Breathing Underwater

For children who have sensory processing disorder, sometimes the environment becomes more than they can handle.  Add some anxiety to that, and it can cause an explosion in the brain.  This happens to children with this disorder numerous times and can happen several times a day.  When teachers see this, do they know the best thing to do?  Most parents will tell you the children need space and not to crowd them.

I’ve heard these children say “I can’t breathe.”  For these children, they are obviously breathing, but their mind doesn’t register that.  They have so much going on in their synapses and they don’t know how to let it flow it naturally.  Everything gets stuck in there and it becomes too much for them.  Have you ever tried breathing underwater?  Unless you have protective gear on, you can’t.  This is what it’s like for these children when they hit this wall.  Now imagine an adult coming over and telling them to snap out of it or to pay attention.  This becomes an added bit of pressure to an already insurmountable situation.

Teachers and administrators at schools need to understand this.  They need to be fully aware of these situations so they don’t become worse.  I’ve seen where children are at this point and an adult, usually unknowingly, makes the whole ordeal much worse.  The next time you see a student get like this, try just doing nothing, or softly ask them if they want to take a walk, either by themselves or with someone they trust.  You would be surprised what will happen.

DOE & Governor Markell’s Statewide Review Of Educational Opportunities Gets Interesting Bidders….

In March, Governor Markell randomly popped up at a Delaware State Board of Education meeting to announce a Statewide Review of Educational Opportunities.  The State Board did a yes sir and got to work right away on this.  It’s basically a review of what’s working in Delaware and using that mold to copy in different schools.  And of course, this is open for interpretation by the entity conducting the research.  But is that the State Board, the DOE, or Markell?  Hell no!  They will have their focus group with all the “stakeholders” (basically whoever they can find that blindly agree with them).  But the real work will be done by an outside vendor.  The bid proposal went up June 15th, and closed July 15th.  These are the bidders:

American Institutes for Research (already our testing vendor for the Smarter Balanced Assessment, no conflict of interest there)

Cross & Joftus (never heard of them)

Public Consulting Group (good old PCG, data-tech company that already handles all the Medicaid reimbursement to special education providers and saves the state a lot of money while we pay them a lot of money)

So what was in the actual RFP?

Yeah, more ways the DOE can suck up even more money, throw it away on something we know will come back as saying: more charters, more magnets, more “World Immersion”.  So how about saving the money and just write the damn report yourselves!

Delaware School District Compliance and Transparency Report 2015 Part 1

Okay MHS, you got me on this one.  How can I do this for the charters and not our traditional school districts.  I have yet to look at any of them, and I am very curious what I might find.  There are a few I visit on a regular basis, so this should be interesting.  I know quite a few who have something NONE of the charters have, so those districts will get bonus points just for having that certain something.  But, traditional school districts are not required to put their monthly financial information up on their website like charters are, so this may get a bit wonky!  Here we go!

If it’s regular red, you are a little bit out of compliance, not that big of a deal.  If it’s in red bold, you are really out of compliance and you might want to fix that! Especially if it’s monthly financials and CBOC meetings!

Appoquinimink– Agenda: yes, Board Minutes: can’t find them at all, CBOC Meetings: no, see where they have a finance committee, but it isn’t made up of “citizens”, CBOC Minutes: no, next board meeting: August 11th, Bonus: Records board meetings, Grade: F

Brandywine– Agenda: yes, Board Minutes: May 2015, CBOC Meetings: yes, CBOC minutes: June 2015, Monthly Financials: June 2015, next board meeting: August 17th, Bonus: Records board meetings AND has meetings showing until June 2016, Grade: A++

Caesar Rodney– Agenda: yes, Board Minutes: June 2015, CBOC Meetings: yes, CBOC Minutes: June 2015, Monthly Financials: June 2015, next board meeting: none listed or showing up on district calendar, Grade: A

Cape Henlopen– Agenda: yes, Board Minutes: June 2015, CBOC Meetings: yes, CBOC Minutes: April 2015, Monthly Financials: May 2015, next board meeting: not listed, Grade: B

Capital– Agenda: yes, Board Minutes: June 2015, CBOC Meetings: yes, CBOC Minutes: June 2015, Monthly Financials: May 2015, next board meeting: August 12th , Bonus: board meetings listed through June 2015 AND records board meetings, Grade: A+

Christina– Agenda: yes , Board Minutes: June 2015, CBOC Meetings: yes, CBOC Minutes: May 2015, Monthly Financials: May 2015, next board meeting: August 11th, Bonus: board meetings listed through June 2015 AND records board meetings, Grade: A+

Colonial– Agenda: yes, Board Minutes: June 2015, CBOC Meetings: yes, CBOC Minutes: May 2015, Monthly Financials: May 2015, next board meeting: August 11th, Bonus: board meetings listed through June 2016 AND records board meetings: Grade: A+

To be continued with: Delmar, Indian River, Lake Forest, Laurel, Milford, and New Castle County Vo-Tech.  District web sites take a bit longer to navigate through, especially if they have Board Docs!