newport-Mesa Unified School Board has approved a plan to slash about $13.5 million from the budget by eliminating about 104 jobs, increasing class sizes, reducing summer school, and other cuts. The school board approved cutting about 84 teaching jobs and about 20 classified positions.

Newark
School trustees have ratified a contract with the Newark teachers union that could save the cash-strapped district as much as $2.1 million by reducing the number of workdays for educators, and by increasing some of their class sizes. The contract will decrease the work year for teachers by three days, and allow the district to reduce the schedule by another five days if necessary to help close a $3.5 million shortfall. The three-day reduction in workdays — which will go into effect for the 2010-11 school year — is equivalent to a 1.5 percent reduction in teachers’ salaries.

Lodi
Lodi Unified School District board members decided to issue layoff notices to nearly 400 district workers, including more than 270 teachers, counselors and principals, as they wrestled late into the night with a staggering $30 million deficit.

Long Beach
About 750 employees in the Long Beach Unified School District next month will be warned they may lose their jobs at the end of the school year as a result of budget cuts.

Orange Unified
The Orange Unified School District will be asking the state for permission to raise class sizes at elementary and middle schools. A waiver would allow the district to raise the class size to a 33-to-1 student-teacher ratio for two years, beginning in the next school year. Currently, the state Education Code allows a 30-to-1 ratio for grades 1-3, and a 29.9-to-1 for grades 4-8.

Corona-Norco
A worst-case scenario to lay off 343 full-time teachers and 150 tutors was approved by the Corona-Norco school board. But district officials said they are optimistic that negotiations could save many of those jobs. The resolution to cut 343 full-time jobs lists 220 elementary teachers, 27 counselors, eight student advisers, 10 assistant principals, three district coordinators, 13 special education teachers and five music teachers.

Colton
The Colton Joint Unified School District Board of Education voted 4-3 to issue preliminary layoff notices to 141 teachers.

Vista
The Vista Unified School District board, facing another year of declining revenue, approved a list of spending cuts and voted to send preliminary layoff notices to more than 167 teachers.

Alvord
Layoff notices for teachers in 154 jobs were approved by the Alvord school board.

News Impacting CA Schools for the Week Ending February 19 is a post from: Effective Governance Teams

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As you venture forth into social networking arena, I am sure you are concerned about your personal privacy and the implications on your school district. For one point of view, the European Union has issued Seventeen Golden Rules for Keeping Safe on Social Networks.

Schools and the Classroom

Audits of the U.S. educational system have revealed that the highest hurdle to adopting skills-based teaching practices is the lack of an easily implementable curriculum. Enter social video games as a solution — immersive environments that simulate real-world problems. Today, technologically eager schools are replacing textbook learning with social video games, and improving learning outcomes in the process.

Wesley Fryer’s article on User Friendly Media, helps teachers locate “copyright friendly media”.

Community Engagement

Online surveys sponsored by school districts to reach feedback about budget priorities is a useful tool. More than 11,000 people took a survey sponsored by the Sacramento City Unified School District, including 4,200 students.

Publishing a recap of school board meetings with links to documents is a way to improve engagement with the community as well as build credibility.

Social Media Stores for the Week of February 12 is a post from: Effective Governance Teams

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The Obama administration trumpeted last fall that school districts had used stimulus money to save, or create, some 250,000 education jobs. Now the new studies point to the problems likely to beset thousands of school districts when the federal money runs out.

A new task force is charged with developing an interagency action plan to solve the problem of obesity among our Nation’s children as part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign. The campaign will take a comprehensive approach to engage both public and private sectors to help children become more active and eat healthier within a generation, so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight.

State Controller John Chiang reported that California collected $1.28 billion more in January tax revenues than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger projected in his current budget plan.

Reforming State and Local Governance

Staggered by a 25 percent loss in the last fiscal year, the board of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System began crafting a strategy to petition lawmakers for higher rates. CalSTRS gets more than $6.6 billion in annual contributions from the state, school districts and teachers. About $1.6 billion of that comes from the state.

With efforts for a Constitutional Convention placed on hold due to funding problems, the California Journal of Politics and Policy issued an analysis of the effectiveness of constitutional conventions.

The California Teachers Association has pitched half a million dollars into a campaign account for its proposed ballot initiative to repeal tax benefits for corporations approved over the last two years.

School District Impacts

Lake Elsinore
Look for more stories like this. The Lake Elsinore school district declared an impasse in negotiations with the teachers union. The district sought an agreement from the union for a one-time 10 percent salary reduction for all of its employees. Without concessions, district leaders have said they would have to lay off almost 500 employees and close up to four schools.

Sylvan Union
The Sylvan Union Board of Education approved a plan to lay off 50 employees for the next school year. In an effort to slash spending by $5 million, Modesto’s second-largest school district will increase class sizes and lay off 36 elementary teachers

Mt. Diablo USD
The Mt. Diablo school board has cut $4 million from adult education, counseling, intervention for struggling students, campus supervision, technology and staff training. An additional $17 million reduction could come from employee pay cuts, furloughs or higher benefit costs. The board has asked the administration to begin such discussions.

San Ramon USD
The San Ramon Valley school board has approved class size increases in kindergarten through third grade, as well as ninth-grade English and math courses, to account for a worst-case scenario in anticipated budget cuts. The district will seek some concessions from its employee unions, which could include furloughs, benefits caps, a reduction in salary schedules and a freeze on workers moving up the salary steps, to help improve its financial position.

Chaffey Joint Union
Chaffey Joint Union High School District will reduce the current school year by three days to help close a $11 million budget gap. The three days classes will be canceled are March 29, April 26 and May 17.

Menifee Union
Four management positions will be eliminated and 13 unpaid days taken by administrators over the next two years as the Menifee school district looks to close an $8.7 million budget gap. Members of the district’s two employee unions will be asked to join management in taking six furlough days in 2010-11 and seven in 2011-12

Long Beach
The Long Beach board voted to increase class sizes in kindergarten and third grades this fall to 30 students per teacher. Currently those grades are at 20 students per teacher. About 400 teaching positions are slated for elimination next school year as part of a plan to increase class sizes.

Saddleback Valley
Saddleback Valley Unified officials announced they are seeking $26 million in pay concessions from district employees to help close the district’s gaping $33 million deficit, even as about 400 teachers and their supporters crowded a school board meeting to complain about “bullying and posturing.”

San Diego
Hundreds of teachers, parents and students rallied in the rain to protest millions of dollars in proposed cuts to the San Diego Unified School District’s budget and a contract offer that calls for slicing educators’ pay by 8 percent.

Poway USD
Facing a possible budget deficit of as much as $24 million this coming school year, the superintendent of the Poway Unified School District is proposing cutting teacher and other employee salaries by a total of 7.5 percent and reducing the number of educational days in the school year by five.

News Impacting CA School Districts Through February 12 is a post from: Effective Governance Teams

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Do not underestimate the power of email. Over the past seven years I created email lists of over 1,000 email addresses from Board member email correspondence. By creating lists like Parents, Employees and Community, you can send periodic updates to targeted groups. It also helps come election time.

Schools and the Classroom

When examining the employee implications of implementing social media, a review of policies and practices should be done. For examples you can review an online database of social media policies and guidelines developed for Intel employees.

For teachers who using blogs in their classrooms it is recommended to use comment moderation for ALL blog posts and other social media websites they setup for use with K-12 students.

Do schools have to archive student email? It depends .

Community Engagement

The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project is a part of a series of reports undertaken that highlight the attitudes and behaviors of the Millennial generation, a cohort of adults ages 18 to 29. The latest report focuses teenagers usage compared to the Millennial generation. Here is a recap of the report showing usage patterns of social media among teens to adults.

An overnight success ten years in the making, social media is as transformative as it is evolutionary. At last, 2010 is expected to be the year that social media goes mainstream for business. Typically, public education will another ten years behind the adoption by business. Here are the ten stages of social media integration .

Social Media Stories for the Week of February 5 is a post from: Effective Governance Teams

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