http://rosenblatt.org/blog Reflections and musings on education and other local issues Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:13:13 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en One of the stranger concepts that I have been exposed to since taking public office is the notion of the "furlough" day. This essentially means that public agencies tell their employees not to come into work a certain number of days so that they can reduce their pay proportionally. ... http://rosenblatt.org/blog/2010/07/22/furlough-the-furloughs/ In this blog I have repeatedly emphasized how we wouldn't have the great schools we have today in San Carlos without the San Carlos Educational Foundation. The amount of work and dedication in this group is nothing short of amazing, it is one of the things that sets this ... http://rosenblatt.org/blog/2010/07/17/scef-strikes-again/ Another area of public school governance which is incredibly confusing and counterintuitive is the collective bargaining process. I originally posted in February that the District and the teachers' union (SCTA) has reached "impasse." Since then, I have written muliple posts regarding our financial crisis. The bottom ... http://rosenblatt.org/blog/2010/06/26/the-wacky-world-of-negotiations/ Although we knew it was likely to happen for a while, it's nice that it's official. Thanks so much to the Sequoia Healthcare District on its three-year, $1.32 million grant to the San Carlos School District. See the story on the district web site. http://rosenblatt.org/blog/2010/06/16/partnership-with-sequoia-healthcare-district/ The following is a letter I sent to my personal e-mail list outlining a summary of this school year and what we look forward to next year: Dear Friends and Supporters, As another school year has ended, it seemed appropriate to give everyone an update on the state of the San Carlos ... http://rosenblatt.org/blog/2010/06/13/end-of-year-update/ At last night's Board Meeting, the Superintendent and CBO outlined the current state of district finances, and specifically what happens to our reserve level under different scenarios. As most of you already know, the District by law is required to keep a 3% reserve (measured as a % of ... http://rosenblatt.org/blog/2010/05/28/leveling-the-plane/ Two interesting updates were juxtaposed today. The first was summarized in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about how a group of students, school districts, the California PTA, CSBA (California School Board Association) and ACSA (Association for California School Administrators) have filed a lawsuit arguing that elected officials ... http://rosenblatt.org/blog/2010/05/21/cause-and-effect/ Two months ago I wrote about the preliminary layoff notices that had to be given to certificated teachers by the March 15th deadline. The next deadline in this process is May 15th, where effectively "final" termination notices are given to these certificated employees. Although the District could always ... http://rosenblatt.org/blog/2010/05/13/another-difficult-deadline/ On Sunday, June 6th is one of my favorite fundraisers of the year (besides Spring Fling of course). An Evening at Town is a fun cocktail party and dinner at Town Restaurant on Laurel Street in San Carlos. I have a particular affection for this event, as I ... http://rosenblatt.org/blog/2010/04/30/going-to-town/ The Carlmont High School PTSA is sponsoring an interesting (and free) Parent Education Event at the Calmont Performing Arts Center on Monday, May 24th from 7-9pm. Michael Riera will be speaking on "Connecting to Your Teen" -- a big topic to be sure, and covering a lot of areas ... http://rosenblatt.org/blog/2010/04/23/connecting-to-your-teen/