Northgate Community Has a Voice for Change

Welcome to the Northgate High School Blog. The sole purpose of this blog is to gather information from parents, students, teachers, staff and administrators who would like to share ideas about improving Northgate. The blog will also provide information about MDUSD's, and Northgate's, failure to provide a quality education for our students. If you believe everything is wonderful at Northgate feel free to write that in a post but please understand that this blog is about change. No form of name calling or intimidation will be tolerated, your post will be removed. This is a serious blog for serious people who want to make a difference. Members of the school board view this site, this link can easily be sent to the Superintendent, this is your opportunity to tell them what you think needs to change at Northgate.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

We Have a New Principal

As sad as many of us are to see Mr. Toliver leave, it appears we are moving on. The new Northgate principal is John McMorris. Mr. McMorris has 23 years of experience in public education and was vice principal at Newark Memorial High School since September 2007. Prior to that time Mr. McMorris served as assistant principal at San Ramon Valley High School. We hope Mr. McMorris will bring his own knowledge and experience to Northgate, while continuing with the changes Mr. Toliver implemented during his short time at Northagte. Welcome Mr. McMorris.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Numbers Still Reflect It's Possible

Per posts below by Paul Strange and Sandra, here are new numbers showing unrestricted funds comparisons only. We have removed average salaries and have included the high and low salaries instead. This Blog post is not intended to show that we do not need a Parcel Tax it is intended to show that the district should be able to make a better offer to our teachers. While we wait to replace April Treece and Mr. McHenry, while we wait to restore confidence in the MDUSD stakeholders and while we wait to launch a Parcel Tax campaign.... we are making our teachers wait.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

How Does MDUSD Compare?

MDUSD made a new offer to MDEA this last week. The blogs are writing about it, the District is explaining, the teachers are angry, and we are curious. Why was this offer so much less than the offer on the table in November? Is it a mismanaged budget combined with state-wide cuts? Is it a revenue problem? This blog has been, and continues to be, a supporter of a parcel tax.... no question. However, there are other districts, with less revenue, paying their teachers more and we want to know why?
Here is the data:

Offer Comparison-
Click to Enlarge


Revenue, Benefits, and Salary Comparison by District-


Should our teachers be angry.... you bet! Something is not right, they deserve a comprehensive, competitive, compensation package and they deserve to know why other Districts with less revenue can provide their teachers this and MDUSD can't.