If you spend some time looking at the most recent detailed board packet that the Huntley School Board kindly posts, you will find some mistakes.
Previously, administrators incorrectly did the math on a list of items on how to spend about $1.7 million of Federal Stimulus ARRA funds for Special Education.
This week, simple math mistakes appear in the list of how the Federal money will be spent on Special Education.
I was glancing down the revised list and saw this item:
Description Amount
RtI 25 conference @ $200 each. $3,000
OK, fifth grade math test time.
What is 200 times 25?
The item is on page 8 of the board packet section which has this link (reproduced above with the questionable item at the bottom of the excerpt).
25 times $200 each is $5,000, by the way, not $3,000.
The math carefulness is repeated on page 12.
RtI Conference/ISHA 12X$350 $7,800.00
5 Laser Printers (5X$400) $4,500.00
The laser printer line item is at the bottom of the illustration and the RTI is 13 lines higher.
Anyone can make a math error, but couldn’t memo writers check their work as teachers advise students?
English is better, right?
There was a memo on page 6 of 199 to Supt. John Burkey and the board of education members that was dated January 7, 2009. It’s for the board meeting on the 7th. The date I pulled the memo was January 6, and it’s 2010. The mistake about the year is the kind of mistake we all make at the beginning of a new year. The memo was jointly written by three administrators.
The 2nd paragraph aught my eye.
“Proudly, the Office of Special Services has finalized this list. Having further worked with District Administration (RtI), the Technology Department, District ARRA Committee, Special Education Parent Advisory Committee and a subcommittee of PAC to establish this final product.”
Maybe Huntley’s English teachers can use this with their students to show how the second “sentence” is a phrase and not a sentence. Maybe it will be in sophomore year of high school. I remember my Middletown, New York, English teacher in 1957. She had as her goal teaching us how to write a sentence.
You hear people complain about how students graduate from high school without learning to do math or write complete sentences. When I worked as a cashier at Crystal Lake’s McDonald’s (one with arches and a sign saying 300,000 sold) in the summer of 1960, I added what was bought in my head. Now employees punch pictures.
I wonder why.
And, just in case you are interested in the Read 180 and System 44 expenditures planned, I’ve captured that page above.
Enjoyed your McDonald’s experience, Cal. When I was living in Santa Fe, I bought breakfast one morning in McDonald’s. Two biscuits, one coffee. When the clerk said, “$8.65”, I said “I don’t think so” loudly enough that the manager came right over. The correct amount was about $2.00. The clerk never batted an eye that he was trying to over-charge me. He just didn’t think at all.
The word “upsurp” has been in my kid’s IEP for over a year. I’m still waiting for one of the school folks to figure out there is no such word. One teacher even read it aloud during a meeting late last spring. She stumbled on it but her boss was in the room, so she just read it as written and went right on. These are administrators with advanced degrees and earning the big bucks.
At least the Woodstock teacher’s boss was in the room. One former Huntley Special Ed teacher told me her principal refused to sit in on the conference, as required, she said, and then asked her to write that he had.
McDonalds’ employees punch pictures? Guess you need that talent when you cannot speak English.
I remember interviewing college graduates for positions in my publishing business. And I can remember the LONG nights of editing their copy. Eventually, I could make out what they were covering. The American education system is S-C-A-R-Y.
What ever happened to education stimulating the mind? Instead, it seems to stimulate social skills.
Try building an economy on social skills.
I’m very interest in the Read 180 system. I’m not sure why it is not being used at all schools. My son is in 4th grade, was given and IEP last year and I have shelled out thousands at a private tutor center. If our school district can not teach our children then I guess a computer software based system is the next best thing.