Contents of this issue:
- GRPS board votes 'no confidence' in union; won't collect dues
- Thirty Michigan high schools on Newsweek's top school list
- Comstock Park teacher suspended but not fired
- Oakland County-area Catholic schools grow
- Home-schoolers: Legal battle was worth it
GRPS BOARD VOTES 'NO CONFIDENCE' IN UNION; WON'T COLLECT DUES
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Board of Education took a
vote of "no-confidence" in the teachers' union and has refused
to collect union dues from teachers, according to The Grand
Rapids Press.
The board says that the Grand Rapids Education Association has
failed to take into consideration the district's financial
situation while bargaining, The Press reported.
"The GREA leadership is blind if they cannot see the fiscal
realities facing this district and the state," board President
Kenneth Hoskins said in a prepared statement, according to The
Press.
The vote of no-confidence is strictly symbolic, but the board
has refused to collect union dues from teachers' paychecks,
about $57,000 every two weeks. The matter can be negotiated as a
part of contract talks. The board did pass a resolution praising
the "dedication and professionalism" of teachers, who have
worked without a contract since the fall. The board made the
vote after a failed meeting with a state mediator late last
week. The union and district are still about $4 million apart
with their respective contract proposals.
SOURCE:
The Grand Rapids Press, "Grand Rapids school board votes 'no
confidence' in teachers union leaders,"
May 23, 2008
http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/05/grand_rapids_school_board_vote.html
FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "A Collective Bargaining
Primer," Feb. 28, 2008
http://www.mackinac.org/8258
THIRTY MICHIGAN HIGH SCHOOLS ON NEWSWEEK'S TOP SCHOOL LIST
DETROIT — Thirty Michigan high schools made Newsweek's ranking
of the best high schools in the country, according to the
Detroit Free Press.
The news magazine ranked the top 1,300 high schools largely by
measuring the number of students who take Advanced Placement,
International Baccalaureate and Cambridge tests. The highest
ranked school in Michigan was the International Academy in
Bloomfield Hills, which placed 12th, the Free Press reported.
Other Michigan high schools and their rankings include: Grosse
Pointe South, 356; Bloomfield Andover, 377; Troy, 545; Berkley,
575; Birmingham Groves, 641; Farmington, 759; Bloomfield Lahser,
822; Birmingham Seaholm, 875; Grosse Pointe North, 882; Walled
Lake Central, 927; Farmington Hills Harrison, 986; Troy Athens,
1,026; Chippewa Valley Dakota, 1,060; North Farmington, 1,147;
West Bloomfield, 1,162; Novi, 1,186; Northville, 1,189; Walled
Lake Northern, 1,267 and Redford Thurston, 1,290.
SOURCE:
Detroit Free Press, "30 Michigan high schools make list of
nation's best," May 19, 2008
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/NEWS06/80519054
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "Black River Public School: One of
the Nation's Best,"
Nov. 21, 2006
http://www.educationreport.org/8034
COMSTOCK PARK TEACHER STILL TEACHING; SUSPENDED BUT NOT FIRED
COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. — A Comstock Park teacher charged with
drunken driving and providing alcohol to minors is still
teaching, according to WOOD TV.
James Idziak was also suspended without pay on two separate
occasions, WOOD TV reported. In 2002 he was suspended for three
days after entering a girls' locker room while students were
changing, followed a few girls into a bathroom stall after they
ran from him and gave them a group hug. The current
superintendent said that the teacher's tenure prevented any
additional disciplinary action, WOOD TV reported.
"It's amazing to me that because you have tenure you can get
away with so much," the parent of a student to whom Idziak
provided alcohol told WOOD TV.
According to Kent County Education Association official Mike
Stevens, the district could have argued for termination after
that series of events. Stevens said a lack of evidence prevented
the district from going forward with termination proceedings,
according to WOOD TV.
SOURCE:
WOOD TV, "Why wasn't Comstock Park teacher fired after locker
room incident?" May 21, 2008
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8362790&nav=menu44_2
FURTHER READING:
Michigan School Databases, "Contract Agreement between the
Comstock Park School Board and the Comstock Park Educational
Employees Association," March 3, 2008
http://www.mackinac.org/archives/epi/contracts/41080_2010-08-31_CPEEA _KCEA_MEA_E_X.PDF
OAKLAND COUNTY-AREA CATHOLIC SCHOOLS GROW
WATERFORD, Mich. — As Catholic schools across the country,
including in Detroit, are closing and facing decreasing
enrollment, many schools are being built or expanded in the
northern and western parts of Oakland County, according to
Spinal Column Online.
Nationwide, Catholic school enrollment has decreased by 14
percent since 2000. The Archdiocese of Detroit has experienced a
33 percent decrease in enrollment over the past 10 years and a
22 percent decrease since 2002-2003. This decrease in enrollment
is represented by the closing of five elementary schools and two
high schools since last year, Spinal Column Online reported.
"While these regions were populated by high concentrations of
Catholic immigrants arriving in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, significant demographic changes have occurred in
these areas in the latter part of the last century," Tamra Hull,
director of marketing for Catholic Schools at the Archdiocese of
Detroit, told Spinal Column Online. "In the last decade, it has
become increasingly more difficult for dioceses to continue to
provide the substantial financial assistance required to keep
the schools open with modest tuition and reasonable compensation
for the teachers."
Despite this trend, a handful of Catholic schools will be
opening in Oakland County and surrounding areas. An all-girls
high school, St. Catherine of Siena Academy, is slated to open
in Wixom in the fall of 2009. Another single-gender school,
Everest Academy High School, will open in Clarkston. Additionally, Austin Catholic Academy is being built in northern
Macomb County and also has a tentative opening set for the fall
of 2009. Another number of Oakland County-area Catholic schools
are seeing increasing enrollments and renovating to expand their
facilities, according to Spinal Column Online.
SOURCE:
Spinal Column Online, "Area Catholic schools bucking trend of
declining enrollment," May 21, 2008
http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/Articles-i-2008-05-21-55320.113117_ Area_Catholic_schools_bucking_national_trend_of_declining_enrollment.html
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "Detroit-area Catholic schools look
to future," Nov. 21, 2006
http://www.mackinac.org/8028
HOME-SCHOOLERS: LEGAL BATTLE WAS WORTH IT
MIDLAND, Mich. — Chris DeJonge was in her second week of home
schooling when the knock on the door came. She opened it to find
two local officials who informed her that her children were
truants and that she and her husband were breaking the law by
teaching them at home.
What she and her husband didn't know in that autumn of 1984 was
that their case would eventually reach the Michigan Supreme
Court and that a ruling in their favor would pave the way for
some of this country's least-restrictive home-school laws.
Nearly 15 years to the day after that ruling, the DeJonges spent
a recent Saturday morning talking to Michigan Education Report
about their years in and out of the legal system. Now residents
of Shelbyville, in rural western Michigan, Mark DeJonge is a
commercial construction manager and Chris DeJonge is completing
another year of teaching her five youngest children.
SOURCE:
Michigan Education Report, "Fifteen years later, home-schoolers
say legal battle was worth it," May 27, 2008
http://www.educationreport.org
FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "Should home-schoolers
beware?" May 12, 2000
http://www.mackinac.org/9366
Michigan Education Report, "Pioneering new methods in education:
Jackson home-schoolers share resources, knowledge," Sept. 6,
2006
http://www.educationreport.org/7911
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