Montgomery County Education Observation

Continued funding of CTE classes in community college and adding money to the CSUs to increase openings. They do not want the emergency maintenance funding to come from Prop 39, but from

Also thank you for addressing my concerns in terms of research, how the school is changing, mental health assistance, and financial questions. I called my grandfather about how little money the state gives the schools and he was appalled, to say the least. He is from a little town called Wendel.

I hope this letter reaches you in good spirts. As stated in my previous letter that I anticipated you had time to read I expressed many concerns about Betsy DeVos. As you may know Betsy DeVos was elected as the Education Secretary. This matter is very concerning to not only students but the Education Department as a whole. I am also extremely troubled by the direction of which the county may be headed towards. I can only expect the best for students in this county being that DeVos is an advocate for charter and private schooling. My goal is for this letter to influence you take the time and look into the education and the direction of the county.

Harford County is a fast growing jurisdiction between 1990 to 2010 the county’s population grew from 182,132 to 244,826. Some of the reasons the county has seen such a great population growth is due to job opportunities. Employment in the county has steadily continued to grow making Harford county have a very low unemployment rates better than other counties in the state of Maryland. (HCHD, 2012).

Matthew Countryman, in this chapter, showed how the Black Power movement in Philadelphia was successfully able to challenge the Board of Education and bring about some changes in community schools. He also discussed how the violence that occurred in the late 1960s was not just a result of black radical activism but also the result of white support for institutional racism. Countryman provided pictorial and, most likely, scholarly evidence to back up his claim. The pictorial evidence he provided was a picture of high school students on their way to the Board of Education during the mass student protest that took place on the 17th of November 1967. He cited a lot of his sources and although I was unable to peruse his bibliography, I think, based on the level of detail in the chapter, that he must have had scholarly sources like newspapers reports (on page 232, he mentioned the Greater Philadelphia Magazine) and historical documents.

Public education is under funded, especially in the state of Alabama. I attended public school in the state of Alabama so I experienced it first hand. Low funds for the arts department and many of the science experiments are just some of the areas that are affected by the low funding. In the 2012-2013 school years, Alabama had over 744,637 students enrolled in a total of 1,637 schools. Alabama’s school funding has gone down 14% since 2008. Many school systems have to spend additional money from local revenue on top of what the state provides because it is not enough. Low funding in Alabama is a problem that could be fixed through a lottery system and a weighted school system.

On September 6th, I attended the Cleveland County school board meeting. I grew up in a nontraditional schooling environment; therefore, attending a school board meeting was a new experience for me. On the agenda, the board covered subjects such as nominating in new board members, honoring new teachers in the county schools, getting approval for a new basketball court, and asking for approval for a high school trip to Germany in the summer of 2017.

I am one that likes to have my space and I cannot focus if I can hear the people around me breathing. The meeting was effective on terms of covering what the school board needed to cover. The meeting benefitted those recognized, the Belles, and the HISD Education Foundation. The HISD Education Foundation benefitted from receiving a donation at the meeting. Having these meetings includes the public on what is happening in the district, which ultimately benefits the schools. The public brings more ideas, resources, and money to the schools.

The principal conducted several meetings with stakeholders during the summer months to collect data and feedback to assess needs of the school. Our professional learning community team and principal participated in district training throughout the year over the summer.

On November 9th 2015, a town hall meeting took place in my political science class. This meeting was a chance for students of the school to bring up concerns, or issues regarding there education. For their voice to be heard directly to the faculty that runs the school, the students could finally have a chance to get a valid answer. There was questions about safety, mathematics, community college education, and typical student issues.

I was chosen to sit on the committee due to my many years of service in the education system. I bring 15 years of experience as an educator, coach, mentor and supervisor. This experience in the k-12 setting has allowed me to work with hundreds of teachers and administrators. During my tenor with the school district I have been asked to sit on dozens of committees, from curriculum, book adoption, finance, to diversity just to name a few. I hold two masters degrees in education; which has afforded me the knowledge and wherewithal to prefect my craft.

Local school board meetings are a venue that allows the public to attend and be a part of the educational process. These meetings provide community members with important information about upcoming events so that they are able to be well informed of the happenings that are taking place within the school system in which their child attends. Along with being able to learn about what is taking place within the school, it also allows parents and parent groups the opportunity to express their opinions and concerns about matters that could likely affect their children. Monthly school board meetings are a way to help establish and maintain open lines of communication between the school and community members. By allowing the community members the opportunity to be heard, it further enhances the relationship between the school and the community.

Every school district has board meetings throughout the school year. Unfortunately, many parents, community members, & school personnel do not attend such important meetings because they don’t realize or understand the importance of such board meetings or how informative they can be. According to Kankakee School District (2017), the Kankakee School District Board of Education is composed of seven elected members, who were elected by the citizens of Kankakee to serve a four-year term that do not receive no salary for they services, are committed to ensuring a quality of educational excellence that will enhance the opportunities and challenges facing today’s student and additional responsibilities that board members include are selection of the District superintendent, developing general polices according to wishes of the community and requirements of law, hiring school personnel based upon recommendation of the Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent of Personnel, adopts salary schedules, approves funds to finance school operations, must adopt and review the annual operating budget for the District, and setting the property tax levy to produce adequate funds to meet the District’s financial needs ranks among the responsibilities of the Board of Education (Retrieved from https://www.ksd111.org/domain/68). For this paper, the Kankakee School District board meeting will be used, information learned from board meeting, use of

Educational attainment within Pima County is referencing the highest level of schooling, on average, that the population in the county achieves.

The Candler County School District is a small, rural school system located in southeast Georgia. Candler County is made up of the city of Metter and the town of Pulaski. Currently, there are four schools in Metter. Employing 369 faculty and staff, bus drivers, and central office staff, the school system is the largest employer in the county. Metter was founded in 1889 and incorporated in 1903 as a town in western Bulloch County. However, in 1906 Dr. Wallace Kennedy spearheaded a movement to create a new county with Metter as the county seat. The movement became reality in 1914 when Candler County was carved from parts of Bulloch, Emanuel and Tattnall counties and became Georgia 's 150th county. Metter re-incorporated as a city in 1920.