FMS @ a Glance
April 1 - 5, 2019
Proud to Be!
Kelly Zwagerman: For always supporting the electives department and making sure we are representing.
Officer Gramling: Thank you for always being out in the hallways and being present! You do a great job with our students and for earning their respect. We are so lucky to have you!
Mohamed Mohamed & Zulema Nieves: For always being willing to make all of the MANY phone calls home that are needed and for the positive relationships that you both have in the community!
Christian Sopkowiak: The hard work and extra effort you put in with our students both in and out of the classroom really shows! Our students and our staff appreciate it!
Jackie Fleischaker: You do a fantastic job connecting with our students and your input with our meetings is valuable, insightful, and very much appreciated.
Huge Shout Out to Ashley Anderson for making 601's 3rd quarter celebration awesome!
Week @ a Glance
Monday, April 1
9:00 am Student Services meeting
3:00 pm Advisory Planning meeting
Tuesday, April 2
Math Articulation Day
9:30 am F4C trip (BH)
3:30 pm FMS Admin meeting
Wednesday, April 3
504 training (Hawkins and Coppess out of the building)
Development Day meeting
Restorative meetings with Kaite A. and students
9:00 am PST
Thursday, April 4
LOCKDOWN Drill
9:00 am Principal PLC with Ryan K.
3:00 pm Academic Support meeting
7:00 pm Musical
Friday, April 5
7th-grade registration information during Advisory
3:00 pm MCA training available
7:00 pm Musical
Saturday, April 6
1:00 pm Musical
A look ahead:
4/8 6th grade registration information / Advisory
4/8 Student Services
4/8 Spring Celebration meeting
4/8 Staff Development meeting
4/8 PAG
4/9 Leadership meeting
4/9 Lockdown drill
4/9 FMS Admin meeting
4/10 602 Capital trip
4/10 PST
4/10 Development Day meeting
4/11 Registration / Advisory
4/11 Tornado Drill
4/11 Facilities Committee meeting
4/11 Community School Advisory Council meeting
4/12 Registration / Advisory
4/12 F4C (AC)
By: Darren Barkett
Mar 26, 2019 / Stacey Abrams
January 8, 2019
By: Andrew Maxey, Elizabeth Hancock
Legislative Update
Big news of the week is “targets”. The House announced their positions on the budget areas Monday. The House overall target is $49.8 billion. As expected, education led the way with proposed spending increases of $900 million in new money for E-12 Education. This would more than cover proposed increases of 3% in each year of the biennium. Wasting no time, on Wednesday the House heard Representative Sandstede’s bill (HF 882) to increase the formula by 3% and 3%. Previously the Governor prosed 3% and 2%.
The Senate announced their targets on Thursday. At $47.6 billion, the Senate budget is significantly smaller than the House and Governor. The new money in the Senate bill will cover 1% and the first year of the biennium but appears insufficient to cover an additional 1% in the second year.
The apples to apples comparison of new money for education is about $900 million in the House vs. $207 million in the Senate.
It will take a lot of work to cover the ground between the two parties. While presently the budget looks rosy for the next two years, significant concerns hang over potential economic downturns in the future. “Sustainable” is a word heard often in the budget discussions The Senate majority leader Gazelka summed it up well when he stated:
“There’s going be a lot of things that both sides want that in the end aren’t going to happen.”
Many legislators will be surprised as provisions are left out of the final bills. As scores of provisions are loaded into House omnibus bills, only a limited few will return from conference committees with the Senate. Some provisions are actually added for purposes of being “traded” for one thing or another. It is a frustrating part of the process for many people.
On Wednesday the House Policy Committee had an “informational” hearing on student discipline. Such hearings are not uncommon and are used to take testimony in a hearing setting without acting on a bill. Three superintendents testified regarding disciplinary practices. Without question, Superintendent Christine Osorio was the star of the show. She detailed the disciplinary practices in her district, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale. She hit on the basics and the high points of student discipline. Relationships with students, influencing behavior, school resource officers, reducing suspensions—she covered a broad landscape and represented K12 well.
On Wednesday the House heard Representative Sandell’s bill (HF 1190) increasing the funding for college in the schools. Currently schools receive about $52 per class per student while paying the colleges in the $100-$150 per student range. We will know next week how much money the committee will add to the program.
At the same time that discipline was being discussed in the House, the Senate was taking up Senator Nelson’s bill on school linked mental health services grants. (SF 89). Increased resources for mental heath will undoubtedly impact school behavior in a positive fashion.
On Tuesday the conference committee on the “Snow Daze” bill met to iron out differences between the House and Senate bills. (HF 1982-Christenson and SF 1743-Nelson) The committee met three times during the day, debated various issues in the two bills and finally, in the evening, came to an agreement. In the end, the legislation will allow school districts an exemption for an unlimited number of days on account of “health and safety” concerns approved by the board. (The House bill had proposed three.) Interesting to note that “snow” and “cold” did not become the standard. Instead, school boards be allowed to close for health and safety reasons. So floods, ice, cold, snow—boards have discretion and can close for conditions as the board sees fit. Districts will have to pay or offer alternative work to hourly employees and to pay contractors. The point was not no one should lose money. (Although there wasn’t much talk about how much schools paid for additional snow removal and other expenses.) Both the House and Senate repassed the bill without much controversy. (Although Representative Drazkowski, asserted that kids are being shortchanged and that staff are getting paid days off.) The bill could be signed as early as today by the Governor.
The House bill will be put together and made public over the weekend. In fact, the first walk through of the bill is scheduled for Monday. This omnibus bill will contain all of the policy provisions the chairs want as well as all of the funding with public testimony beginning thereafter.
The Senate is letting the House go first and will probably make its bill public on Monday, April 8th.