So that first\second year teacher at BMES gets a vote, but parents, PTO, and the Site Council have no vote or say. Nice. BTW, since when do teachers votes decide the academics for the district students. We thought it was the administration, the curiculum director, and the governing board who make decisions on these types of things.
Other than the lack of input this is a good thing for the district. Even better, five 100% Core Knowledge schools along with a math program that demands mastery and a district that sets and demands high expectations.
Great News!! BMES will become a Core Knowledge School in 2010-11
With over 12 school months of study to work from, the multi-age and single-grade teachers of Black Mountain brought the discussion of Core Knowledge for BMES to a vote on Wed., Feb. 17th. Results of the vote were 96.5% in favor of adopting the Core Knowledge curriculum for our school beginning August 2010-11, with 28 of the 29 teachers casting "yes" votes. Training will be held during scheduled professional development time this Spring and next Fall.
As is customary for all schools adopting Core Knowledge, we will become a "Friend of Core Knowledge" for the first three years of implementation. At the end of year three our teachers will decide as a team if we are ready to apply for the Official School status, implementing at least 80% of the curriculum with the intent of reaching 100%. The Core Knowledge curriculum will be used to help us teach the Arizona State Academic Standards.
We look forward to partnering with Desert Sun Academy for shared professional development and networking opportunities with our teachers. We also look forward to sharing with our school families later this Spring more about Core Knowledge and our plans for implementation at BMES . Please see www.coreknowledge.org for additional information about the Core Knowledge curriculum. We are so excited for our students to have the opportunity to learn from the solid, shared, specific and sequenced curriculum offered by Core Knowledge, for the promotion of excellence and fairness in education for all students.
You wrote, "since when do teachers votes decide the academics for the district students".
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that professional teachers had significant input into this decision. The average teacher has considerably more classroom experience than the typical board member or administrator. Teachers make academic decisions every day with regard to scope, sequence, and methodology. This is their job, and it would be educationally unconscionable for teachers to NOT be part of the process.
Maybe your comment was meant to focus on the lack of input from other stakeholders such as parents, site council, etc. That concern is more understandable. JV
This school will only get better when they get rid of the influence of the old PTO and principal. They've been controlling that site for years and they don't want the new principal to succeed. Look at all of the money they wasted on the playground and shade structures, when kids didn't even have computers available. It is ridiculous and the district leadership and board should have done something about it a long time ago. And when the blog complains about EM, blame the old principal from BMES, she forced it down our throats years ago and nobody would stand up to her.
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