District Administration - November 2008 - (Page 18)

Briefings Newsupdate PeoPle Watch Top Marks Eli Broad has announced the brownsville (Texas) Independent School District as the winner of the broad Prize for Urban Education, which will receive $1,000,000 in college scholarships. The four finalists will each receive $250,000 in scholarships. prEssurE’s on alberto Carvalho has been appointed to replace Rudy Crew as superintendent of Miami-Dade Public Schools. He will face such challenges as boosting morale among teachers, navigating a financial crisis, and working with a sharply fractured school board. GuilTy as CharGEd William Coleman iii, former Detroit schools superintendent, has been sentenced to a year of probation and fined $5,000 after pleading guilty to attempting to influence a grand jury during a federal Dallas schools corruption case. by Zach Miners Schools Feel Pain of Financial Meltdown Taxpayers, homeowners and investors are not the only ones nervously wiping their brows—the wall street crisis also has serious implications for education. a wave of foreclosures has uprooted children, creating disruptions that can impair their academic performance. an estimated 2 million children will be affected by foreclosures tied to subprime mortgages over the next two years, according to First Focus, a nonpartisan children’s advocacy group. as a result, school districts are reporting surges in the numbers of homeless students, says phillip Lovell, vice president for educational policy at First Focus. students uprooted by foreclosures will likely suffer from poor academic performance and behavioral problems, he says. But another problem for homeless students is that it may be difficult for many of them to even enroll in school. The mcKinney-Vento homeless assistance act guarantees students from homeless families the right to stay in the school they were attending, but some districts worry that such students will drag down test scores and make it hard for the school to avoid sanctions under no Child Left Behind. Barbara duffield of the national association for the education of homeless Children and youth says a homeless liaison in a metropolitan area told her of about 20 homeless high schoolers that had been denied enrollment. To prepare, school district leaders should work with teachers and counselors to identify homeless students and partner with community organizations to connect foreclosure-affected families with services, says Lovell. district leaders also ought to lobby their congressional representatives homeless students on the rise Jeremy Conroy, a 13-year-old student, sells apples in front of the New York Stock Exchange to reenact a similar scene of boys and men selling food during the Great Depression. to provide funding to assist districts and homeless families. shaky nEGoTiaTions Michelle rhee, D.C. Public Schools chancellor, has proposed in a new labor contract, a series of measures allowing her to more easily fire ineffective teachers. Talks have been stalled over the negotiations, which also include rewarding high-performing teachers. honorEd Mark d. Wilson of Morgan County High School (Ga.) has been named the 2009 Principal of the Year. He has implemented a scheduling system that facilitates collaboration, builds teacherstudent relationships, and allows students to receive help during the school day. The eConomy is aLso maKing it hard for districts to borrow from banks to pay for schools and projects. in north Carolina, for example, wake County—whose school district of over 130,000 is the largest in the state—recently delayed plans to sell $454.5 million in bonds. The county enjoys the highest credit rating—meaning it is among the safest institutions to lend money to. wake County manager david Cooke says the county has enough cash that the delay in not selling bonds will not have an immediate effect on projects under way. The bulk of the bonds would be for school construction and renovation projects approved by voters in 2006. however, experts say that if the market continues to decline and counties are unable to borrow money, the planned District Administration lending on hold 18 November 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November 2008

District Administration - November 2008
School Breakfasts: An Added Value
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
1-2-3 Campus Safety
News Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Snacks as Part of Your School Nutrition Program
Technology
Facilities & Construction
Admissions
DA Web Seminars
Leadership Assessment
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Technology Books
Professional Opinion
Supervisor’s Opinion
Crisis Response
Problem Solution
Research Center

District Administration - November 2008