text:
Red Wind + Onward Mr. C
4LAKids: Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
• LAUSD DROPS 5 OF 6 VALLEY SCHOOLS FROM REFORM LIST + VALLEY SCHOOLS: GETTING SHORT END OF REFORM STICK? + HOW SOON YOU, WE & HE FORGETS
• KIDS' PEDESTRIAN DEATHS DROP, BUT STEPS URGED
• L.A. BOARD MAY SHIFT $1 BILLION TO SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION: The Measure Y bond money was approved by voters in 2005 for modernizing existing campuses.
• SUIT SEEKS TO SAVE COCOANUT GROVE: Preservationists contend LAUSD broke the law when it decided to demolish the nightclub to make way for high school
• SCHOOL DISTRICTS BRACE FOR LOSS OF SPECIAL ED FUNDS
"There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge."
— "Red Wind" Raymond Chandler
PUBLIC SCHOOLS PERFORM TWO FUNCTIONS: The education of our children and as emergency evacuation shelters and command centers in times of disaster.
Most of the schools closed in this week's rash of wildfires were closed not because the schools were in danger from the fires but because they were needed as emergency shelters for evacuees or for use by emergency workers. The single LAUSD school closed in this week's fires was closed because it was needed as an emergency shelter for folks displaced in the Malibu fire. The ocean shipping containers on almost every campus house not just the supplies needed if schoolchildren were to be sheltered-in-place — but also to shelter evacuees - whether from fires, earthquakes, floods or any another calamity that can, does and will befall us …perched as we on the faultline between the devil and the deep blue Pacific are with the dry hot wind on our backs.
Indeed, if there was a pandemic of Asian Flu, SARS or whatnot our schools would be closed and reopened as emergency hospital and treatment facilities; the emergency preparedness plans call for that sort of emergency turn around to occur with three hours.
That is one of the reasons why schools are designed to such of a high standard of structural integrity and disaster survivability. The Field Act - which governs California school building standards - was created after the Long Beach Earthquake of 1933 in which 230 schools failed. There has been no partial or full collapse of any public school building constructed to the requirements of the Field Act since 1933 – and no schoolchild has be killed or injured in an earthquake in that time.
In the interest of statistical integrity I must add that no schoolchildren were hurt in the 1933 Long Beach temblor which did not occur during school hours - and also that California has not suffered a quake during school hours since Long Beach '33. (Those were different times - an official State of California website reports the 6.3 magnitude quake happened at 5:55 a.m. …in the evening!)
But it is an admirable safety record from engineering and safety standpoints. Landers Elementary School was practically on the fault line in the '92 Landers 7.2 magnitude quake (9 times stronger, releasing 27 times more energy than Long Beach) and was occupiable immediately afterward.
So, a tip of the 4LAKids hat to the firefighters and emergency personnel who did their extraordinarily difficult jobs on the ground and in the air last week - and to the school buildings up and down the state - including our own Topanga Elementary - which did theirs too!
And 4LAKids says goodbye to Robert Collins, an extraordinary administrator who has served the children of Los Angeles for 39 years. Bob is a guy who gets up every morning and wonders what he can do for kids that day.
He leaves a legacy here and a number of programs we — all of us — must continue and build upon. Bob didn't invent A though G, Small Learning Communities, Middle School Reform, School Accountability, The Diploma Project, Parent Engagement or any of the rest — but he worked tirelessly in the vineyard to nurture and grow the grapes and press the juice. In time to come this district - parents, staff, teachers, the superintendent, the board of Ed and ultimately the students - and this city - will open and pour and savor the vintage.
Starting next month Bob will wake up as a superintendent in San Diego County. When he wakes up down there he will ask what he can do for kids that day. And then he will go about doing it.
¡Onward/Hasta adelante! –smf
LAUSD DROPS 5 OF 6 VALLEY SCHOOLS FROM REFORM LIST + VALLEY SCHOOLS: GETTING SHORT END OF REFORM STICK? + HOW SOON YOU, WE & HE FORGETS
►LAUSD DROPS FIVE OF SIX VALLEY SCHOOLS FROM REFORM LIST
by Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer | LA Daily News/
October 26, 2007 - Just a single San Fernando Valley school is in the running to participate in two key reform efforts widely touted by the mayor and schools chief as a key to boosting performance at Los Angeles Unified.
Superintendent David Brewer III said Thursday that he has cut five of the six Valley schools named in his original reform effort targeting 44 low-performing sites.
And Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has 34 confirmed meetings with LAUSD schools through November to determine which two high schools and their related elementary and middle schools he'll manage - but none of them are in the Valley.
While some say Valley schools are being unfairly left out of the reform efforts, others note the schools have specifically asked to be excluded.
Whatever the reason, however, exclusion of Valley schools in reform efforts could be politically risky for both the mayor and the superintendent.
"Historically, the Valley has felt left out and it's one of the reasons it has this impression that downtown L.A. is more than simply a 20- or 30-mile trip - it's in another universe in terms of representing their interests or meeting their needs," said Jaime Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles.
"If, in fact, it does come to pass that the Valley is largely ignored with proportional cluster representation, then I think there'll be fuel added to the fire of being ignored and
stoke secession feelings."
District officials, school leaders and parents in the Valley say local schools have requested they not be included in either the mayor's cluster of schools or Brewer's reform package.
Schools like Arleta High and Polytechnic asked Brewer to remove them from his list because they want to continue their own reform efforts.
But Brewer emphasized his decision to remove Valley schools from his high-priority list is driven purely by performance data. And he said that also could change in the future, based on performance.
"We looked at the data," Brewer said. "If anything, (the five Valley schools were removed from the list) because they're doing somewhat better than other schools.
"But we will continue to monitor them and if they require more focus or to move into the high-priority district, we will do that."
Janelle Erickson, spokeswoman for the mayor, said the mayor's school partnership is designed to create a structure for fast-paced reform at all LAUSD campuses.
And outreach efforts are focused on the lowest-performing schools where no reform initiatives are under way, she said.
"Whether a school lies within the family of schools or not, the partnership stands ready to support any and all reform efforts," Erickson said.
"The mayor made it clear that we plan to go where we are most needed and where we are most wanted."
LAUSD board member Tamar Galatzan, who represents part of the Valley, said it appears Valley schools asked to be left out of the reform efforts.
"I've heard that some of the Valley schools felt they were making good progress and are really on the road to turning their schools around and they wanted to be given the opportunity to see those changes through," Galatzan said.
"There are going to be opportunities for Valley schools to be a part of this, whether officially or unofficially.
"I don't think anyone is telling any school in this district, especially any school in the Valley, that you can't try anything innovative or creative until we get around to you."
Sigifredo Lopez - president of the Parent Community Coalition, which represents 1,800 parents in the Valley and the rest of the district - said parents don't trust the mayor or Brewer.
"Reforms are coming out, but parents are saying nothing makes education better for children and brings more parent participation - that these reforms are political," he said.
The latest development comes two months after Villaraigosa and Brewer announced a partnership giving the mayor two families of schools to manage.
Two weeks ago, Brewer announced an additional plan to carve out a separate district for 44 of the neediest schools.
But after resistance from some of the targeted schools, Brewer cut 10 from his list including five in the Valley: Reseda, Monroe, Polytechnic, Arleta and Panorama high schools.
Only Sylmar remains on the list.
Meanwhile, as Villaraigosa hopes to announce his school groups by December, his planned meetings with schools include six at Roosevelt High and five at Crenshaw: the two schools long believed to be the mayor's top choices.
Both Brewer's and Villaraigosa's efforts are slated to roll out at LAUSD schools in the 2008-09 school year.
Regalado said that while the mayor is aware of the importance of the Valley to his political future, Brewer may not realize the political land mines.
"Maybe Brewer doesn't know the political reality of how important the Valley is, or he may feel that the Valley can be drawn in at a later point," Regalado said.
"But it'll be politically risky for him."
Bob Scott, chairman of Valley Industry & Commerce The Association, said the problem for years has been an inability by the LAUSD to roll out effective reforms systemwide.
"Unfortunately, because we have such a centralized system, everything gets drawn to the middle and everything begins and ends downtown - and in many cases the Valley remains an afterthought," Scott said.
"But until we know how this works, we don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
"It may be that we'd be escaping an ill-conceived plan, but on the other hand, if it's something that actually works, we would hope they would roll it out so others can benefit from it as well."
►VALLEY SCHOOLS: GETTING SHORT END OF REFORM STICK?
from The Education Revolution http://www.insidesocal.com/education/ – the Daily News/Los Angeles Newspaper Group Education blog - Posted by Naush Boghossian at 12:05 AM
Just a single San Fernando Valley school is in the running to participate in two key reform efforts widely touted by the mayor and schools chief as a key to boosting performance at Los Angeles Unified.
The schools that were removed from what is planned as a separate district that would operate under a different governance structure are Reseda, Franklin, Hollywood, Monroe, Fairfax, Polytechnic, Arleta, Panorama, Santee and Miguel Contreras.
The schools that remain are: Audubon MS, Bell SH, Belmont SH, Bethune MS, Carver MS, Clay MS, Cochran MS, Crenshaw SH, Dorsey SH, Drew MS, Edison MS, Fremont SH, Gage MS, Garfield SH, Gompers MS, Harte MS, Hollenbeck MS, Huntington Park SH, Jefferson SH, Jordan SH, L.A. Academy MS, Lincoln SH, Los Angeles SH, Mann MS, Manual Arts SH, Markham MS, Muir MS, Roosevelt SH, Sylmar SH, South Gate SH, Stevenson MS, Virgil MS, Washington SH and Wilson SH.
Brewer plans to implement his mini-district beginning in the 2008-09 school year--the same time the district will roll out the two families of schools that will be managed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The mayor is in the process of meeting with school communities to determine which two high schools, and their feeder elementary and middle schools, will take part in the partnership.
Interestingly, the two schools widely believed to be the ones the mayor's most interested in including in his partnership--Roosevelt and Crenshaw--are both already named in Brewer's pilot project.
Los Angeles Unified Superintendent David Brewer said Thursday that he had reduced his proposed district of 44 "high-priority schools" from 44 to 34 schools. He said those that didn't meet the criteria for being low-performing, were on the cusp, had shown improvement or had just opened their campuses, were taken out.
▲4LAKids 2¢ - HOW SOON YOU, WE & HE FORGETS: On August 3, 2006 Daily News editor Ron Kaye moderated one of Mayor Villaraigosa's "Education Town Hall" forums on his schools plan at Valley College, wherein hizzoner specifically promised that one of the clusters of schools he would run would be in the Valley.
KIDS' PEDESTRIAN DEATHS DROP, BUT STEPS URGED
by Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
October 25, 2007 — The number of children 14 and younger who are killed as pedestrians has dropped dramatically in the past decade, but tougher safety campaigns are needed to further cut the toll, a safety advocacy group says.
According to data released today by Safe Kids Worldwide, the number of children in this age group who died as pedestrians fell 40% from 1995 through 2004.
Over the past five years, the pedestrian injury rate for this age group fell by 29%.
The Washington, D.C.-based non-profit group attributes much of the drop in deaths and injuries to a decline in the percentage of children who walk to school — from 42% in 1969 to 16% in 2001.
The study comes as Halloween nears, a night when children are more than twice as likely to be hit and killed by a vehicle than on any other night, according to Safe Kids.
"What we need to do is make it safer for kids to walk and try to encourage more kids to walk," says Moira Donahue, pedestrian safety program manager for Safe Kids. The group urges that more be done to protect children from injury and to create safer walking environments.
Health advocates concerned about record childhood obesity rates also encourage more children to walk, rather than ride. Nationally, 19% of children 6-11 and 17% of those 12-19 are overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"There is broad public support for trying to reduce childhood obesity. One of the best ways to do that is to have kids walk to school. But you've got to make sure they can walk there safely," says Jonathan Adkins of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which advises the states on traffic safety.
National efforts to do just that are starting to bear fruit, officials say. In 2005, Congress approved $612 million to establish a national Safe Routes to School program. The funds, administered by the Federal Highway Administration, are being distributed through 2009 to states, to be used for both infrastructure and non-infrastructure needs.
"While we don't have national data yet, we're starting to see some successes," says Lauren Marchetti, director of the National Center for Safe Routes to School at the University of North Carolina's Highway Safety Research Center, which helps communities establish Safe Routes to School programs.
Safe Kids, which released a similar study in 2002, analyzed data on motor vehicle incidents involving child pedestrians from the Department of Transportation's National Center for Statistics and Analysis.
AMONG FINDINGS:
• About 60% of all children killed as pedestrians were male. "Boys tend to be a little more impulsive and have more risk-taking behaviors," Donahue says.
• African-American children had the highest rate of death as pedestrians in motor vehicle incidents based on population size, followed by Hispanic children. "Children in higher-density, lower-income areas had fewer safety devices in their community, whether sidewalks, crosswalks or traffic lights," Donahue says.
• Young drivers, especially males 16-25, were more likely to be at the wheel in incidents relating to child pedestrian fatalities. "This is a sign that we need to get more information out to young drivers," Donahue says.
REPORT - Safe Kids USA: Latest Trends in Child Pedestrian Safety
L.A. BOARD MAY SHIFT $1 BILLION TO SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION: The Measure Y bond money was approved by voters in 2005 for modernizing existing campuses.
By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 23, 2007 - Los Angeles school district officials want to close most of a staggering deficit in the school-construction program by using more than $1 billion in bond money that was meant for other purposes. The Los Angeles Board of Education is scheduled to vote on the shift today.
The proposal, expected to pass, would use for new schools money that would have repaired and modernized existing schools, improved Internet access and other technology on campuses, and built and repaired preschool centers. Instead, the funds will backfill the plan to build 145 schools in an effort to provide all students with a neighborhood campus that operates on a traditional two-semester schedule.
The $20-billion construction and modernization program is the nation's largest and frequently touted as a seminal accomplishment. But the effort has run up against spiraling increases in property values and construction costs.
"Our hope here is that this is just a borrowing, if you will, of those funds" and the original programs "will be finished sometime in the future with other funds, whether they be from future bond measures or from other sources," said Edwin Van Ginkel, senior development manager for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Van Ginkel added that the bond's wording allows for such a transfer.
But the fine print of ballot resolutions is not enough, said Jamie Court, president of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights.
"Politicians will try to use whatever money is on hand to fill any hole they have," Court said. "And in those cases they're often very flexible with 'the voter's intent' when the voter's intent wasn't that elastic. Politicians can't lawfully seize on the fine print to use money where that use was not made explicitly clear."
When voters passed Measure Y in 2005, they authorized nearly $4 billion in school bonds. The breakdown included $1.6 billion for new schools, $1.48 billion for existing schools, $325 million for technology and $100 million for early education.
The resolution before the school board would take $790 million from repair of existing schools, $200 million from technology and $60 million from early education. Each cut is greater than half of the bond money allocated.
Van Ginkel said the loss would not be felt for perhaps two years, because of money left from other bond measures and elsewhere.
But he acknowledged that from the start, the backlog of district needs surpassed all available funding. No local school bonds had been approved for 34 years before four won passage starting in 1997.
"We're building to make up for 20 years where the district built very few new schools," he said, adding that enrollment grew by 226,000 students from 1980 to 2002. In the past, he said, the district got by with 10,000 portable classrooms, a year-round schedule and involuntary busing.
District staff members cite both progress and continued needs. The number of year-round schools has declined from 227 to 142. In 2002, 16,000 students were bused out involuntarily, compared with 6,600 now. It helps that since 2003, enrollment declined from 747,000 to less than 700,000.
Even after all the planned construction, tens of thousands of students will still attend classes in portables.
Justifications aside, a promise to voters is a promise, said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. "There was a factual determination that over a billion dollars was needed to renovate schools where students are going right now. To take money away from that seems a fundamental violation of public trust."
The point is not lost on Scott Folsom, vice-chair of the district's bond oversight committee.
Even after the new schools are built, he said, 80% to 90% of students will be attending schools that exist today.
"Just as we didn't build schools for 20 or 30 years, we also didn't keep them up," he said.
Still, the oversight committee approved the transfer last week. Its decision is not binding on the school board, which rarely goes against such recommendations.
Folsom foresees another difficult juncture approaching: "We are going to need to go to the voters at some point in the future -- not that far away -- to ask for more money."
SUIT SEEKS TO SAVE COCOANUT GROVE: Preservationists contend LAUSD broke the law when it decided to demolish the nightclub to make way for high school
By Evelyn Larrubia, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 26, 2007 - In an effort to keep intact the landmark Cocoanut Grove nightclub at the former Ambassador Hotel, the Los Angeles Conservancy has again sued the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, contends the district broke the law when it decided recently to demolish most of the Cocoanut Grove structure and asks a judge to require the school system to spare the nightclub or prove why it can't. It also asks a judge to halt the project while a determination is made.
"We believe they need to be held accountable," said conservancy Director Linda Dishman.
The school board, voting unanimously last month, relied on district staff's supplemental environmental report, which said that those portions of the fabled nightclub were too weak to be feasibly shored up. The board gave the green light to replicate those structures and to slope the floor so that the room could be used as an auditorium when the hotel is turned into a new campus, among other changes.
"The conservancy would be a lot better off trying to sue to suspend the laws of gravity if they want the Cocoanut Grove" kept intact, said Kevin Reed, L.A. Unified's general counsel.
He called the lawsuit frivolous and said the district "scrupulously" followed the law when it determined it needed to tear down the weaker parts of the structure.
The district plans to spend $341 million to build an elementary, middle and high school that will house 4,240 students on the site of the historic 1921 hotel.
The 24-acre property, once the glittering stamping ground of celebrities, presidents and other politicians, had been closed for more than a decade and was being sold in Bankruptcy Court in 2001 when the district snatched it up.
State law requires the district to conduct an environmental review before building a school. In addition to analyzing pollution at the site, the district is required to review the historical value of the buildings it plans to tear down. In its environmental impact report, the district acknowledged that the property was historically significant.
The district said most of the Ambassador was too weak to be remodeled. To mitigate tearing down most of the hotel, L.A. Unified said it would preserve the pantry where Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 and keep the Cocoanut Grove, home to six Academy Awards shows, as a high school auditorium.
But under current plans -- approved during a public hearing in September -- only the east wall, the circular entry and a portion of the glass west wall of the nightclub and historic Paul Williams cafeteria will remain, along with some interior features that were removed and will be incorporated into the design.
As for the pantry, L.A. Unified decided in 2005 that the district would collect 29 items from it -- mostly doors, electrical items and an ice machine -- put them in storage and tear down the rest. Dishman said her group was not consulted before the move.
"They had made a commitment to preserve the pantry and incorporate it into the new school building, and instead they have disassembled it in 29 pieces," Dishman said. "So this national historic site is reduced to Humpty Dumpty."
The conservancy is also asking a judge to stop the district from taking any action on the artifacts from the hotel's pantry.
A district-sponsored committee has recommended that the artifacts be destroyed, as the Kennedy family wished. In March, staff prepared a memorandum explaining how that could be done.
But the district has yet to determine what it will do with the artifacts, officials said.
If a judge grants a preliminary injunction, Reed said it would probably delay the construction of the schools.
The school site has pitted conservationists against neighborhood activists, who have been waiting for the K-12 campus for years to ease overcrowding in other neighborhood schools. Current plans call for completion of the K-3 building in 2009 and the remainder in 2010.
The conservancy and other preservation groups filed lawsuits to block the hotel's destruction after the school board first approved it in 2004. In 2005, the conservancy enlisted state and national politicians in a failed, last-ditch effort at a compromise that would have turned the hotel's main building into low-income apartments, around which school buildings would be constructed.
Soon after, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed the conservation groups' proposal. The conservancy agreed to drop that lawsuit in exchange for a $4.9-million contribution from the district to a nonprofit organization aimed at preserving historic school buildings.
▲4LAKids 2¢ - The Bond Oversight Committee, charged in the state constitution and the voter-approved language of all four current school construction bonds with fiscal oversight of bond expenditures strongly advised in a report concerning the Ambassador Project on October 6, 2004 against the school district using any bond funds for the historic preservation of the Cocoanut Grove - saying in essence that the preservation of historic nightclubs was not a proper expenditure of school funds. The Board of Education - for only the second time in memory - rejected the Oversight Committee's recommendation (the other time being the Board's infamous refusal to permit oversight of Belmont Learning Complex construction.)
Now the Board has changed its mind for good reason …but late in the game — exposing it to a lawsuit (and probable construction delays) accusing it of reneging on a promise it should never have made.
Bond Oversight Committee Oct 6, 2004 Meeting Record
SCHOOL DISTRICTS BRACE FOR LOSS OF SPECIAL ED FUNDS
by Shayna Chabner - Staff Writer | North County Times
Sunday, October 20, 2007 -- San Diego -- School districts across the state and nation could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars each in annual special education funding if a recently proposed federal rule to stop reimbursing them for Medicaid-related services takes effect next year, educators said last week.
The rule, proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, would prohibit school districts from receiving payments for transportation and administrative services ---- including outreach programs, referrals to medical providers, counseling and monitoring ---- that they provide to disabled children and their families who are eligible for Medicaid. The centers, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a federal agency that administers federal and state health insurance programs.
The federal government intends to save almost $4 billion over five years if the rule is enacted. The public has until Nov. 6 to comment on the proposal.
Local and state educators say the rule could result in a significant cut in professional development for teachers, and in the programs and services they offer special education students.
The amount the districts risk losing varies, said Suzi Rader, the director of district and financial services for the California School Boards Association.
Medicaid reimbursements to local school districts for the 2005-06 school year, the most recent year figures were available, ranged from $259,000 combined for Escondido's elementary and high school districts to about $127,000 for the Encinitas Union School District, she said.
The San Diego County Office of Education could lose the $745,000 it receives for the thousands of Medicaid-eligible students it serves, said Carolyn Nunes, its special education director. Officials say that the statewide loss could be enormous.
"I think most school districts are concerned about the cuts," said Kelly Prins, assistant superintendent of special education for the Escondido Union School District.
Prins said districts rely on the reimbursements to offer students expanded physical, occupational and speech therapy sessions and transportation to medical appointments, as well as providing parents with information on different programs and resources available to their children.
Some of the funds can also be used for staff development and training that is specifically geared toward improving such services, Prins said.
"It's not millions, but it's a good chunk, Prins said, adding that the loss of the reimbursements would force underfunded special education programs to rely more heavily on a district's general fund.
The federal government, which is supposed to fund 40 cents of every dollar a district spends on special education, currently only pays about 18 cents, Nunes said.
"If these funds are taken away, it's kind of another slap to us who are trying to serve our most needy students," Nunes said. "(Not receiving them) will definitely impact our families and our kids."
Federal officials said, however, that some districts are using part of their reimbursement money to help fund programs and transportation services that are not linked to Medicaid-related services.
The new regulation, they said, could save the government $3.6 billion over five years.
In justifying the cut in reimbursements, federal officials have said that the cost of transporting a student from home to school for therapy should be billed as an educational expense because students are not just receiving medical-related assistance when they're on campus.
Lucile Lynch, a special education parent in the Encinitas Union School District and a member of the North Coast Consortium for Special Education's executive board, disagreed.
Lynch said that offering special education therapies and services at school is more effective because it helps students learn skills to succeed away from home. Many students, including her son, she said, may do something easily at home that they cannot do initially at school.
"You come home and the environment is completely different," she said. "You have to be able to mimic the location and setting to know what you need to work on."
Another benefit of receiving occupational and speech therapy sessions at school, Lynch said, is that her 9-year-old son has been able to work on developing his speaking skills on a daily basis. Without this funding for the schools, she said, some districts will have fewer financial resources to hirer a speech therapist or to provide the materials needed for that repetition.
"He started in some of these speech programs not being able to talk," she said. "And now he is reading a full paragraph. ... What these services have meant to us was the chance to have a somewhat independent life."
▲The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is proposing to cut federal Medicaid reimbursements that schools get for certain special education programs. The cut in funding, $3.6 billion over five years, would eliminate:
• Reimbursements for administrative activities and services performed by school employees. Those activities include health services for disabled students who need preventative and rehabilitative services and/or speech, physical and occupational therapies; helping student and families find resources; and coordination and monitoring of medical care.
• Reimbursements for part of the cost of transportation for bringing Medicaid-eligible students to and from school on days when they are schedule to have health services, such as therapies. Also includes the cost of transporting students to outside providers.
▲ To comment on the rule change, published Sept. 7 in the Federal Register, visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/eRulemaking.
Public comment will be accepted through Nov. 6.
To read the proposed rule, CLICK HERE
►Tuesday Oct 30, 2007
South Region Elementary School #7: Pre-Demolition Meeting
Russell Elementary School
1263 E. Firestone Blvd.
► Wednesday Oct 31, 2007 – ¡HALLOWEEN!
DRIVE ESPECIALLY CAREFULLY - From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggetty beasties and things that go bump in the night (and the odd princess and Spider-Man) Good Lord deliver us. And they from us. Amen.
►Thursday Nov 1, 2007
East Los Angeles High School #2: Pre-Construction Meeting
Hammel Elementary School
438 N. Brannick Ave.
Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is immediate past President of Los Angeles 10th District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and/or governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is also the elected Youth & Education boardmember on the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council.
Saying it all, poorly.
4LAKids: Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007
• FEWER STUDENTS ENROLLED IN L.A. UNIFIED + LAUSD ENROLLMENT FALLS BELOW 700,000
• DE FACTO LAUSD BREAKUP - If it works, it doesn't matter what it's called
• FAILING SCHOOLS STRAIN TO MEET U.S. STANDARD
• NEW LAW FREES FUNDING FOR LOS ANGELES SCHOOLS + L.A. UNIFIED TO GET $600 MILLION FOR CONSTRUCTION
The headline in Friday's Times says it all, poorly: "FEWER STUDENTS ENROLLED IN L.A. UNIFIED: Classrooms shrink by the thousands for the fifth straight year as parents opt for charter campuses or to move to more affordable areas."
I have no argument with the article, it has the Who, What, When & Where right. I have miniscule differences over the interpretation the "Why?" - on what the actual numbers are and what they mean. The short Daily News info box spells these out pretty well: Are home prices and the lack of housing the culprits - or is it charter schools and falling birthrate?
It doesn't matter. What does matter is that subhead: "CLASSROOMS SHRINK BY THE THOUSANDS….."
If the size of classrooms were to shrink (class size = the pupil per classroom [or student: teacher ratio) that would be an unquestioned good thing. An upcoming article in the journal Public Health [see All The News That Doesn't Fit] will claim that Class Size Reduction (CSR) would generate more public health benefit per dollar invested than the majority of medical interventions.
But CSR will NOT be the outcome.
The number of classrooms (and teachers) will decrease, but the class size loading will stay the same. There may not be as many crowded classrooms, but they will be just as crowded — there is no danger of overcrowded classrooms becoming an endangered species! The net benefit to public education and kids will be precisely zero/zilch/nada.
Optimum class size according to the NEA is 15:1 from K–12; class sizes of 16 or less are routinely closed by District policy.
To those who would argue that somehow this 'enrollment shortfall' means we no longer need to build all the schools we are building - sometimes preposterously expressed as: "Ohmygawd: LAUSD is overbuilding!" I suggest a return to where they came in the door …apparently they checked their reality instead of their hat!
Mostly they are missing the trend: More kids are staying to graduate. The current eleventh & twelfth graders are the peak of the baby-boomlet and enrollment there is up 2.68% for high school juniors and 9.74% for seniors.
Additionally, total enrollment for this year is actually up 2,500 students from last year's projection.
Another trend to analyze is that while charters have increased their enrollment by 17.71%, they have decreased enrollment in percentage (-12.36) and in actual numbers (down 32 children) for special education students served.
The mayors of Los Angeles and the twenty-some-odd other municipal jurisdictions in LAUSD (soon to include the City of East LA!), the President of the US, the Governor, the superintendent of LAUSD, every school board member, the teachers union and the principals union and the chamber of commerce; every charter school operator — everyone in public education from Bill Gates and Eli Broad to Steve Barr and 4LAKids promise every one of you that more of our kids will stay in school, succeed and graduate.
And the economy will come around, housing prices will stabilize and LA will grow. You can put that in the bank.
That's why we say: ¡Onward/Hasta adelante! - smf
The Board Informative & The Norm Day Data.
FEWER STUDENTS ENROLLED IN L.A. UNIFIED + LAUSD ENROLLMENT FALLS BELOW 700,000
►FEWER STUDENTS ENROLLED IN L.A. UNIFIED: Classrooms shrink by the thousands for the fifth straight year as parents opt for charter campuses or to move to more affordable areas.
by Joel Rubin and Seema Mehta | Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
The number of students enrolled in Los Angeles public schools has dropped again for the fifth consecutive year in a trend that has affected school districts throughout Southern California, education officials reported Thursday.
Driven largely by lower birthrates and a real estate market that has priced out many families, the decline in enrollment means heavy cuts in funding for public schools, officials say.
Compared with last year, 20,285 fewer students now fill Los Angeles Unified School District classrooms. With the total number of students pegged at 653,215, it is second only to New York City in national enrollment, yet stands far below where it was only a few years ago when its student body topped 700,000.
The loss for L.A. Unified again meant a gain for the explosive charter school movement; thousands of students continue to leave traditional district schools each year in favor of the independently run campuses. Twenty-three charter schools opened within the district's boundaries this year, a dramatic increase that helped boost charter school enrollment by 17%, to a total of nearly 41,000 students.
Unlike previous years, L.A. Unified officials accurately planned for this year's tally. In 2005, they were caught off-guard when 20,000 children left the district. "There are no surprises here," said Roger Rasmussen, the district's budget director.
In California, enrollment and attendance figures are the primary factors involved in determining school funding for the following school year. This year's decline will mean a roughly $100-million loss for L.A. Unified in 2008, Rasmussen said.
L.A. Unified is hardly alone in feeling the pinch, however, as school officials throughout Southern California anticipate that enrollment will continue to fall for the next several years. For example, the Long Beach Unified School District lost nearly 2,000 students compared with last year, and the overall student count has dropped nearly 10% over the last four years.
In Pasadena, 700 fewer students showed up for classes this year. "There are just fewer students out there, but we also have seen an astronomically huge increase in the cost of homes," said Jacqueline Cochran, assistant superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District.
Nearly four-fifths of Orange County's 27 school districts had declining enrollment last year, and the majority are expected to see it again this year, said Wendy Benkert, an assistant superintendent for the county Department of Education. "It affects them quite a bit," she said. "Districts have certain fixed costs that don't go away. Janitors, lights, principals, school site secretaries [must be paid] regardless of your enrollment."
Santa Ana Unified, which has lost 6,000 students over the last four years, has been hit hard. Trustees there have cut $79 million in spending since 2004, including eliminating teaching positions and closing two schools, and are expected to cut an additional $19 million next year.
Like other districts, Santa Ana is trying to squeeze as much funding out of the students it has as possible, using incentive programs such as a car giveaway to bolster attendance. Trustee Audrey Yamagata-Noji said after years of consecutive budget cuts, each round is getting more painful. "Something's got to give," she said. "You only have a few more things and they're called layoffs and cutting programs. Everybody thinks everything is essential. It's hard."
The San Diego Unified School District bucked the downward trend, posting a 1,200-student gain over last year. Supt. Carl Cohn attributed the rise to a campaign to woo families back. "Instead of saying to parents, 'This is it; take it or leave it,' we designed innovative programs from the bottom up," he said.
School systems in the Inland Empire and high desert are struggling with a different set of challenges, as many of the families leaving pricey communities to the west move inland in search of more affordable housing.
The small Victor Valley Union High School District, for example, saw its enrollment climb by 300 students this year and in the last three years has experienced a 19% jump. With almost 4,000 students in one of the district's three high schools, officials are drawing up plans to build another campus. In the meantime, the district has had to go on teacher hiring sprees and place classrooms in portable trailers. "We are bursting at the seams," Supt. Julian Weaver said.
►LAUSD ENROLLMENT FALLS BELOW 700,000
Los Angles (sic) Unified's total student enrollment continued its expected decline, dropping 2 percent from 708,461 students last year to 694,288 this year, according to figures released Thursday by the district.
About 41,000 of the students - or 6 percent of the population - are enrolled in fiscally independent charter schools. (The Times article and statistics [above] subtracts the charter enrollment - smf)
Charter schools reduced enrollment at traditional LAUSD schools by about 1 percent per year.
District officials attribute the drop to a decline in births in Los Angeles County, which have declined sharply since 1990 but have now stabilized.
Economic conditions like job availability and housing costs also contributed to the decline, officials said.
▲LAUSD ENROLLMENT
GRADES….........|..2006-07|.2007-08..|.%CHANGE
K-5.………..........|.323,112..|.312,222..|.-3.37%
6th-8th ..........|...158,631.|..154,002.|.-2.92%
9th-12th.........|...191,774.|..193,838.|.+1.08%
TOTAL GRADED
Enrollment..........|...673,517.|.660,062.|.-2%
TOTAL UNGRADED
Enrollment..........|...34,944.|.34,226....|.-2.05%
Total enrollment..|.708,461.|.694,288..|.-2%
SOURCE:.Los Angeles Unified School District
DE FACTO LAUSD BREAKUP - If it works, it doesn't matter what it's called
La Daily News Editorial
Oct 15, 2007 - Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David Brewer's plan to create a separate district for low-performing schools and to target middle schools for reform is an acknowledgment that something drastic needs to be done to improve education.
Brewer says that this is a step toward improving the LAUSD by empowering this new mini-district of the 44 worst-performing schools to be more flexible and to have the autonomy to tailor solutions to meet the students' needs. In addition he will create "personalized learning environments" at all of the district's 92 middle schools, which he said have been long neglected.
It seems the de facto breakup of the country's second-largest school district, begun with the mayor's breaking up two school clusters, is accelerating.
No one, of course, would call it such. That word carries too much political baggage.
"It's our way to try to create more smallness out of largeness," one district official said.
Whatever. But it doesn't matter what words people use to describe this important decentralizing of the power of the LAUSD. All that matters is the principles of breakup - such as empowering schools, the principals and the communities to take charge of their schools and educational needs, and not cede them to the vast and often uncaring LAUSD bureaucracy.
When it comes to schools, smaller is always better. It's what district secessionists have been saying for years.
Still, what counts is that this carving out of special districts be more than just a public-relations stunt. There's a real danger of ghettoizing the special district full of low-performing schools once they've been removed from the rest of the district.
If this breaku- er, reform effort, has a chance of succeeding, it needs more than just a separation. It needs sustained commitment to the ideals of smaller, more autonomous and innovative schools.
▲4LAKids 2¢ - The Daily News has made calling for the break-up of LAUSD (and the City of LA itself) ITS raison d'etre. If their editorial board wants to call Superintendent Brewer and LAUSD's effort to reform the District's most deserving schools a "break-up" - AND to stand on the flight deck and declare "mission accomplished" …go for it!
I agree: "…it doesn't matter what words people use to describe this important decentralizing of the power of the LAUSD …and empowering schools, the principals and the communities to take charge of their schools and educational needs."
LA is sometimes called is a city without neighborhoods. The emerging neighborhood council movement and the concept of schools as centers of communities begins to create the village it takes to educate a child — and the matrix for the Global Village that LA must be.
FAILING SCHOOLS STRAIN TO MEET U.S. STANDARD
by Diana Jean Schemo | New York Times
October 16, 2007 — LOS ANGELES — As the director of high schools in the gang-infested neighborhoods of the East Side of Los Angeles, Guadalupe Paramo struggles every day with educational dysfunction.
For the past half-dozen years, not even one in five students at her district's teeming high schools has been able to do grade-level math or English. At Abraham Lincoln High School this year, only 7 in 100 students could. At Woodrow Wilson High, only 4 in 100 could.
For chronically failing schools like these, the No Child Left Behind law, now up for renewal in Congress, prescribes drastic measures: firing teachers and principals, shutting schools and turning them over to a private firm, a charter operator or the state itself, or a major overhaul in governance.
But more than 1,000 of California's 9,500 schools are branded chronic failures, and the numbers are growing. Barring revisions in the law, state officials predict that all 6,063 public schools serving poor students will be declared in need of restructuring by 2014, when the law requires universal proficiency in math and reading.
"What are we supposed to do?" Ms. Paramo asked. "Shut down every school?"
With the education law now in its fifth year — the one in which its more severe penalties are supposed to come into wide play — California is not the only state overwhelmed by growing numbers of schools that cannot satisfy the law's escalating demands.
In Florida, 441 schools could be candidates for closing. In Maryland, some 49 schools in Baltimore alone have fallen short of achievement targets for five years or more. In New York State, 77 schools were candidates for restructuring as of last year.
Some districts, like those in New York City, have moved forcefully to shut large failing high schools and break them into small schools. Los Angeles, too, is trying small schools, along with other innovations, and David L. Brewer III, its schools superintendent, has just announced plans to create a "high priority district" under his direct control made up of 40 problem schools.
Yet so far, education experts say they are unaware of a single state that has taken over a failing school in response to the law. Instead, most allow school districts to seek other ways to improve.
"When you have a state like California with so many schools up for restructuring," said Heinrich Mintrop, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley, "that taxes the capacity of the whole school change industry."
As a result, the law is branding numerous schools as failing, but not producing radical change — leaving angry parents demanding redress. California citizens' groups have sued the state and federal government for failing to deliver on the law's promises.
"They're so busy fighting No Child Left Behind," said Mary Johnson, president of Parent U-Turn, a civic group. "If they would use some of that energy to implement the law, we would go farther."
Ray Simon, the deputy federal secretary of education, said states that ignored the law's demands risked losing federal money or facing restrictions on grants. For now, Mr. Simon said, the department is more interested in helping states figure out what works than in punishment. "Even a state has to struggle if it takes over a school," he said.
A federal survey last year showed that in 87 percent of the cases of persistently failing schools, states and school districts avoided wholesale changes in staff or leadership. That is why, Mr. Simon said, the Bush administration is proposing that Congress force more action by limiting districts' options in responding to hard-core failure.
In California, Jack O'Connell, the state superintendent of schools, calls the law's demands unreasonable. Under the federal law, 700 schools that California believed were getting substantially better were counted last year as failing. A state takeover of schools, Mr. O'Connell said, would be a "last option."
"To have a successful program," he said, "it really has to come from the community."
Under the No Child law, a school declared low-performing for three years in a row must offer students free tutoring and the option to transfer. After five years, such schools are essentially treated as irredeemable, with the law prescribing starting over with a new structure, new leadership or new teachers. But it also gives schools the option of less sweeping changes, like reducing school size or changing who is in charge of hiring.
Those in charge of troubled schools in Los Angeles admit that the absence of serious penalties coupled with the growing number of schools branded as low-performing is breeding bitterness. But they are not sure what to do.
Carmen Schroeder, the superintendent of District 5 — and Ms. Paramo's boss — has taken over hiring decisions and keeps a close watch on the lowest performing schools. Ms. Schroeder said she would like to go further and shut some down if there were any place to transfer the students.
That is not so easy when 59 of the 91 schools in her district, the largest of eight in this sprawling city, consistently fall short of standards.
Beyond that, the federal law does not trump contract agreements, and so teachers have generally not lost their jobs or faced transfer when schools stagnate.
In Los Angeles, as the law's 2014 deadline draws nearer, the promised land of universal high achievement seems more distant than ever.
Schools that serve low-income students are packed, despite new construction. In poor neighborhoods, students are on staggered schedules, starting school in different months and scattering what was once summer vacation into smaller breaks.
Students lose momentum, forget lessons and come out with 17 fewer days of instruction a year. "That's why our kids are not passing the high school exit exams," said Ms. Johnson of Parent U-Turn.
Not all states are facing huge numbers of failing schools. Some were late establishing testing systems, and so lack results over five or more years. Others may have small poor populations, better teaching or easier exams.
But the tensions voiced here are echoed by parents elsewhere, as well as by school officials.
At Woodrow Wilson High one recent morning, teachers broke into small groups over coffee studying test scores for areas of weakness. But there were limits to what they would learn.
The teachers analyzed results for the entire school, not for their own students. Roberto Martinez, the principal, said he had not given teachers the scores of their own students because their union objects, saying the scores were being used to evaluate teachers.
"And who suffers?" asked Veronica Garcia, an English teacher at Wilson. "The kids suffer, because the teacher never gets feedback."
A. J. Duffy, president of United Teachers of Los Angeles, said the union supported test score reviews provided they did not affect teachers' jobs. Mr. Duffy said the federal law glossed over the travails of teaching students living in poverty. "Everyone agrees that urban education needs a shot in the arm, but it is not as bleak as the naysayers would have it," he said.
That is not a view shared by many parents. Martha Sanchez, whose three children attend public schools here, said that as students grew older, the schools seemed to give up.
Her eldest, Gonzalo, attends eighth grade at John Adams Middle School, where only 22 percent of students passed the state exams in English and math this year. It is not hard for Ms. Sanchez to see why.
When Gonzalo struggled over equations, she said, his teacher called him slow rather than going over the material again. Ms. Sanchez said that she had complained, but that the teacher had denied the comment. It was only through the private tutoring, available under No Child Left Behind that he managed to pass seventh grade math, she said.
The principal, Joseph P. Santana, said he did not recall Ms. Sanchez's complaining, but could not rule it out. "There are 1,600 of them," he said, referring to the students, "and only one of me."
Still, Ms. Sanchez is not a big fan of the law. Just weeks into the school year, she said, teachers are focusing almost solely on material likely to appear on state exams. Forget about igniting a passion in children, she said.
"Maybe the system is not designed for people like us," she said.
NEW LAW FREES FUNDING FOR LOS ANGELES SCHOOLS + L.A. UNIFIED TO GET $600 MILLION FOR CONSTRUCTION
►NEW LAW FREES FUNDING FOR LOS ANGELES SCHOOLS
by Rick Orlov, Staff Writer | LA Daily News
Oct 15, 2007 - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law on Sunday a measure designed to provide up to $640 million to Los Angeles schools from a voter-approved bond.
The governor signed AB 1014, authored by Assemblywoman Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, designed to fill a loophole in Proposition 1D, the school-construction measure approved last November as part of Schwarzenegger's package of bonds aimed at improving California's infrastructure.
A provision in the measure, however, would have placed severe limits on the ability of the Los Angeles Unified - the largest school district in the state - from getting its fair share of the funds.
Bass' measure changed the formula for funding from looking at new-student growth to considering traditionally overcrowded school districts, such as the LAUSD.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, school board President Monica Garcia and Superintendent David Brewer III issued a joint statement praising the governor and Bass.
"With the stroke of the governor's pen, the children in Los Angeles' public schools will receive their fair share of statewide funding to help build the safe, clean and new schools they deserve," the statement read.
"Assembly Bill 1014 will help put an end to the decades-old struggle against overcrowding in our schools and send a message to the 200,000 kids in Los Angeles who go to school in temporary classrooms each day that we will no longer shortchange their education."
►L.A. UNIFIED TO GET $600 MILLION FOR CONSTRUCTION: Even with declining enrollment, the school district will receive state money for building because of a bill signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger.
by Howard Blume | LA Times Staff Writer
October 15, 2007 - Despite declining public school enrollment, Los Angeles will be able to count on more than $600 million in state school construction funds because of a bill signed Sunday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, local officials said.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, area legislators and top officials of the Los Angeles Unified School District staged a last-minute lobbying blitz to urge Schwarzenegger to sign the measure.
The money is needed to close part of an estimated $2-billion deficit in the district's $20-billion construction and modernization program, the nation's largest school building effort.
L.A. Unified had long expected to claim these funds, but the money was at risk because of declining enrollment in the country's second-largest school system. State rules, school officials said, magnify the effect of declining enrollment on eligibility, a flaw the bill aimed to address.
Even with fewer students, the district still has thousands in year-round schools and thousands more bused away from their neighborhoods, a situation the district wants to eliminate. Ultimately, enrollment is expected to rise again. Space could be tighter still with a reduction in the dropout rate, which is close to 50% by some estimates.
The goal of the building program is to allow every student to attend a neighborhood school that operates on a traditional, two-semester calendar by 2012. Even under the best scenario, thousands of students still would attend campuses with portable classrooms that limit space for recreation.
"On a scale of one to 10, this news is absolutely a 10," said school board President Monica Garcia. "This legislation was the priority for Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District."
When the school construction effort began in the late 1990s, local officials worried that there would never be enough state and local dollars to go around. That's still a concern, but declining enrollment created another crisis: L.A. Unified might not be able to touch state money that was, in essence, waiting in the bank.
The Assembly bill, sponsored by Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), gives school districts more ways to qualify for state money. Districts now can use 10-year enrollment projections, or they can look at local birth rates. They also can count how many high school students live in a particular area. Before, if a school district provided a seat somewhere for a high school student -- even if that seat was far across town -- the district didn't qualify for funding to build a seat in the student's neighborhood.
"You could never get state money to get that child off the bus," said Eric Bakke, senior legislative analyst for L.A. Unified. "But if you can base the eligibility formula on where that child lives, you can get that child off the bus."
Bill backers included the Anaheim City School District, the California School Boards Assn., the California Teachers Assn. and the Orange Unified School District.
"Other school districts are also experiencing the problems that we are," said Vernon Billy, L.A. Unified's chief lobbyist.
Resistance came from the state Department of Finance, which expressed concern over increased pressure for school bonds. Schwarzenegger did not commit to a position in advance, but a spokesman said Sunday that the governor "supports the objective of the bill."
The bill doesn't come close to erasing L.A. Unified's entire construction deficit or even all of the impediments at the state level. For example: State funds that are supposed to pay for 50% of construction don't cover nearly that much in high-cost L.A. A bill to take on that issue didn't make it to the governor's desk.
"We have a lot more work to do on this," Garcia said, "but this was a critical piece to keep our program at full speed."
► In FIVE ASSESSMENT MYTHS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES - a commentary in EdWeek, Rick Stiggins gives us a list of five myths about standardized testing. Webster's Online says a myth is "a person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence" - hardly the bedrock for scientific assessment.
• Myth 1: THE PATH TO SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT IS PAVED WITH STANDARDIZED TESTS.
• Myth 2: SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY LEADERS KNOW HOW TO USE ASSESSMENT TO IMPROVE SCHOOLS.
• Myth 3: TEACHERS ARE TRAINED TO ASSESS PRODUCTIVELY.
• Myth 4: ADULT DECISIONS DRIVE SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS.
• Myth 5: GRADES AND TEST SCORES MAXIMIZE STUDENT MOTIVATION AND LEARNING.
Rick Stiggins is the founder of the Educational Testing Service's Assessment Training Institute, in Portland, Ore. - Stiggins is the father of Tests if not of Testing and a Trainer of Testers - he knows of which he speaks.
He concludes: Sound assessment is not something to be practiced once a year. As we look to the future, we must balance annual, interim or benchmark, and classroom assessment. Only then will we meet the critically important information needs of all instructional decisionmakers.
Of greatest importance, however, is that we acknowledge the key role of the learner in the assessment-learning connection. We must begin to use classroom assessment to help all students experience continuous success and come to believe in themselves as learners.
► PERFORMANCE TEST FOR NEW CALIFORNIA TEACHERS APPROVED
By Vaishali Honawar | Edcation Week
California has given the nod to a rigorous assessment created by teacher colleges that requires aspiring educators to show students are learning before they earn their preliminary licenses.
Starting next school year, all teacher-candidates will have to pass a performance assessment before they can get their teaching credentials. A state law passed in 1998 requires such evaluations take place, but a lack of state funding delayed implementation.
► NOT WHO BUT WHAT IS LEFT BEHIND
By Barbara M. Stock/Ed Week
Our national obsession with standardized-test scores is dangerous. The idea that there is only One Right Answer, the answer to the test question, plants the seeds of authoritarian rule. Standardized tests encourage a standardized way of thinking. If there is only one right answer, there is no need to think, to question, to discuss. We breed compliance and complacency. We see challenges to authority as disloyal. The foundations of democracy break down. I was shocked into this realization when my grandson phoned with a homework question. "What did you learn in school that helps you be a good citizen?" he asked. His question stopped me. A good citizen?
► BUSH SAYS HE WOULD VETO AN UNACCEPTABLE NCLB RENEWAL BILL
By David J. Hoff/Ed Week
As Congress works toward reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush has said for the first time that he's willing to reject any bill he doesn't like. "Any effort to weaken No Child Left Behind Act will get a presidential veto," Mr. Bush said on Oct. 15 at a town-hall-style meeting in Rogers, Ark. "I believe this piece of legislation is important, and I believe it's hopeful, and I believe it's necessary to make sure we got a [sic] educated group of students who can compete in the global economy when they get older." The next day, Senate aides distributed draft language of large sections of a potential NCLB bill, the first such specific reauthorization language put forth by key lawmakers in that chamber.
► CALIFORNIA OFFERS LONG-TERM HELP ON EXIT EXAMS
By Linda Jacobson/Ed Week
As soon as they apply for it, California school districts will be eligible to receive a share of more than $70 million for supplemental instruction and counseling services targeting students who have reached the end of senior year without passing the state's high school exit exam, under legislation signed this month by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The measure allowing students to receive up to two years of extra help beyond the 12th grade year brings to an end a lawsuit against the state, Valenzuela v. O'Connell, filed by students who had repeatedly failed the test, but had met other graduation requirements. ("California Seniors Sue Over High School Exam," Feb. 15, 2006.) In addition, the Republican governor included more than $188 million in the current fiscal year's budget for summer and after-school programs to help students prepare for the mandated test.
► VOCATIONAL EDUCATION PROSPERS UNDER GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER
Editorial/Argus
WHATEVER ELSE he accomplishes, or fails to accomplish, during his topsy-turvy governorship, Arnold Schwarzenegger has served two interrelated and worthy causes very well — raising the standing of community colleges and bringing vocational training out of the educational attic. Schwarzenegger went through such training as a salesman when he was a high school student in Austria and later attended Santa Monica Community College. High school-level voc-ed, as it used to be known before being renamed "career technical education," and community colleges have been given short shrift by politicians, the education establishment and other policymakers in recent decades.
► ACHIEVEMENT BY DESIGN
A few years ago, a fourth-grade teacher in central Maine brought photographs of her classroom to our graduate research course. She'd recorded rainwater seeping through the ceiling and dripping into plastic buckets, and she'd taken close-up pictures of bare wires, broken electrical sockets, cracked tiles, and exposed insulation. I decided to see the school for myself, so I arranged a walk-through with the teacher and principal. They pointed out structural problems and health hazards throughout the school. And they introduced me to teachers who managed to teach and students who struggled to learn in those appalling conditions. A third-grade teacher and her students, suffering from burning, watering eyes, had evacuated to a makeshift classroom in a corridor.
► FIVE MEN, FIVE DIFFERENT VIEWS ON EDUCATING BLACK MALES
By Cassie M. Chew/Diverse Online
Black males are discovering that they don't need to 'hit the books' in order to make a living, and this is the reason behind recent statistics that report that as many as half of them drop out of high school and don't pursue a college education. "There was a time when we were always taught that education was for us to get a good job, buy a house, raise a family — education doesn't play the necessary role in those things any longer to young Black men," according to poet, writer and filmmaker Malik Salaam.
► REDUCING CLASS SIZE MAY BE MORE COST-EFFECTIVE THAN MOST MEDICAL INTERVENTIONS
Reducing the number of students per classroom in U.S. primary schools may be more cost-effective than most public health and medical interventions, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Virginia Commonwealth University.The study indicates that class-size reductions would generate more quality-adjusted life-year gains per dollar invested than the majority of medical interventions. The findings will be published in the November issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
LINK TO: The News That Didn't Fit for Oct 21st.
• Wednesday Oct 24, 2007
Central Region High School #15: Project Update Meeting
East Los Angeles Occupational Center
2100 Marengo Street
• Thursday Oct 25, 2007
East LA Star Adult Education: Project Update Meeting
Brooklyn Elementary School
4620 Cesar Chavez Ave.
Valley Region Elementary School #10: Removal Action Work Plan (RAW) Meeting
Please join us at this meeting for information about the environmental investigation findings for this project.
The Removal Action Workplan (RAW) details how the site will be cleaned up to ensure the health and safety of the children and the community.
Sutter Middle School - Auditorium
7330 Winnetka Ave.
Posted by smf at 11:39 PM
Apologia with an asterisk*
2CIO's Missing/Inaction
Sputnik redux.


text:
Beverly Jenkins writes independent women in African American Historical & Seasoned Romance. #Giveaway
Posted by Susan B James on 6:04:00 PM with 1 comment
"Love is love. We all love. And the industry should reflect everyone."
Beverly Jenkins
The romance genre has come a long way since bestselling author Beverly Jenkins published her first novel, "Night Song," in 1994 — and it's fair to say that she is, at least in part, to thank for its advances.
Beverly Jenkins is one of my seven favorite romance authors. If you haven't yet read her, you are missing so much great romance. Beverly's historicals always enlighten me about little known historical personages and events. The knowledge serves as a wonderful background for her strong feisty heroines. Independent women for whom romance is the icing on the cake. They are already complete.
And then there's her seasoned romance series, The Blessings.
It's listed on Amazon under Contemporary Women's Fiction, Women's Domestic Life Fiction and Women's Romance Fiction. They haven't caught up to the term Seasoned Romance. Which is a shame since both my time travel romances are seasoned.
The Blessings series is Pure wonderful wish fulfilment as far as I'm concerned. I just finished book ten - On the Corner of Hope and Main. (No spoilers. It isn't out yet. I won a copy on Goodreads.)
Because I love this series so much I am giving away a Kindle copy of book one of the series, Bring on the Blessings.
If you don't know her work, you are missing so much good stuff. Right now I am reading Vivid - about the first female African American doctor in Michigan. I started it last night and I can't wait to get back to it.
Beverly Jenkins' first romance, Night Song was published in 1994, Since then, she has been leading the charge for inclusive romance. She was featured in the documentary about the romance industry, Love Between the Covers (My sister Kelly and I rewatched this Saturday on Amazon Prime. Wonderful.)
Her forty-plus books have made her a constant darling of reviewers, fans, and her peers alike, garnering accolades for her work from the likes of The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, and NPR. And now she has a romance movie, Deadly Sexy which you can rent on Amazon.
From Wikipedia Jenkins calls herself a "kitchen table historian." She likens American history to a quilt with some pieces ripped out—the pieces belonging to minority history. Jenkins uses her books to weave the quilt back together by revealing patches of black history that are rarely taught in school.[6] Slavery and the Civil Rights Movement are important pieces of African American history, but they aren't the only pieces. For example, her first three novels, Night Song, Vivid and Indigo, feature characters such as a schoolteacher, a cavalry officer, a female doctor and Underground Railroad heroes. They were all inspired by true history.
I messaged Beverly to see if she would be willing to be on my blog. She replied that she was on deadline but would be happy to allow me to post. After she posted that she'd sent off her book, I asked her my favorite question. The other answer came from an interview I read online.
ME: I love firsts. Can you share what it felt like to get "the Call" from your agent? From what I have been able to find online you got an agent before you got your publisher.
BJ: My first agent was Vivian Stephens founder of RWA. Having her call me at my job to say she wanted to rep my book was an incredible experience. I will always be grateful to her.
From an interview on Shondaland:
What do you hope readers take away from your work?
Romance is such a broad genre that you can do so much with it.
BJ: I call it "edutainment": entertainment and education. Romance is such a broad genre that you can do so much with it. I mean, basically we're writing about people and their feelings and people having second chances and people taking chances. I think it's one of the best genres out there. So, if you can put that history along with these great women that we write about, and show that female empowerment, and show women making decisions that changed not only their lives, but maybe their families' lives — the history becomes a lot more palatable. There's no test on Friday, so [the readers just] drink up the history. They just inhale it.
When you educate a woman, you educate a race. So these African American women and white women and women of Chinese extraction and Asian extraction, who are reading these books, are able to share [these stories] with their children and with their grandchildren. And it changes their lives, because kids can't be what they can't see. To see that history, it gives them a pride that maybe they didn't have before, because they were more than just the people that laid the railroads, or they were more than just slaves, or they were more than whatever back room that history has relegated people of color. I call it inclusion. Give me a seat at the table and let me show you what I can do.
One of my other seven favorite authors, Alyssa Cole says Beverly Jenkins was her inspiration. She's mine too. Thank you for your books and for answering my question.
So, my loves, about my giveaway, Bring on the Blessings:
On Bernadine Brown's fifty-second birthday she received an unexpected gift—she caught her husband, Leo, cheating with his secretary. She was hurt—angry, too—but she didn't cry woe is me. Nope, she hired herself a top-notch lawyer and ended up with a cool $275 million. Having been raised in the church, she knew that when much is given much is expected, so she asked God to send her a purpose.
The purpose turned out to be a town: Henry Adams, Kansas, one of the last surviving townships founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. The failing town had put itself up for sale on the Internet, so Bernadine bought it.
Trent July is the mayor, and watching the town of his birth slide into debt and foreclosure is about the hardest thing he's ever done. When the buyer comes to town, he's impressed by her vision, strength, and the hope she wants to offer not only to the town and its few remaining residents, but to a handful of kids in desperate need of a second chance.
Not everyone in town wants to get on board though; they don't want change. But Bernadine and Trent, along with his first love, Lily Fontaine, are determined to preserve the town's legacy while ushering in a new era with ties to its unique past and its promising future.
Enter below to win a Kindle copy.
Beverly's books are available at your local library in eBook, Audiobook, and paperback on Amazon, B&N, and Indie bookstores everywhere. Happy Reading.
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Randy Taylor sentenced to two life terms in death of Alexis Murphy
Published: Jul. 24, 2014 at 5:21 AM EDT
Randy Taylor
Alexis Murphy
NELSON, VA (WWBT) - A judge sentenced Randy Taylor to serve two life terms in prison for the abduction and murder of Alexis Murphy, nearly one year after the 17-year-old vanished.
A jury found the Nelson county man guilty of the charges in May, but a judge decided Wednesday to follow the jury's sentence recommendation and hand down dual life terms. Taylor plans to appeal his conviction.
The drama intensified inside the courtroom, when Taylor offered to reveal where police could find Murphy's body. In exchange, Taylor requested a 20 year sentence.
Murphy's family and prosecutors vehemently rejected the offer, saying they would never trust Taylor to reveal the location.
"We are not going to bargain here," said Nelson County Commonwealth's Attorney Anthony Martin. "We have to balance closure with public safety, and Alexis' life is worth more than 20 years."
Mike Hallahan, Taylor's court-appointed attorney, said a third person may be involved in the disappearance, adding that Taylor knows where the person hid Murphy's body.
Speaking outside the courthouse, Murphy's family said only Taylor "absolutely knows" where to find the 17-year-old, who disappeared Aug. 3, 2013.
"This just shows his cowardice," said Murphy's aunt, Angela Taylor. "He had his opportunity before he went to trial, and he chose to ignore it. So, now you have two life sentences to sit there and think about what you did."
Murphy was last seen in surveillance video captured at a Lovingston gas station, in which Taylor is shown holding the door for her.
During the trial, Taylor's fellow prison inmates testified the 48-year-old confessed to being sexually interested in the teenager. Jurors were also shown a shirt soaked with Murphy's blood and strands of her hair, both found in Taylor's camper after her disappearance.
At sentencing Wednesday, Taylor disputed both the credibility and existence of the DNA evidence.
"There was a blood spot on the shirt, it wasn't soaked," Taylor said. "There were no hairs on my bed... This is an attempt to hardball me."
Taylor stood up to address the court, saying that he did not kill Murphy, and personally addressed her family.
"I have no hard feelings for any of you, or for Alexis," Taylor said. "I didn't take any deal during the trial because I've never killed anyone."
Prosecutors read a letter to the court written by Murphy's mother, in which she said that it hurts to see her two boys without her daughter.
"My whole world revolved around finding her, and bringing her home," wrote Laura Murphy. "We get up, and cry, and pray and do it all over again. A feeling I wouldn't even wish on Randy Taylor."
Copyright 2014 WWBT NBC12. All rights reserved


There's a new shopping sim in town. Now I know that happens all the time, but this one has a great build and a fabulous combination of familiar and popular brands with new and unknown to me fresh discoveries. Of course, I am not so conceited as to think that everything new to me at the new Glance Style sim is new to everyone – but nonetheless, I love the combination of new and established – of discovery and reliability. The sim opens today at 1 PM and there are some opening day gifts such as the hair I am wearing – so do try to get there.
I am wearing the top part of Anna Lou – a capri length jumpsuit from Baiastice. There are two prim options for the top, a folded simple band at the top or this lovely extravagant ruffle. Of course I went for the ruffle. I am wearing it the Rachal skirt from Lelutka. The skirt's soft rose belt suggested the color choice for the shoes.
I don't shoot lots of closeups of shoes, but these are just extraordinary. The Baiastice Camilla shoes come in a large range of color and oh, those buttons on the heel are fun, fun, fun.
The jewelry is from Purple Rose and the hair is from new-to-me hair salon Mina – an opening day gift. Baiastice, Purple Rose and Mina all have stores at Glance Style sim.
Did I mention that the build is quite lovely. Here's a little tip for when you want to shoot some scene without the half dozen people showing or worrying about someone tp'ing right into your snap. Go to the Advanced Menu and under Rendering -> Types, deselect character. All avatars, including yourself, will disappear from view though you can see their name boxes. You can snap all you want without any avatar showing up at all, though you have to go back and recheck Character before you can move. So long as it's unchecked, you aren't going anywhere.
This entry was posted in Great Places to Shoot, Second Life and tagged Baiastice, Belleza, LeLutKa, Mina, pda, Purple Rose on June 20, 2010 by Cajsa Lilliehook.


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Fungal contaminants in Sicilian livestock feeds and first studies on the enzymatic activity of Aspergillus isolates
The purposes of this study were 1) to determine the total fungal contamination in Sicilian raw materials and livestock, 2) to evaluate the occurrence of Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp. and Fusarium spp., 3) to identify fungi belonging to the genus Aspergillus and 4) to determine their ability to produce cellulolytic enzymes. Fourteen feed samples were collected in a feed mill near to Palermo (Sicily, Italy). Analysis of the total mycobiota was performed on Sabourad Dextros Agar (SAB) and Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and total fungal counts were expressed as CFU/g. Aspergillus spp. isolates were selected on the basis of the frequency of isolation and identifed using micro and macro-morphological characteristics and ITS sequence analysis. The ability of the Aspergillus isolates to produce cellulolytic enzymes was tested qualitatively by in vitro assay at two temperature, 25 and 30 °C, and in static and shaking condition. Total fungal population ranged from 1.11x106 to 1.31x108 and from 1.11x103 to 1.58x106 CFU/g on PDA and SAB, respectively. All feed samples showed the recurrent presence of colonies belonging mostly to the ubiquitous genera Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium. Eight isolates of Aspergillus spp. were obtained and identifed as A. amstelodami, A. awamori, A. flavus, A. niger, A. oryzae and A. tubingensis. Between them, A. awamori, A. niger and A. tubingensis showed the highest enzymatic activity. The presence of potential mycotoxigenic isolates of Aspergillus spp. in the analysed feeds represents a risk for animal health; moreover their ability to produce cellulolytic enzymes can seriously affect feed quality.
Mirabile, G., Bella, P., Conigliaro, G., Giambra, S., Alberto Vazquez, M., Davino, S., et al. (2019). Fungal contaminants in Sicilian livestock feeds and first studies on the enzymatic activity of Aspergillus isolates. CUBAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE, 53(4), 1-14.
Titolo: Fungal contaminants in Sicilian livestock feeds and first studies on the enzymatic activity of Aspergillus isolates
MIRABILE, Giulia
Bella, Patrizia
CONIGLIARO, Gaetano
GIAMBRA, Selene
Alberto Vazquez Maryen
DAVINO, Salvatore
TORTA, Livio (Corresponding)
Citazione: Mirabile, G., Bella, P., Conigliaro, G., Giambra, S., Alberto Vazquez, M., Davino, S., et al. (2019). Fungal contaminants in Sicilian livestock feeds and first studies on the enzymatic activity of Aspergillus isolates. CUBAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE, 53(4), 1-14.
CUBAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE
Abstract: The purposes of this study were 1) to determine the total fungal contamination in Sicilian raw materials and livestock, 2) to evaluate the occurrence of Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp. and Fusarium spp., 3) to identify fungi belonging to the genus Aspergillus and 4) to determine their ability to produce cellulolytic enzymes. Fourteen feed samples were collected in a feed mill near to Palermo (Sicily, Italy). Analysis of the total mycobiota was performed on Sabourad Dextros Agar (SAB) and Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and total fungal counts were expressed as CFU/g. Aspergillus spp. isolates were selected on the basis of the frequency of isolation and identifed using micro and macro-morphological characteristics and ITS sequence analysis. The ability of the Aspergillus isolates to produce cellulolytic enzymes was tested qualitatively by in vitro assay at two temperature, 25 and 30 °C, and in static and shaking condition. Total fungal population ranged from 1.11x106 to 1.31x108 and from 1.11x103 to 1.58x106 CFU/g on PDA and SAB, respectively. All feed samples showed the recurrent presence of colonies belonging mostly to the ubiquitous genera Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium. Eight isolates of Aspergillus spp. were obtained and identifed as A. amstelodami, A. awamori, A. flavus, A. niger, A. oryzae and A. tubingensis. Between them, A. awamori, A. niger and A. tubingensis showed the highest enzymatic activity. The presence of potential mycotoxigenic isolates of Aspergillus spp. in the analysed feeds represents a risk for animal health; moreover their ability to produce cellulolytic enzymes can seriously affect feed quality.
Settore Scientifico Disciplinare: Settore AGR/12 - Patologia Vegetale
pubblicato online.pdf Versione Editoriale Open Access Visualizza/Apri


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Home Archives June 2020
Month;
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Benefits Canada News
Editorial: More insights from the 2020 CAP Member Survey
As you'll read in this issue's cover story, our 2020 CAP Member Survey was fielded at the end of March and early April, targeting respondents…
Head to head: Should access to prescription drugs be restricted during coronavirus?
The limitation of prescriptions to 30-day supplies aims to protect against drug shortages, but it's creating challenges for Canadians who are living on fixed incomes.…
Fluor Canada cares for employee well-being during coronavirus
Employers across Canada are facing a number of challenges in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, including staying connected with employees and looking after their…
2020 CAP Member Survey webinar: Challenges ahead
As if preparing for retirement wasn't already a steep challenge, along comes the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the global economy, throwing up even…
Where can pension funds find returns in a low interest rate environment?
Investors were already feeling the pressures of historically low interest rates. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. The Bank of Canada cut its overnight interest rate…
An in-depth look at LGBTQ+ benefits
In June 2017, the federal government amended the Canadian Human Rights Act to strengthen protections against employment discrimination for LGBTQ+ individuals, forbidding employers across all…
How the Saskatchewan Pension Plan helps members through retirement
The Saskatchewan Pension Plan is improving investment choice for members in the accumulation phase and introducing new options to help them through decumulation as well.…
Back to basics on factor investing
Factor investing is a style of management that aims to harvest the common traits of a group or basket of securities that helps inform their…
Q&A with Rolls Royce Canada's Hosam Azara
Rolls Royce Canada Ltd.'s reward and pension manager talks benefits plan costs, Excel spreadsheets and playing soccer with his daughter. Q. What top challenges do you…


This is the HOW of Homeschooling, the Maxiums that every child needs. They won't all make sense until we talk about them, but many will and we hope you'll have others to add. We hope to see you in Provo, but if not we'll be talking about these things afterward.
This entry was posted in Every Home A School, Uncategorized on June 5, 2012 by Joyce Kinmont.


Once again I would like to thank you the products I have used from your company. After using many other hair care products, yours are the only ones that have worked!
Two years ago I had a stroke and came very close to dying. The medications that I had been prescribed for my seizures and other medical issus have had an adverse effect on my hair; the buildup of minerals that left it heavy, dull, and orange in color. The many types of clarifying shampoos that I have used since then did not restore my hair to its original full.
My results after using the Hard Water Natural Wellness Treatments are amazing! Your product has restored my hair to a soft, shiny and colorful state! The dull orange is no longer! Residue left behind from medications prescribed to me are gone! With your help I feel more confident and alive!


Patriots from across Florida rode miles through the dark and stormy night to pay their respects to Fallen Hero SGT Gene Hawkins and his family in Orlando on October 28, 2006. It was as if the very skies wept at the loss of this Florida son.
Members of the Patriot Guard gathered early to salute SGT Hawkins as he was escorted to his final resting place. Nearly 50 bikers from many different organizations and locations came together to see SGT Hawkins on his last journey. Several M/Cs were in attendance as well as members of the National Patriot Guard, the Florida Patriot Guard, and American Legion Riders.
Everyone came to attention when the hearse arrived. A final salute was rendered and SGT Hawkins' remains entered the church for one last time. Everyone shared the Hawkins family loss and it was evident by the tear streaked faces of the leather clad bikers standing in honor of this young soldier who gave his all for the freedoms and security of his country.
The riders stood by waiting for the family of SGT Hawkins to arrive at the church. Florida State Captian, Sig 22, watches for their arrival. As the family is escorted into the church parking lot the patriots waiting there come to attention and raise their flags in honor as they enter the building to say their final farewell to their son, comrade and friend.
Rest well SGT Gene Hawkins, your duty has been done. You sit at the table of the Lord now. Each of us owes you a debt of gratitude for your service and stand in awe of your sacrifice.


After the news from the tyre people in Leicestershire I decided that I really must get the brakes sorted. So my first priority was to find a brake centre on my way to Northampton so it was a stroke of luck that practically the first place I saw as I drove into Market Harborough was the Tanvic Tyre and Service Centre on the Leicester Road. So taking my life, or rather my wallet in my hands I pulled in. I was also on the look out for a coffee and somewhere to write up my notes so handing them the keys it was handy to get a coffee for 20p and sit down at a table to get some work done. So imagine my surprise when, after quoting a figure I can't remember (but over the 50 or 60 quid range), the guy comes through with my brake pads showing them to be not even half worn out. I think they suggested that they had at least 2/3 of their life left. Now bear in mind that I walked in and asked them directly to replace the front brake pads because I believed they were worn out (as I had been told by the Leicester tyre guy), so they could have just changed them and charged me. I would have been none the wiser. But no, they told me they were fine, checked that I didn't want them changed anyway, had a look at my rear brakes for good measure and told me that they were okay too (but I might be due new disks soon) and they only charged me the 25 quid or so for to set the tracking.
So let me say this clearly, this is Tanvic Tyre and Service Centre, Leicester Road, Market Harborough (Tel: 01858 469934). One good turn deserves another and their good turn is due to them. They're good guys and you can trust them.
Other than that Northamptonshire seems to have been pretty uneventful. It was a day of getting the Truck ready for the rest of the trip, being about 1500 miles in and about half way through. That night I camped at Billig Aquadrome (1580 total miles), merely because I'd seen the signs from the M1 all those times and I wondered what all the fuss was about. Honestly, it's a trailer park with a caravan and camp site attached with some amusements. (The go karting looked as though it might be fun but then again it always is.) There's a lot of water, lakes and the like and consequently quite a few ducks and geese with the resulting amount of goose poo.
My day in Warwickshire was a proper tourist day. I've got a thing for late mediaeval history and the first thing I found was the Lord Lycester Hospital, built in the 14th and 15th century and well worth a visit. It's all half timbered fantasticness and I can't do it justice in words so check out the pictures on the Instagram link or find them in my instagram folder on my Facebook account, you know I always welcome new friends.
That night I camped in a farmers field (1648 miles) on the Warwickshire/Worcestershire border, a nice little spot for anybody that likes the feel of a hideaway camp but still with all the facilities of a normal site. Oh, that's right, no pot washing, but who cares about pot washing?
I booked into a little caravan site just outside Malvern (1699 miles), not because I planned to and way too far south for my liking, but they did manage to find me a sheltered spot from the severe weather that was forecast. However, it did mean I got to see the Mountains of Malvern as they will be known henceforth. Such dramatic change in landscape I've never seen and I'm hoping to go back to walk them at some time. I did manage to spill wine on my battery pack which was not a good thing. I'm managing without it and unsure if it's dry yet but it's still full of amps so I'm not sure I want to test it.
Shropshire left me one option, Ironbridge which led to a photofest so check instagram as I suggested for the cathedral pics and others. I did meet a nice lady with a single pentagram earring in the chemist (where they keep the cash machine but this is the heart of the industrial rervoilution wo who am I to judge) who deserves a mention.
I'm currently camped up on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border (1776 miles), a bit further north than I'd planned but without the battery pack I have to have a camp site with electrics so here I am. Still my tent faces south and I'm told there is a brilliant full moon out there so I'm going to see if I can get some pics.
Billing Aquadrome is not the nicest place to camp being in very close proximity to the main sewage works for Northampton, with the pong always very much in evidence.
I thought as much. I noticed it as I arrived but must have got used to it as I didn't notice it later. They also seemed to have a bit of an issue with duck poo.


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Viktor von Weiszäcker (21 april 1886, Stuttgart - 9 januari 1957, Heidelberg) was een Duitse geneeskundige. Hij geldt als grondlegger van de psychosomatische geneeskunde en van de medische antropologie. Hij stamt uit de familie Weizsäcker uit Württemberg. Hij is de zoon van de Württembergse politicus Karl von Weizsäcker en een broer van Ernst von Weizsäcker en hierdoor ook een oom van de Duitse bondspresident Richard von Weizsäcker en van de natuurkundige Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker.

Biografie
Als neuroloog-internist werkte Viktor von Weizsäcker een "antropologisch-medische" theorie uit, een discipline die gesteund is op de dialectiek van het neurologisch-experimenteel onderzoek en zijn medische praktijk. Hierbij reserveerde hij een belangrijke plaats voor psychosomatiek, door hem genoemd: "somatose". Deze theoretische constructie is verder uitgebouwd door zijn bijdrage in een voortdurende dialoog met de filosofie, zijn engagement in de geneeskunde van het werk en het oprichten van een sociaal verzekeringssysteem in Duitsland, na de Eerste Wereldoorlog.

Zijn rol gedurende de Tweede Wereldoorlog
Viktor von Weizsäcker werd in 1941 benoemd, in opvolging van Otfrid Foerster, als hoogleraar neurologie en directeur van het Neurologisch Instituut van de Universiteit van Breslau in Silezië. In het neuropathologisch laboratorium in dat instituut werden de hersenen van kinderen, die vermoord waren in de "Kinderfachabteilung" ("kindervakafdeling", een nazi-eufemisme voor een afdeling waar kinderen met bijv. een handicap onvrijwillig "euthanasie" toegepast kregen) van het psychiatrisch hospitaal van Loben (Lubliniec), onderzocht door Hans Joachim Scherer. Het lukte hem om ervandaan te vluchten in januari 1945, en in de maand augustus werd hij tijdelijk directeur van het Fysiologisch Instituut van de Ruprecht-Karls-universiteit in Heidelberg.

Een "pathische antropologie"
Pathosofie is de naam die hij geeft aan zijn algemene klinische werk. Het gaat over een weten over het lijden, eerder dan een wetenschap over de ziekte. Pathos verwijst daarbij minder naar een pijnlijke passiviteit dan naar "datgene dat ervaren wordt". Zoals bij de Grieken, een vraag in de zin van "Wat is er met jou aan het gebeuren?". Het accent ligt op de actieve dimensie van dat wat er bij ons gebeurt. Het gaat over een ervaring zowel uitgevoerd als ondergaan.

"Wat realiseert er zich in de ziekte? Men ziet het al, het is niet de vraag van wat de mens "is" of van wat de geschiedenis van zijn leven "is geweest", maar dat wat er "is" en dat wat er "geweest is", het is de wijze waarop dat beleefd is geweest, begrepen en voortgezet in de omgang."
 uit: Gesammelte Schriften in zehn Bänden, 10 Pathosophie, Suhrkamp, 2005, p. 275

Het "pathische zijn" is uiteindelijk in staat zijn om pijn of plezier te ervaren. In filosofische termen hernomen gaat het over een kracht om geraakt te kunnen worden, van toestand te kunnen veranderen. Waarom zo denken, als het niet is om over de ziekte te spreken als een gebeurtenis, eerder dan als een deficit, een gebeuren die onze toestand verandert. Indien de ziekte een vorm van leven is, tezelfdertijd actief als passief, veronderstelt ze een geheel denken van het levende hernomen als pathisch, voor en voorbij elke vorm van nosografie. Leven komt neer op te lijden hebben, met alle geïmpliceerde singuliere modulaties: willen, kunnen, moeten,…

"Het menselijk zijn, in de pathische antropologie, doet zich van het begin voor als onvoldoende, onrijp, onbepaald, defectueus of onmachtig, op zoek naar volheid en verandering, tijdelijk en niet eeuwig, in elk geval niet als het Zijn zelf. Hij is niet een zijn of een ding beperkt tot een "er is iets als", maar integendeel deze of die die wordt of wilt, durft, kan of moet "worden."
 uit: Gesammelte Schriften in zehn Bänden, 10 Pathosophie, Suhrkamp, 2005, p. 72

Ontvangst van zijn werk
Begrippen van Weizsäcker zijn overgenomen door denkers als Henri Maldiney, Jacques Schotte, Jean Oury of Bin Kimura.

Werken vertaald in het Nederlands
De zieke mens, Van Veen, 1955
Pathogenetische studies / Lichaamsgebeuren en neurose, Rizoom vzw, 2015

Werken vertaald in het Frans
Cycle de la structure, eerste Duitse editie 1933, vertaald vanuit het Duits door Michel Foucault en Daniel Rocher, Parijs, Desclée de Brouwer, 1958, 232 p.
Pathosophie, eerste Duitse editie 1956, vertaald vanuit het Duits door Joris de Bisschop, Michèle Gennart, Marx Ledoux, Bob Maebe, Christophe Mugnier en Anne-Marie Norgeu, Grenoble, Millon, coll. « Krisis », 2011, 352 p.

Rond zijn werk in het Nederlands
De dans van dood en leven, Soemini Kasanmoentalib, Kerckebosch bv - Zeist, 1989.

Duits medicus

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