Supreme Court will only clarify school rules

Don’t look to the Supreme Court to set school rules, only to clarify them when officials have abdicated that responsibility, Chief Justice John Roberts said Saturday according to an AP report (you can view the full report by clicking here).

At a judicial conference, Roberts was asked how school administrators should interpret seemingly conflicting messages from the Court in two recent decisions, including one last week that said Arizona officials conducted an unconstitutional strip-search of a teenage girl. You can view our blog post on that decision by clicking here. In 2007, the justices sided with an Alaska high school principal, ruling that administrators could restrict student speech if it appears to advocate illegal drug use. You can view our blog post on that decision by clicking here. The court’s full decision in the free speech case can be viewed by clicking here.

According to the AP report, Roberts told the audience there was no conflict in the court’s rulings, just clarity intended to deal with narrow issues that surface from government actions. “You can’t expect to get a whole list of regulations from the Supreme Court. That would be bad,” Roberts said. “We wouldn’t do a good job at it.”

You can be the judge of the clarity that emerges from these decisions. From my perspective, the 8-1 decision in the strip search case provided reasonable clarity and was a sound decision based on constitutional principles. The 2007 free speech case, on the other hand, was far less clear and was somewhat disturbing in terms of the curbs on free speech that were articulated. The First Amendment says quite clearly that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press….” (emphasis supplied). But the Court’s 2007 decision says that you can have some laws abridging speech when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use.

The community benefits from education

Having strong and vital schools is important for every community. Because we appreciate that fact, we are constantly urging the community to support public education and keep us on the path of moving from good to great. The downturn in the economy has been troubling to these efforts, but we remain committed to the cause.

It is in this spirit that we introduce you to the Common Good Forecaster, a joint product of United Way and the American Human Development Project. They have developed a tool to forecast how things might change in our community if educational outcomes were better.

They have also prepared a companion report which you can view by clicking here. As they note in the introduction:

Those who advocate for greater investment in education often make the economic argument: more education leads to higher wages and is critical for financial stability and independence. They’re right. Robust evidence supports the view that higher levels of educational attainment are linked to higher incomes, less unemployment, less poverty, and less reliance on public assistance.

But education is about more than just better jobs and bigger paychecks, important though they are in making families and individuals more financially stable. More education is also linked to better physical and mental health, longer lives, fewer crimes, less incarceration, more voting, greater tolerance, and brighter prospects for the next generation. More education is good for individuals who stay in school to earn their high school degree or who enter and graduate college, but it is also good for all of us, paying big dividends in the form of increased civic engagement, greater neighborhood safety, and a healthy, vibrant democracy.

You can look at the statistics for Norfolk County by going to the forecaster, which you can view by clicking here. Once there you can view the data sets and see for yourself how education impacts our community. We have long been strong and passionate advocates for education in Franklin and believe that the site offers empirical evidence of the benefits of living in a community with a high performing school district. You are also urged to review the companion report for suggestions on ways that you can help and support the educational offerings in Franklin.

Media reactions to strip search case

The American Association for Justice put together a nice summary of media reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Safford Unified School Dist. #1 v. Redding which I have included below with links to the stories.

In the case, the court ruled 8-1 that “an Arizona middle school violated the rights of a 13-year-old girl when she was strip-searched for drugs,” as ABC World News (6/25, story 5, 2:20, Gibson) reported. On the CBS Evening News (6/25, story 5, 1:45, Couric), correspondent Wyatt Andrews called the ruling “a major victory for student privacy. The Supreme Court said the strip search of Savana Redding, then a 13-year-old eighth grader, was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.” Redding: “I’m glad that it’s almost finally over and I can just continue on with my life. I’m really happy, though, with the decision today.” NBC Nightly News (6/25, story 7, 2:25, B. Williams) said the case involved “just how far public schools can go to enforce those so-called zero tolerance policies that have become so popular. And the question: have they gone too far with our own children?”
 
The USA Today (6/26, Biskupic) reports Justice David Souter, writing for the court, “said an official must have a ‘reasonable suspicion of danger’ regarding the drugs sought and a belief they could be hidden in a student’s underwear before making ‘the quantum leap from outer clothes and backpacks to exposure of intimate parts.’”

The USA Today (6/26) editorializes, “It should be obvious to everyone, and certainly to every parent, that only the most extreme circumstances could justify strip-searching a 13-year-old girl. More extreme, surely, than suspicion that the girl possessed some prescription-strength ibuprofen tablets in violation of school rules. That logic is at least obvious to the U.S. Supreme Court. … The Redding decision could mark a welcome change in direction for the courts and schools, which retain wide latitude to inspect lockers and other student possessions with only ‘reasonable suspicion.” In a responding USA Today (6/26) op-ed, National School Boards Association general counsel Francisco Negron writes that “the court missed an opportunity to provide clearer guidance to school officials. While the court did not nullify zero-tolerance policies, it did require schools to determine the dangerousness of a drug before deciding how intrusive to make a search. It did not specify what it meant by dangerousness. How are school officials to gauge that?”Los Angeles Times (6/26, Savage) reports Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying the ruling “‘grants judges sweeping authority to second-guess the measures that these officials take to maintain discipline in their schools and ensure the health and safety of the students in their charge.’ It is the second time this week that Thomas alone has dissented in a major case. On Monday, the court rejected a challenge to the Voting Rights Act, but Thomas said he would have struck down the law provision in question as unconstitutional.”

AP (6/25, Holland) reports the court ruled Safford Middle School officials violated Redding’s rights “by strip-searching her for prescription-strength ibuprofen, declaring that U.S. educators cannot force children to remove their clothing unless student safety is at risk.” While the court said officials violated Redding’s Fourth Amendment rights, the court also said officials “could not be held financially liable but left it to lower courts to decide if the school district could.” 

The Washington Post (6/26, A1, Barnes), the Wall Street Journal (6/26, A2, Bravin), New York Times (6/26, A16, Liptak), New York Daily News (6/26, Meek), National Law Journal (6/26, Mauro) and Christian Science Monitor (6/26, Richey) also report on the ruling. 

The Washington Post (6/26, A24) editorializes, “A six-justice majority correctly balanced the privacy interests of the student with the need to preserve school officials’ flexibility to maintain order and safety. … The court — with Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting on this point — also rightly refused to allow lawsuits against the Arizona school officials, ruling that they should be immune from being sued unless they blatantly violated ‘clearly established law.’” 

The New York Times (6/26, A24) editorializes, “In an important victory for students’ rights, the Supreme Court ruled, 8-to-1, Thursday that school officials acted unconstitutionally when they strip searched a 13-year-old girl. The majority was too willing to find that in this particular case the officials involved were immune from liability. But the decision still sends an important message to schools about the need to respect their students’ privacy when they conduct investigations.”

Student strip search ruled unconstitutional

In a surprising victory for student’s rights, the United States Supreme Court today issued an opinion ruling that the strip search of a 13-year-old middle school student Savana Redding was unconstitutional. You can view our previous posts on this case by clicking here and here. This is a very good ruling for student’s rights and upholds the principle that their rights do not end at the schoolhouse door. It further provides clarity to school district in just how far they can reasonably go in an effort to make their free of drugs.

The opinion was authored by retiring Justice David Souter, perhaps one of his last opinions as a Justice. You can find a complete copy of the opinion by clicking here.

The Court ruled 8-1 in favor of the student, finding that the mere suspicion of finding a small quantity of ibuprofen was unreasonable and did not justify the search in her underwear. In so finding, the court determined that the content of the suspicion failed to match the degree of intrusion to the student. As the Court ruled: “What was missing from the suspected facts that pointed to Savana was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear. We think that the combination of these deficiencies was fatal to finding the search reasonable.”

The Court went on to describe the embarrassment and humiliation suffered by the student because of the search.

Savana’s subjective expectation of privacy against such a search is inherent in her account of it as embarrassing, frightening, and humiliating. The reasonableness of her expectation (required by the Fourth Amendment standard) is indicated by the consistent experiences of other young people similarly searched, whose adolescent vulnerability intensifies the patent intrusiveness of the exposure.

The Court made it clear that searches of this nature require “the support of reasonable suspicion of danger or of resort to underwear for hiding evidence of wrongdoing before a search can reasonably make the quantum leap from outer clothes and backpacks to exposure of intimate parts. The meaning of such a search, and the degradation its subject may reasonably feel, place a search that intrusive in a category of its own demanding its own specific suspicions.”

Only Justice Clarence Thomas voted with the school in the case. Justice Thomas continued his consistent opposition to such individual rights, particularly when invoked by students. In one line, he wrote “[p]reservation of order, discipline and safety in public schools is simply not the domain of the Constitution. And, common sense is not a judicial monopoly or a constitutional imperative.”

Franklin teacher on mission at space camp

Horace Mann Middle School science teacher James Schliefke is at space camp this week after earning a scholarship from Honeywell.

Schliefke, a resident of Franklin, was one of 288 teachers from 16 countries and 47 states chosen to take part in the Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy programs at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

He is sharing letters and photos from SpaceCamp on the County Gazette’s website which you can view by clicking here.

The Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy programs provide teachers with new and innovative techniques to educate their students about science and math.

The programs focus on space science and exploration in a variety of classroom, laboratory and real-life astronaut training, including: a high-performance jet simulation, scenario-based space missions, land and water survival training, and state-of-the-art flight dynamics programs.

Schliefke is the only teacher from Massachusetts chosen to attend.

Since the program’s inception in 2004, Honeywell and its employees have sponsored more than 1,100 scholarships for teachers from 36 countries and all 50 U.S. states, to participate in the Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy programs.

Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy is part of Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company’s corporate citizenship initiative, which focuses on several areas of vital importance: Family Safety & Security; Housing & Shelter; Science & Math Education; Habitat & Conservation; and Humanitarian Relief. Together with leading public and non-profit institutions, Honeywell has developed powerful programs to address these needs in the communities it serves.

For more information on Honeywell Hometown Solutions, click here.

New FPS logo unveiled

A new logo for the Franklin Public Schools (shown at right) was unveiled last night at the School Committee meeting. The new logo was chosen from many participants in a contest that the Strategic Planning Committee organized to involve students in the strategic planning process.

Roseann Gosch, art teacher, created a flyer and encouraged students to help us design a logo for the Franklin Public School District. Students were encouraged to create a bold graphic image that represents all of our separate schools combined. After the drawings were submitted, they were brought to the Franklin High School Graphic Design class which incorporated them into a finished product.

Thirty students who participated in the design process were recognized and received certificates at last night’s School Committee meeting. Kristen Dumas was recognized for coming up with the winning logo.

New documentary on high stakes testing

MCAS and high stakes testing have been part of the education landscape for the past decade, and the reviews remain mixed. In this new documentary entitled Children Left Behind: A Documentary on High Stakes Testing, producer Louis J. Kruger, Psy.D., N.C.S.P. takes us on a journey on the exams that high school students in the United States are required to pass in order to earn a high school diploma. The film is about the well-intended purposes that are driving this movement toward high stakes testing, and its unintended consequences.

From coast to coast, more and more states are using these high stakes tests in an effort to reverse the supposed rising tide of mediocrity in our public schools and close the achievement gap between socioeconomic and racial groups. Children Left Behind, brings to the forefront the stories of students who are struggling with these tests. These compelling stories provide a springboard for the exploration of the educational, political and moral issues associated with these exams.

The social justice issues are palpable. Testing is a ubiquitous part of our global society. The documentary raises the important question of whether we are leaving too many children behind in our quest for higher test scores.

The next screening for the film is scheduled for June 22 at 5 p.m. at Citizens for Public Schools, 18 Tremont St. in Boston. The film’s website also includes information on what everyone should know about the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) and High School Exit Exams (HSEEs) (which can be viewed by clicking here).

FHS advances to feasibility stage with MSBA

The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Board of Directors voted on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 to invite Franklin to collaborate with the MSBA in conducting a Feasibility Study on the Franklin High School. This invitation for a Feasibility Study is the culmination of the MSBA’s extensive due diligence and analysis to determine which school facilities across the Commonwealth are in most need of capital investment.

The MSBA visited Franklin in December, and based on the senior study performed then, the MSBA staff recommended that Franklin’s Statement of Interest (SOI) be moved to the Feasibility Study category to further study the appropriate solution to the identified problems.

During the Feasibility Study phase, the school district and the MSBA will collaborate to find the most fiscally responsible and educationally appropriate solution to the facility’s problems. The Feasibility Study, which will be conducted pursuant to the MSBA’s regulations, will involve the MSBA collaborating with the District to begin to explore potential solutions to the problems identified in the Statement of Interest.

This invitation to collaborate on a Feasibility Study is not approval of a project, but is strictly an invitation to the Franklin school district to work with the MSBA to explore potential solutions to the problems that have been identified. Moving forward in the MSBA’s process requires collaboration with the MSBA, and communities that “get ahead” of the MSBA without MSBA approval will not be eligible for grant funding. To qualify for any funding from the MSBA, local communities must follow the MSBA’s statute and regulations, which require MSBA collaboration and approval at each step of the process.

Before the Feasibility Study can begin, there are a number of things that must happen, including:

(1) The District must execute an Initial Compliance Certificate;

(2) The MSBA must approve the composition of the District’s School Building Committee;

(3) The District must execute a Feasibility Study Agreement with the MSBA, detailing the scope, schedule, milestones and cost sharing parameters of the Feasibility Study;

(4) The MSBA must approve an Owner’s Project Manager, which approval will include a review by the MSBA’s Owner’s Project Manager Review Panel; and

(5) The District must select a Feasibility Study Designer through MSBA’s Designer Selection Panel.

For the Milford Daily News report on the feasibility invitation, click here. You can get see additional blog posts on the FHS project by clicking here, and additional background information on the project by clicking here.

Message to FEA membership

Several weeks ago, the School Committee requested an opportunity to speak directly with the Franklin Education Association (FEA) membership at its meeting on April 28. We did not get that opportunity.

Through the two video segments below, the Franklin School Committee reaches out directly to the rank and file membership of the education union in this town. In these messages (which total approximately 14 minutes), the School Committee spells out the reasons underlying its request for wage concessions, and the need to maintain collaborative meeting times for principals and teachers. It is also an invitation to engage in further discussions to save teaching jobs and preserve Franklin as a high performing school district.

It is our sincere hope that the members will view this message and reach out to leadership and request that a resolution be forged immediately. As we state in the message, our door is open. We stand ready to talk with you or with your representatives at any time or place.

You can view the videos by clicking on the images below or by clicking on the following links:  Part I,  Part II.

If you have difficulty viewing the message on YouTube, or would prefer to view a text version, please see below:

View this document on Scribd

Refreshing post from Franklin teacher

I saw this post on milforddailynews.com this morning and thought it was worth repeating here. It is said to be from a Franklin teacher. To me, it exemplifies the typical Franklin teacher: hard-working, dedicated, and caring. It also captures empathy for the residents in Franklin, other teachers, the School Committee, and administration. Of the over 400 teachers we have in the system, I believe this to be the prevailing view. I just wish more like this writer had shown up at the union meeting yesterday:

I too often work 10-12 hour days. My car is in the parking lot at the school I teach at often well into the evening. I then bring additional work home with me, that often has me working until close to midnight, not to mention the work that I take home on the weekends. I am in my 10th year of teaching, and it has been like this since day 1, because I am committed to do the best job I can each and every day and to continually evaluate my own teaching and search for ways to better do my job for the children of Franklin. Meanwhile, I am also a single parent to 2 young children that DESERVE and require my attention each morning and evening, and on the weekends. No one goes into teaching deceived into thinking they will have a 6 hour work day and all this vacation time to run off into the sunset!

In addition, I chaperone ski trips and other afterschool events, have given up my vacation to chaperone students on a trip to Washington DC, and make a point to attend events my students and former students are involved in, whether they be athletic, musical or theatric. I spend my summers taking courses in order to maintain my teaching license and better my teaching. I also spend many days in my classroom to be sure it is ready for students in the fall and to begin to implement new ideas.

My guess is that many of you who continually perpetuate and feed the enormous disrespect towards teachers that the community of Franklin has, have never stepped foot in a classroom beyond your own education and have not once bothered to have a real conversation with a teacher. And shame on all of you, because I am sure many of you can think back and remember a teacher that really made an impact on your life or was there for you during a difficult time in your life. I would also bet that those of you with such a dislike for teachers have children who are or were in the Franklin Public Schools and I find it hard to believe that each of those teachers was as you describe us.

I am certainly not trying to pit the private sector against the public sector. I am fully aware of how hard people in the private sector work and how big of a hit they have taken (lay offs and pension reductions to name a few). My own parents continue to work well past when they should have retired, because the economy does not enable them to do so. The work we do each and every day may be different, but one cannot be viewed as less important than the other.

In terms of the wage freeze and conditions, as a member of the FEA and a resident/parent in Franklin, I can tell you that there are 2 very different versions of the events that have transpired out there, and I doubt the truth will ever see the light of day. The other unions in town agreed to a wage freeze with no conditions in return. I (and many of my colleagues) feel that we should do the same. For many of us, of utmost importance is saving the jobs of our colleagues and therefore protecting the high level of education this community has come to expect. I do not believe conditions should be attached to a person’s career/livelihood. Our contract is up for renegotiation next year and now the school committee is aware of the things the union would like to see addressed. The time to address those issues is not now (and I may be shooting myself in the foot for saying these things publicly).

We should agree to the wage freeze so that the teachers can continue doing the excellent work that they do and the school committee and administration can move forward in planning for the 2009-2010 school year.

I continue to have the utmost respect for those who have answered the calling of the teaching profession. The School Committee will continue to strive to make certain that we maintain Franklin as a high performing district. To move student achievement, you need reasonable class sizes, professional development opportunities, and highly qualified staff. It is committed teachers like the poster above that make this possible in our community.

Columbine lessons still resonate

My vacation week read this year was Dave Cullen’s excellent work entitled Columbine. It’s an indelible portrait of the killers, the victims, and the community that suffered one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. This book was released nearly 10 years after the event, and is a riveting page turner which will help the reader understand better what happened at a suburban high school on April 20, 1999.

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, entered their high school in Littleton, Colo., and shot and killed 12 students and one teacher. That event sparked a number of changes in how students experience school.

Cullen is considered a leading authority on the Columbine killers. In his book, he tries hard to get us inside the heads of Eric and Dylan, writing in an empathetic style that allows us to inhabit their twisted points of view. It’s a compelling study of not only their minds, but the reaction of the community, the country, the victims, and their families. You don’t come away understanding exactly why the event happened, but you do have a better sense of how. Throughout the book, you can feel the pain, and better understand the efforts at making schools safer that have occurred in the past 10 years.

As noted by USA Today, some of the most important post-Columbine reforms include:

• Better partnerships between law enforcement and schools. After Columbine, the federal government funded the placement of 7,000 police officers in schools, many in a more consultative and mentoring role, not just to deal with trouble. Today, schools across the country have “resource officers.” Many are part of teams that include teachers and mental health professionals.
• Encouraging students to report suspicions. A study by the U.S. Education Department and the Secret Service of 41 shooters, including the Columbine killers, found that most planned their rampages in advance, told other kids and were egged on by others. Now, many schools encourage students to report suspicions, including on anonymous tip lines. Tips have foiled several plots.
• Watching for red flags. A 2002 report found that most of the attackers it studied were depressed and had difficulty coping with “significant losses or personal failures.” Almost three-quarters felt “persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others.” These problems often went undetected. Most did fine academically, and only 37% had ever been suspended or expelled. This has led to more vigilance and adult interaction with students at many schools. USA TODAY profiled one — Lucy Addison Middle School in Roanoke, Va. — in which a typical teacher focuses on the “little things” such as body language, insults, a look in the eyes. More mental health professionals are in schools, and 38 states have anti-bullying laws.
• Better reaction plans. Columbine-style attackers generally want to kill as many as possible and themselves. There is a new recognition of a need to move in fast. It’s now the basis of emergency drills and practice — a change from Columbine, where police lacked basic information about school layout, took four hours to get into the school, and where more than 900 officers from 34 agencies were working on different radio frequencies.

As a parent and School Committee member, this book was compelling. It has lessons in it for parents, educators, law enforcement, and even citizens not directly connected with schools.

BMI indexing in schools is yet another unfunded mandate

Earlier this week, the Massachusetts Public Health Council, a creature of the state which lacks any “administrative or executive functions” announced a new set of unfunded mandates for local school districts. Beginning with the next school year, school districts will be “required” to calculate student heights and weights into a Body Mass Index measuring their overall proportions. The results must be sent home to parents for students in first, fourth, seventh and 10th grades in a package explaining what they mean and how parents can best combat obesity. The new regulations will be phased into schools over the next 18 months. The full text of these regulations can be viewed by clicking here.

The newly-enacted regulations are part of the Mass In Motion anti-obesity initiative announced earlier this year by the Patrick Administration, but no funding to support the program is offered to aid local districts in implementing these measures.

Schools are already required to have students examined under G.L. c. 71, § 57 to determine “defects in sight or hearing, postural and other physical defects tending to prevent his receiving the full benefit of his school work, or requiring a modification of the same in order to prevent injury to the child or to secure the best education results, and to ascertain defects of the feet which might unfavorably influence the child’s health or physical efficiency, or both, during childhood, adolescence and adult years.” But, according to the Council, the purpose of the new regulations is to provide parents with important information on the health status of their child, and to help parents work with health care providers on ways to promote healthier eating and exercise habits for children.

While the goals of the mandate are laudable, there are a number of issues surrounding the implementation of these measures:

• The Council lacks authority over local school committees. By statute (G.L. c. 111, § 3), the Council “shall make and promulgate rules and regulations, take evidence in appeals, consider plans and appointments required by law, hold hearings, and discharge other duties required by law; but it shall have no administrative or executive functions.” This lack of administrative or executive functions calls into question the Council’s ability to tell local school committees what to do. Moreover, the proposed mandates appear to conflict with G.L. c. 71. § 37, which provides that School Committees shall have the power “to establish educational goals and policies for the schools in the district, consistent with the requirements of law and state-wide goals and standards established by the Board of Education.” (emphasis supplied). The Council rules and regulations are not established by the Board of Education and appear to go beyond what is set forth in G.L. c. 71, § 57.
• The proposed regulations will violate students’ rights to privacy, will be embarrassing to children, and represent just one more parental responsibility being laid in the lap of public education.
• The proposed regulations lack funding to implement the program and address the underlying problem of obesity. To make the regulations work districts will need to establish a system (computer software or otherwise) to calculate BMI, and to write and store letters to parents. Then each district will need to pay for printing the letters, the interpretive material, and the postage. For a district like Franklin with over 6,200 students, those are sizable expenses which will take away from other educational needs at a time when budgets are already strained. And once the problem is identified schools lack the resources to do anything about it.
• The regulations duplicate the efforts of pediatric visits. Indeed, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a policy statement strongly encouraging pediatricians “to incorporate assessment and anticipatory guidance about diet, weight, and physical activity into routine clinical practice…” And this would include BMI screening in a non-judgmental manner. And since Massachusetts already requires everyone to have health insurance, students can be screened by their own doctors in the privacy of the clinical setting.
• The regulations do not provide means for addressing the problem of obesity. In communities throughout Massachusetts, budget cuts have led to the reduction and/or elimination of health and physical education programs. Thus, it is no surprise that we have an obesity problem. For something truly productive, the Council should provide funds so that the schools can offer more health and PE classes.

For those reasons, I will not support the implementation of this unfunded mandate in Franklin, and I will urge my colleagues across the state to do the same in their districts. We should allow our schools to focus on their education mission and leave this delicate health matter to physicians and families.

For the Boston Globe story on BMI indexing, click here. For the NECN report and video, click here. For more information and a comprehensive list of other unfunded mandates imposed on local school committees, click here.

Shining eyes amplified the performances

Over the last month, we have had the opportunity to see Franklin students perform on stage in various ensembles. We have seen bands, orchestras, choral groups, and for the past two weekends, we have had theatrical performances put on by the Footlighters (all three middle schools) and Franklin High School. Here’s a snapshot of what we has taken place in the last five weeks alone:

The Franklin High Jazz Band performed in four different Jazz Festivals all listed below:

• University of Massachusetts Jazz Festival At this festival three high school students were awarded scholarships to attend the UMass Summer Jazz Program
• Massachusetts Central District Jazz Festival The band was awarded a gold medal and was invited to perform at the state festival
• University of New Hampshire Jazz Festival All Jazz Band students also attended an improvisation clinic at this festival
• Massachusetts State Jazz Festival The band was awarded a silver medal at the state Jazz finals

The band also performed at the FEF Trivia Bee

Three of our high school students were accepted into the Massachusetts Music Educators All State Festival. These students performed in the Massachusetts All State concert at Symphony Hall.

On March 27^th & 28^th, the middle school students ppresented “Guys and Dolls” and on April 3^rd & 4^th, the FHS performed “South Pacific.”

On Saturday, April 4^th, the Middle School String Orchestra and the Middle School Select Chorus competed at the MICCA festival.  At the festival, the Combined Middle School Orchestra received a silver medal and the Middle School combined Select Chorus received a bronze medal.

These events give both participants and the audience a feel for what performance is all about. Students get to see how you translate technical musical skills into a performance. There is far more to music than simply knowing the piece and playing it. You have to make your performance appeal to the audience and you have to move them.

Along those lines, I ask you to indulge me for 20 minutes. Please view the 20 minute video below that explains the idea of “performance” very well. It’s a TED talk by Benjamin Zander. Since 1979, Zander has been the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. He is known around the world as both a guest conductor and a speaker on leadership — and he’s been known to do both in a single performance. He uses music to help people open their minds and create joyful harmonies that bring out the best in themselves and their colleagues. Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. In this video, you’ll see him translate this passion into words, and hopefully make you appreciate what you see in the performances each night.

You can view the video by clicking here or on the image below.

And here is a clip from the Presentation blog that provides more perspective:

It is not enough to know a piece of music intellectually or to play it without any mistakes, you have to convey the true language of the music emotionally, says Zander. When musicians truly get into the music and play it with such heart and emotion that audiences are moved beyond words, Zander noticed that the music was flowing through the musicians, taking control of their bodies as they swayed from side to side. Zander, then, urges musicians to become “one-buttock players,” that is to let the music flow through their bodies, causing them to lean and to move from one buttock to the other. If you’re a musician, or making a performance of virtually any kind, and you are totally in the moment and connecting with the language of the music and the audience, there is no way you can be a “two-buttock player.” You’ve got to move, you’ve got to connect, and you must not hold back your passion but instead let the audience have a taste of the commitment, energy, and passion you have for the music (or the topic, the ideas, etc.). This quote below from Martha Graham captures the essence of the idea of giving way to passion (from page 116 of The Art of Possibility). I think you can apply these words to the art of performance or presentation, and frankly to life in general including leadership, entrepreneurship, etc.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.” — Martha Graham

You decide. You can hold back, aim not to make an error and play it perfectly “on two-buttocks,” or you can say “Screw it!—I’ll take a risk” and dare to lean into the music with intensity, color, humanity, and passion and quite possibly, in your own small way (and on only one buttock), change the world. Play it with total sincerity and with your entire body — heart and soul — and you will make a connection and change things. As Ben Zander said while encouraging one of his talented students to play it in the “one-buttock” style:

“If you play that way, they won’t be able to resist you. You will be a compelling force behind which everyone will be inspired to play their best.” — Ben Zander

Thank you to the Franklin middle and high school students who did such a great job over the past two weekends. You truly did have shining eyes.

Emerging young artists featured in exhibit

If you are looking for an event that will give you a glimpse into the creativity of some of our Franklin students, you are urged to attend to the gallery opening next week. Entitled, “Emerging Young Artists of Franklin,” the show features the work of 7 Franklin High School students who intend to pursue their art beyond high school.

The opening is April 7th from 5-7pm at the Woodshed Gallery, 1243 Pond Street. Artwork will be on display until April 28th.

Letter to teacher’s union regarding wage concessions

You may have read in the papers about a letter sent by the School Committee to the teacher’s union regarding wage concessions for next year. A copy of the letter is reproduced below to provide better context for understanding the stories and issues involved.

View this document on Scribd

Case tests how far schools can go with drug searches

A case involving the search of a 13-year-old will require the Supreme Court to consider how far school officials can go to enforce zero-tolerance drug policies. The New York Times reported on the case as follows:

Savana Redding still remembers the clothes she had on — black stretch pants with butterfly patches and a pink T-shirt — the day school officials here forced her to strip six years ago. She was 13 and in eighth grade.

Savana Redding, 19, was strip searched six years ago when teachers suspected she had brought prescription pills to school.

An assistant principal, enforcing the school’s antidrug policies, suspected her of having brought prescription-strength ibuprofen pills to school. One of the pills is as strong as two Advils.

The search by two female school employees was methodical and humiliating, Ms. Redding said. After she had stripped to her underwear, “they asked me to pull out my bra and move it from side to side,” she said. “They made me open my legs and pull out my underwear.”

Ms. Redding, an honors student, had no pills. But she had a furious mother and a lawyer, and now her case has reached the Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on April 21.

Ms. Redding was successful in her pursuit of this case in the lower courts, but her case got off to a rocky start. In 2007, a divided three judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a motion for summary judgment on behalf of school officials in Redding v. Safford Unified School District #1, while noting that the student did not freely agree to this search. She was “embarrassed and scared, but felt [she] would be in more trouble if [she] did not do what they asked.” In her affidavit, Savana described the experience as the most humiliating experience’ of her short life, and felt “violated by the strip search.”

The student and her mother requested the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to hear their case. In a 6-5 en banc decision, the full Court reversed the earlier panel and found:

On the basis of an uncorroborated tip from the culpable eighth grader, public middle school officials searched futilely for prescription-strength ibuprofen by strip-searching thirteen year-old honor student Savana Redding. We conclude that the school officials violated Savana’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The strip search of Savana was neither ‘justified at its inception,’ New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 341 (1985), nor, as a grossly intrusive search of a middle school girl to locate pills with the potency of two over-the-counter Advil capsules, ‘reasonably related in scope to the circumstances’ giving rise to its initiation. Id.

The opinion writer Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw went on to say: “It does not require a constitutional scholar to conclude that a nude search of a 13-year-old child is an invasion of constitutional rights. More than that, it is a violation of any known principle of human dignity.”

Safford United School District appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the Ninth Circuit created a new rule that requires public school officials to have more evidence of illegal possession of drugs or weapons at school than an unproven tip from another student.

The questions presented in the case are:

1. Whether the Fourth Amendment prohibits public school officials from conducting a search of a student suspected of possessing and distributing a prescription drug on campus in violation of school policy; and

2. Whether the Ninth Circuit departed from established principles of qualified immunity in holding that a public school administrator may be liable in a damages lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for conducting a search of a student suspected of possessing and distributing a prescription drug on campus.

This will be an interesting case to watch and should provide guidance to school districts in setting policy. Fighting drug abuse is a laudable goal, but we must be careful not to infringe upon the constitutional rights of individuals in the process. This case demonstrates how humiliating it can be when a school district crosses the line.

To view the petition filed with the United States Supreme Court, click here. To view the brief filed by the National School Boards Association, click here. To view the brief filed by the Safford United School District, click here. To view the brief of the United States of America, click here.

Franklin will receive $448,381 in additional education funding

As part of his Massachusetts Recovery Plan to secure the state’s economic future, Governor Deval Patrick today announced he will commit $168 million in federal education recovery funds to ensure every district in the Commonwealth reaches so-called foundation spending levels next school year. For Franklin, that means that an additional $448,381 in the school budget. This will reduce our anticipated deficit for FY10 to approximately $2.5 million.

The Governor’s investment will give 166 districts the ability to preserve programs and avoid teacher layoffs at a time when the global economic crisis is forcing communities to increase class sizes, cut positions and make other difficult budget decisions that threaten the quality of education in Massachusetts. The state’s historic education reform law established so-called foundation budgets for communities, setting a minimum funding threshold districts must meet so that students receive a “fair and adequate” education.

“Second graders only get one chance at second grade. Thanks to these federal recovery funds, we can give our students the education they deserve and avoid short changing their future,” said Governor Patrick.

The Governor protected Chapter 70 education funding from cuts in his Fiscal Year 2010 budget proposal, maintaining the current allocation of $3.984 billion. However, due to a historic drop-off in state revenue collections brought on by the recession, level-funding of Chapter 70 still prevented 166 districts from reaching foundation spending levels. If the Governor’s Chapter 70 proposal is approved by the Legislature, dedicating a portion of the state’s estimated $1.88 billion for education programs from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will guarantee foundation-level funding for all districts. To view the districts in line to receive education funding as part of the Governor’s Massachusetts Recovery Plan, click here.

Franklin High and accreditation

I received an inquiry recently from a parent concerning Franklin High School. I thought the e-mail and my response were worth sharing:

The question: I was hoping you could direct me to a website that might inform me about the possible accreditation issues with FHS. I am hearing many different stories and would like to be informed of the true facts. I have two children at FHS and and a middle school student. My main question is: Is FHS at risk of losing their accreditation?

My response: Thank you for your note. I have attached a copy of the standards that are used in accrediting high schools (you can view the standards by clicking here).

With regard to websites, you can start with this one: http://www.neasc.org/. From there you can go to the public secondary schools site which will get you to more detailed information about high schools in particular. That site is at: http://cpss.neasc.org/. There you will find a list of the Massachusetts schools that are on probation. The list is as follows:

MASSACHUSETTS

Beverly High School, Beverly, MA — May 2003 for Curriculum, Instruction, and Community Resources for Learning

David Prouty High School, Spencer, MA — June 2008 for Assessment for Student Learning, School Resources for Learning and Community Resources for Learning

Haverhill High School, Haverhill, MA — September 1999 for Curriculum, Instruction, and Community Resources for Learning

Holbrook Junior-Senior High School, Holbrook, Ma — January 2006 for Curriculum, School Resources for Learning, and Community Resources for Learning

Maynard High School, Maynard, MA — March 2006 for Curriculum, School Resources for Learning, and Community Resources for Learning

Randolph High School, Randolph, MA — January 2008 for Mission and Expectations for Student Learning, Curriculum, Instruction, and School Resources for Learning

Rockland High School, Rockland, MA — October 2007 for Curriculum and Community Resources for Learning

Southbridge High School, Southbridge, MA — May 2005 for Curriculum and Community Resources for Learning

Uxbridge High School, Uxbridge, MA — May 2004 for Curriculum and Community Resources for Learning

You will note that Franklin High is not on that list. In fact, Franklin received a letter on October 24, 2005 continuing its accreditation. However, you have probably heard through the grapevine that Franklin was placed on warning status. That is true. On January 31, 2008, we received a letter indicating that NEASC placed FHS on warning for concerns regarding its adherence to the Commission’s Standard for Accreditation on Community Resources for Learning. That letter was prompted by facility issues which resulted in the appointment of a building committee whose purpose is to consider renovation or replacement of the building. The facility issues included lack of handicapped access, emergency showers in science labs, rusted storage shelves in lab areas, and reductions in custodial staffing. The rusted storage shelves in lab areas have been taken care of already. The School Committee has submitted a Statement of interest to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts seeking financial assistance with renovations of the building. You can find more information on the FHS project by clicking here.

In a letter dated February 9, 2009, NEASC continued Franklin on warning status and “expressed its serious concern given the ongoing fiscal constraints resulting from the failed override vote in June 2008 under which the high school has been forced to operate. Specifically, the Commission cited the negative impact of the loss of sixteen teaching positions on the delivery of the school’s educational programs and services and the resultant reduction in course offerings and increased class sizes.” We have to report back to them by August 1, 2009 with the outcome of the FY 10 budget discussions. For that reason, we are aggressively taking steps to avoid any further reductions to the school budget. You may have read in the papers about salary freezes and other budget measures which are being considered at this time.

The bottom line answer is that Franklin is not at risk of losing its accreditation, but it is in a warning status. That means that if we continue to erode education spending in Franklin, we may end up being put at risk of losing accreditation. At this time, we have a great Principal in place (Peter Light), and he is taking great steps to keep us on right path. We also have a very talented staff of teachers at that facility, and our students continue to gain acceptances at some of the finest colleges in the nation. To that extent, FHS will continue to offer great opportunities to your children and mine.

I hope all of this information helps. Please let me know if you need any additional information. Also, I understand that there was some talk about doing house meetings to address FHS concerns. I will check on the status of those meetings and get back to you.

Franklin employees forego FY10 salary increases

On their own volition, 51 school administrators and non-union secretaries volunteered to freeze their salaries and forgo any kind of pay increases. The news was announced at last night’s School Committee meeting.

We have known for some time that FY10 is going to be a very difficult budget season. Several weeks ago, we noted that as a community we would all have to dig deeply to come up with a solution to keep the system intact. We were happy to report last night that we have a group of administrators and non-union staff who came together and voted to freeze their salaries and forego any increases for FY10.

That’s 51 employees who took the initiative, stepped up to the plate, and put on the table a solution which involved personal sacrifice. It is a clear case of leadership by example and it sets the right tone as we continue on this difficult budget journey. Our heartfelt thanks and admiration go out to this fine and dedicated group of educators .

For the complete report from the Milford Daily News, click here.

MCAS history exam scrapped by DOE board

The state Board of Education voted today to delay the start of the 10th-grade MCAS history exam by at least two years because of deep budget cuts and financial constraints.

In an 8-2 vote, the board acknowledged that during such tough fiscal times it could not introduce a new test that might cause school districts to spend tens of thousands of dollars to retrain teachers and revamp curriculum. The test had been scheduled to begin as a pilot program this spring and be administered to high school juniors next year, becoming a graduation requirement for the class of 2012.

Mitchell Chester, commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, outlined his rationale for delaying the history MCAS in a letter which can be viewed by clicking here. In part, he wrote: “Even at current funding levels, we will have insufficient funds to maintain our current program and transition our pilot history and social science tests to a fully operational assessment program. While our history and social science tests are part of our state education reform program, unlike reading, mathematics, and science and technology/engineering tests, they are not required by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. If the budget cuts currently projected are realized, there will be additional impacts to the MCAS program, beyond the impact to history and social science assessments.”

To view the Boston Globe report, click here. For the Milford Daily News report, click here.

TIMSS results place Massachusetts among world leaders in math and science

Massachusetts’ fourth and eighth graders outscored the nation, and most of their international peers, in math and science on the world’s largest study of student performance in those subjects. According to the results of the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Massachusetts 4th graders ranked second worldwide in science achievement and tied for third in mathematics; the state’s 8th graders tied for first in science and ranked sixth in mathematics.

TIMSS is an international math and science assessment administered every four years to a sampling of 4th and 8th grade students in participating nations around the world. The test was administered in April and May 2007 to 3,600 students attending 95 randomly selected schools in Massachusetts.

Other findings include:

• Massachusetts 8th graders made significant gains in math and science performance on TIMSS between 1999 and 2007. In math, the state’s 8th graders improved by 34 points, from 513 in 1999 to 547 in 2007. In science, 8th graders scored 23 points higher in 2007 (556) than in 1999 (533). There are no trend results for the state’s 4th graders.
• In grade 8 science, 20% of Massachusetts students met the Advanced Benchmark, behind Singapore (32%) and Chinese Taipei (25%). In math, 16% of the state’s 8th graders scored Advanced, behind Chinese Taipei (45%), the Republic of Korea (40%), Singapore (40%), Hong Kong SAR (31%), and Japan (26%).
• Boys outscored girls in Massachusetts on three of the four tests. At grade 4, boys outscored girls in math (578 to 567) and science (576 to 566). At grade 8, boys outscored girls in science (561 to 551), but the difference was not statistically significant in math (550 for boys, 544 for girls).

TIMSS was developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in Amsterdam to measure trends in students’ math and science performance worldwide. In all, 59 countries and 425,000 students participated in the 2007 TIMSS administration. Massachusetts and Minnesota were the only two states to opt to participate as “nations.”

Additional information on TIMSS is available online at the National Center for Education Statistics’ website (nces.ed.gov/timss/) and the TIMSS and PIRLS International Study Center’s website at timss.bc.edu/.

Bill Gates on creating great teachers

Bill Gates, through his Gates Foundation, hopes to solve some of the world’s biggest problems using a new kind of philanthropy. In a passionate 10 minute excerpt from his February 2009 presentation at TED, he asks us to consider how we create great teachers.

Gates first recognizes that the economy is only providing opportunities to people who have a better education. And he notes that having great teachers is the key thing to providing these opportunities. He also discusses a recent study (which can be viewed in its entirety by clicking here) which demonstrates that top quartile teachers will increase the performance of their classroom students by 10 percentage points. As such, it should be our goal to get top teachers in front of our students.

In his talk, he also refers us to the successful educational programming done at the KIPP School in Houston, Texas. It was refreshing to hear that some of the team teaching approaches utilized in that school are part of the educational programming used here in Franklin. He also referred to the recent book by education journalist Jay Mathews on this successful school entitled Work Hard Be Nice.

It’s an engaging talk and many of the ideas should be kept in mind as we are asked to go down the path reducing expenditures on education in this town and in this country. Rather than cutting in these areas, we should be rewarding and retaining our best and brightest staff members.

To view the video, either click here or click on the image below.

Financial planning committee issues report in Newton

As we await the report from Franklin’s financial planning committee, one interesting read is today’s Boston Globe story on the presentation delivered by a similar group in Newton. For decades, Newton has enjoyed an enviable reputation for good schools, leafy parks, and close proximity to Boston. But the financial committee told residents that their city is not as great as it used to be. To see the full report in the Boston Globe, click here.

From the perspective of the schools, the committee noted that students in Newton are facing the prospect of underfunded technology, higher fees, and larger class sizes. Like Franklin, Newton’s school system is facing a growing financial gap. To maintain services, the district needs to increase revenue by 5.9 percent a year. The city’s revenue has been growing at about 3.9 percent over the last five years. In its revenue report released in November, the group said Newton’s choices are “more profound than simply increasing revenues or reducing costs. Rather we must consider reductions in the historic scope and scale of municipal and educational services.”

The budget issues facing Franklin and many of the communities throughout Massachusetts bear many similarities. And this story from Newton and the report from its financial planning committee is further evidence that we are not alone. In that respect, we anxiously await the report to the citizens of Franklin.

You can get background information, including the mission and charge surrounding the Newton group, by clicking here.  You can read the complete set of City of Newton reports by clicking here.

Full-day kindergarten facing budget axe in Mass

With the economy in decline, the Boston Globe is reporting that several school districts across Massachusetts are rethinking their plans for full-day kindergarten because of the high fees involved, threatening the state’s recent inroads in making a full day of school available to all 5-year-olds.

Franklin has offered a successful full-day kindergarten program for many years, but with the prospect of $3.5 million in budget cuts for FY10, our community will no doubt also be forced to reconsider the financial viability of the program. For the past several years, the School Committee has been forced to look at all options to reduce its budget. In the last few budget cycles, we have trimmed around the edges. But with no edges left, we must look to the core programs.

According to the Globe report, three-fourths of the state’s public kindergarten students are in full-day classes, compared to roughly a fourth a decade ago. The state has been pushing for more full-day kindergarten classes since it established a grant program for full-day kindergarten in 2000.

Cuts to spending on full-day kindergarten run counter to a growing national view among educators and lawmakers that children need more time in kindergarten to be successful in subsequent years. There is no question that this would be a giant step backwards, but the realities of school financing leave us with few other options.

Over the next several weeks, the School Committee will be discussing all budget cutting efforts and we urge you to stay tuned and participate in the discussions. To read the full Globe report on what is happening outside of Franklin, click here.

Practical wisdom is needed now more than ever

Over the next few months, the School Committee will be called upon to make critical decisions about budget matters for the next fiscal year. In the decision-making process, we set guidelines and highlight priorities to assist us in arriving at a budget number. It is unfortunate that during this process, we often lose sight of the need for practical wisdom, a topic not easily susceptible to numeric calculation.

Along those lines, I was drawn to a video on this topic which deserves your review and consideration. In this 20 minute talk, Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for practical wisdom as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.

In his remarks, Schwartz reminds us that kindness, care, and empathy are essential human interactions which are not part of the job descriptions, but are essential parts of every job. He also notes that it is difficult to teach these concepts in standards-based curricula, and that we must rely on the judgment of our teachers to deliver the messages of moral skill and moral will. He further goes on to remind us that you don’t need to be brilliant to be wise, but you must have that combination of moral will and moral skill in order to possess the practical wisdom which is necessary for success.

I urge everyone to take a peek at this video and give consideration to the big picture elements of our education system. The video can also be used as a helpful set of guiding principles for what is important to maintain in our education programs.