Mike Falick's Blog

My Testimony Today before the House Higher & Public Education Finance Select Committee

Regular readers of this blog know that school districts in Texas are facing a significant funding crisis as a result of the limitations imposed in 2006 by House Bill 1.

Today, the House Select Committee on Higher & Public Education Finance held a meeting here in Houston.  I provided testimony to this Committee regarding the challenges that continue to face Spring Branch as a result of Robin Hood (Chapter 41) and House Bill 1.  You can read the testimony I provided here or by clicking the image below.

Additional information can be found in these prior posts here, here, here, and here.

Stratford and Memorial Students Win 2nd Place in the National Business Professionals of America Contest!

Students from Stratford and Memorial High Schools took 2nd place in a recent national competition at the Business Professionals of America 2008 National Leadership Conference in Reno, Nevada, May 7-11.

From the  Stratford website:

Students from Stratford and Memorial High Schools attended the Business Professionals of America 2008 National Leadership Conference in Reno, Nevada, May 7-11. Seniors Michelle Mandell, Eric Johnson, Ben Halliday and Steven Pham from Stratford High School competed in the Small Business Management Team Event, freshman, Anne Alexander also from Stratford competed in Entrepreneurship and senior, Young Kim from Memorial competed in Fundamentals of Accounting.

The Small Business Management Team took 2^nd in the nation for their project. They are all members of the Stratford Academy of Finance Program. Young Kim placed 6^th in Fundamentals of Accounting.

Business Professionals of America is a national organization for high school students preparing for careers in business and information technology. Congratulations to these students!

Recap of Tonight's Board Workshop

Our Board held its monthly workshop meeting tonight.  Here's a recap of the issues discussed and actions taken on tonight's Agenda.

Our first agenda item was a discussion of the District's FY 2009 Budget.  We have had 4 meetings on the Budget, so this discussion was very short.  The Board will have a second public hearing on the Budget on May 19 at 7:00p.  For more information the FY 2009 Budget, see these prior posts here and here.

Our next discussion item involved a presentation by the Homework Task Force that included their recommendations for modifications to the District's homework policy.  The Board will continue to discuss this issue at our next several meetings with an eye toward approval of a new policy no later than our July Board meeting.

Next we discussed the District's new staff appraisal system.  Significant effort has been made to make the appraisal system uniform and more robust.

We then concluded our meeting with a lengthy conversation on the second readings on the following Board policies:

BQA (Local) Planning and Decision Making Process: District Level
BQB (Local) Planning and Decision Making Process: Campus Level
CDA (Local) Other Revenues: Investments
EHAC (Local) Basic Instructional Program: Required Instruction (Secondary)
FD (Local) Admissions
TASB Policy Update 82

Numerous amendments were offered, and final approval of these policies will occur at our Board meeting on May 19.

Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News Article on the Crisis in School Finance Funding

I was quoted in a front page article by Gary Scharrer that appeared in today's Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News.  My quote:

Take the Houston-area Spring Branch Independent School District. Its budget projections show the district's current $58 million reserve fund will slide $68 million into the red within four years.

Unless a fix is enacted during next year's legislative session, school districts will be faced with difficult choices, including closing campuses and firing teachers, said Mike Falick, president of the Spring Branch school board.

"It's an untenable system. No business in the world would be able to survive with fuel, health insurance and salary increases and a flat revenue source," Falick said. "It's not sustainable.

Some school districts eventually will face "insolvency, some in a shorter time than others," he said.

The entire article appears below after the jump and can be found in the Houston Chronicle here and in the San Antonio Express News here.

Spring Branch Election Results: Wayne Schaper and Mary Grace Landrum Win Decisively

In today's Spring Branch School Board election, Wayne Schaper and Mary Grace Landrum each won decisive victories over their challengers.

Here are the election results, broken down by voting precinct (click the image to enlarge or click here to download the results):

Yahoo! For Teachers: Here's a Great Collaborative Tool for Teachers

I just signed up for a new service from Yahoo! called Yahoo! For Teachers that provides an ever-expanding repository of teacher generated resources, projects, and lessons.  From the Yahoo! For Teachers website:

Yahoo! For Teachers is the product of Yahoo! listening to teachers and delivering what they wanted - access to more resources and the ability to connect with other educators.

Teachers partnered with Yahoo! every step of the way to develop this new resource that empowers teachers to create, modify and share curriculum materials that meets state education standards.

Yahoo! also created the Gobbler, a unique collection tool that allows teachers to easily find and gather images, text and other information on the Internet and incorporate it into their own portfolio of curriculum materials.

Combining teachers’ input and leading technology, Yahoo! For Teachers is the ideal resource for the 21st Century Classroom.

   

Flyp: The Future of "Old" Media

Flyp is a new (or at least new to me) website that combines text, video, and audio to rewrite the rules for online magazines.  It's interface is a friendly, page-turn style.  While the site is decidedly Democrat-friendly in its politics, the interaction of video, audio, and traditional text presents a compelling layout.  In addition to the political articles, there are other articles on a broad range of issues.

From the Flyp website:

Flyp is about what moves America and Americans, covering everything from politics to lifestyles; social issues to cultural developments; war to peace; music to movies. Our goal is to connect the dots in ways that both inform and entertain.

Flyp combines video, text, animation, high-quality design and interactivity in a new kind of storytelling that blends the best from the world of print with the latest from the Web.

What Do You Think About Students Using Cellphones in Class?

I read a lot about 21st Century education and reaching today's students.  One of the sites I read often, Teach42, has an interesting post regarding cellphone use by students in class.  The post makes the following suggestions for possible positive use of cellphones by students:

• Check the spelling/definition of a word
• Research a topic
• Look up reference images
• Pull up maps (even with satellite imagery)
• Document a science lab with built in digital camera/video
• Fact check on the fly
• Mail questions to the teacher that they might be embarrassed to ask
• Classroom response system
• Take quizzes
• Record and/or listen to podcasts

Thoughts?

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Website Creates Vast Database of Free American History Documents, Lesson Plans, and Educational Resources

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website has created a vast database of historical documents and educational resources from all eras of American history available for free online.

From the website:

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history. The Institute serves teachers, students, scholars, and the general public. It helps create history-centered schools, organizes seminars and programs for educators, produces print and electronic publications and traveling exhibitions, sponsors lectures by eminent historians, and administers a History Teacher of the Year Award in every state through its partnership with Preserve America. The Institute also awards the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and George Washington Book Prizes, and offers fellowships for scholars to work in the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

The Institute maintains this website to serve as a portal for American history on the Web; to offer high-quality educational material for teachers, students, historians, and the public; and to provide up-to-date information about the Institute's programs and activities. 

The website offers a variety of free online resources to improve the study of American history, including podcasts, lesson plans on major topics in American history, a searchable database of more than 60,000 primary source documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, featured documents with printable images and transcripts for classroom use, and online exhibitions.

Pictures of the Tully Stadium Turf Replacement Project

The turf replacement at Tully Stadium is moving quickly.  Here are pictures that show the progress on this project.