TJUSD Board Meeting - March 13, 2014

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TJUSD Board Meeting - March 13, 2014

Postby blackturtle.us » Thu Mar 13, 2014 8:11 pm

The board meeting was well-attended this evening with several students and community members present. The following are some of the more interesting items on the agenda:

1. Avid Presentation - Mr. Wolfe presented an overview of what AVID is all about. He discussed how AVID can help the district to teach Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Several students talked about how AVID has helped them to be more academically successful.

2. Common Core Math Standards - Ms. Wilhelm and Mr. Steinke presented information about changes in math curriculum which have been brought about by the adoption of CCSS. They spent some time talking about the change from the traditional math pathway to an integrated pathway and how they believe it benefits students. Briefly the integrated pathway integrates geometry with algebra so that it is no longer taught as a separate yearlong class.

3. Special Education Verification Review - Mr. Tsubota spoke about a recent compliance review conducted by the California Department of Education to ensure that TJUSD is complying with all regulations relevant to special education. A team spent several days auditing district records, observing instructional activities, and talking to various individuals throughout the district to make sure that special education students are receiving proper instruction. The district did well with only minor items being found to be out of compliance. All items that were out of compliance will be fixed within 45 days.

4. Social Skills - Mr. Tsubota discussed various activities, materials, programs, and events that are used by the district to teach general social skills to students and to deal with issues such as student conflict, bullying, and other interpersonal difficulties sometimes faced by students. He listed a number of items currently being used and stated that he plans to increase resources for this type of instruction in the future, including use of online resources.

5. Public Comments - Two parents spoke out about bullying at school and suggested ways that the school and community might deal with this issue. One parent suggested that a mentoring program be developed.

6. Certificated Negotiations - Superintendent Olney listed contract items to be discussed in upcoming negotiations including salary, extra duty hours, evaluations, and class size.

7. Calendar - The calendar for the 2014-2015 school year was approved. The only major change noted was that instead of having two three-day weekends in February, only one four-day weekend is scheduled.

8. Interim Report - Dawn McMillen (Financial Manager) presented a financial report. She discussed the budget for the next few years including revenues, expenditures and other projections.

9. Social Media Policy - One of the board members requested a discussion regarding social media. She stated that she had concerns regarding social media in general and how it is used by students and district employees. Superintendent Olney discussed this matter with the board so that he could get some clarification regarding their concerns and also to help them to understand the issue a little more completely. He explained that social media is often used for educational purposes and that he didn't want to risk blocking the ability of teachers to communicate regarding educational matters with students and parents, but that there are potential risks if social media is used inappropriately. A school employee spoke up and explained that she used Facebook to communicate with a student regarding books that the student was reading over the summer and that she felt that this was beneficial to the student. Supt. Olney concluded that he will draft a suitable policy regarding social media use and present it to the board at the April meeting.

NEXT MEETING: April 3, 2014 (a week earlier than would normally be the case)
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Re: Social Media

Postby wildrose » Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:19 am

Social Media Policy: Well that's a fun topic to discuss. All sorts of news stories involving inappropriate student-faculty communication in the news, but common sense tells us that social media can be used to help students academically and that the vast majority of teachers are responsible in their use of social media.
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Re: Social Media

Postby panamint_patty » Thu Mar 20, 2014 6:54 am

I see the internet in general as 99 percent good with only a tiny one percent portion that's bad. Social media is just like the telephone. People can say mean things on the telephone or they can say nice things. Sure it's there for lots of people to see, but gossip spreads by phone quite efficiently too. In fact, that's the way it's been for decades!
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - March 13, 2014

Postby mrgreen » Thu Mar 20, 2014 8:27 pm

Kid Bullied For My Little Pony Backpack Told Not To Bring It To School Anymore
This story has a twist, but it really just more stupidity from the very institutions who are supposed to be teaching kids to be smarter. Why are people who work at schools so dumb so often?
:mad2:
The school wants to curtail bullying, so they go nuclear at anything even remotely resembling bullying. Yes, it's misguided, yes, it's stupid, but you can at least follow along the logical path they walked before jumping off the cliff.

LINK: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140317/13503526601/kid-bullied-my-little-pony-backpack-told-not-to-bring-it-to-school-anymore.shtml
:wall:
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Re: Social Media

Postby CoolChick » Fri Mar 21, 2014 6:40 am

The idea that social media isn't really all that different from the telephone is pretty much true and nowadays most kids have access to both social media and a cell phone and so they can go crazy spreading rumors either way if that's what they're into. But rumors and gossip have been around forever and so has lots of other nasty behavior that people get all worried about. Nothing really changes as far as that sort of thing goes!
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - March 13, 2014

Postby wildrose » Sun Mar 23, 2014 6:52 am

School Bans Bullied Child's My Little Pony Backpack
More on the My Little Pony Backpack situation. School officials decided to ban the "triggers" to bullying rather than deal with the bullying. Pragmatically this might not be a bad idea since most schools have clauses in their dress codes regarding items which cause disruptions at school, but politically it's not going to fly since most people are going to support the child's right to use the backpack. However, removing the backpack is likely to be just as effective as subjecting the students at the school to one of those over-priced and bogus anti-bullying programs. Call me skeptical, but every anti-bullying program I've ever heard about is ridiculously shallow and trite, but quite effective at arousing pro-social sentiments which keep the money flowing.
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Educational Scams

Postby cactuspete » Sun Mar 23, 2014 11:47 am

wildrose wrote:School Bans Bullied Child's My Little Pony Backpack
More on the My Little Pony Backpack situation. School officials decided to ban the "triggers" to bullying rather than deal with the bullying. Pragmatically this might not be a bad idea since most schools have clauses in their dress codes regarding items which cause disruptions at school, but politically it's not going to fly since most people are going to support the child's right to use the backpack. However, removing the backpack is likely to be just as effective as subjecting the students at the school to one of those over-priced and bogus anti-bullying programs. Call me skeptical, but every anti-bullying program I've ever heard about is ridiculously shallow and trite, but quite effective at arousing pro-social sentiments which keep the money flowing.

I agree absolutely. It's all about making money and turning little problems into social issues so that the public demands a solution. The solution is then packaged up as a product to be sold. The product doesn't actually have any real effect, but it makes people feel all warm and fuzzy and so they are satisfied that it did something. All educational institutions fall prey to these opportunistic scams and many actively look for more ways that they can throw their money away on these types of programs (scams)...
blackturtle.us wrote:4. Social Skills - Mr. Tsubota discussed various activities, materials, programs, and events that are used by the district to teach general social skills to students and to deal with issues such as student conflict, bullying, and other interpersonal difficulties sometimes faced by students. He listed a number of items currently being used and stated that he plans to increase resources for this type of instruction in the future, including use of online resources.
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Re: Educational Scams

Postby wildrose » Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:16 am

cactuspete: You are absolutely correct except you forgot one thing and that would be LIABILITY. These ready made products sound good if a school district is in a lawsuit and has to answer a question about what it did to discourage or deal with bullying or whatever social issue happens to be the current obsession. They can pull out the receipts and product descriptions and produce instant proof that they did something. It may not have actually had any effect on the actual social issue, but it does provide an answer if the school winds up in court!
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Re: TJUSD Board Meeting - March 13, 2014

Postby mrgreen » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:40 pm

Kids Post 'How To Get Your Teacher Fired' Tutorials On YouTube
This video was actually posted over a year ago. The kids tell how they conspired to get their teacher fired. They were only in first grade and they went to great lengths to make her look bad with the intention of getting her fired. Some people like to think that kids would never do anything like this, but this is pretty good proof that kids are a lot more devious than you might think! (BTW, for the first 13 months that this video was up it only received 1800 views. In the last couple days it's gotten over 83,000 views. Not quite viral, but semi-viral at least. Apparently some blogger made a big deal about it. I predict the video is taken down within a day or two!)

The actual video:
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Spoiled Brats

Postby CoolChick » Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:46 am

mrgreen: Those kids are such despicable little brats and I wouldn't be surprised if their parents eventually wind up paying a heavy price for allowing them to behave like that! Kids know how to play their parents if their parents want to be their friends or play like their the kids' lawyers. Parents need to be parents and stop allowing kids to get away with this kind of crap!
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