TJUSD Board Meeting - January 10, 2020

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TJUSD Board Meeting - January 10, 2020

Postby blackturtle.us » Fri Jan 10, 2020 9:23 am

The board meeting lasted about one hour and was attended by board members, school employees, one student, and one spouse of a board member. A few people left early, but most people stayed for the full meeting. Highlights as follows:

1) Superintendent’s Report - Explained that our attendance rates are down from last year. The rate was 262.95 per day last year and 180.02 per day this year. She said that this is “very detrimental” since funding is based largely on attendance. She also stated that the district will need to examine the current incentive strategy being implemented and some changes may need to be made. Additionally, the superintendent stated that the school board will be attending another study session in the near future and that the focus will be the Brown Act (JAN 30, 3-7 p.m.).

2) Maintenance Report - Discussed measures being taken by the district to recover from the earthquakes and explained that the “review process” will take a bit longer than expected. Also briefed the board regarding plumbing issues being experienced at the round school. All restroom facilities had to be closed at the round school just before Winter Break. Over the break plumbers from Bakersfield inspected the pipes exiting the round school and found broken pipe down by the swimming pool parking lot and along the way there were many sections of sagging pipe. Basically all the pipe from the round school to the pool will need to be replaced. Additionally, a company has been hired to analyze the stability of the soil under the old high school. They will use a technique called “core penetration” to determine the degree of stability, but this will not be done until March since the equipment needed is already booked until then. The results of this analysis will help determine the feasibility of repairing the old high school. On top of all this, a contractor is generating a cost estimate for repairing the old high school. It was noted that estimates made by contractors vary wildly when it comes to these projects, making it difficult to decide on the best way to go about the earthquake recovery process.

3) State Testing - The K-12 Principal explained what measures were being taken to prepare for state testing. He explained that some teachers will complete state testing using classroom one-to-one devices and that a computer lab is being created to accommodate the needs of other teachers. A few new computers will need to be purchased to replace computers damaged in the earthquakes.

4) High School Boost Period - This period will return to the high school daily schedule beginning in the Second Semester. This is a time when students who need extra help can engage in remediation activities and where students who are caught up with their school work can enjoy enrichment activities.

5) California Dashboard - New test results are available for public perusal. Steady growth in almost all areas was accomplished during 2017, 2018, and 2019. A new data category is being tracked on the dashboard: chronic absenteeism.

6) SARB - Discussion of measures being taken to deal with chronic absenteeism. The district works with a district attorney to deal with students and their parents who fail to attend school on a regular basis. It was stated that it’s difficult to motivate people who have nothing left to take away.

7) J13A Waiver - The district started the school year late due to earthquake recovery efforts. It is expected that the waiver allowing the district to have only 170 students days (rather than the normal 180 days) will be approved since the state declared a state of emergency in response to the earthquakes.

8) Royalty Issues - Possible changes in royalty income and measures being taken to deal with this problem were discussed.

9) Time Capsule - Time capsules will be buried in a ceremony the date of which will be announced when it is determined. One will be opened in thirteen years and the other in thirty years.

NEXT REGULAR BOARD MEETING: February 13th
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - January 10, 2020

Postby mrfish » Sat Jan 11, 2020 5:39 pm

blackturtle.us: You say in the Maintenance Report that all restroom facilities had to be closed. What does that mean? Did kids have to crap in buckets or what? It's not like people are going to hold it in for the day just because the restroom is shut down!
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - January 20, 2020

Postby twister » Sun Jan 12, 2020 8:37 am

mrfish: They had porta-potties. I saw a few when I drove by and I heard that they had quite a few altogether. Reportedly they were clean and not that big of an inconvenience according to people I talked to.
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - January 10, 2020

Postby recluse » Mon Jan 13, 2020 9:36 pm

Education Secretary DeVos on combating the homeless crisis in schools
This DeVos lady seems like she's an out-of-touch, rich lady, which is why she's in favor of charter schools and vouchers. Anyone paying attention knows that charter schools are corrupt and worthless. Not sure what this Every Student Succeeds Act is all about, but it at least in name replaces Common Core at the federal level.
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Re: Betsy DeVos

Postby wildrose » Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:38 am

Betsy DeVos is a typical conservative. She likes to blame everything on unions. Standard conservative rhetoric meant to obscure the fact that the biggest problem with education is corporations which create curricular materials. It's all about making money and the big money makers when it comes to education are companies that publish textbooks and educational software. They like to hide behind unions, but that's just a cheap trick to divert public attention.
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Re: Betsy DeVos

Postby shadylady » Tue Jan 14, 2020 8:43 am

wildrose: Publishing corporations definitely profit off of public and private education. The more control they can get the more they can force schools to buy their stuff. They already have politicians in their back pockets. If they can weaken unions, then there will be no one left to keep them in check.
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - January 10, 2020

Postby twister » Mon Jan 20, 2020 7:26 am

Here's a link to the dashboard mentioned in the board meeting report:
https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/36678920000000/2019
Considering the number of "socioeconomically disadvantaged" students attending the school, the results aren't too bad. I didn't compare the results to other schools and so I'm not sure how good our bad the results are as compared to other schools.
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - January 10, 2020

Postby wildrose » Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:07 am

The results for Inyokern, Pierce, and Trona are quite similar. They all have comparable socioeconomic levels and academic results:
INYOKERN: https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/15737426009609/2019
PIERCE: https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/15737426009294/2019
TRONA: https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/36678920000000/2019
Now take a look at the following affluent communities:
Los Altos: https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/43695180000000/2019
San Ramon: https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/07618046117485/2019
There may be a few exceptions in a state as large as California, but the relationship between socioeconomic status and academic achievement is ridiculously consistent.
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - January 10, 2020

Postby MojaveMike » Mon Jan 20, 2020 10:43 am

wildrose wrote:There may be a few exceptions in a state as large as California, but the relationship between socioeconomic status and academic achievement is ridiculously consistent.

Considering the high correlation between socioeconomic status and intelligence, none of this is at all surprising. My sympathy to teachers in low socioeconomic areas: They work ten times as hard and get one-tenth the results. Seems like a recipe for burnout to me. No wonder so many teachers drop out of the profession or migrate to schools with smarter kids. The irony is that often the schools with the smartest kids (and hence easiest kids to teach) often also offer the highest pay to their teachers.
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - January 10, 2020

Postby wildrose » Wed Jan 22, 2020 8:23 am

MojaveMike: Our education system works well for smart people. The problem is people who aren't so smart. Intelligence is mostly a matter of genetics, but hard work and determination can overcome genetic deficits up to a point. However, the problem is that hard work and determination tend to be traits that go hand in hand with reasonable to high intelligence. No system can adequately educate people with low IQs and therein lies our biggest social challenge.
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