Student Centered School

The following is a reflection by a teacher/parent on her recent visit to Summit School and EL school in Spokane Valley. Its framed in the "Notice and Wonder" format:

What I noticed about the school was that is was student-centered and led. The school environment was very positive including the teachers, students and principal. Respect and accountability were evident throughout each classroom and the assembly. Students take responsibility in the learning, their behavior and are treated with the upmost respect by the staff and their peers. There was a strong sense of community and culture. One student described it as a big family. The learning environment provides each child with an intrinsic motivation to learn, which decreases classroom management issues. It was an honor to see the school in action.

What I wondered about the school is how new students adjust coming into the school and how they adjust when they go into middle school. I wondered about the resources and curriculum and what resources our school will have. I also wondered and got some clear answers from the teachers and principal about how expeditions are integrated into the classroom.


It was amazing to see this school and I can't wait for our school to get there! It is everything I learned about in grad school of what education should look like. It gave me goose bumps!

Jeneille Branen

Charter Document

I was doing some housekeeping in preparation to working on a minor revision to the charter approved by the Board in April 2009, when I found this photo of the charter printed in preparation for our March 2008 visit to the Commission.

Idaho schools to see 3.2 percent cut

Palouse Prairie School is still waiting to learn the exact impact on its budget, the funding comes in several categories, including the administrative and teacher salaries categories mentioned at the end of the article.

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From Moscow-Pullman Daily News
Staff and wire reports
May 2, 2009

Idaho public schools took a lower-than-anticipated budget hit Friday, when Gov. C.L. "Butch Otter" signed their $1.4 billion 2010 budget into law.

State funding will be reduced just 3.2 percent with the help of federal stimulus money, state taxpayer funding and cash from rainy-day reserves to minimize cuts.

This is the first time in generations Idaho spending on public education is less than the previous year.

School district officials have waited and waited to find out how much money they'll receive from the state. They've had to set supplemental levy amounts based on guesses and estimates.

"I still don't know how much money we're getting," said Genesee Superintendent David Neumann. "It's nerve-wracking to wait so long to know where we're going to be."

He said the Genesee School District is cutting its budget by 6.6 percent.

Moscow School District Candis Donicht was out of town and not available for comment. Moscow Curriculum Director Cindy Bechinski declined to comment on the budget until she had a chance to read through it.

The public schools funding program was shifted in 2006 from an education maintenance and operations levy to a 1-percent sales tax increase.

Local school officials and legislators spoke out against the shift when it was implemented, and have repeatedly expressed frustration with the new funding formula. They say the switch removed the public schools' funding stability, or "three-legged stool."

"I certainly see the need to cut based on the economics. But part of the problem was created by the Legislature itself when they took away our ability to apply local property taxes," Neumann said.

The bill Otter inked Friday included $60 million from the federal stimulus package.

But it holds millions more in reserve in case the money is needed during the coming year if tax revenue declines even further.

"No one wants to cut education," Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna said. "Unfortunately, with state revenues continuing to decline, we cannot avoid it."

Administrators can expect an average 5 percent base salary cut; teachers pay will be cut 2.63 percent.

New Moscow charter school nearly full of students

From Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Palouse Prairie fills 73 of its 87 seats; Moscow School District looks at potential layoffs

By Halley Griffin, Daily News staff writer
March 30, 2009

Seventy-three local students have secured slots at a new charter school that will open in Moscow this fall, while two Moscow teachers could find themselves without jobs next school.

Palouse Prairie Charter School officials announced Saturday they'd filled 73 of the available 87 seats through a lottery process. The rest of the seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Nils Peterson, chairman of the Palouse Prairie board of directors, said all but six of the students live within the Moscow School District.

Moscow School District officials have predicted the district will need to cut two teachers for next year to cope with the decreased enrollment.

"This is on top of the state reduction," Superintendent Candis Donicht said today.

Donicht said based on the results of the lottery, she still believes the district will need to downsize by two positions.

The state funds school districts based on 99 percent of their previous year's enrollment to protect districts that suffer decreased enrollment from one year to the next.

"The 99 percent is designed to give us a net when we have lost enrollment," Donicht said. "So the impact is lessened for this year, but it flows into (future) years ... It lessens it to a degree, but it's still a major cut."

According to Idaho State Department of Education data, the state spent an average of $5,644 per student during the 2007-08 school year.

However, Idaho Department of Education spokeswoman Melissa McGrath said it's "virtually impossible" to calculate how much state funding would decrease for the Moscow School District with a loss of about 70 students.

She said funding is based on the types and ages of students in addition to the numbers of students.

Donicht said she has had several notices of retirement or resignation from elementary school teachers, and still hopes to be able to ease job cuts through some attrition.

The next step for the Palouse Prairie board of directors is to hire a school director and teachers.

Peterson said the school has a "large pile" of applications for both director and teachers.

Ashley Ater Kranov, vice chairwoman of the board of directors, said the board has 10 highly qualified applicants for the director position from all over the United States.

The board began screening applicants last week, and hopes to have an accepted offer by mid-May or sooner.

The board also is preparing to put out a bid for remodeling on the old Brown's Furniture building at the corner of Lauder Avenue and South Main Street.

"This is a big milestone to pass, and we are looking forward to hiring teachers and directors," Peterson said. "Our focus right now is just to get the school open successfully."

Halley Griffin can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239, or by e-mail at hgriffin@dnews.com.

Lottery Complete -- another milestone passed

Many thanks to all who have contributed to getting Palouse Prairie to this milestone.

On Saturday morning we completed our lottery. There were 81 student applicants. Given the enrollment capacity set out in the charter, 73 were able to be offered enrollment.


The results are

Kindergarten - 18 offered enrollment with 7 on waiting list
First - 18 offered enrollment with 5 empty seats
Second - 8 offered enrollment with 3 empty seats
Third - 12 offered enrollment with 0 empty seats
Fourth - 12 offered enrollment with 1 on waiting list
Fifth - 5 offered enrollment with 6 empty seats

The map above shows the distribution of students within Moscow. A next challenge is to figure out safe routes and means to get these children to school.

Impressionist Art -- March 21 project for kids

Here is a concept that we are going to try on March 21 at our school tour. Georges Seurat was a French neo-impressionist painter. Several folks have been suggesting kids hand prints be used in some way in the school. Amy Desrosier offered this vision, a Palouse-scape.

Think about the math skills potential of this activity done in the context of an expedition. Transferring the picture from original to glass could involve Cartesian coordinates and graphing.

Some version of this idea will be attempted March 21 at the Shebang event.

Research on Family Involvement in Kid's Education

A 2004 document on the Michigan Dept. of Education website provides a summary of the research (pdf) into the importance of family involvement in children's education. Among the ideas:

Family participation in education was twice as predictive of students’ academic success as family socioeconomic status. Some of the more intensive programs had effects that were 10 timesgreater than other factors.

• Families whose children were doing well in school exhibit the following characteristics:
• Establish daily family routine
• Monitor out-of-school activities
• Model the value of learning, self-discipline, and hard work
• Express high but realistic expectations for achievement
• Encourage children's development/ progress in school
• Encourage reading, writing, and discussion among family members

The exact nature of homework or other out of class learning will be decided by the school's teachers, but the information above suggests that Palouse Prairie School should find ways to encourage and support each family in meaningful engagement with their child's education. This might include learning at home activities as well as other ways for families to connect to the school or get support to assist their child from the school.