On Knilans says he wants to save teachers’ jobs; Parr says he’s skeptical of plan
Posted on May 15 at 11:13 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
It is so easy to scapegoat Walker, Knilans, etc. Please quit screeching "RECALL, RECALL!" You don't recall politicians you disagree with. You vote them out! In case you forgot, our school board voted to raise class size on Feb 5th, 2011, over a week before the Budget repair bill was even introduced. Did everyone forget that we had close to a 10 MILLION dollar projected deficit in our district before Walker was even elected? And the same School Board that led us there was just re-elected?
On High school classes considered for cuts
Posted on February 10 at 10:32 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Department heads at the high schools were not allowed to consolidate classes in order to give the students less to choose from. This would have “trimmed down” a lot of departments, given the kids the best programs or classes to choose from, and necessitated fewer teachers at the schools. The school board and administration refused this option, gave the students the plethora of options they always get, and decided to cut any classes that didn’t reach their magic number (24). There were over 1300 schedule changes made at Craig, most of which were not even discussed with the students (or their parents). This is over five times the amount that was reported in the Gazette. Interestingly, the list of potential cuts mirrors the departments that got new or renovated rooms/wings in the 73 million dollar referendum.
On Janesville School District estimating $10 million shortfall
Posted on December 11 at 4:27 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
The article states that "the change (in high school scheduling and staffing guidelines) would allow the district to increase high school class size from 18 to 24 students." No, it changes the MINIMUM amount of students in a class from 18 to 24. The class size could now range from 24 to 30 (and up). Elective classes with less than 24 students may be cancelled.
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On Class sizes for Janesville middle, high schools could expand under plan
Posted on November 20 at 6:28 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Obviously some people posting on this article have not set foot in one of the high schools recently or have no idea what has been going on in Janesville schools and prefer to promote class warfare by going on and on about the “Golden Spoons” and their “Fluff classes” stealing from everyone else. The great thing about our schools is that every student has the opportunity to take a wide range of classes, from art to music, to a range of science classes, to French, German, or Spanish IV. In fact, these elective classes are one of the few opportunities some of the financially disadvantaged kids have to mingle with the TAG students in our district. Our elective classes were devastated this past year. We lost dozens of offerings, and with that, class sizes in core AND elective classes increased. I challenge you to show me a regular Ed (core or elective) class at either high school that has only SEVEN students in it. As far as your preoccupation with French, let me enlighten you. Milton schools REQUIRE a semester of French and a semester of Spanish in middle school, and Milton High School offers French Levels I through IV. A few years ago Janesville believed that we needed a Chinese program in our schools. Well, Africa is the new China, and there are millions of French speakers on that continent. Canada is our largest trading partner, and France is also on the list of the United States’ top 10 trading partners, so I think calling French a “fluff class” is quite ignorant.