42. Despite the Best Intentions, with Dr. Amanda Lewis
Dr. Amanda Lewis is coming to Wauwatosa to give a talk based on her book, Despite the Best Intentions, whose 2nd edition just came out this year.EVENT INFO:Where: Underwood ElementaryWhen: Monday, October 20th, 6:30 to 8:00.What: A talk, followed by a Q&A session.If you'd like to pose a question to Dr. Lewis, send it to me here.
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41. What Should We Do with Our Secondary Schools? [TOSA]
The district has drawn up some options, a community committee has been poring over pros and cons for months, and we're going to get a survey to take in late October. So what should we be thinking about? What are our choices?LINKS:1.) Ad-Hoc Committee page, with a list of proposed models to consider.2.) In-depth description of each model3.) What "modernization" means in these modelsDEPT PRESENTATIONS:1.) Human Capital exec summary and full presentation2.) Finance exec summary and full presentation3.) Facilities exec summary and full presentation4.) Academic Performance exec sum and full presentation5.) Pupil & Family Supports exec sum and full presentation
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40. Practice Makes Perfect
LINKS:Onward Tosa piece on our reassessmentsWSD 2024 referenda tax impact calculatorWauwatosa's post-reassessment 2025 tax estimatorWSD Strategic Plan (feat school-engagement indicators)SP podcast interview on board-supt relationships
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39. Reviewing the New State Budget with Anne Chapman
*Corrected an editing mistake in an earlier version*In which I’m joined by Anne Chapman, the leading expert in Wisconsin school finance, the research director of the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials, to talk about the impacts of state budget changes on school funding decisions and community conversations. In this episode, we’ve got:A recap of Wisconsin school finance basics, featuring an extended shandy metaphorA discussion of revenue-limit and state-aid changesA conversation on open-enrollment transfer amounts and declining-enrollment pressuresA summary of special-ed and high-cost special ed funding changes.This is a cross-posting of a conversation I featured on the School Perceptions podcast. If you’re a school leader or a district administrator or a board member, that show is aimed at you and you should check it out!
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38. Taking Care of (School-Governance) Business [Statewide]
I originally intended to fit something like this into the previous episode, but it clearly is too big. But here I'm talking about why local control of schools matters for us as citizens, what the state ought to be doing to invest in the cultivation of civic virtue, what districts can be doing to facilitate good conversations about schools, and ultimately, our own obligations as citizens to participate in the good governance of our public schools.LINKS:Wauwatosa's financial transparency page. Zerilli's Democratic Theory of JudgmentScribner's The Fight for Local Control Weinstein's Adam Smith's PluralismNeem's Democracy's Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America Arendt's The Human ConditionCavell's The Claim of ReasonCavell's Conditions Handsome and Unhandsome
For the second time in six years, an upscale suburban school district in Wisconsin is asking residents for millions of dollars to keep the lights on. This is the story of how we got here, and what we can do about it.
USA