Tonight’s School Board meeting was… uplifting.  Inspirational.  Bragging rights (sort of, for what tiny part of it I can claim any credit for) have been established.

There are some parents out there whose bragging rights are much more substantial, and I hope that they are swelled with pride.  First up was one of our multi-age preschool classes, demonstrating what they’re learning  these days.  We’re talking reading, counting, dates, money, alphabets — everything one needs to be ready for kindergarten.

Actually, it’s what we used to learn in Kindergarten.

One of the things that impressed me was, when a child did not know the answer, he or she did not stare at their shoes and mumble, "I don’t know"  (oh, the humiliation of the public "I don’t know…").  They looked up and around at their classmates, saying "I need help," and the rest of the class would chime in with the answer.

There was no shame, only helping and sharing.  There will be enough days down the road to feel the shame of having to say "I don’t know" in front of the whole class (not to mention the school board, all the parents, and the television camera); these preschool days are for learning.  There’s no shame in not knowing, only in not trying to know.

Pigpen was not among those needing help — he knew his answers.   He’s ready for the big K.

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Next up was Landon Smith, an ORHS junior who scored a perfect 36 on the ACT.  Asked if he had anything to say he simply replied, "I had my Jr. AP (English) presentation today, so I think I’m just about done with public speaking for now."

Good job, Landon.  And good job, Landon’s mom, who teaches at Jefferson.

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The rest of the meeting was fairly uneventful, but one item in the monthly financial report stood out to me: with 75% of the fiscal year behind us, our sales tax collections stand at 64.9%.  The big back-to-school shopping days of August are behind us; the mammoth Christmas season has passed.  Easter, when there’s usually a bump simply because most children have to have new Sunday clothes and shoes (and baskets and candy), is also history.

There are no more significant local shopping days, and we’re still grossly behind our target sales tax collections (which were meager to start with).

Think about it.  I know it’s hard to find stuff here, but it’s worth a try.  And, a vote in favor of the bond issue for infrastructure improvements is a direct vote for better shopping in Oak Ridge, which provides the money your schools must have to operate.

In Day 2 of the National School Boards Association annual conference, the first session I attended today was on NCLB, IDEA, and the law of unfunded federal mandates. Moderated by Ron Wenkart, who serves as General Counsel for Orange County, it was a lot of information that all of us already knew (unfunded mandates are wrecking our budgets), but some key information about the details that I, for one, didn’t know.

The big one for us is IDEA — the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It’s pretty easy to agree that individuals with disabilities should be educated, and that accommodations must be made for some students. That’s not the problem. The problem is that the law is so far-reaching in terms of what public school systems must pay for — nursing care for a student with a feeding tube, occupational therapy for students with motor skills issues, even the cost of a residential treatment facility for students with severe emotional disturbances.

I’ve asked more than once in our Board meetings, "where is the line between educational services and medical services, and at what point is the family or their insurance company responsible for these costs?" The answer I received today was that the courts have held that all services except those of a physician are the responsibility of the school system. When the IDEA originally passed (in the 1970’s, I think), the intent was for the federal government to cover 40% of the cost. But they don’t. For many years, they covered only 8%, and today it’s up to about 16%. While that sounds like progress, the problem is that the number of students identified as special ed has skyrocketed — and local school districts are stuck with taking money out of general education to pay for special education services.

Wenkart got into the details of the "spending clause" in the US Constitution — Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 — under which the IDEA and NCLB were enacted. In short, that means that Congress can require states (and local governments) to do things not specifically enumerated in the powers of the federal government when those requirements are in the form of strings attached to money allocated. In South Dakota v. Dole, the Supremes broadly interpreted the spending clause and upheld Congress’ conditioning of federal highway funds on a state’s enactment of a minimum drinking age of 21.

In South Dakota v. Dole, Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the dissenting opinion, holding that the clause was too broadly interpreted, and that there should be a more direct and immediate correlation between the mandated action and the purpose of the funding, but it was the minority opinion, so the ruling held and has been subsequently used as precedent for other, similar cases.

As an example, it would make sense if a school system simply said "we’re not going to accept any NCLB grants (which we don’t get anyway), and we’re not going to abide by the mandates." Unfortunately, that would mean the system would lose ALL federal funding, not just the NCLB funding that they already don’t receive. Worse, it’s likely that they would also lose all State funding.

Although Congress passed the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act in 1995, the gaping loophole is that it does not apply to legislation or grant programs which were a condition of federal assistance or a duty arising from participation in a voluntary federal program — funding with strings attached. IDEA does not take into account the growing and heavy burden placed upon local school systems to comply, nor the impact on general education from dollars being sucked out of it every year to cover special services for a few students.

The State seems fixated on the schools’ role in solving the obesity epidemic, when the incidence of autism is skyrocketing (costing an average of $40,000 per student, as opposed to a rate of about $9,000 per student otherwise). How much more positive it would be to identify the causes and cures of disabling factors, than to simply keep bullying local school districts into solutions we are not equipped to provide.

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Today’s general session featured Bill Clinton as the headline speaker, whose primary message was that schools must play a greater role in preventing childhood obesity. Once again, trying to foist upon us a responsibility that does not fit well with our primary mission.

I realize that his motives are noble, but the whole nutrition and lack of exercise problem is a problem at home, not at school. Our job is to educate — yes, even educate about proper diet and exercise within the confines of wellness classes — but the school system cannot take over the raising of every child.

You really don’t want that.

… is the transition from eighth grade to ninth grade: middle school to high school.

Attending the National School Boards Conference this weekend, I’ve heard from some interesting folks, and learned a few things already (having only arrived at 5 a.m. EST — putting me in a rather sleep-deprived state).

In the transition from middle to high school, kids move from a task-oriented situation to one that is ability-oriented; it’s not just whether you do what you’re told, but how well you do it that matters. Simultaneously, they’re moving from being the uppermost echelon of their society, to being the lowest caste. All while their brains are undergoing a massive change, resulting in a very short attention span and irrational results.

Three studies using the Harter Student Self Perception Survey found that students’ perceptions of themselves declined between 8th and 9th grades in the following areas:

• Physical appearance
• Job competence (mowing lawns, babysitting, etc.)
• Romantic appeal
• Behavioral conduct
• Global self-worth

So, just as they’re going into a more socially and academically challenging situation, this group suffers a blow to their self-esteem: they perceive themselves as ugly, incompetent, unlovable, bad, and worthless. Gee, who would do well under those circumstances? It’s mostly a matter of brain chemistry, partly a matter of the transition taking place at a non-optimum time.

The things they tend to fear about moving to high school are:

• Being bullied
• Mean teachers (to a 14-year old, "mean" is synonymous with "gives a lot of homework")
• Getting lost
• Having time to get to their lockers
• Being late to class
• Finding a boyfriend or girlfriend
• Amount of homework
• Grades
• Graduation
• Extracurricular activities.

There was no difference found in any of the three studies between rural and urban students.

Finding ways to mitigate the emotional trauma is critical, because the US Department of Education’s own statistics show that, of students who fail one grade K-12, 40% do not graduate. Of those who fail two grades (K-12), 90% do not graduate. And, while it costs roughly $9,000 per year to educate a child, it costs about $40,000 per year to keep him incarcerated if you fail to educate him.

Of course, citing the problems was not the end of the session: some solutions were offered. However, I do think it was the clearest, most concise evaluation of our weakest link, and I do plan to pass along the information to the rest of the school board (as they do, sharing information from the sessions they attended).