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
“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.
Is Popularity Genetic? | Healthy and Green Living
One day, we all showed up to middle school and some kids were popular, while others simply weren’t. As someone who was never lucky enough to sit at the cool kids’ lunch table, I always wondered just what it took to be popular. It was an ephemeral and intangible quality, but it was impossible not to notice that the popular kids all seemed to have the right clothes, the right hairstyles, and they certainly didn’t do dumb things like get good grades or play clarinet in the band (like yours truly). Popular kids may have been blessed with the perfect crimped bangs and the trendy Guess jeans, but it turns out that they may have lucked out in the genetic lottery, too.
via Is Popularity Genetic? | Healthy and Green Living.
I was never popular. Nurture vs. nature? Who knows. I didn’t care about the latest fashion or the newest cool thing. OTOH, I had one outgoing parent and one very introverted parent. I like to think I take after both, but the mix I got didn’t lend itself to the popular crowd traits either.All in all, it’s an interesting read.
Read MoreBlack Tattoo Art: Modern Expressions of the Tribal Boing Boing
Black Tattoo Art: Modern Expressions of the Tribal Boing Boing.
Very cool book. A little out of my price range, but a very cook book. Pictures on link maybe NSFW – it shows some bottom, so I think it is NSFW, but it’s not genitals or anything.
Read MoreCondition of accused molester improves after Davie beating — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Condition of accused molester improves after Davie beating — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
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Yah, because beating the shit out of a child molester is way worse than what the molester did in the first place. In prison, who is the first guy to get the shit kicked out of him? The child molesters.
I’m not saying the dad and his neighbor were in the right, but they certainly were not in the wrong. I can’t imagine what I would or wouldn’t do if someone violated my children.
Read MoreTurnpike cash tolls to disappear as electronic payment methods prevail for safety, cost — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Florida’s Turnpike to go cashless as it switches to electronic tolling
By February 2011, all cash collection on the turnpike’s southernmost stretch will end. Toll plazas between the Golden Glades and Interstate 595 will be converted the following year. Eventually, the turnpike will be free of toll booths.
Don’t fret if you don’t have SunPass. Drivers without transponders will be billed later.
Proponents cite three reasons behind the push to eliminate cash collection: improving safety, eliminating bottlenecks and reducing the actual cost of collecting tolls.
Obviously not the entire article – go take a peek. Basically, they are completely eliminating the cash option on the turnpike, which will also eliminate countless jobs. From my perspective, it will generate tons of trash (mailing out bills to non SunPass users, bill being mailed back to be paid), is costing 58 million dollars (plus, that 58mil was only for South Florida if I read correctly), and eliminating jobs. Did I mention it’s eliminating jobs? All because some assholes can’t be bothered to check and make sure the car in front of them is stopped, or is in the process of stopping. Our economy and unemployment rate is almost at an all time low (I think the unemployment rate is for SoFl) and the freaking TurnPike is eliminating hundreds of jobs. Way to go.
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