Hi folks:
Thanks for responding to the invitation.
Summary:
I'm not sure of the problem Mike is having regarding the apperance of the Blogger page and Bdogs Blog. It may just be the operating system difference in which the screen-face display is somewhat different. But Mike has successfully "posted" so I will assume that we are o.k. Mike if this is still a problem give us more specific's.
This artilce appeard in the Oakland Press today and I wanted to share it with everyone. It is one of the projects that we are working on. If anyone has any ideas and/or interest in how we might collaborate to help the academy forestall it's demise I would appreciate your thoughts on same.
Best,
Jim
Technology-based school faces closing
Web-posted Mar 25, 2004
By DAVE GROVES and SVEN GUSTAFSON
Of The Daily Oakland Press
Unless the widely popular Oakland Science, Math and Technology Academy can find more students or grant funding to support programs, it will close next year.
The Oakland Schools Board of Education has voted to no longer subsidize the academically-based technology program for high school students in northern Oakland County.
"What we're talking about is having it be self-sufficient," said Board Secretary Pan Godchaux.
"If they're able to come up with 120 students or get some of the grant funding they're seeking, we won't pull the plug on it."
Finding students to add to the current enrollment of 105 presents a formidable challenge, however.
Welcoming students from the Lake Orion, Holly, Brandon and Clarkston school districts, OSMTech receives half of the state funding the districts receive for each student.
Facing considerable budget challenges of their own, Lake Orion and Clarkston school officials have begun bowing out of the consortium. These districts will allow current OSMTech students to complete their high school educations there, but are not sending new students.
Holly schools Superintendent R. Kent Barnes said he, too, has recommended to the school board that it stop sending new pupils to the program while allowing those currently enrolled to finish.
Barnes said the district spends roughly $80,000 per year to send about 25 students to OSMTech - enough to hire a teacher to work with 150 kids in Holly, where the district intends to develop more technologically-based curriculum.
Regis Jacobs, assistant superintendent of career-focused education and regional services for Oakland Schools, said that the funding the center would have received with new students is critical to maintaining services.
"You have to have so many teachers to provide the breadth of curriculum we offer at OSMTech," he said. "We've already pretty much stripped away all of our indirect costs."
Despite administrators' attempts to explain the budgetary considerations OSMTech is facing, parents of students in the program were less than pleased with the board's decision forcing the school to become self-sufficient.
Beth Nuccio, president of the Brandon Board of Education and parent of two OSMTech students, said parents had proposed a restructuring plan that seemed to please intermediate district officials. "It was a win-win-win, as Dr. Jacobs called it," she said.
"I don't know what happened between the first part of March and the 22nd of March, but it died. I've gotta' believe there's some politics going on there that probably aren't for kids."
Parents and OSMTech staff had submitted proposals to make the program eligible for vocational education funds provided by the state.
Jacobs said, however, the proposals failed to meet necessary criteria, primarily because OSMTech has long provided primarily academic rather than vocational curriculum.
"The more we looked at the details of it, the more the proposal did not have integrity," he said. "They're just very different approaches to educating."
The Oakland Schools Board of Education plans to decide the fate of OSMTech in June, based on whether proponents can demonstrate financial self-sufficiency.
Nuccio said parents will look for corporate or foundation funding to keep the program afloat.
"I guess we're looking for somebody who understands the value of this program, and Oakland Schools is not it," she said.
I'm going to suggest that you re-follow the link, then use the
EXACT name as it was supplied on the invitation...I'm not sure that will help, but it's worth a try. Your password should be of your choosing.
Also, you might have to contact Ryan, Bill, Tom, Keith and Paul Witek to alert them to the nature of the invitation and see if they can log on successfully.....? This is an opportunity to conspire and all to get on the same page with a minimum of effort before you are confronted with the latest and greatest from your "leadership".
Welcome friends:
This blog-site is for the informal trade of information and/or the development of ideas/concepts regarding opportunity's to create technological innovations in K-12 Education.
Please "post" a simple message to let us know you have arrived.
Best,
Jim Ross
