Saturday, August 11, 2012

The Real Per Pupil Cost!


Remember this post when people complain about how much money is spent to educate the children of Englewood. This might even answer the question of why there is never enough paper, books, or even curriculum. The Board agendas are loaded down with Staff Development Workshops. I would like to see the fruit of those work sessions. At least a product is created at the end of curriculum workshops.

Voters and taxpayers should pay careful attention to what is included in the per student cost when determining the actual amount spent to educate children in their districts. The formula recently changed. Every district's per pupil cost is changing. Does this mean that the per pupil cost for Englewood will now be $30,000.00 per pupil?

"Specifically, the Department added the following expenditures to arrive at the total spending number: transportation, special revenues, pension and benefits paid by the state, facilities (including debt service), equipment, total food services, judgments against the school district, and tuition/costs for students sent out of district (except payments to Charter schools). Consistent with the decision to include tuition for students sent out of district, the associated students are added to the enrollment denominator."

Do you follow that when folks sue the school board that amount is added into the cost per student? No one is factoring this into the equation here in Englewood. We have been sued and lost many a litigation in the past 2 years. Is everyone paying attention now?

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Suggestion Box EPSD: Registration

Dr. Carlisle and Staff,

Please tell Englewood parents and parents new to Englewood where to register for school. They really do need to know.

Englewood Residents: Register your children for school year 2012 - 2013 at Grieco School.  ‎80 Durie Avenue across the street from Winton White Stadiium. The Registrar is a bit gruff. Do not allow her to deter you. Make sure you have all of your ID, several proofs of residence and the child's birth certificate, because they do not make it easy for you.





                            How are the children?

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Petition Closing: Preparing to take it to Trenton


Citizens 4 Public Education and Englewood 

Residents United Are a Force that Cannot and Will

Not Be Ignored. We Have Demanded

Accountability from the Englewood School Board

and Justice for Our Children. We Shall be Granted 

Our Redress! Englewood, Make No Mistake, the 

Struggle is Just Beginning! STAND


Become part of the solution. Bad things happen to 

children when good people do nothing but watch.

What good is that?


On Thursday, the Petition for a Forensic Audit on the Englewood Board of Education will officially close. Friday the electronic copy will be sent to the Comptroller and to Commissioner Cerf. The hard copy will be delivered in person to the School Ethics Commission.

Children all over the world are standing for themselves. Do not allow them to stand alone!

              How are the children?






Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Stop Whimpering And Fight with The Power of Your Vote!



Monday, July 30, 2012

What The Law Requires For Title I Districts!!!

The No Child Left Behind Act makes unprecedented promises to parents!
Some of those provisions affect all schools. The rest apply to the 93 percent of school districts that get Title I poverty aid (The Englewood Public School District gets Title 1 poverty aid. This is NOT part of No Child Left Behind that has been waived for any state.) 


States must publish report cards showing the Math and English performance of all students, breaking out results for all racial and ethnic groups, poor students, disabled students and limited-English students. The report cards must include qualifications of teachers, incliuding a comparison of teachers in high-poverty and low-poverty schools. 


School districts must notify parents if their child attends a "persistently dangerous" school and give  parents the choice to move their child to a safer school in the district. 


States must report progress in ensuring that poor and minority students are not disproportionately assigned to teachers who are inexperienced, unqualified or out of field.


Based on tests, states must provide diagnostic reports for every student.


School districts must notify parents at least annually about the timing of certain activities and give parents a chance to opt their kids out. Those activities include the collection of student information to be used for marketing purposes and any invasive physical exam that is not considered an emergency or essential to protecting public health.


School districts must give any parent of a secondary school student the option of requiring written consent before the student's information is given to military recruiters.


States that receive federal aid to help homeless children must seek to notify  parents or guardians of their rights. Those include the choice of schools children are eligible to attend and a promise that homeless children are not to be stigmatized by school personnel.


Title I districts must also:
Notify parents of their right to transfer their child if the current school has not made adequate yearly progress for two straight years. Low-income parents must be offered tutoring for their child if a school has not met progress goals for three years, and districts must help parents get information about the qualifications and services of tutors.  (Simply writing a letter to parents saying that, "we nailed it," is not sufficient or even  proper.)


Inform parents of children in Title I schools that they have the right to information about the qualifications of their children's teachers.


Give parents of children with limited English skills a package of information if Title I money is spent on programs for such students.


Give parents clear notice if their child has been taught for at least four straight weeks by a teacher who is not highly qualified. (Now this one is indeed a joke. We had a psychology major teaching Math. Careful assessment of grades will surely reveal that too many of this teacher's students did not pass the NJAsk standardized test in 8th grade for Math.)


Hold meetings at convenient times for parents and give an explanation of the curriculum, tests used and the achievement levels students are expected to meet.


(Reprinted from the Associated Press 2004...extracted from NCLB law.)