Posts by azxure
Broward schools to consider cuts to arts, music, physical education classes
What a bunch of bullshit! our kids are forced into a freaking FCAT box, we take away gym, music and art, and we wonder why our kids are fat, lazy and have no imagination? Idiots.
Read MoreBroward schools to consider cuts to arts, music, physical education classes
Elementary programs face big changes next yearFacing huge cuts in state money, Broward’s public elementary schools next year could see major changes to their art, music, physical education and library programs.
Under a proposal the Broward School Board will discuss Tuesday, the district’s 140 elementary schools will have four options for how it handles those non-core classes.
The choices: Four schools in the same zone would share a media specialist along with an art, music and physical education teacher; electives would be incorporated into classroom teachers’ daily lessons; teachers of electives would be required to teach two classes at once, with the help of an aide; or specialty teachers would serve as consultants to their colleagues on how to incorporate electives into the curriculum.
School Board members were told last month the district could lose $80 million to $100 million in state money and have to make up for $60 million in one-time money spent in last year’s budget. Board members are supposed to see proposals for cuts in the coming weeks.
Other changes being discussed Tuesday include using a school’s size to revise staffing numbers for administrators and guidance counselors; and again eliminating extensions under the Deferred Retirement Option Program. The state retirement program allows teachers to extend their retirement date three years. Broward stopped granting them last year, affecting 233 teachers and school support staff. It prompted a lawsuit from the Broward Teachers Union that the union eventually lost.
Tuesday’s debate on elementary electives will include a proposal that schools supplement arts and music education with virtual field trips, video conferences, the Student Enrichment in the Arts partnership with the Broward Center for Performing Arts and other options.
That portion of the discussion is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at the school district’s Fort Lauderdale headquarters, 600 SE Third Ave.
Laurie Firestone, of Coral Springs, has a son in the second grade at Maplewood Elementary School, which has already scaled back library time to once a week, art to once a week, and music and physical education to every other week.
She said teachers won’t have time to build electives into their regular lesson plans, so students likely would go without. “All they’re doing is studying for the FCAT,” she said.
Blame budget cuts and the state Legislature, said School Board Chairwoman Jennifer Gottlieb.
“They are scraping us to the bare bone. It’s been that way for the past few years,” she said. “Until the state starts to adequately fund public education, these are the conversations we unfortunately have to have.”
But other board members wonder whether there are other areas to consider cutting.
Board member Robin Bartleman suggested scaling back work calendars of new administrators, or looking at district contracts to see whether there are programs that aren’t worth renewing.
“Those music classes, those art classes … you can’t take that stuff away from kids,” Bartleman said. “Sometimes that’s the only thing that’s sparking the interest of the kid.”
Kathy Bushouse can be reached at kbushouse@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4556.
Copyright © 2010, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Poncho for Eshiva
I made this over the last couple of days for Eshiva. She had a cotton one that was given to us (purchased, not hand made) but she outgrew it, so I made her a new one :-)
Read More“God Said Multiply, and Did She Ever”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/nyregion/21yitta.html WHEN Yitta Schwartz died last month at 93, she left behind 15 children, more than 200 grandchildren and so many great- and great-great-grandchildren that, by her family’s count, she could claim perhaps 2,000 living descendants. Mrs. Schwartz was a member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, whose couples have nine children on average and whose ranks of descendants can multiply exponentially. But even among Satmars, the size of Mrs. Schwartz’s family is astonishing. A round-faced woman with a high-voltage smile, she may have generated one of the largest clans of any survivor of the Holocaust — a thumb in the eye of the Nazis.
Cookbooks
I am addicted to recipe books. My gram likes to remind me that when I was a kid I told her “if you can read, you can cook” and I still believe it today. You may not have the best technique in the world, but a good cookbook will take you pretty far in the kitchen.I love to cook. I love to bake. I love to feed my friends and family. I love to go food shopping. It’s a wonder I am not twenty times the size of the house. I think I have over a hundred cookbooks all told, and my collection just keeps growing. Most are dogeared and written in and well loved. Some were my mothers (whose idea of cooking was dialing the telephone) and some we my grams. Some I picked up on a whim and turned out to be a gem. Some I’ve never made a thing out of but they sure are a good read. Some are stored outside in the garage because my bookshelf is overflowing. I read them like books. Some of the newer ones are books that just happen to have recipes thrown in for good measure. Those are the best kind.
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