In the six years that I have been fortunate enough to be in the position of superintendent for Central Public Schools, we have had four winners of the Minnesota State High School League Excel award for student excellence. Molly Larsen is the newest member of our student body to be recognized for her scholarship and participation in extra-curricular activities with this prestigious honor. Central Public Schools sends our heartfelt congratulations to Miss Larson for being recognized and representing our district in such a positive fashion.
On to the happenings at the legislature and governor’s office. Governor Dayton came out last week in conjunction with the Department of Education with “A 7-Point Plan for Achieving Excellence”. I am going to briefly touch on these points and there is certainly going to be much discussion in the near future regarding these items. 1) Funding Education for the Future and 2) Better Early Childhood Education. Both of these deal with investing in early childhood education, as does 4) Reading Well by the 3rd Grade. Funded all-day Kindergarten is a big issue for all of these points, as is pre-school education administered by the districts.
3) Raise the Bar-Close the Gap. Minnesota has one of the largest achievement gaps and one of the slowest closing gaps between sub-groups and non-sub-group students as defined by NCLB and other measures. This is an area of emphasis for both the governor and new Commissioner, Dr. Cassellius. 5) And 6) deal with better teaching and better testing with an emphasis on teacher evaluation and student growth.
Finally 7) A Department of Education that Provides Educational Leadership and Support. Change the DOE from a compliance agency to a leadership agency for the betterment of teaching and learning.
Senate bill SF56 was voted upon the Senate floor last Monday, and results were not in at press time. This is an important bill for the future of schools. This bill does 4 main things: 1) Temporarily freezes salaries for all school employees for 2 years, 2) repeals the 2% set aside for staff development, 3) repeals the maintenance of effort provision for support staff, and 4) repeals the $25 per student penalty for districts not meeting the January 15 deadline for finishing teacher negotiations.