Friday, June 24, 2011

MPUSD was one of the few districts nationwide

to be invited to participate in the Sally Ride Science Academy, established in 2009 to help teachers raise the interest of their students in science careers. The academy takes place July 10-14 in San Diego, and three teachers of the soon-to-be-opened Monte Vista Elementary, plus principal Julie Ales and Emily Tsai, administrator of intervention and special projects will be attending. They're expected to provide six hours of training to other teachers in the district after they come back, so I hope they have good stories to share.

Speaking of MPUSD, the board is scheduled to approve its budget for the next fiscal year on Monday at 6 p.m. Among the proposed changes is the subcontracting of its full-day preschool program,which would translate into the layoff of 27 teachers (who could then re-apply to the new operator of the center). District administrators calculate the program cost $400,000 above what the state is reimbursing, so it's not feasible to run it anymore.

Also, the district is using almost $7 million of $11.5 million in Tier III categorical funds (earmarked for specific purposes) to use for general purposes. While some of the programs have been left intact (like the Community Day School Program) others are greatly reduced, like adult education which goes from $2.7 million to $1.4 million.

1 comment:

  1. My daughter attended a Sally Ride camp for a week at Stanford. As I looked over what she would be doing for a week, I thought to myself, "Teachers should be doing this." I am so glad that teachers are getting the chance to do this. Science is not an elective; it is absolutley vital that students know science to deal with the problems posed by the environment and many times clues for knowing how to do this come from space exploration.

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