#school-district-consolidation

#school-district-consolidation

John Kaehny has written and successfully lobbied for the passage of state and New York City laws related to government transparency and accountability, including the first open data law in the world in 2012.

Keep state as close as possible to where it's actually used. Lift it when multiple components need it or you need to coordinate behavior between components.

With an $850 million budget for 33,000 students, OUSD has the highest per-pupil costs of any large district in the county, Castro said. But district leaders' habit of making financial plans and then abandoning them imperils OUSD's future.

The district and the teachers' union are submitting a plan to add five more days to the current school year to offset the strike. The last day of school would no longer be on June 3, it would now be on June 10. Mission Local also adds that high school finals week and graduation would be unaffected.

The last three months have been tumultuous in the district. The community was divided by a surprise move in January to add ethnic studies to the high school curriculum, a class that Chinese and Jewish families felt was discriminatory. When new board member Rowena Chiu said publicly she felt bullied by other "woke" school board members for questioning the class, all hell broke loose.

Members of the Dáil's Education Committee stated that Irish curriculums are 'overloaded' and must be reduced, advocating for a focus on nature and outdoor activities.

The Palo Alto Unified School District is in the middle of at least 11 different lawsuits, including cases that allege unchecked bullying, racist attacks, injured students, inadequate special education and retaliation by district leadership.

Over the past few weeks leading up to the teachers strike, Superintendent Maria Su repeatedly told the press and labor negotiators that dipping into the district's over $400 million reserves was, simply, "not an option." But projected spending shows that the district will significantly spend its reserves to pay for its labor agreements, potentially depleting its "restricted funding" by 2028.

Ontario's education minister placed a seventh school board under supervision Wednesday in order to prevent dozens of teachers from being laid off, he says, and he is planning to soon take control of another board over financial concerns. Paul Calandra announced that he has put Peel District School Board under supervision and is giving the York Catholic District School Board two weeks to make a case for avoiding the same fate.

This is the worst crisis OUSD has ever faced. Period. We don't even know what's possible yet. We never did the work to see what are our options. These are big questions. And I don't have any of the answers. And I have issue with that.

Jack Hamner, the president of the East Side Teachers Association, said 70% of the district's students are English language learners, homeless, foster youth or low income and can't afford to lose access to counselors, social workers and advisors. Those are some severely needy kids. They need their support systems more than ever, Hamner said. The positions they're cutting, these are the mental health and wellness services that our kids desperately need.

Teachers have almost no authority over student behaviors or academic grading, and are given little, if any, respect from administrators, parents or even students. Instead, students have all the authority but no responsibility for their success. Students do (or don't do) whatever they wish, while empty-handed teachers are left to take the blame. Teachers no longer have the ultimate tool of flunking students.