We all get busy... Here's the "latest"
Work, school, life, etc. Glad to see that this thing has a life of its own.
VAPAC NEWS
School's going private... imagine that. But they gave it a good try as a public entity.
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/193348.html
http://www.sacarts.org/SacArtsflash.html
If anything the successes and failures of VAPAC should be something upon which we all meditate. Administrative mismanagement showed us the extent to which our district is incapable (or unwilling) to oversee schools that it charters; enrollment, however modest, shows us that the students and parents of this district desire a stand alone arts program -- not something like that monstrosity CAPA at Rosemont or any of the themed based SLCs that offer instruction in the arts.
We need to push for a stand alone school. We have a technology school, a health themed school, an engineering and science themed school but nothing for the arts. And no continuation. No Vocational arts...
VAPAC NEWS
School's going private... imagine that. But they gave it a good try as a public entity.
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/193348.html
http://www.sacarts.org/SacArtsflash.html
If anything the successes and failures of VAPAC should be something upon which we all meditate. Administrative mismanagement showed us the extent to which our district is incapable (or unwilling) to oversee schools that it charters; enrollment, however modest, shows us that the students and parents of this district desire a stand alone arts program -- not something like that monstrosity CAPA at Rosemont or any of the themed based SLCs that offer instruction in the arts.
We need to push for a stand alone school. We have a technology school, a health themed school, an engineering and science themed school but nothing for the arts. And no continuation. No Vocational arts...
posted by All of Us at
5:44 AM
62 Comments:
Very sad. I hoe no one is celebrating this failure because of the impact on kids but studying it to make sure these mistakes never happen again.
SCUSD, the community, etc. need to pick up the pieces and make sure we never revisit this senario.
Now we must assess the schools in our area and help not just talk. Go to councilman Rob King Fong's forum on schools and school safety.
What happened at VAPAC didn't have to be so-just like Sac High a few years ago.
A once popular magnant program brought to its knees because of many factors. Let's not be quick to blame but learn from past mistakes.
Sad, but we all knew it was bound to happen
Take note to vapac.org and sacarts.org, as a former student I think my rights are violated by VAPAC using me in the video How can I take action?
If you did not sign a release to have your picture used you can request that they stop using it or can take legal action.
Sadly we are probably looking at the same scenario for Sac Charter a year from now. Like VAPAC students and staff are leaving at an alarming rate. Soon it will not be financialy possible to keep the school open even with outside support.
The great thing is Sac Charter won't be here in a year. There is no way they will get charter renewed.
Like most have been posting on this board, they have no results, they are mismanaged, staff departure rates are high, fiscal mismanagement.
Their failure again is not to be celebrated. The impact on kids now and when it closes is very sad. I believe though that it is inevitable.
Dear Video Kid,
If you're under 18 and DID NOT sign a release they may not use your likeness without parental approval.
don't rule sac high out just yet. if scusd board of education approved their very own FAILING genesis charter high and then turns around and denies sac high's renewal, the district should count on a major legal battle. plus charter renewal is not based on teacher turnover rates; fiscal responsibility - yes but even that can change over the next year. students and parents will not let sac high go - that's the bottom line.
The charter may be renewed but that does not mean they automaticaly get the Sac High Campus. That will be the battle.
Charter renewal is based on meeting only 1 of 5 criteria.
1. Attain API growth target in the prior year or in 2 of the last 3
2. Rank of 4 or higher on API
3. Rank of 4 or higher for similar schools
4. District approves renewal based on the charters performance being at least as good as other schools in the district.
5. Charter qualifies for an alternative accountability system.
Currently sac charter may meet #4 if the district says it is at least as good as the other high schools. That is really high expectations.
aren't you a tad bit concerned that the district's own charter schools aren't doing well? that's really the bottom line for anyone who gives a rip about kid's education in this town. the district's issues (along w/many people on this blog) have been about the facility - never about the kids or parents. in the meantime, kids get stuck in the middle of adult BS....
I think the only district school, traditional or charter, that is above an 800 API is West Campus. We should be concerned about all the kids in the high schools. The HS reform for SCUSD has not produced results.
sac charter currently meets two of the four renewal criteria.
And by September will probably meet all four criteria when their API comes out and grows by 50 points.
2007-08 school year will be interesting....
When did SCUSD renew the Genesis charter?
Does anyone know why former Supt. Jim Sweeney was at the Serna Center on Thursday?
Richard Owen has been seen at Genesis. Does anyone know why he would be there?
Does anyone know who was hired as Rosemont's principal?
Why do you call Rosemont's CAPA a "monstrosity"?
genesis charter school's public hearing took place on march 15th (charter renewal petition was turned in on march 1st). not sure of what the outcome was as scusd has not updated their webpage with minutes from the may meeting where they voted on their staff recommendation for the school (does anyone know what that was?).....
i believe the genesis charter and all of the district charters were approved.
well, if that's the case, there's no way SCUSD will deny sac high's charter renewal. genesis has an API in the 400's....c'mon. guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Genesis' charter is on the agenda for June 7th at 9:01. It has not yet been renewed.
Did you see the consent and decree story in the Bee today?
Looks like Sac Charter High is going to have to share the old Sac High campus with the kids that belong there.
Should be interesting having both schools there.
Missed the story. I'll try and look it up. What gives?
don't be too sure of that. what kinds of sense does that make - putting two different high schools on one campus? that's just assinine.
Which 2 of the charter renewal criteria does sac charter meet and on what do you base a projected 50 point growth in api?
"putting two different high schools on one campus? that's jus assinine." Hum, if I remember correctly wasn't the original sac charter made-up of 6 autonomous schools on one campus. Yea, assinine.
If they place the consent decree hs on the old Sacramento HS campus KJ will throw a tantrum. He will be calling on parents, students and his old friend the "Bee" to scream to high heavens.
It is the proposal that makes sense given that there is so much space and that there are less than 1000 kids using it now.
KJ will push to move PS7 to the Sac campus and the consent decree school to the PS7 location. This will be so that he can maintain control of the facility and continue to deceive the community. The expense to the district would be huge in turning the PS7 site into a HS.
i wish KJ would stop deceiving the public and stop sending 80% of Sac High's graduates to four year colleges.
How deceitful.
I wish he would stop making these inner-city, low income, minority kids stop wearing uniforms and acting more disciplined and excited about school.
How deceitful.
I wish he would stop offering kids more AP classes and SAT prep classes and summer school options, and after school tutoring and college field trips and leadership classes and community volunteering opportunities and the teaching the value of community service.
How deceitful.
Just stop it and leave.
Leave these kids alone. They want their old, failing, beaurocratic school back so they can stay trapped in poverty, low expectations and low achievement.
Leave and let the Guild Theater and other places go back to being run down havens for crack dealers.
Please leave and don't offer an elementary school serving 300 Oak Park residents and get them to achieve the highest API and test scores of all surrounding elementary schools.
Please leave and take your new Preschool, which is partnered with the phony, non-credible partner in UC Davis which is going to provide high-quality Pre-k schooling for Oak Park kids in a brand new facility.
Please leave so that Oak Park doesn't have an art gallery that has national artists visit and do shows like Flo Wong and Willie Birch.
just please leave, you are selfish with your for-profit business model that is sucking the community dry.
Please, we want the old Oak Park back, and our mid 500s API.
Thank you.
currently meets criteria:
performing as well as other district scores and similar school rank of 4.
with four years under belt, will see dramatic leap in test scores and API this year and will exceed API growth target.
will have charter renewed like PS7 charter renewed.
by the way, own small schools not the same as a different school sharing campus since small schools all run by same entity with same culture. (terrible analogy)
Two different high school MODELS (well, St. HOPE's is a model) on one campus IS ASSININE! You know what I mean jackass. If any of you "concerned parents" think that Sac High's parents will not fight for their school, think again. Thank you to the person who posted everything St. HOPE has done for this community. Are the rest of you just pissed off that you don't have the drive or power to get stuff done? This entire situation is about STUDENTS. If you're pissed off over the consent decree crap, be pissed off at SCUSD. Remember, they are the ones who closed the school (as they should have - it was not serving our kids). Really - what's the beef that all of you have w/KJ? I'm so sick of this site.....
A bit hostile and defensive. Must be passing out mass quanities of kool-aid.
August 31 CDE will issue its reports for the current school year. Having overstated everything from enrollment to academic results the past couple years, people do question the validity of the current claims. Patience and we will see in August. If the results are positive than st hope/sac charter should be commended for meeting the needs of the kids. If the results are not there then st hope/sac charter should be held accountable.
I keep coming back to the sac charter claim of 80% of the kids going to 4 year colleges but find it difficult to swallow. I took a look at the CDE website and looked at just last years 11th grade which would be this years seniors. The results don't say college bound unless they brought in a whole new group of kids. The STAR results say:
ELA - 44% below or far below basic
Alg - 78% below or far below basic
Geom- 88% below or far below basic
Alg2- 89% below or far below basic
(only tested 92 students)
Summative Math - 69% below or far below basic (only tested 58 students)
US Hist - 66% below or far below basic
Bio - 54% below or far below basic
(76 students tested)
Chem - 56% below or far below basic
(tested 110 students)
Physics - 23% below or far below basic (only tested 39 students)
This is the type of contradication that leads thinking people to believe they are being deceived and that st hope hides from the truth. This type of data doesn't indicate 80% of the students going to 4 year colleges. It would be impossible with those scores for that group to have turned it around in one year.
College rate is a fact and it is irrelevant that you "find it difficult to swallow".
It is a measureable that has improved from four-fold since 2003.
It is a sign that there is a college going culture on campus for these inner city kids that wasn't before.
Let's wait until August for the "scores". That's fine.
API growth will be met and exceeded.
Should heard the speakers at graduation, the real proof of the change that has occurred.
Of course none of you did cause you just quote cde stats.
The college rate is also the least concrete and most easily manipulated. You are anxious to celebrate the scores in august but deny their validity now. That does not make sense but does speak to credibility as stated by somone earlier.
API up more than 40 points since 2003. - Fact.
API similar schools rank of 4. - Fact.
Start practicing your teacher turnover or fiscal problems arguments so in August when API growth met and scores improve, you have some new, old stuff to harp on.
Didn't those forty points come in the first two years? What have the gains been since then?
What was the outcome on the Genesis charter renewal?
"Didn't those forty points come in the first two years? What have the gains been since then?"
Great argument. You must be a ex-debater.
And you a master-debater
Since you bring up teacher turnover, can you explain why if everything is so wonderful and the results so great why the high turnover. You sure wouldn't let go teachers doing such an outstanding job and producing such wonderful results. What happens in the classroom is key, correct? And if everything is so wonderful, these great teachers most certainly would not want to leave. So where do they go and why? Just curious.
Read the newspaper.
Do a search.
Teacher retention in schools.
Enlighten yourself on what the rate is in California. Nationally.
It's an epidemic, not just here.
Anyway, when you have longer days and higher expectations, it's not for every teacher.
Especially the ones that can go hide in a union and just work there little day and not be accountable.
Before school, after school, saturdays, quite a commitment.
Good job on practicing your new arguments. You'll need them when the scores come out.
And By the way, using your logic and debate thread -- why would any teacher stay if its so bad?
Certainly good or great teachers could get jobs anyway. Why stay at all?
Can't believe any teacher would stay if it was so awful.
Only reason must be is that it's not. And the teachers there are excited about the progress of the school and the kids achievement.
So these lazy teachers that want to hide behind a union have produced these amazing results. Wow, that is incredible.
Is there anyone out there that believes Arby and Jo-Jo can make this fly??? If this were not so serious it would be comical.
SCTA (not the teachers) is destroying SCUSD. I was at a human resource management conference at UCLA and they used the SCTA contract as an example of a "bad" contract. Why? Because it has more contridictions than Arbatel's resume.
Smartest thing I've ever read on this board -- all time.
But when people are treated as st hope employees have been you see why teachers turn to unions.
unions do nothing to help teachers. when have you ever heard the union talk about teachers or students for that matter? if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. there is no room for negotiating when it comes to the lives of children and their education.
The vote to renew the Genesis charter was put off until June 20th. The board pres. was not there and it was not believed Genesis would not get the four votes needed without him.
Re: Video image usage from VAPAC. The spot, if it is completed, will be a .30 second public service announcement about the value of arts in education. The credit will go to the three students from VAPAC that created it. It will be a short collage of arts activity with a voice over and credit at the end to these students and VAPAC. There will be no monetary exchange and no monetary gain. If once the spot is cut and there is a clear visible image of a student. they will be contacted to grant a release of their image.
staff is recommending approval of genesis high school's charter renewal on thursday night. underperforming but staying in business....interesting.
Here is a Washington Post article that speaks to the epidemic problem nationally about teacher retention.
Here is a quote from the article "The findings are a clear indication that America's teacher dropout problem is spiraling out of control," the report said.
So remember this next time you want to bring up your lame "teacher turnover" argument against Sac High. Its happening everywhere.
Teacher Turnover Costs Systems Millions, Study Projects
By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 21, 2007; Page B06
An independent report released yesterday estimates that the high rate of teacher turnover in U.S. school systems costs more than $7 billion a year, with systems including the District and Prince George's and Fairfax counties hardest hit.
are
The calculator estimated that the District pays $16.6 million a year to recruit and train new teachers who replace those who retire, quit or leave for other jobs. In Prince George's, the cost was estimated at $23.3 million; Fairfax pays an estimated $28.4 million.
The "findings are a clear indication that America's teacher dropout problem is spiraling out of control," the report said.
The study said that so many teachers leaving the profession creates a self-perpetuating cycle of failure in some school systems, as a lack of experienced mentors and a sink-or-swim environment lead to trouble in the classroom and demoralization. Nationally, about 50 percent of teachers leave their jobs within their first five years, according to a study last year by the National Education Association, a teachers union.
Good article but... I believe that if you look at it closely, teachers and administrators have left St. HOPE at an alarming rate; what they have not done, however, is leave the profession -- many have gone to schools in this and other districts.
Its both. Read the whole article. and at Sac High it's both, check the exit interviews. ay and ej don't count.
What exit interviews. Having been a st hope employee I can tell you that even when requested they don't happen. Any data from exit interviews would be fabricated. The many teachers and administrators I knew at st hope have stayed in the profession just not working for st hope. Their disatisfaction was with the organization not the profession.
The above article also refers to the "sink or swim" attitude of schools contributing to the teacher turnover and that certainly has become the case at sac charter. The lack of instuctional leaders and veteran mentor teachers has placed a bunch of rookies in a leadership vacuum.
ay never had an exit interview. He just said he was leaving and left. He is now at the Met Sacramento.
oh so he is a teacher at Met Sacramento?
Sure seems like a lot of teachers have been there 3 or 4 years, going into their fifth.
At their graduation, there was a lot of pride from teachers that have 'stuck it out' during this difficult but important process of high school reform. A lot of pride for that first class of St. HOPE graduates that are now about 80% a-g eligible (highest in district) and 70% accepted to four year colleges.
Who wasnt there were the selfish teachers that left down the stretch and didn't keep the 'students' best interest in mind. Hope their new schools know what they are getting.
Nope principal.
I don't think you would use both hands counting up the teachers that have been at sac charter all 4 years. And you certainly won't find an administrator. Oh yea, I know, they were all lazy and not meeting the needs of the kids.
you forgot lazy and selfish
Why would anyone want to work for an organization that had such a low open of it's teachers or teachers in general? No wonder they leave.
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