Wonderful news: Dr. Keith Owen has accepted the offer from our Durango School Board to become our new Durango School District superintendent effective July 1st.
Congratulations are in order for him and appreciation for the board members and their steadfast commitment to including the public in the search process.
Dr. Owen was well received at the recent public forum for his fresh ideas and abundant energy, his leadership as an elementary school principal and developer of a remarkable reading program, and most recently, as Chief Academic Officer for the Pueblo School District.
Read more at the Durango School District website.
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13 comments:
$150,000. Hmm. That's a lot of money, especially when teachers are now refusing their contracts because of pay and Dr. Barter's answer is to charge the taxpayers, again. Nothing like making the taxpayers pay again and again--in case anyone is wondering, we've already funded enlarging schools that do not have the student enrollment to justify the expense. And the reason that bond passed was because of the deceptive advertising by 9-R. So, now we're going to be taxed again to pay an adminstrator's salary. How about 9-R live within its mean?
And how about we make Kid Camp a self-reliant entity and make the people who use it pay for it? Why is it over budget? And why am I paying for a babysitting service?
I want to comment about the Kid's Kamp's budget. I appreciate that you would be concerned about the cost of our after school enrichment program. I am too!
Kid's Kamp (and KidTime before it) was always supposed to be self-supporting. Unfortunately, it was designed to be a drop-in program, and that meant that we never know who is going to be there. To be sure the kids are safe, we must provide staff for the highest number of children that sometimes attend. That means we are some days paying for staff that we don't really need.
In addition to that problem, we have MANY families who are not paying their Kid's Kamp bills. We have tried valiantly this year to get parents to pay what they owe, but it has been very difficult. We all know that money is tight, and I understand the dilemma for many families when they must choose whether to pay their rent or for food or to pay for Kid's Kamp. It is a situation that is much more complicated than what I know how to remedy. We have been searching for grants to support the program, but that is not currently something we can count on.
So...for next school year, we are changing the way Kid's Kamp works. Parents must enroll their children for the days they need extended care and pay for it in advance. We no longer can take drop ins when parents call the school to say their kids need to go to Kid's Kamp unless those kids are already enrolled. AND, we will only enroll children whose parents have paid their bills from this year.
These are challenging financial times for most everyone I know. I am concerned that our children who are the most vulnerable will suffer because of our struggles, and I weigh the responsibilities of providing a sound financially viable program with one that still keeps kids safe. If anyone has suggestions, I more than welcome them as we work to finalize details for next year's Kid's Kamp. So many children and families depend on this program, and I agree that money should not be taken out of the general fund to sustain it.
Libby Culver
Sounds like a great community project - "making Kids Kamp a self-reliant entity." I bet there are a lot of folks who could get behind that idea - Libby is obviously open to suggestions and partnerships (which she's been building over the past year).
I appreciate her forthright approach to the limitations of a public school system in "doing it all." Creating great options for children after the school day ends is a community priority (and personally I see it as a community responsibility, but I'm sure I'll have some opposition on that...) Check out the Master Plan for Children Youth and Families on the county's website.
http://co.laplata.co.us/admin/information.htm
Why don't we gather our best ideas for making sure all our children have safe, happy, interesting places to go to after school? Not just the lucky ones whose parents are currently able to juggle their lives to "do it all" --- but all the children ---in all the changing circumstances that are part of our lives in SW Colorado.
To change the subject and focus once again on Keith Owen, lets hope he can fix the mess Mary Barter has left in her wake. I am once again being forced into hiring legal council for our son because of the incompetence of 9-R and San Juan Board of Cooperative Services. They are as we speak asking us as parents to give up our rights and our son's right to summer maintenance of Assistive Technology Services and training They denied him this all school year and we were hoping to recoup this over the summer. Since 2006 we have asked and we were granted Services and Training for him due to his Specific Learning Disability. Since 2006 SJBOCES and 9-R are unwilling or unable to produce anyone who is qualified to train our son. We were also promised specific Scan and Read downloads for his personal computer which we just recently discovered were never downloaded this school year as promised and is also included on his IEP. Do they not get it? In my opinion, SJBOCES does nothing for our children with disabilities nor do they care. In my opinion we would be better off taking all the funds away from SJBOCES and putting this back into the schools and allowing the schools to provide the necessary services. SJBOCES expects the general ed teachers to do it all with minimal support presently. Why not admit this and keep it all within the schools?
I agree funds are limited. Why are they so quick to spend it on legal fees fighting the idea of helping children with Learning Disabilities?
Today's editorial in the Durango Herald is spot on. Anyone who has bothered to get to know Paddy Lynch knows full and well that he is not afraid of anyone's sensitivities and that he's an intelligent leader who will bring full transparency to core issues. He and Floyd Patterson arelikely the only members of the current board who are fully and willfully committed to our youngsters and their right to excellence in education.
Despite the fact that a qualified candidate has been hired into the position of superintendent, a great deal of work lies ahead if we are to resolve the grave issues left behind at 9-R by the culture of intimidation, secrecy and favoritism that has become entrenched at 9-R over the past several years.
It will take time for the community at large to become comfortable with re-engaging in their public school system. Many fear becoming involved or speaking out because of retribution. When you have a chid in the system and the system punishes families for positions other than those that correlate with the leader's agenda, it's little wonder that many families in the district have given up on effecting change. It's not that they don't care; it's that they are afraid.
My concern is that several members of the existing school board have no grasp of their responsibility for the future of 9-R in their capacity as board members. It is simply not enough to hire a superintendent and hope for the best. If Dr. Owens is to succeed, he needs a unified, engaged school board that is willing to work together on the serious issues left in the wake of the previous administration and a school board that isn't in denial about the existing problems or sensitive to those problems being discussed openly. As taxpayers and constituents of the district we deserve far better than school board members who foolishly resort to public chastising or referencing a recall election as a defense mechanism.
While some may not appreciate his methods, Paddy Lynch is a lone voice on the school board demanding that board members (and the community) wake up, get engaged and unify to perfect our public education system. I urge all board members to quit wearing your sensitivities on your sleeves, roll those sleeves up and take full advantage of the opportunities now upon us. If the same mistakes made with the previous administrator are repeated, the outcome will be similar or worse. Paddy is the lone board member at this point who sees that and is taking action to see that does not happen. Will it be easy? No. The answer does NOT lie in a board filled with infighting and castigation which will only further polarize the community and the 9-R staff. The answer lies in a board that consists of strong leadership and a willingness to take our public education system to a whole new level.
This school board needs to get over themselves and their egos and get on with the business at hand.
I know that when we moved here, and I earned the grand sum of $7 an hour ($13 less an hour than my London cleaning lady)....I could not afford Kids Time, so consequently, we did not use it.
I guess, parents need to decide whether they can afford to send their children there or not. If they can't, then they shouldn't.
The Boys and Girls Club still has space, and has a very affordable annual sign up fee. Perhaps those parents who cannot pay their bills should consider sending their children there.
The parents who still owe 9R money should perhaps be encouraged to fund raise the $13K (or whatever) is owed to the district. About 7 of us did a 3 month fund raise to send our children to the Durango Mountain Camp and we raised $26K in that short space of time and got to educate our dyslexic children that summer. I guess if I sound a little harsh Libby, it's because nobody gave me anything, and I have always found a way to take care of my own child without being indebted to 9R.
What you are doing for next year might seem uncaring, but it's not. It's a fact of doing business. Yes, some children will suffer, or perhaps their parents will realise that they need to take responsibility for their children too.
There's lots of things a family will buy every week that isn't necessary to life, so what's it to be?
Leesa -- I was writing that to you, then got over excited or something, and was (in my own mind and not very clear to the reader) writing it to the board....anyway, I know you have only ever supported Paddy, and wasn't suggesting you weren't.
$150K isn't a lot of money for a man with his experience and expertise. Plus, I don't know the mortgage requirements here (in England, one can only get a mortgage for 3 times your income) -- if it's the same in Colorado, then Keith Owens is going to be hard pushed to find a 5 bedroom home to house his family on $150K, given our property prices. A lot has gone up in the past 9 years since we hired Mary.
"He is like a stranger in a strange land, and must not complain if he be misjudged and misunderstood. But there are more and more of these people every year--they are coming in great quantities, and when they reach a sufficient number, this old earth will undergo a peaceful revolution. In that day man no longer will be content to enjoy luxury while his brother starves--he will not be able to oppress and exploit his own kind-- he will not be able to endure much that today is passed over without thought and feeling by the majority of people. And why will he not be able to do these things? may be asked by some. Simply because the man who has experienced this new consciousness has broken down the old feeling of separateness, and his brother's pain is felt by him--his brother's joy is experienced by him--he is in touch with others".
"The race today confronts great changes--the thousand straws floating through the air show from which direction the wind is coming, and whither it is blowing. The breeze is just beginning to be felt--soon it will grow stronger, and then the gale will come which will sweep before it much that man has thought to be built for ages. And after the storm man will build better things--things that will endure. Have you not noticed the signs--have you not felt the breeze? But, mark you this--the final change will come not from Hate, Revenge, or other unworthy motives--it will come as the result of a great and growing Love--a feeling that will convince men that they are akin; that the hurt of one is the hurt of all; that the joy of one is the joy of all-that all are One".
Hmmmmm. I just read that whilst Big O were rotating my tires, and I could not help but think of our school board. Peace to all.....
I guess people should watch DCAT or listen to the MP3 download of the 6/10 debriefing session to see who is "smirking" at whom for themselves, or who is whispering on mike and taking swipes at a board member who wants to revisit why we spent so much money on Hazard Young. "That's old" said one female nonchalantly, who I shall not name. The thing is, if it hasn't been explained properly or truthfully, then it's not yet old.
Also, one should check out the executive session tapes to hear whether or not board members said they wanted Mary to be a consultant, but alas, one cannot hear the executive session tapes, which is why it's so easy to say anything during executive session.
I remember they discussed the severe and violent beating my son got at DHS in executive session, but I was never invited and shall never be privy to the tapes, and sadly they forgot to send my son a note saying how sorry they were. They forgot to use it as a lesson to all at DHS too, to make sure The Lord of the Flies 30+ students watching my son get thrashed didn't happen to someone else's child. God forbid it happens to one of theirs though.
I don't mind my posts being deleted in 21st Century America, but I won't be silenced. I'm entitled to my opinion just like anyone else.
I remember my favorite politician Mark Larson telling me to publish a political cartoon of Dr. Barter and Dr. Jones, and one board member (the then president before he resigned dragging his fellow board members through the mud with him lest we forget) objected to the cartoon and begged me not to publish it in the Herald. I didn't and have always regretted it.
If I upset some, it's probably because there's truth in there somewhere.
I just got Jamie's ACT report, and although I'm not too sure how to read it, it looks like he failed miserably......it dropped from the 10th grade ACT test that he did. He used to be in the top 83% of the country for reading, and now he is in the bottom 15% of the country. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
I guess he had had a private Certified Academic Language Therapist tutor him up until the year prior, and this time round he has had no scientifically proven method of teaching for 3 years, and this could prove that a dyslexic student needs a scientifically proven method of teaching constantly.
Science was the same both times and Math dropped one point, despite 2 more years of teaching. What does this tell us?
I know it tells me that we failed to provide Jamie with a Free Appropriate Public Education, despite 2 more years of learning.
I want to say: Oh well. Because that's what the school board and the Administration have been saying to us since 1999.
Good job eh, that his Grandmother and Grandfather can buy his way in to a college. God help the rest of the dyslexics in Durango School District 9R though.
Not for lack of trying on my part.
Smile. Smile. Smile. British humour doesn't translate in America.
The purpose of the website (that led to this blog when a crisis arose in 2007) was to offer a safe community space for discourse. I am hopeful that in the coming era, when the atmosphere has cleared and information feedback loops are restored, things will change for the better. I would hope that we will find ourselves invited into deliberations about the schools we all own together and that we all work hard to make better - that when our varying opinions and ideas find space to be aired and tested through open and transparent venues, no one will feel the need to vent their often justifiable anger online. This space was offered as a structure that could be more interactive than the letters to the Herald. While I fully understand the passion and emotion behind postings that I removed earlier today, I would say, let's wait and see if things aren't 180 degrees different when Dr. Owen arrives. It seems that we are all working with different views of reality ... and personal attacks - in the midst of the confusion about 9-R politics - simply make everything worse, despite an intention to make things much, much better. We are living with the fall-out from years of a culture of secrecy. Everyone is a victim. But change is coming, very soon.
I know Bliss. Don't worry. The only thing I said that was wrong, was to use a word that means one thing in Great Britain (wimp) and another in the Good Ol' US of A. At least they read the blog, because I'm told they don't read my emails anyway.
Ha ha ha. I'm smiling. I'm smiling, because I have nothing to lose. All I have to do is get my son through one more year without being expelled, and as those that would wish that have now left the district, or would have by the time the 09 school year starts, I probably don't have too much to worry about. Everyone else in my son's life in 9R is in support of getting him through. All his teachers and his principal, two vice principals and some in Administration and BOCES are rooting for him. That counts for something.
The fact he will fail miserably due to lack of a scientifically proven method of teaching is neither here nor there. He is a smart young man, with a good concept of success on his shoulders, so Mary and the boards lack of doing anything during the elementary and middle school years (and still doing nothing of value with regards to providing an "appropriate" education for a dyslexic in high school), doesn't matter to me any more. Other parents can take up the fight, but the good news is -- is that Keith Owens knows how to educate children who cannot learn to read, write and spell through regular educational methods, so future parents can just be parents and not have to pretend to have an interest in the school board.
Am I bitter? I'm not sure. I think I am just disappointed with their attitude. Like they don't have to be board members, I don't have to "pretend" I'm interested in the meetings. As much as they want to resign because they don't "need" this aggravation, I only went all these years because I held on to some faint belief that one day, someone in a position of power would do something within our district that would allow for these children to get an education.
As it is, I don't need the aggravation either. I do this because I can, and I can remember the truth when they peddle the make believe.
I changed state law, and just recently, another mother changed state law to enforce that our school district's will be MADE to train our teachers instead of the Administration just pretending they have a scientifically proven method of teaching under their belts. It just recently got signed into effect. (HB1223).
It's not the teachers fault, it was the lack of funds and lack of vision, but thanks to my friend up north, our district will have to pony up the funds after all and Dr. Owens certainly has Vision with a capital V. He was doing this when I was down in the gutter begging our district to do it.
Too late for my son, but then I knew that when we entered 4th grade.
I only respect four members of the current board, and three prior members, so I don't have to pretend those people are my friends. They don't owe me anything, and I don't owe them anything. They stopped earning my respect years ago, when they treated us with disdain.
Yours,
A Usual Suspect
from The Peanut Gallery sitting with the Naysayers and Critics.
Of course, we are just passionate parents who care about education and Dr Owens knows that and will embrace us when he gets here. I'm not afraid of those who insist on you removing my posts. They haven't listened for years when I've had anything constructive to say, so it's funny that they only complain when they get offended by how I view them.
And yes, the one who complained to you today, is as guilty as the others because she laughs at the "names" bestowed upon us. No wonder nobody else in the community bothers to attend board meetings, and my Ah Ha moment will be to see the refreshing changes that Dr Owens will bring to our district. Not a moment too late.
It's as thankless a job being a parent who cares, as it is being a school board member, eh? We just don't get to "resign" over it though, we have to struggle on through whilst those that can make change don't.
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