John Hakes for Mounds View School Board '15

When a concerned parent shared her educationally-trained daughter’s challenge of obtaining a career mentoring opportunity with Mounds View High School students, Dr. Jeffrey Ridlehoover–the school’s first-year principal– listened intently before sliding his business card across the table with a recommendation: “Have her give me a call,” the principal said.

The half-dozen parents on hand for the conversation who had done most of the talking to that point suddenly took notice.  As an award-winning researcher with a teaching background in chemistry, Ridlehoover is open about the importance of staff staying student-centered, by living the motto that “everything we do should ultimately be for the student.”

To that end, the principal is a strong believer in making classroom observations, which he devotes large blocks of time each week to performing.  Given his background in math & science, Ridlehoover spends the bulk of his own time in those settings, while other administrators cover additional courses.

“At first, people would say, ‘Hi, Dr. Ridlehoover’ when I stopped by the classrooms, but I told them to just go about their work, so they’ve gotten used to it.”  More than a neutral observer, however, Ridlehoover explained what he looks for in each classroom:  “Learning targets” are the primary emphasis, the principal said, adding that he believes each teacher’s responsibility is to determine whether each student achieved the target for that class period.

From there, it is the work of teachers and administrators to determine if those learning targets are properly aligned with assessments and state standards.  “We (educators) haven’t always done that very well,” Ridlehoover admitted in response to a parent citing a disconnect between science curriculum components she’s seen over several years.

With teacher communication hours having become a hot topic since the Mounds View District did away with the traditional conferences a year ago, Mounds View High School continues to experiment with models that meet the needs of families and staff members alike.  Besides instructors’ individually-set office hours, next Thursday, October 10th, staff members will be available between 7 and 9 p.m. to host drop-in discussions about specific student issues.  This offering was made to help families condense the number of trips they need to make to meet with a particular student’s set of instructors.  (Note: this Communication Night is not intended to replace the Curriculum Survey night begun last year.  That event is likely to be scheduled for a later date.)

The Conversations with the Principal and new Communication Night both fold nicely into an overall theme of “letting people see what we do” that Dr. Ridlehoover is cultivating at Mounds View High School. 

At MVHS, the opening of windows is not limited to classroom observations: “To us, high school is not about “checking a box,” said Ridlehoover.  The principal said the school’s “whole goal is to give people options” for discovering what fits their interests and abilities.

Skip the commentary & cut to the chase, if you like.

Minnesota’s Office of the Revisor of Statutes issued the statutes reflecting law changes passed by the 2013 MN Legislature today, including Section 120B.11, the centerpiece of this board campaign.

Officially titled School District Process for Reviewing Curriculum, Instruction and Student Achievement; Striving for the World’s Best Workforce, the new law requires the state’s school boards to adopt, at a public meeting, comprehensive, long-term strategic plans to support and improve teaching & learning that is aligned with creating the world’s best workforce.

Also per Subd. 2, local boards are granted authority to identify the strengths and weaknesses of instruction in pursuit of student and school success, as well as the curriculum affecting students’ progress toward college & career readiness.

The Mounds View Schools’ 2013-14 comprehensive review of the middle school program (as stated in its District Operational Plan) would represent a good first step toward the implementation of the kind of plan the Minnesota Legislature expects from school districts.

Board-adopted strategic plans are also expected to include education effectiveness practices that integrate technology, among other things.  For 13-14, the District dropped its integration of technology to a secondary goal, but it is a position of this campaign it should remain a high priority goal.  At present, the Mounds View district permits student use of technological devices for educational purposes decided on by classroom teachers, who also employ technology to varying degrees in instruction.

What the district seems to lack, however, is a comprehensive approach for students to acquire the technological skills employers are calling for in the 21st century workplace.

Good news: As referenced in the YouTube video defining this campaign, the Mounds View district once utilized the kind of model being emphasized by the MN Legislature.  Approximately 1988-90, Supt. Burt Nygren and the Board designed a structure that tapped the expertise of both educators and community, similar to the District Advisory Committees 120B.11, Subd. 3 recommends that school districts create.

Apparently, Mounds View has a tradition of doing things ahead of its time.

A bottom line from all this: if elected to the Mounds View School Board, John Hakes would attempt to nudge the Mounds View School District back to the future by following the new, college & career critical  MN Statute 120B.11.

The analysis is complete.  As a vote “yes” resident each time the Mounds View district has put a referendum on the ballot in the last 15 years, the same is true for the 2013 ballot measure– both as a citizen and as a formal position of Hakes for Mounds View School Board ’13.

To arrive at the campaign position, I needed to push past the subjective emotion of wanting the best for students to the reach the objective basis of financial stewardship.   My years of financial experience required nothing less.

From a variety of angles, the request to ask voters to extend the existing operating levy is a reasonable one:

1. It is only an operating levy, not a capital expenditure or other type of special levy.
2. Compared to many other districts, 621 has been modest re: both teacher pay and facilities use.  Unlike other districts, the only increase District 621 will see is in the 1.5% per year rise in the per pupil allotment provided by the state.
3. The  Association of Metropolitan Area School Districts accepts the plausibility of Mounds View being the only metropolitan district not asking for an increase.
4. Key business leaders do not object to the district request.
5. With Ramsey County having certified a zero increase in the 2014 county property tax levy, 621 taxpayers are likely to see their overall property tax bill remain constant for the first time in years.
6. The Mounds View Schools have had sound financial leadership and unqualified independent audit reports.

With that, it’s ‘six on one hand’ and …  fewer on the other.  One anti-levy faction suggests the District should wait until 2014 to consider it, after the repayment of previously borrowed state monies has begun.  (This year’s ballot question deals with an $11 million annual amount that doesn’t expire until the end of 2014.)

For the record, however, this campaign supports the levy measure, and the effort by Neighbors United to bring about its passage.

With less than 6 weeks until the November 5th election, here is a video providing this campaign’s basic platform:

Feel free to comment on and/or share with others as you choose.

(This post has not been updated to reflect 2015 circumstances.)

‘Got a scheduling conflict’ that will prevent you from casting your school board/city ballot on Tuesday, November 5th?

For those who do, mail-in, absentee voting is now available– per Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s office.  As I will be serving as an election judge for a separate school district election in Hugo on Nov. 5 (legally of course), my absentee ballot application is in the mail.  The application contains only a handful of boxes to fill in, making it almost as simple as signing the Voter roll on Election Day.  Two thresholds for utilizing mail-in, absentee method are absence from precinct and illness or disability.

With the exception of voters residing in New Brighton who have citywide elections, Mounds View district voters will be asked to vote on this operating levy ballot question and to select 3 board members from a set of 4 candidates.

9/25 Addendum: The official absentee ballot arrived in the mail today, just 48 hours after sending in the absentee ballot application. Completing the process is straightforward … even interesting, as there are two envelopes the ballot is placed (one to keep vote secret and the second to keep identifying information confidential) before it goes into a large, self-addressed envelope that is sent to Ramsey County Elections for tabulation.

From who does the ballot remain secret?  The voter’s witness, of course– which can be a spouse or any other registered voter– and is one who must vouch for the voter’s identity prior to placing it in the next envelope.  We’ll keep you posted on the rest of the process as it occurs.

9/30 Secretary of State Update: Per the absentee ballot lookup function on line at the SOS office: “Your ballot was received on September 30, 2013 and will be counted.”

Seeing as the absentee ballot application was initially sent on 9/23, the entire process of sending for, receiving & registering a completed ballot was exactly one week.  Excellent!

A Look Ahead: Starting in January 2014, voters in Ramsey County will no longer be required to provide a reason why they are voting by absentee ballot. The Minnesota Legislature approved no excuse absentee voting during the 2013 session.

On Tuesday, Sept. 10th, I took part in an important privilege for Mounds View School Board candidates– the candidate meeting with the Superintendent. Throughout this one-to-one conversation, Supt. Hoverman proved thoughtful and forthright, and I was particularly pleased when he referred to me as very knowledgeable, involved, a supporter of the district, and one who has the credibility to run for the school board– before recognizing the “headache” and the “heartache” that go into it.

Being the only non-incumbent in the race also provided an opportunity to seek clarification on a question around an academic grading policy the Mounds View District has adopted– that being the inclusion of mathematics grades earned at the Intermediate Algebra level and higher on district students’ official high school transcripts.

Background: 2012-13 marked the first year Mounds View middle school students taking Intermediate Algebra or higher had their grades entered on their official high school transcripts.  This practice raises student equity issues between Mounds View students and their Top 10 Metro District peers– since the possibility of grade point average or performance on a specific course– could eventually factor into a college admission decision. 

Based on the input of several parents with the same concern (and were unable to achieve a response through other channels) I asked the Superintendent (1) how the policy was arrived at and (2) what other comparable districts saw fit to use the same practice.

Supt. Hoverman responded  this decision was produced by what is known as the “I Cabinet.”  (The I Cabinet is a group of director and assistant director level administrators who work in curriculum, instruction, assessment, evaluation, and student services– none of whom is a part of the formal 4-person superintendent cabinet.)

At some point last school year, the I Cabinet determined that a high school level course (Intermediate Algebra is seen as 9th grade math) ought to be factored into the high school transcript, and parents were notified of this decision mid-school year. Per the Superintendent, the School Board had no involvement in this development, nor would this decision appear anywhere in a Board policy manual.

Since there appeared to be no additional rationale for this significant change, evidence of   other top-performing districts (e.g. Edina, Eden Prairie, Rosemount/Apple Valley Eagan)  using this grading practice was requested.

Per followup by the Superintendent on 9/13, no other districts have been identified that include middle school math courses in students’ high school GPA calculations.  Additionally, Supt. Hoverman said the issue had been placed on the October agenda of the Curriculum Advisory Committee.  Here is a link from which you should be able to directly apply for participation in that committee: http://tinyurl.com/k5qlrsp.

A majority of Minnesotans favor raising the minimum wage, legalizing marijuana for medically-prescribed purposes, and conducting background checks on firearms purchased at gun shows, while more people than not (3 to 1 margin) also believe that graduating MN students ought to achieve cut scores in certain subjects for a diploma. (See annual poll conducted by the MN House Information Office at the just concluded MN State Fair as summarized by Politics in Minnesota.)

Being a candidate in an explicitly non partisan race, I honor the set of ideologically-mixed views expressed by 2013 visitors to the fair’s education building.  Were I to be elected to the Mounds View school board, any inputs I would make would keep the spirit of nonpartisanship by evaluating topics and issues on a case-by-case basis.

But while there are certainly pros and cons to the “cut-score” debate, the Minnesota Legislature has spoken, the result of which is a new, 2013 state statute the Revisor’s office believes will be publicly issued September 30th.

Because the Mounds View District performs at a higher level than most in the metropolitan area, the lack of cut scores for graduation shouldn’t be as critical an issue, as it would– say– for a weaker school district where a greater percentage of students are “on the bubble” regarding the extent to which they are college or career ready at graduation.

Note: In case you are not familiar with the exams affected, the pre-2013 legislative session GRAD (cut score) exams included the 9th grade writing, the 10th grade reading MCA, and the 11th grade mathematics MCA exam.  As explained in the “On Writing” tab of this site,  the future of the writing exam at Mounds View is in doubt, while the reading and math MCAs will continue to be administered at the grade levels previously provided– but no specific score on them will be required to obtain a diploma.

(Heads-up: This piece is essentially a prompt designed to increase your understanding about the common core standards recently integrated into the MCA III reading exam  administered in April 2013.  Enjoy!)

The Minnesota Department of Education has released the results of Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments taken by students during the 2012-13 academic year.  While statewide performance on math assessments stayed about the same compared to 2011-12 figures, most districts and grade levels saw a 15 to 20% drop in reading scores– a condition state officials attribute largely to the transition to the Common Core State Standards Initiative whose English standards were adopted in by Minnesota in 2010, but not required to be implemented until the 12-13 school year.  (Per data found at the link above, the relative change in performance by Mounds View District students was in line with the statewide trend.)

In case you are unfamiliar with the Common Core Initiative, here are a few resources you may find useful:

1. Minnesota math, reading scores slip, but science proficiency up slightly, as printed by TwinCities.com on 8/26/13.

2. Minnesota and the Common Core Standards, as published by the Minnesota Department of Education.

3. Common Questions About the Common Core Standards, as written by John Hakes in a blog post that has received over 6,000 page views since April, 2011.

And for the extremely wonky:

4.  An hour-long webinar  titled Reading Assessment for a New Era and the Common Core State Standards.

Not only should the drop in students’ proficiency level dispel– once and for all– any question about the Common Core Standards State Initiative for English being sufficiently rigorous, but the near uniform decrease in reading proficiency scores clearly means a new bar has been set for districts & schools to gear their reading programs toward.

One very plausible explanation for student’s fresh struggles on the reading exam is that the reading exam covers the new disciplinary contexts of History/Social Studies and Science/Technical, in addition to the more traditional (but also evolving) Literature content.

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Note: Because the math portion of the MCA’s converted to computer administration, and since the MCA’s are the diagnostic tool to which the lifting of the Graduation requirement (during the 2013 Omnibus Education Bill) applies– this post will be categorized under  campaign objectives 1, 2, and 3.

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