Final Meet

Tonight Audra had her last Landsharks meet. She got tired of Landsharks by the end and asked me not to sign her up next season, so we'll see if she decides to do it or not. I think it is a great program, but I'm not going to force her to do something that she doesn't like.

But, she did enjoy the medal she got tonight!

 I think she came in 9th place, of about 30-35 girls.

 She is always so happy when she sees me cheering for her. Often she will blow me a kiss and keep on running, which I love. Audra has such an incredibly sweet and innocent spirit. I love her so much!

It's funny how a cheap medal can make a girl so happy!

A Rainy Day At The Zoo

Today a small miracle occurred: Both the girls did not have school, AND it was Ben's off Friday- so we got a bonus family day!

We decided to take advantage.

Now that Audra is in school all day almost everyday, I am realizing how important family time really is.

We wanted to do something fun. We know that Audra only has a few more years of enjoying the zoo left, so we decided to head there.

When we woke up, it was raining a little. Not too bad, but enough that we second guessed ourselves. In the end, we decided to brave the rain. After all, the girls are half Seattle-ites!

Admittedly, it was pretty chilly. But on the plus side: the zoo was practically empty, and we got to have a lot of fun enjoying the indoor exhibits- exhibits we hadn't spent much time in previously.

 I forget what this bird is, but isn't it beautiful?

 This bird came up and hopped right next to Ben which was pretty cool.

 Don't worry, that's not a real snake!

 Ben and Camille had some sweet moments. Camille started holding up her hand for Ben to hold it. Then they would walk hand in hand. She wouldn't hold anybody else's hand- I tried to hold it, and she walked away from me and went back to Ben. It was really sweet- for him. Not so much for me.

We ended up lasting for 4 hours- that's pretty good for a cold, rainy day!

Camille especially loved the bats- random, I know, but she thought they were great. Claire really wanted to see the penguins over and over again- but she said she liked "all the animals." Audra didn't really say what she liked best.

I wish we had more of these family days!

Primary Program

Yesterday was the primary program at church. This is where the children lead the mass- they give talks, sing songs, and bear their testimonies. It is always a wonderful program, and yesterday was no exception.

I was in charge of the music. We had a couple kids play the violin for "I Am A Child of God" and we even had two kids play the piano for two of the songs. We also had a number of small groups. It was a lot of work, but in the end they sounded wonderful- and as is so often the case, it was worth all of the extra work.

Unlike programs in years past, not every child had a speaking part. In fact, only a few did. I was against this idea, but in the end I think every child still felt like they had a special part- whether it be through music or whatever.

Audra did have a part. I asked her  a few questions, and she "wrote" the talk herself. These are her words:

I know Jesus loves us because He gave us the earth. He made our family. He died because He was on the cross because bad people made him die. He died for us because He loves us very much. He was resurrected so that we could live. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

She practiced and practiced. She was able to read almost the entire talk by herself, and she spoke clearly into the microphone, which can be difficult for a 6 year old.

 Claire refused to go up. Her part was, "Jesus Christ is our Savior." She was supposed to say it with her whole class, but instead she sat by me. Oh, well. It wasn't worth a fight. I can't decide if she was being stubborn (because when I later told her that it was too late for her to go up she said, "Now can I go up?") or if she gets stage fright. Last year during her pre-school performance she came running down to me, so I'm not sure what is going on. Oh, well.

 Either way, it was a beautiful program and the Spirit bore witness to the truth of what they taught- that Christ lives, that He is our Savior, and that He loves us all very, very, much. 

The Reformers: The Cliff Notes (Still An Essay, But A Little Shorter Than A Movie)

I live in Douglas County, and we moved here in large part because of the schools. I used to be a teacher and I have a Master’s Degree in Education. DCSD was always considered a “destination district”- a place where everyone wanted to get a job. I once applied to work in DCSD and couldn’t even get an interview. My, how things have changed!

In 2009, 4 candidates ran as a slate for the DCSD School Board. They had two main themes: 
 1. Promised Reform 
 2. Destroy the union

Unfortunately, there were two main problems with this platform:

1. Our schools didn’t need reform. They were already really awesome. In fact, the Colorado Department of Education ranked us #3 in the state for educational excellence in 2008. We are now ranked #11. 

2. The union was never the problem. In fact, for decades the teachers and the district/school board worked beautifully together. They collaborated and worked together to solve problems. They won national awards as late as 2009 for how well they worked together. Past superintendants and school board members are proud of how well they worked with the teachers to form the best solutions for students- and it always was a situation where students were #1. Not anymore.

The reform candidates won. And in 2011, three more reform candidates won, thus making all 7 candidates pro-reform/anti-public education candidates. 

WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THIS ELECTION?

This November, 4 of the board seats are up for election. Every DCSD voter can vote for all four candidates- regardless of where you live.  The proverbial line in the sand has been drawn. On one side are candidates who are backed by corporate donors who are only interested in corporate profits. On the other side are four candidates who are backed by parents and teachers. The four candidates I am voting for are the ones backed by parents: Barbra Chase, Bill Hodges, Julie Keim, and Ronda Scholting.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Many people do not know who to trust in this election. They are being told very different things by both sides. As with so much in life, the way to get to the truth is to FOLLOW THE MONEY.

The reform candidates are running with OUTSIDE money. Their campaigns are funded 99.9% with money from outside the state. A typical school board election costs between $3,000-$4,000 total. The reform candidates for this election have already amassed over ONE MILLION dollars- virtually all of it from outside resources. Now, why do the Koch Brothers or Sam Walton, or groups like ALEC and the Daniels Fund care about your kids? The answer, of course, is that they don’t. They have an agenda: to privatize education and destroy public schools (go to their websites if you want proof of what their intended goals are). Why do they want to privatize education? FOR PROFITS. They want to profit off of our kids. They don’t care about our kids’ education, they care about making money (here is one of many articles that goes into detail about the movement to privatize education: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/13/1099650/-ALEC-Battle-Over-Public-vs-Private-Education#)

The candidates I am voting for- Barbra Chase, Bill Hodges, Julie Keim, and Ronda Scholting have taken ZERO outside money. They are funded almost exclusively from parents and community members.

(NONE of the 8 candidates have taken any money from the union. Anytime you hear somebody try to pin something on the union, it is a LIE. You are being LIED to. The reformers want to convince you that the evil, big, bad union thugs are coming after your children. This is a HUGE LIE and they are simply trying to manipulate your emotions so that you will vote based on emotions instead of facts.)

Who do you trust? Outside money groups who have said they hope to profit off of our kids, or local parents and community members, PTA presidents and SAC members? For me, it’s an easy choice. I have, and always will, put kids first- and that is why I am voting for Chase, Hodges, Keim, and Scholting.

WHAT ARE THOSE REFORMS?

Since 2009 the pro-reform/anti-pubic school board has implemented the following reforms:

-They have increased class sizes so they can get rid of teachers (lower costs)

-They have cut art, music, and PE

-They have increased fees

-They have increased testing- our kids now have weeks and weeks of district mandated tests that have little value for our children (how can they learn when all they do is take tests?)

-Instead of using the money given them and putting them into our schools, they are hoarding our money and making completely unnecessary cuts (this gets incredibly confusing, but after all of the rainy day funds they are required by law to hold, they are sitting on over 30 million dollars of voter approved funds which they refuse to spend while at the same time cutting Special Ed, music, art, etc.)

-They have increased the number of administrators in central admin while decreasing the amount of teachers and aids we have in our schools

-They have decreased graduation requirements and cut instructional hours in high school. High schoolers now have two hours of free time every day. Thefts at local stores and other deviant behaviors have drastically increased as a result. (Some pro-reformers tout these cuts as wonderful because now high school students can take classes at Arapahoe Community College. I laugh at this argument because 1) high schoolers could always take classes at ACC- that’s not new, and 2)these reformers now admit that in order to get a quality education students have to leave DCSD and seek education elsewhere)

-As a result of these cuts, students are no longer competitive at top colleges. An interviewer for MIT who has worked with DCSD students for over two decades has admitted that for the first time in her career she was unable to recommend a single DCSD student to MIT (this does not mean we do not have great kids- it just means that DCSD is no longer providing students with the most optimal education like they used to)

-They have introduced vouchers, which are now tied up in the CO Supreme Court. They have used TAX DOLLARS to pay lawyer fees to fight this battle. Is that an OK way to spend our tax dollars- on lawyers instead of in classrooms? (I will note here that three members of the board are lawyers- a definite conflict of interest!)

-They have introduced pay-for-performance, a practice that has proven failure. In fact, it has failed 100% of the time (see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc) - this is a business practice that does NOT work, but the board insisted on implementing it, even after they paid a firm over $40,000 to research whether or not the program was viable. The company said it was not and they should not tie the new program with teacher pay, but the school board ignored them and implemented it anyway. Not only that, but voters actually voted NO for pay-for-performance in 2012, but once again the board decided to ignore the voters and do what they wanted anyway.

-They cloak themselves in secrecy- over half of their meetings are behind closed doors. That’s a 410% increase over the last school board. Why does everything need to be a secret?

-Beyond destroying the union (which they brag about continually), they have silenced teachers. Teachers are bullied and threatened with their jobs if they say anything negative against the board or Liz Fagan. Their e-mails are combed over as the district looks for evidence that they have anyone who disagrees with them.

WHAT ABOUT PARENTS?

-In 2012 the district conducted a parent survey. In that survey, only 14% of teachers and 38% of parents agreed that the district was headed in a positive direction. Rather than try to determine why parents and teachers were unhappy, they ignored the survey and said there weren’t enough respondents- even though they had over 1,000 more respondents than they originally said they wanted. Since then, no other parent survey has been conducted despite numerous requests.

-Two weeks ago while on live radio, the pro-reform/anti-pubic school candidates for this election called the parents who disagreed with them “ignorant” and “naïve.” This is indicative of how they treat parents and teachers in this district- instead of listening to our concerns, they belittle and demean us. They have even been known to curse at students at school board meetings who dared to question the direction of the district. This bullying needs to stop!

-Parents have been told they are now “customers” instead of active participants in their children’s education. The school board loves to tell people how great it is that parents are now “customers”- but the vast majority of their customers are NOT happy, and they ignore us. How is that great customer service?

WHAT ABOUT TEACHERS?

-Teachers are fed up. They have been lied to and bullied on a continual basis, and are leaving in droves. Many of our highly effective teachers have fled to neighboring districts- it is estimated that there is a 75% increase in teacher turnover from 2 years ago.

-Every teacher I have talked to (and I have talked to A LOT of teachers) has said they are NOT afraid of being accountable. They want bad teachers out of their profession more than anybody else. But they want a FAIR evaluation. Last year, the school board said too many teachers were rated “highly effective.” Many teachers had to go before a committee of upwards of 15 members- all of whom were complete strangers who had never once seen the teacher teach. The teacher had to defend their “highly effective” status to this group of strangers who knew nothing about them. This is just one of the many ways that the current school board devalues and undermines the hard work our teachers do for our kids every day.

-Teachers didn’t know until March of last year what they were being evaluated on. How can they meet standards if they don’t know what those standards are? Not one teacher is afraid of being evaluated, they just want to know WHAT they are being evaluated on. Is that too much to ask, when their pay is tied to that evaluation?

-Even the most highly effective teachers earn approximately 15%-20% less than neighboring districts, leaving them no incentive to stay. While the district administration gives themselves huge bonuses (our superintendent is the highest paid super in the state and gets paid more than the supers in New York City and Chicago), teacher pay has gone down- even with their beloved pay for performance factored in.

-Our best teachers are being replaced with an overwhelming majority of first year teachers. While I have nothing against first year teachers (I was once one), I would never send my child to a hospital with only first year doctors. A teacher is NEVER at their best during their first year- they need to learn from the veteran teachers. But the school board LOVES getting rid of veteran teachers and replacing them with first year teachers because first year teachers are cheaper. And when it comes to our kids, isn’t cheaper always better? HA!

WHAT ABOUT SCHOOL CHOICE?

The school board loves to discuss “school choice.” They did NOT bring school choice to Douglas County! School choice has been in Douglas County for well over a decade- we don’t need a school board that hates education to bring us choice- we can have choice AND respect parents! We can have choice AND like our teachers! We had it before- why can’t we have it again?

ARE THE REFORMS WORKING?

The biggest reason for me to fight this fight is simply because these reforms are NOT working. They are hurting our kids. How?

-Our test scores are lower (according to our most recent TCAP data)

-Teachers are leaving in droves (the classroom teacher is the single most important factor in determining a child’s success in school). The school board promised that pay-for-performance would attract the best and brightest. That has not happened. College professors now tell their students not to apply in Douglas County. This is no longer a destination district. When people are hired, a common theme is: “Well, I’ll put in my time in just to get experience, and then I’ll leave for a better district.” How sad that teachers are hired on here and already have a strong desire to leave.

-Class sizes are larger (smaller class sizes are the second most important factor in a child having a successful school career)

BOTTOM LINE

The bottom line is that a growing number of parents are angry. We are incredibly concerned.

And we are ignored by a school board that values making the front page of national newpapers over our children. Any school board that ignores parents is a school board that needs to be voted out. Any school board that calls parents “naïve” and “ignorant” needs to be voted out. 

Any school board that puts corporate profits ahead of kids needs to be voted out.

That’s why I’m voting for Barbra Chase, Bill Hodges, Julie Keim, and Ronda Scholting!

References:

Stats: HERE

http://douglascountyparents.com/issues/

SPEAK for DCSD

Strong Schools Coalition

At the Park

With the sun finally coming out we joined some friends at the park. We needed to get out, and it was nice to meet with friends and enjoy the sunshine.

Somebody there had this trike and Camille pretty much commandeered it. She LOVED climbing on it and sitting on it. She fell off of it and bonked her head a couple of times, but it didn't stop her from climbing right back on the trike. Look at how happy she is!

Landsharks

Landsharks have started up again! And with the current weather we have been having, "Landsharks" is a great name for this Colorado Run Club!

This season is "Cross Country"- which for first graders include a 1/2 mile run.

At first Audra did not want to do Landsharks. I told her she could just go to the first practice, and if she didn't like it I wouldn't sign her up.

After the first practice she said, "Mommy, can you sign me up for Landsharks? Because if you don't,  Coach Paul would be so sad."

Well, we can't have Coach Paul be sad, so we signed her up.

Tonight was her first meet. She was super excited...for the fruit snacks. They give the kids fruit snack after the race and that's pretty much all she cared about. After the meet I told her she only had two meets left and she said, "is that because they will run out of fruit snacks?" She has her priorities.

There were about 35-40 girls running in her race and she came in 9th. Apparently they had a strategy: Coach Paul told all the girls on her team for their age group to stay with his daughter, who is really fast. They ran all together, and they all came in at the head of the pack. The strategy worked.

Anyway, it was pretty fun. Audra is pretty awesome.

100 Year Flood

I've been looking at some pictures from the floods. They are devastating. Horrific. Tragic beyond description.

This picture struck me. There were several pictures of him with his now destroyed home with all of his now destroyed belongings, but this one tears at my heart. It's the realness of this image- the fear, anxiety, and hopelessness that an event of this magnitude brings to a person who has lost everything. You see it in his eyes.

I imagine it would be easy to lose hope. I imagine it would be easy to feel like giving up.

I have no idea what these people who have lost everything are going through, but in his eyes I can see a glimpse.

But then I remember: This is America. And in America, we help each other. When somebody is down and out, we are there to help each other.

The man in the picture is not alone- somebody is there to give him a helping hand.

That's what we do in this country. We look out for each other. Why? Because we are good people who love and care for others- even complete strangers.

At this very moment there are normal, average people risking their lives to rescue normal, average people who have been stranded.

At this very moment there are normal, average people feeding normal, average people who are now living in shelters because their homes are destroyed.

At this very moment there are normal, average people who are broken. Who are scared. Who are crying for help.

And there are normal, average people who are willing to give that help.

The rains continue as I type this. The flood waters continue to rise. The fear of losing everything has become a reality for thousands of people.

And now it is time for us, as Americans, to step up and help. Because that's what we do. That's what normal, average Americans do when they see another normal, average American struggling.

Buckle up those bootstraps- it's time to get out and help!

Flooding of Biblical Proportions

I believe it was Tuesday that the rains started.

And today they kept coming, And coming. And coming.

Ben sent me the following e-mail from work today:

"I can’t believe I forgot to tell you this when I was on the phone with you, but the Elders Quorum (men's groups at church) contacted me and told me that our family needs to meet at the stake center tonight.  He said something about an ark."

Then on the way home from work as Ben listened to NPR it said that our rains were of "Biblical proportions." I would disagree with that assessment, but we might be close.

Thankfully we are safe in our neck of the woods. Some people are not so lucky, as the rains have literally washed out roads and caused a mudslide to collapse on a house. Three people have died so far.

It's not like it's anything worse than Seattle rain. In fact, today was a perfect Seattle day- which I loved. But I guess Colorado just isn't prepared for Seattle rain. Another huge problem is that the forest fires earlier in the summer left the mountains bare and vulnerable to flooding.

The forecast calls for another day of rain, so it might get worse before it gets better.

A friend who lives on the other end of town said her open space started flooding. We had a break in the rain so I thought it would be fun to go for a walk to see if our open space was also flooding. The open space is just at the end of the street.

 This raging river/stream is always bone dry. It almost never has water. We walk this path almost every day, and this is by far the most water I have ever seen in it.

 At one point water came over the bridge as evidenced by the moss wrapped around the pole.

 So, there you have it. We are fine and shouldn't have any problems, but unfortunately others are not so lucky. So keep Colorado in your prayers- once again we need them.

Life As We Know It

I wish I could say that we were super busy having so much fun over here and that's why I haven't posted in awhile. But no. Sadly, things are much more mundane than that.

We have entered the world of all day school,which I am finding more difficult than I want to admit. We are busy with the simple minutia of life: school, spelling words, running club, dance class. Not very exotic, but I am slowly realizing that is what our life is now. And it's fine- just different.

 

So, here's a picture of the girls. This shows one of Camille's many new skills: climbing on the couch to go squeeze between her older sisters. Normally this happens when they are watching TV (hence the reason only Camille is looking at the camera). It's not the best picture, I admit. But that's how dull our lives are right now.

Ballet Classes

A month ago I asked the girls what activities they wanted to participate in. Audra said softball, so it looks like we will be signing her up for t-ball next spring.

Claire said "Dance!" and Audra agreed that she wanted to do dance again as well.

While I really liked the teacher Audra had before, the dance studio was moved and it was a half hour drive one way. I didn't want to make that drive twice a week, so I looked into some other options.

I found a lady who came highly recommended. She does dance classes in her basement. She is half the price (at least) of every other person, the costumes are not skanky, and I was told that her biggest strength is that she LOVES the kids. I figured I couldn't go wrong!

Audra went yesterday and loved it. Then today was Claire's turn, and she also LOVED it.

 So, fun times in our household!