[Winona Online Democracy]
If I have the chance this weekend, I will try to post spreadsheets, or at
least summaries of information I've collaged from the MN Dept of Education
website which details dollars spent on various categories, including
administration (which is a broad category in the state's info that does
include such personnel as the admin support staff, business office, etc.) I
think I still have it on my computer. Caveats: I compiled this info on
spreadsheets, in a 'cut and paste' fashion, but all of my info was from the
state site. I last worked on this probably a couple of years ago. The last
couple of times I tried, I wasn't able to navigate the state's site very
well. When Pawlenty took office, the site was re-organized and much of the
information I used to be able to access very well seems to be hidden now.
But then, I haven't had much time to really sort through it, so maybe it's
just me.
I would appreciate hearing from Kathy or someone with better technical
understanding as to whether it would be a good idea for me to try to post
spread sheets, assuming I can find what I did before. I don't want to
over-load the server or anyone's computer and I don't want there to be any
worries about viruses or other nasty little cyberspace thingys.
A few quick things:
My family moved to Winona just over 17 years ago, with 4 kids, two of whom
were elementary students at the time; the other two were ages 1 and 3. At
that time, each school building had its own principle, with perhaps the
exception of Dakota/Ridgeway who shared a principal for many years, although
I cannot swear that was the case 17 years ago. At that time, elementaries
were K-6. My oldest son was in the first group of 6th graders to go to the
middle school. A few years later, when he was at the high school, the
teachers were feeling the impact of having an extra grade added to the
building--it had become much more crowded and the stress was apparent when
you walked into the building for conferences. There was no full time
librarian at the high school library, a pitiful excuse for a library (no
fault of the teachers, the high school or the librarians in the district.
At that time, they were librarians, too, not media specialits). It was
shameful then and has been shameful since.
Class sizes: My two elementary aged kids entered classes in grades 1 and 5
at Madison with 30 kids already in the class. The class sizes were slightly
smaller for my oldest when he went to the middle school and throughout high
school, his class sizes were mostly 25 to 30 students, with some exceptions
(smaller advanced German classes, for example). He graduated in 1996. The
4 period day was instituted during his junior year. It was instituted over
teacher protests, and rumor had it, accepted by teachers only because of
some rather dire threats. The promise of the 4 period day was that it would
save money (something that was repeatedly proved mathematically impossible
by more than one PhD in math dense areas--but not believed by administration
until the high school math department ran the numbers--without increasing
class sizes or letting students leave school during study halls). Another
promise was that the 4 period day would ease scheduling and allow for more
flexibility for teachers and students, and allow for more team taught
classes. Prior to the 4 period day, challenge English and History classes
were 'team taught' at 10th grade level, but after the 4 period day, they
were not. High school teachers have been lambasted for not working to
contract, but if memory serves, there was an amendment to the contract that
exempted them from classroom duties to accomodate the adminsitration's new
scheduling scheme. As a side note, my observation has been that the
teachers at the high school typically spend their free hour in prepping for
classes, tutoring students, supervising hallrooms and other areas, working
with students on projects, etc.
Am I a total fan of the 4 period day? No, I could go, point by point, about
what I see as the good vs what I see as the bad about that scheduling
configuration, but I said I'd be quick and I've already exceeded quick by
quite a lot.
Terri Hyle
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