Things Get Heated at Roccos

April Treece and Dick Allen bravely faced a room full of concerned, if not angry, parents and teachers Saturday morning at Roccos. The discussion clearly centered on the Superintendent and what some believe is the blind support placed in him by the majority of the School Board. Andre Gensburger at Misterwriter.com has an excellent article that really gets to the root of the issues facing this school district. In summary, can the Superintendent ever win back the confidence and support of his stakeholders in order to lead us forward and will the majority of the Board be willing to re-examine their position if it is determined that the will of their constituents is that the Superintendent go. Yesterday Ms. Treece referenced letters of support she has received regarding the Superintendent, MAYBE the majority of parents and teachers support him and view him as the leader this district needs.

MDUSD has a divided board, the Superintendent's job is hanging by the vote of just one Board member, new Principal candidates are being interviewed for Northgate, a very large group of parents in the Northgate community want out of this district, there has never been a better opportunity for change then right now.

Do you have an opinion? Do you voice your opinion? If you believe this district needs to change, if you believe Northgate needs to once again be valued as a great high school, if you believe the students in this district deserve better, then you have never had a better opportunity for change or a greater responsibility to speak up.

I will start this discussion with the questions I would like answered:

We heard back from members of the interview panels that there were three excellent Principal candidates for Northgate that were unanimously sent through to the District. Now we hear that the process is starting completely over and that the candidates "did not fit the total picture of what the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent thought was a good fit for Northgate." When Mr. Young was asked where additional candidates would be found he first responded that the district would go back out to the same publications. When pushed further he admitted, "We are going to rely on our contacts." These panel members include members of our faculty and parent body. Is this panel legitimate? Do they really have an opportunity to represent our school? Is the process a bit of a set-up? Will the District be picking our new Principal from their "contacts"? Do we want that?

I would like to know why this district claims to be so data driven and then when confronted with data showing that almost 90% of the district schools are performing below average, when compared to similar schools, they dismiss this data? They claim to not understand the data, to not believe the data and yesterday Ms. Treece suggested it was the fault and responsibility of the school site. Please note that nine years ago all Northgate feeder pattern schools were above average or well above average. Today all of these same schools are below average or well-below average when compared with similar schools.

Teacher morale is at an all-time low, MDUSD teacher experience levels are the lowest in the county (they are approaching an average of 6 years), in last three years Northgate has turned over almost half of it's teachers and the new teacher support is just not adequate. What is the District doing to attract the best and the brightest? What is the District doing to insure new teachers are properly mentored? Who is monitoring the progress of these new teachers to make sure they are up to the task? Many teacher issues come down to a lack of a contract and specifically the lack of an adequate compensation package. The district negotiators have only made three offers in the last 18 months, how can a contract get settled when the process moves so slowly? How high of a priority is this? Be careful about making it all about our budget woes when the district recently spent $10,000,000 on new technology and cut $1.8 million of funds set aside for teacher benefits months before it was necessary.

These question are derived from questions asked from the first 45 minute tape of the meeting at Roccos, please add your questions to this post. I welcome members of the Superintendent's staff and Board members to address the issues posted here. I hope teachers and parents will voice their opinions. The District will never have a mandate one way or another without hearing from their constituents.

No Accountability! Then No Confidence!

We have seen it over and over again and it is getting old. Superintendent McHenry refuses to accept responsibility once again.
What we have at MDUSD is a Superintendent who is not responsible for the inadequate curriculum being taught in the classroom, a Superintendent who is not responsible for allowing an ineffective Principal to remain in place for years, and now a Superintendent who is not responsible for the accuracy of a $300,000,000 budget.

The MDUSD blog is reporting that when questioned about mistakes on the budget, the Superintendent refused to be held accountable for the mistakes. If you want to be an informed member of this district you NEED to hear the audio of Tuesday night's MDUSD Board Meeting.
Hear the audio and read the blog at the MDUSD Blog.

This writer will not be impartial on this topic. It is time for the Superintendent to go. It is time to flood the in-boxes of the three board members who are holding out from asking for Mr. McHenry's resignation. The students in this district deserve more.

mayolk@aol.com
opuscomm@pacbell.net
dickallen_dallen@yahoo.com

A Parcel Tax - Yes, No, Maybe?

Our recent poll showed the majority of respondents would support a parcel tax in order to provide a competitive and comprehensive compensation package to our district teachers. Do you support a parcel tax as a stop gap to the district's revenue shortfall? If the intent were to add it into the general fund without a specific allocation would you still support the parcel tax? If you do not currently support a parcel tax what do you require in order to support one in the future? Is the June 2009 time frame realistic? What needs to be done between now and June 2009 to insure passage of the parcel tax?

Negotiations - Is the offer on the table good?

Northgate's PFC website has posted a report from the District Negotiation Team regarding the current agreement between the District and MDEA regarding teacher compensation, class-size, and retirement benefits. Are the negotiations going in the right direction? Is the package on the table a good deal? With drastic state budget cuts is the current deal even viable?
Read the report here: http://www.northgatehs-pfc.com/negonews.pdf

Walnut Creek City Council Passes Resolution

The Walnut Creek City Council unanimously passed a resolution last night requesting the County Committee on School District Organization to hear the petition to transfer the Northgate feeder pattern schools out of the Mt. Diablo District. The transfer includes Bancroft, Valle Verde, Walnut Acres, Eagle Peak, Foothill and Northgate. The City Council, as a governing body, has always had the ability to request a hearing from the County Committee. After the petition, which was signed by over 3,200 Walnut Creek residents, was deemed invalid due to a technicality on a county map regarding 7 parcels of land, the City Council decided to step in and have the will of their constituents heard. The next step will be for the County Committee to schedule a hearing date.

WOW - Things might be changing at Northgate

Interim Principal Carl Toliver held a Leadership retreat this month. Staff and parents were represented at the retreat. Mr. Toliver speaks of building a stronger culture at Northgate, increasing Advanced Placement opportunities, and improving communication. I like the way he is tackling these issues and others. This is like a breath of fresh air after years of neglect. Tell us what you think of the job Mr. Toliver is doing. Below is a small portion of the retreat outline.

LEADERSHIP TEAM RETREAT
April 8, 2008

TODAY, I WANT…

· to see communication improve
· communication to improve and know that change is possible
· to keep our word
· to build trust/accountability, honesty, consistency, and create a “we”
· flexibility to accept change and appreciate change
· each person to feel valued
· step away from adversarial position -- students are #1
· to understand how we got here
· get back to a sense of “we”
· to figure out limitations and have compassion and empathy for each other (understand the role/jobs of our peers)
· to honor one another—everyone on the team is important
· to close distance/drain of feeling that we never do enough
· to look at parent/school relationship and to mobilize/utilize parents to be proactive

Teachers - Here's your chance

Teachers have been without a contract for almost a year. Through a previous contract agreement, the line between salary and benefits has become an opportunity for creative accounting in the current negotiations. Will teachers be happy with a new benefits package? What if the stipend is eliminated and used to help pay for a real benefits package, thus lowering the salary for some? How do teachers view working conditions excluding salary and benefits? MDUSD has the least experienced pool of teachers in the County, do new teachers feel they are supported? As a teacher, what kind of changes would cause you to want to stay in MDUSD and what kinds of programs or district philosophy would attract you in the first place? This blog understands a teacher's need to post anonymously. Here is your chance to bypass the district and union negotiators, you tell them what you need to educate the kids in this district. Pass this along to your fellow teachers, the more input the better.

Tell Them!

Do you like the status quo at Northgate? Are there things that can be improved? We have never had such a wonderful opportunity for change. MDUSD has a divided school board, the Superintendent's job is hanging by a thread, after years of no leadership Northgate's ineffective Principal has left, a large group of parents are making a serious effort to secede from the district and everybody is finally talking about change. Don't sit back now, you will never have a better opportunity to be heard. Clearly the board watches this blog and we appreciate that. It would take nothing more than an email with a link for the Superintendent to read it as well. It would be nice, but we can not assume they know what goes on at our schools in MDUSD. Post anonymously. Be heard. Tell your story.

What would you do next?

Today Optimistic (Naive?) in MDUSD wrote, "I think one problem we have as a community is that while many can easily share their perceptions of the problems in MDUSD, there are few planned "next steps" the community can pursue to bring about positive change. Just how do we fix this thing??? Northgate is trying something at least, even though it is getting a mixed response. Hopefully a positive plan will come forth that the entire MDUSD community can and will support."
This post got me thinking, we know what we don't like, we even articulate it well.
In this blog you now have all the power for change - What would you do next?
You are the school board, the superintendent, the principal, the teacher what would you do to make this district/school better?

Is the Meeting on Saturday Best Spent Asking Questions or Telling Our Story

Mr. Strange and Mr. Eberhart are to be applauded for taking the time to meet with parents/students this Saturday. As a community what are our questions for these board members? No doubt the discussion will turn to the need for a Parcel Tax and removal of the Superintendent from his job as the head of this district. I understand those issues but have to ask myself do these board members, or any board member, understand what we see day to day as real concerns at Northgate? Do they acknowledge the fact that many parents and students are not happy with the educational instruction and opportunities at Northgate? Do they understand what it is like inside a school where there has been very little leadership for many years? Mr. McHenry holds in his hands a long list of Northgate student concerns, both of these board members are aware of that list. Will they be able, and willing to bring that list along on Saturday, and if nothing else, acknowledge those concerns and admit there is a problem? Is that what we want them to do? As a community what are our questions?

Are you too busy, too discouraged, too reluctant?

There has been a great deal of discussion about apathy lately. Both the MDUSD blog and the Misterwriter.com blog have written about the poor attendance at the recent community meeting held at Foothill Middle School last Thursday night. They report that out of 68 attendees, only 33 were parents the remainder were administrators from the district. There were no students. If you did not attend tell us why. Were you too busy, were you afraid of retaliation if you spoke out, are you happy with the job MDUSD is doing so there was no need, did you believe the meeting would be a waste of time, did you have a conflict with another school event, etc..

More Ideas for Blog Topics

Please use this post to make blog topic recommendations. I will be adding new topics and polls on a regular basis.

AP/Honors Classes

Does Northgate need more AP and Honors classes? What would you like to see offered at an AP level? If you are a student, have you taken an AP test, did the specific class at Northgate prepare you for the test?

Principal Qualities

MDUSD is in search of a new Principal for Northgate High School. Here is your opportunity to let the district, and those sitting on the interview panel know what kind of qualities you want in a new school principal.