Possibility of layoffs spooks Moscow District teachers

Worth knowing before you read: The Governor is recommending a 1% reduction in state support to school districts and for Moscow School District that will amount to about $100,000. State law protects 99% of the state support to the District in the event of an enrollment loss (such as Palouse Prairie School would cause, or a mill closure would cause). So the financial loss to the District caused by Palouse Prairie School, based on the District's estimate is 1% of 50 students is one-half of a student's revenue or about $2500.

MOSCOW: Possibility of layoffs spooks teachers
By Halley Griffin, Daily News staff writer
Posted on: Saturday, January 17, 2009

Hackles are up at Russell Elementary School.

Of the four elementary schools in Moscow, Russell's teachers are the newest, and they are the most likely to be affected if the school district is forced to consider layoffs.

"Just hearing the term (Reduction In Force), it's hard not to get your back up a little," said teacher Melissa Mueller. After four years, she's one of the school's most senior teachers.

Layoffs aren't on the table yet, but Superintendent Candis Donicht will recommend activation of a Reduction in Force policy at Tuesday's school board meeting in response to state budget woes and the opening of Palouse Prairie Charter School next fall.

The RIF policy outlines the procedures for reducing the number of district staff.

"Even if we didn't have the condition of the state, we would still need to downsize staffing for next year because we have a new charter school and some of our students will be going there," Donicht said. "Every school district is going to be affected by the reduced appropriation, and our district has a sort of second event going on as well."

Nils Peterson, chairman of the Palouse Prairie Board of Directors, wrote in an e-mail Friday he has no way of knowing how many students might come out of the Moscow School District. However, he said the 87 spots at Palouse Prairie are most likely to be filled with Moscow students, with some home- or privately schooled students as well.

Donicht said the district anticipates at least 50 students departing for Palouse Prairie, and said her district can't afford to be overstaffed for next fall. With 50 fewer students, the district would need to downsize by about two teachers.

"When people hear the word RIF, they automatically think teachers are going to be getting pink slips," Donicht said. "That isn't necessarily the case."

She said she hopes to be able to account for those positions through retirements or resignations, rather than having to lay off staff.

The Russell teachers hope so too.

"I think the thing that has really been on our minds is we have formed an incredible group," Mueller said, adding that losing staff would be like losing family.

She's especially nervous about first-year teacher Anissa Vreeland, one of the newest to join the staff.

"I was hired late in the summer," Vreeland said. "I feel like I'm last on the list."

Russell teacher Stacy Albrecht said she first got wind of the RIF during Friday's in-service day, and spent a fair amount of time discussing it. When she called her husband, a teacher at Moscow Junior High School, he hadn't yet heard of it.

"That's because it's hitting the elementary schools harder," Mueller said. Palouse Prairie will open this fall to students in kindergarten through fifth grade. If 50 students leave the district, it will be elementary school teachers left without students.

Idaho Public Charter School Commission Chairman Bill Goesling said there are some prominent issues with the effect of a new school on the existing district, but the provisions of the charter school act were designed to expand options for parents.

"It does create some excitement within a district when a charter school opens," Goesling said. "I think that's the challenge: the old way versus the new way; is the old way valid? I think that's one of the ongoing challenges as we continue to increase school choice."

With six new charter schools opening next fall, Idaho will have 37 across the state.

State Department of Education spokeswoman Melissa McGrath said 7,000 students statewide are on waiting lists for charter schools.

Other Idaho school districts have had to adjust to the presence of new schools in the area.

Idaho schools chief Tom Luna addressed patrons of the Gooding School District last week, imploring them not to divide the community over two school options, according to the Twin Falls Times-News.

The district is experiencing a 10-percent enrollment decline from students leaving for a new charter school that opened this fall.

Donicht and the Russell teachers hope the effect on the Moscow School District will be minimal.

"At this point, this is all new to us," Albrecht said. "It's hard not to be a little uncomfortable though."

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

IF YOU GO:

WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 20

WHERE: Moscow Junior High School music room

WHAT: The Moscow School Board will discuss activating a Reduction In Force for the month of March.

The role of Adventure

"Learning expeditions" are long-term, "real world" investigations, by teachers and students, of compelling subjects, which culminate in public presentations. Expeditions often involve an element of adventure that is integral with the learning activity. But EL also recognizes a role for "adventure" that is not integrated into an Expedition.

To learn more about Adventure and to think about its role in the learning enterprise, the Board went to the UI climbing wall on Sunday Jan 11.

Lahde writes of the event: "Our climbing wall adventure was important because it facilitated a bonding experience that strengthened our ability, as a board, to care and collaborate with one another. We were literally entrusting our lives to our fellow board members who kept us from falling and who supported us through the challenges we faced during our climb. Our time at the climbing wall also jump started our relationship to one another by being in a new adventuresome environment where only the activity at hand was our focus.....there was no business directly relating to Palouse Prairie School tasks, yet inadvertently we strengthened our ability to work together as a board to successfully create our school."

Nils notes, "At one point early on I said to John, 'If I am able to go higher now depends on how much I trust you to catch me if I fall.' Trust in one's support gives the license to push harder and take larger risks which might be the key to success. Thinking about the trajectories of success and failure, having the trust and taking the good risks offers the paths to success, lacking the trust, or having it broken when the risks are not back-stopped would be the trajectory to failure.

The Enrollment Marketing Campaign

We are kicking off our marketing efforts for the open enrollment period, February 1-March 27 preceding the lottery. The deep marketing last fall involved an EL 101 session and a trip to Summit, as well as stories in the Food CO-OP newsletter.

As we go into Spring, the campaign ramps up with a public visit by our Principal Candidate, Lawrence Levy on January 10, 10AM 1912 Center Fiske Room and this display in the Moscow-Latah County Library, which will be up for the month of January.

Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences

ANSER school in Boise has been includeding students (all the way down to Kindergarten) in its parent conferences. The child is the leader of the conversation; there is a self-evaluation form to help structure the process. This article in the NY Times points to student-parent-teacher conferences as a growing trend, and a means to get families involved in the child's education. This is the kind of choice for how Palouse Prairie will do school that you can expect the Principal and teachers to be making Spring 2009.

School location changes to Browns Furniture facility

Today at a meeting of the Idaho Public Charter School Commission, Palouse Prairie School received approval to change its first choice location from Now and Then Antiques to Browns' Furniture at 105 Lauder St. This facility is more central in the city, is a newer building, and offers the school substantially more space at an affordable price

A group of UI students have been working on ideas for the remodel of the Browns space. Their final presentations are open to the public. They will be held Monday, December 15th
2:30 to 5:30 PM at the University of Idaho College of Art and Architecture's Shop Critique space (a small building across the walkway to the south of the Idaho Commons).

Students are looking forward to sharing their design concepts for the adaptive re-use of the former Brown's Furniture building into the new Palouse Prairie School for Expeditionary Learning charter school. Please pass the word to other community members that also might like to attend. Please RSVP to Miranda Anderson (mirandaa@uidaho.edu) for planning purposes. Thank you!

Below are my comments addressed to the commission this AM

Comments to Commission Dec 11, 2008

Thank you chairman for a chance the address a change in the Palouse Prairie School’s petition

Let me start with a roll call of Board members.
Ashley Ater-Kranov
Lahde Forbes
Kirsten LaPaglia
Daniela Monk


While being on the phone has certain disadvantages, it does provide a means for more of our board to participate in your meeting, which we appreciate.

We lost two board members, Sterk and Granja, in November but anticipate adding a new person tonight. You may recall our skills matrix from June. The members we lost had experience in K-12 education and with Idaho Standards. The new member who has applied has similar experience. This leaves us one vacancy (our max board is 7) and we are having conversations with a person with bookkeeping and budgeting experience. Our goal is to use our skills matrix in selecting new members to ensure diversity and capture more of the qualities that you have broadly described as “business people.”

I’d like to report on good news since we last met and before we get to the matter at hand.

I already reported on our 501.c.3 status, achieved with the help of board member Lahde Forbes. In August we received $100,000 from the JA and Kathryn Albertson Foundation. In November we were notified that our Federal Startup grant was funded by the State Department of Education. Year 1 is $200,000 and the total is $671,000.

We have been getting some valuable Board development and other aid from John LeCavalier the Expeditionary Learning school designer assigned to our school. Kirsten LaPaglia and I are just back from an EL regional leadership conference held in Oakland. What struck me most about that event was to sit in a room of a dozen EL principals, and to think that with EL we have a rich and experienced esource to help our school’s development. Both Pocatello and ANSER were present at the meeting and each renewed their generous offers of assistance.

Suzanne Gregg was the keynote at the conference, presenting the structures and strategies she has in place for planning and assessing professional development of ANSER’s teachers. We made tentative plans for our Principal to go to ANSER for professional development on topics such as the structures in an EL school and ANSER’s approaches to teacher professional development.

In addition, Palouse Prairie School was paired with ANSER because of our common interest in the training of new teachers. We will develop, with the help of the school designer we share, plans to provide training to our new hires.

One of the other things our school designer helped us do this fall was to plan the recruitment for our Principal. Ashley led this committee and I’m happy to report we have a highly qualified candidate. The individual is a currently a Principal in Idaho, and holds an EdM from Harvard University. I think we are fortunate to have such a strong candidate, and responding to Secretary Luna’s thoughts, at the salary we are offering, we did not attract this applicant because we pay well. The candidate has indicated interest in our position because of the exciting nature of the EL curricular model. The Board will meet tonight to decide if we want to bring this person to Moscow for in-person interviews and to meet prospective families.

I’ll pause for questions.

We have returned to you with a request to change the facilities described in the Appendix to our charter. This change will not require a change to be body of the document.

While I am not happy with the national economy, it is a blessing for us. In this case, we are able to secure a newer building, more central in the city, close to public transit, and three times as large, for a modestly higher rent. This facility was on the market at a much higher rent for many months and the owner has decided to make us this generous offer.

In your packet you will find a cover letter that summarizes the advantages of the new facility we are proposing. For consistency with our previous visit to you, I used the budget you reviewed in June and substituted Browns’ costs for Now and Then costs.

The three-year budgets are summarized in the cover letter, Browns provides a higher cash balance each year, and its nearly twice as large (164,000) by the third year. It’s worth noting that the federal grant we received was over $200,000 higher than the grant assumed in that June budget.

The fundamental issue that improves the budget picture is the reduced infrastructural costs to get into the Browns facility.

The cover letter also summarizes some challenges to the site. Pupil safety traveling to school across the state highway is one. We expect to use buses and crossing guards to mitigate this issue.

Outdoor play space is also an issue. We have had the advantage of a University of Idaho class in Interior Design designing the remodel of Browns. Among their proposals is that we convert the hard-to-access north parking lot to a green play space. It’s not a soccer field, or a baseball diamond, but it is 30x110 feet. The other way to address the challenge is noted in the letter, we have ample space for indoor play.

An issue not mentioned in the documents is that there is a gas station/ A&W restaurant and convenience store located across the street. This establishment sells packaged beer and wine.

I have previously discussed the alcohol issue with you relative to the Silos site, where the café serves beer and wine. You have approved the Silos as our second choice facility.

State law allows the school to be located within 300 feet of the establishment in question, provided the City of Moscow consents. You will recall that Moscow has a Conditional Use Permit process and this issue will be addressed by us in that process.

I expect that we will carry the day on this issue because, at that same intersection, in fact directly across the state highway, Moscow School District holds a Conditional Use Permit for the Paradise Creek Regional High School, the districts alternative school. The distance, measured by Google Earth, straight line, door to door, from the high school to the gas station is 269 feet. Moscow has permitted this with no apparent problems.

Measuring from the Browns front door to the front door of the gas station is 218 feet. Measuring the shortest building to building distance is 177 feet. I’ve not been able to understand if the law is addressing door to door or building to building distances.

Our preferred entrance is not the current front of Browns. Advice of the City planning staff and our traffic engineer is to have bus and parent drop off on the SW corner of the building on a quiet side street. When our UI student designers converted the north parking lot to green space, they fenced it and restricted the use of the current front door to a door to access the playground. Thus our preferred entrance is 288 feet to the closest point on the gas station and over 300 feet door to door to door to the gas station.

Given that Moscow has approved a high school as close or closer to this vendor of alcohol, I believe it is credible that they will be willing to approve our school’s site.

I’ll pause for questions.

As in the past, I have included in your packet a letter from Moscow planning staff, and a letter from Laurence Rose, architect. You will also find budget details and a letter of intent to lease from the owner. I have included some photos and a sketch of a possible floor plan. The UI students have made some much more creative proposals to remodel the space than the one I submitted. Thanks to committee chair Daniela Monk we will be reviewing those on Monday. Also next week we will be reviewing the results of our solicitation for public works architects to assist us with the project.

Your staff asked about the warehouse space. It is an “L” shaped room of about 5000 sqft with a concrete floor. You could run a small fork lift in there. It has racks to allow storing of furniture on 3 levels. Right now I see this as a boon, a place to store furniture and materials we have begun to collect before we finish the remodel. In the long run we may find other uses for the space. It is not heated or cooled, and not counted in our square foot analysis.

I think that is all I want to say now, do you have any questions?

Reflections on EL Leadership conference

In August 2007 a group of parents connected with the Palouse Prairie School project met to discuss options, including staying with EL, or opting out. The general feeling was to stay. As we have worked with EL since then, I am increasingly convinced this was a good choice. Below is a report on an EL regional conference which gave me more evidence for the wisdom of the choice.

---

On Dec 4,5 Kirsten and I traveled to Oakland CA to attend our first EL-hosted conference. This was a regional conference with Principals and school designers from the California and NW regions.

(See also Kirsten's report here.)

My own goal going into the trip was to begin an acculturation to the EL community. About a dozen schools were represented, some traditional district schools made-over to EL and some charter schools. Some of the schools were EL from their founding, some were conversions from other models. Some had hand-picked staff, some had inherited staff.

My first reaction was that it was great to be talking about EL schools, with people who are doing it, getting away from the "what is EL, or why a charter school" kinds of questions we get at home.

The next impression was that this group of Principals is a valuable network of people (beyond the value of the EL school designer). Was Palouse Prairie School developing a 'experiential learning' school without connection to a national organization, we would be faced with a much larger challenge finding peers and collaborators. While the people at the conference didn't have cookie-cutter answers to our challenges, they have working models and are very willing to share (as ANSER, Summit and Pocatello have already demonstrated).

The workshop keynote was a presentation by Suzanne Gregg of ANSER about the approach they are using to assess teachers' skills relative to the EL core benchmarks and how that assessment helps teachers and leaders decide on the Professional Development learning targets. How refreshing -- assess where your school is against the EL model and choose professional development to move forward.

We also spent some time thinking about work plans (for the balance of 08-09 or for the next 18 months). I was able to eavesdrop on a designer-principal conversation and get a greater appreciation for the work plan form and how it was clarifying the school's thinking.

Finally, we were asked to describe some goals for our work plan and the staff used these to make collaborative teams. Palouse Prairie School ended up with ANSER, as we are have a shared interest in training new teachers in summer 09. We have agreed to explore how to collaborate, including EL training at Bainbridge Island and perhaps some combined PD at one or the other site or somewhere in between. We have the fortune to share John LeCavalier as our school designer, which should further enhance the collaboration.

The next of these regional leadership meetings is in Vancouver WA, the end of January. It is unclear who should attend from Palouse Prairie School. One thought is to send some of the same people and (knock on wood) our Principal. Another thought is to send other members of the Board, to broaden the base within the Board. We need to resolve that over the course of the next 4 weeks.

Idaho charters face hurdles finding homes

By JESSIE L. BONNER Published: November 29, 2008

MERIDIAN, Idaho (AP) The 20-foot cross was removed from the church steeple two years ago, not long after the Compass Public Charter School moved into the building.

The religious imagery inside is discreetly hidden while 420 students study math, reading and science. A large room with a vaulted ceiling and stain glass windows serves as the band room, and a curtain covers a small cross above the pulpit.

This charter school in a former dairy town of 71,000 isn't the only one with a unique home.

In a state that has embraced alternatives to the traditional classroom, 31 public charter schools have found themselves setting up shop in everything from a former plant nursery and pet store in Coeur d'Alene, to a strip mall in Garden City and former athletic center in Boise.

Together, the schools serve some 11,000 students. But unlike traditional public schools, they cannot get money from property taxpayers to buy buildings through bonds or levies.

"That is the largest financial challenge charter schools face," said Shirley Rau, school choice coordinator for the state Department of Education. "They are borrowing at the same rate as other nonprofit facilities."

Idaho charters, approved by a 1998 state law, operate with state money based on average daily student attendance, just like traditional public schools. But to raise money for property, teachers, parents and community members seek out investors or borrow from banks to buy facilities.

A third of Idaho charter schools started out in portable trailer classrooms, typically in rural areas of the state where facilities are harder to find, Rau said. Many of these charters have since purchased or built facilities, but some still operate from mobile classrooms.

"What you'll see is a big farm field with trailers," Rau said, adding that a charter school set to open next year in northern Idaho is "probably going to end up in a furniture store."

All but two of the 15 charter schools that own facilities did so with backing from investors, loans, heavy community fundraising and by saving chunks of state money they get based on student attendance.

"Most of this has happened in the last three years," Rau said. "They've only just been able to manage."

The Idaho Arts Charter School moved a new building this year after years of renting an old church and using nine trailers to hold nearly 600 students, grades K-12. The school is paying back a 30-year, $7.5 million loan from Wachovia Corp. used to buy the facility, said Jackie Collins, Idaho Arts Charter School director.

"There wasn't any area banks that were willing to take the risk," Collins said.

The Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy leased a former plant nursery and pet store for three years before buying the warehouse-style building, where 557 students in grades 6-12 wear uniforms and adhere to strict discipline codes as part of a rigorous college-prep program, said school business manager Glenn Mabile.

The school spent $1.5 million to expand and renovate.

"We don't think you have to build a big glorious building to give students a quality education," Mabile said. "The programs and the people come first, a building is secondary."

The Compass school found an investor to buy the Meridian church it used to rent from Ten Mile Christian and now has to pay back a $6 million loan. The church now pays the school rent and plans to move into a new facility next year.

In the meantime, the congregation makes sure to cover the communion table after each Sunday service.

"We have another church ready to move in. It will pay for our utilities," said Bridget Barrus, chairwoman of the board that governs Compass and one of the parents who founded it.

The 16 Idaho charters schools that do not own facilities either rent, lease or share while saving to buy a home.

The ANSER Charter School has held classes at a Boise athletic club since 1999. Racquetball courts were converted into classrooms. The gym blanketed with a musty smell takes up the center of the building and athletes as young as age 5 take classes there from Bronco Elite Arts and Athletics, sometimes while the ANSER school is in session.

The school spent about $450,000 remodeling the facility that holds about 200 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. They could enroll more so they could get more state funding to save toward a new building, but larger class sizes could also work against the mission of the school, said Principal Suzanne Gregg.

Charters are typically created with a specific purpose and in Idaho, range from an online school aimed at minority students to programs that emphasize music, art, dance and drama. ANSER has small classes designed to give students, who are required to participate in community-based projects, more attention.

The school is saving to buy a century-old building from the Boise School District and move out of the facility where they share an address with Bronco Elite.

"Unfortunately, we're investing money in a building we're only leasing," Gregg said.

The racquetball courts were split into skinny classrooms with tall ceilings, sound panels resembling egg carton prevent noise from leaking room to room. The kindergarten teacher snagged the only classroom with a sink.

In a school with no cafeteria, students picked up pizza in the office on a recent Friday and brought it back to their classrooms. Kids are bused to the local YMCA for PE class. Chalk dust used by athletes during gymnastics classes often covers the lockers and cubby holes that line the gymnasium.

"We've been here so long, this is just how we do school," Gregg said.