Archive for category Davenport Community School District
Davenport prepares for next year’s budget
Posted by Sheena Dooley in Davenport Community School District, Uncategorized on November 3rd, 2009
School board members in the Davenport School District talked briefly during Monday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting about next year’s budget, along with the current $7.6 million in state funding cuts they are dealing with.
Next year, school officials are saying there’s a good possibility the state will not increase in funding and may instead hand down further reductions.
In its budget planning, Davenport board members asked administrators to develop a list of general fund expenses, broken down into three categories: core services, standard services and enhanced services.
Core services are necessary expenses that allow the district to meet federal, state or local laws. Standard services go above what laws requires and have become standard offerings. Finally, enhanced services are not required but enhance district services.
Board members will use the list, which is far from being finalized, as they prioritize funding for next year’s budget.
The board asked administrators to further define the three areas. Board members will submit their input on whether the items listed under each category belongs there to the administration in the near future.
I’d be interested to hear what parents and community members think?
Davenport schools change calendar
Posted by Sheena Dooley in Davenport Community School District, Rock Island-Milan School District, Uncategorized on May 26th, 2009
For the first time ever, students in the Davenport School District will finish first semester classes before Christmas break under the newly-approved 2009-10 traditional calendar.
This year students took an almost two-week winter break and returned with 10 days left in the first semester. High school educators and students have said they barely have a chance to get back into the swing of things and they have to take finals, which makes the exams more difficult.
More than 65 percent of parents recently polled said they supported the change. The district was able to move up the semester end date by having slightly fewer attendance days in the first two quarters, while the second two will have additional days.
District officials made the change without having to start school much earlier in August, which was a topic of debate more than two years ago.
Student conduct
Posted by Sheena Dooley in Davenport Community School District, Uncategorized on May 20th, 2009
Students in Des Moines who participate in athletics or other extracurricular activities will have to abide by stricter rules of conduct next school year.
According to the Des Moines Register, school board members approved a new discipline policy that bans students in extracurricular activities from drinking alcohol even if they have parental permission or are in a country where teens can legally drink. The rules hold students accountable all year.
For the most part, the changes bring Des Moines more inline with Iowa’s other large districts. However, the new rules set the district apart from its peers by allowing school officials to comb social networking sites, such as Facebook or MySpace, for evidence of misbehavior.
Davenport School District has a good conduct rule written into its policies that bans students from using alcohol, among other things. According to Laura Bozarth, spokeswoman for the district, students in extracurricular activities must follow the rules year-round no matter where they are at. If a student is around an illegal activity but not partaking, they can also be disciplined, she said.
The district, however, does not use social networking sites to investigate student behavior.
Swine flu and schools
Posted by Sheena Dooley in Davenport Community School District, Uncategorized on May 5th, 2009
Davenport School District officials sent a letter home to parents this week regarding measures they are taking to prevent the spread of the swine flu. Much of their efforts match what other local districts are doing: increasing hand washing and sanitization of classrooms and buses, as well as urging parents to keep their children home if they have any symptoms.
However, it was the first time I had heard of a Quad-City school district allowing parents to send a face mask with their child to wear during class.
The Iowa Department of Education released guidance Friday for how schools should prevent, prepare and deal with the H1N1 virus, or swine flu. It included the closure of buildings for up to 14 days if there are confirmed or probable cases.
So far, only the Marshalltown Community School District has shuttered all of its schools.
The state’s guidance to close schools came at the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, that may soon be changing.
The Washington Post reported today the acting director of the federal agency said the virus was already well-established in communities where schools had reported cases, meaning the closure of schools wasn’t working as a preventative measure.
Update: Federal officials are now reversing their earlier guidance, saying “CDC has modified its policy to recommend implementation of measure that focus on keeping all students, faculty and staff with symptoms of influenza out of schools and childcare facilities during their period of illness and recuperation, when they are potentially infectious to others.”
I’d be interested to hear how local parents and residents feel about the issue of closing schools because of the swine flu.
Public information comes at a cost
Posted by Sheena Dooley in Davenport Community School District on May 1st, 2009
Almost a month ago, I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Davenport School District asking for copies of all materials related to a July 2009 training trip 113 teachers and administrators were taking to Atlanta. Taxpayers are footing the bill.
In my request, I asked them to let me know upfront of any costs to fulfill the request. After more than a week, the district sent its response: it would cost almost $2,500 to give me the information.
Here’s a breakdown of the cost: $200 for four hours of the curriculum director’s time, $128 dollars for eight hours of her assistant’s time, $1,800 for 40 hours of principals’ time, $260 for 20 hours of secretaries’ time. Add to that another $100 in copying fees and you get a grand total of $2,488.
So, basically, if anyone walked into the office and requested this information, the district would charge them the same amount.
Joe Quinn, a lawyer with the Iowa Newspaper Association, said Davenport is operating within the open records law, which allows them to charge “reasonable amounts.”
He did question the copying expense, saying it seemed high. So I called around and found that other places, such as Hawkeye Printing (the Quad-City Times commercial printing division), charge as little as 5 cents a page. And they said it would be much cheaper for 1,000 pages.
Quinn said, “You are seeing it more and more. Entities don’t want to cooperate and governments that don’t take seriously the people’s right to know and have access. They have forgotten who pays their salaries.”
You are seeing it more and more. Entities that don’t want to cooperate. Govt bodies that don’t take seriously the people’s right to know and have access. I think they have forgotten who pays their salaries.”
To be fair, I ended up requesting a copy of information given to board members regarding the trip, which is estimated to cost more than $113,000. The district provided the documents free of charge.