Vacuum

Ann Arbor Public Schools superintendent Patricia Green resigns

Patricia Green, superintendent of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, has resigned effective 90 days from April 10, 2013. Her letter of resignation, which was distributed by electronic mail to AAPS parents, follows.

Ruth from A2 Schools Muse has insightful commentary.

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April 11, 2013

Dear Colleagues and AAPS Families:

Last evening, I gave President Deb Mexicotte a letter in which I asked her to accept my resignation as Superintendent of Schools of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, effective 90 days from yesterday. I shared with her that I plan to retire during the summer after 43 years as a professional educator in public education. I have been blessed to have truly enjoyed my 43-year career and I thanked her and the Board for the opportunity to serve the Ann Arbor community during these past two years.

To all my colleagues in Ann Arbor Public Schools, it has been a privilege to work with you and I wish you well as you continue to maintain the highest of standards for all of our children in the future. Ann Arbor is truly an outstanding school district with so many dedicated staff members who care enormously about children. Your commitment and dedication are beyond compare!

As I retire, I hope to do some reflective writing about my many experiences in education, do some traveling, and reconnect with family and friends who I have neglected over the years!

Thank you to you all!

Patricia P. Green, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Ann Arbor Public Schools

Second day of school (no photos)

My Facebook stream is full of pictures of kids on their first day of school. (That's great!) Sorry that I don't have a first day, or even a second day, photo to share.

The second day at our house featured a last-minute lunch prep (mac and cheese) and then two bicycle rides, one each for the 7th grader and for the 2d grader. The Burns Park school grounds were busy with a stream of parents and kids coming for dropoff; I haven't seen the new Summers-Knoll morning rush yet.

By all guesses it's going to be a good year.

Burns Park Elementary school closed December 7, 2011 due to power outage

We got word via telephone this morning before school started that a power outage at Burns Park Elementary School (see map below, from the DTE outage map) has cancelled school for the day. The outage affects over 1400 customers in Burns Park, Lower Burns Park, and along South State Street. I can't tell from the map whether University of Michigan facilities are also affected, but the report from the dotcom is that traffic signals are also affected along Packard and on East Stadium near the Stadium Bridges project.

Details from the DTE outage information page:

Job ID: W11120700007 Estimated Restoration: Wed Dec 07 2011, 12 00 - Wed Dec 07 2011, 14 00 Off Since: Wed Dec 07 2011, 06 00 Last Update: Wed Dec 07 2011, 07 50 Cause: Area outage.

From: Liz Margolis, Ann Arbor Public Schools To: Burns Park Staff and Families

Burns Park is closed today. There is no power to the building and in the area. DTE is unable to give us an accurate time when the power will be restored. No school for staff or students, today, Wednesday, December 7.

We apologize for this late notice. The power went down at 6:40 this morning.

Thank you

Liz Margolis, Director of Communications, AAPS

Lightning damage closes Ann Arbor Northside Elementary School on May 26, no one injured

Lightning hit a brick chimney at Ann Arbor's Northside Elementary School on Wednesday at about 4:15 p.m., sending bricks flying 100 feet through the school pickup area. Fortunately, no one was hurt, as the area was vacant except for a staff member's vehicle which was damaged by flying brick.

I was aware of this when it happened because the lightning strike was powerful enough to cause the power grid to bounce, prompting comments on Twitter and speculating on the exact location. Phil Proefrock's photo published to Facebook tells the story.

Northside will be closed on Thursday for building repairs.

Media: Ann Arbor Public Schools news release.  AnnArbor.com. Ann Arbor Chronicle, reporting on the civic news ticker that the chimney "crumbled" based on the school board report.

Lightning information: 24 hour lightning summary from Strikestar.

Photo from Phil Proefrock pending permission to include here.

On knowing about more public meetings than you possibly could attend

Here's an overly simplified description of the process by which you can learn about, and participate in, more public meetings on more topics of public interest than you could possibly attend in person - without ever relying on someone else's account of what transpired at that meeting.

 

Identify the public body which has oversight or jurisdiction over the issue in question. There may be multiples of these, at the local, county, state and federal levels, plus occasionally a treaty organization or two that gets involved.

Identify the governing board of the body, and the individual members of the board. Your direct questions about agenda items will go to them.

Identify the staff member who is board secretary. They are your best contact for details like board minutes and notices of upcoming meetings.

Ask the board secretary that you be notified of upcoming board events, per the Open Meetings Act. Put any future dates on your calendar. Note that meeting times can change on short notice.

Ask for copies of board packets for upcoming board events, per the Freedom of Information Act, and probably because it's as easy as cc'ing you on an existing email list.

Determine if there are audio and video recordings of board meetings, and if they are streamed live online. Ask for details about access.

Identify a member of the public whose affairs are affected by the public body who needs assistive technology to participate in meetings, and work on their behalf to gain access to meeting materials in machine-readable formats.

Read minutes of past meetings. If those minutes are not online, request of the board secretary that copies be put online. Note that in most cases draft copies of meeting minutes should be available before they are approved at the next meeting.

Read agendas of upcoming meetings. In some cases, detailed agendas will be available, complete with supporting records which are intended to to help the board members make decisions. Ask the board secretary for information about any details which are not obvious from the published agenda. Note that agendas can change on short notice.

Contact individual board members in private regarding items on current and future agendas. If you are brief, concise, and narrowly focused, you can provide them with assistance in their work in upcoming meetings.

Contact the board as a whole in public to make a public statement about a topic. Note that although I leave this at the very end, this is what most people think about when they go to public meetings - standing up, all shaky, in front of a microphone and giving their opinion. By the time you have gotten to the mike, it's always best that your message (however popular or unpopular) is at the very least not a surprise.

 

Burns Park Elementary School calendar and lost and found

A convenient calendar for the end of the school year, which is to say that I'm doing this for next year.

I've been making a point when I visit the school to pick up or drop off J. to make a pass past the lost and found and put anything on a hanger that could possibly go onto a hanger. It's impossible to know if that makes an immediate difference, but it's satisfying to find a 5 minute volunteer opportunity that I can see.

 

Alice Kim, former third grade teacher at Burns Park Elementary School, passed away on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009

from the AnnArbor.com obituaries:

Mrs. Alice Kim passed away on Sunday September 20, 2009. She was a third grade teacher at Burns Park Elementary School in Ann Arbor, MI for many years. She dedicated her life to her profession because she loved children and teaching. She is survived by her daughters and husband. She will be greatly missed by all of the people she taught, worked with, and loved. A private family funeral is planned. In lieu of flowers, a donation to the following would be preferred: "The University of Michigan" -Address: Department of Internal Medicine Development. 301 E. Liberty, Suite 400, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. Memo: Swartz Professorship in honor of Alice Kim.

Ann Arbor Public Schools 2009 budget forums March 3 and March 5

from an AAPS press release

Superintendent Todd Roberts and Deputy Superintendent Robert Allen will be hosting two sessions to give staff, parents, students and community members an overview of the district’s budget planning for the 2009/2010 school year.

Tuesday, March 3 , 7-9pm at Scarlett Middle School, 3300 Lorraine

Thursday, March 5 at 7-9pm Forsythe Middle School, 1655 Newport

If you want to review how the schools got to this point, you can go back to a 2007 AAPS budget crisis meeting with a presentation by Robert Allen on the financial challenges visible then.

You can find more comments at the blogs Michigan Parents for Schools and Ann Arbor Schools Musings.  (and if you find other people blogging specifically about schools around here let me know).

New weblog: Ann Arbor Schools Musings

Ruth is writing about the Ann Arbor Public Schools in a new blog Ann Arbor Schools Musings.

Her introductory post spells out the reasons for blogging about school:

Sometimes I find the schools satisfactory, and sometimes not, but in general I have a lot of questions. Questions about why things run the way they do. Questions about whether things could run better. Critiques about the schools. Ideas to improve them. And--in general--I believe that most of the staff wants the schools to work. But for whom? Are we teaching to the masses? To the top 10%? The bottom 10%? And are we succeeding? Anyway, what does it mean to succeed?

In addition, as the Ann Arbor News shrinks its coverage of everything (except maybe sports--which are important too), we are not getting the news we need about the schools. I believe that these are our schools--yes, the taxpayers--and we need to know what is going on. These are our schools--yes, the parents--and we need to be able to make decisions for our kids. These are our schools--yes, the staff--who often don't have a voice in decisions. These are our schools--yes, the students--and what students think also matters.

The Ann Arbor Public Schools are run by an elected Board of Education; their web site has some information about how that public body operates.  The board calendar for 2008-2009 has a schedule of public meetings, and includes links to the packets of information that have been assembled for the board to review for each meeting.  You may find them dry reading; you may find them hard to get through; you might find them slow to download, because the one I picked up with 64 pages and 4.4 megabytes, mostly of newspaper clippings from the Ann Arbor News.  If you have comments, there are rules for public commentary at the board meetings, which appear to be well elaborated to deal with any number of issues that arise.

Burns Park Elementary - Kindergarten Roundup 2009

from the PTO newsletter

Kindergarten Round-Up - Kindergarten Parent Orientation is Tuesday, February 17th at 7:00 p.m..  This is for parents only to talk about our Kindergarten program and answer any questions you may have, visit the classrooms and obtain enrollment forms.  Free childcare will be provided by the PTO, but you must call the school (734-994-1919) to pre-register.  The following Thursday, February 19th prospective Kindergartners will be divided into small groups and will then have the opportunity to spend an hour with one of the Kindergarten teachers doing Kindergarten activities.  If you know of any families with children to enroll in Kindergarten for the fall, please let them know about these two dates for Kindergarten Round Up and encourage them to call the school office.

more burns park pto news etc at their web site.