I woke at 5am this morning wanting to leap from bed and jumping into the enormity of responsibility that lay in wait for me today. I was frozen. The dog lay across my feet. And Evan was using my chest for a pillow. My muscles ached from yesterday’s races through the obstacle course and longed to stretch or have me move about; however, there is no better feeling than the love of wife, children and pets. I convinced myself that, if I moved from the bed, Evan was certain to squirm out of it to the floor, so for his protection, I slept in! Yeah.. that’s it..
Year: 2007
How to save $87.5 million per year
Abstain from abstinence-only education. You be the judge.
From the mouths of babes
With a slow creak, Molly lets herself back into the house but fails to close the door. Someone needs to train that dog!
Evan: "Uh oh." As he runs to the door, he exclaims, "Ess OP een" and closes the door for Molly. Evan feels capable and important.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: Why won’t they let me sleep!
Master: They want to share your dreams.
Heroes txt msg
U r amazing. The codes have been cracked, but that is only the beginning. My website has more instructions. Read t
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Has anyone won anything on Blingo lately?
Our household use to average a Blingo movie ticket or iTunes gift card at least once a month. We haven’t won anything for about 3 or 4 months now. Did PCH destroy Blingo (which now claims to have $1000 Thursdays) or has it just become that popular that the odds of winning dramatically reduced?
On a side note, you can sure tell it is a Friday afternoon in the blogosphere. Comments on No Silence are dwindling down. Of course, it looks like Michael might have two simultaneous threads running. I suppose all that needs to be said has been said but I don’t believe that.
School Performance: Apples to Apples
Would you like to know how your new school performs compares to others? Visit SchoolMatters and follow these steps:
- Enter the name of a school that interests you.
- Select the appropriate school and click "Add to favorites"
- Click "My Favorites"
- Select 5 schools to compare. Then click "Compare up to 5".
- Enjoy the results. Click everything because much data is beneath the table!
You should end up with these results but if you click on the school names and others areas of the table (not mine..your results found at SchoolMatters) you will receive a wealth of information and charts.
| School | Reading | Math | ACT Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin East | 73.9 | 61.7 | 17.4 |
| Bearden | 97.8 | 94.1 | 23.3 |
| Farragut | 97.9 | 93.5 | 23.7 |
| Powell | 90.6 | 89.4 | 21.1 |
| West | 87.5 | 82.6 | 22.1 |
| Fulton | 83.9 | 77.6 | 18.3 |
| Gibbs | 87.0 | 80.6 | 20.3 |
| Halls | 90.4 | 89.2 | 22.0 |
| Karns | 92.7 | 95.2 | 21.4 |
| South Doyle | 85.1 | 79.6 | 20.7 |
| Carter | 90.3 | 87.0 | 20.0 |
| Central | 88.6 | 86.5 | 21.6 |
| Data provided by SchoolMatters, a service of Standard and Poor’s. | |||
I have a rezoning plan!
My proposal would be based on distance from the school. Rezone with a 10 mile diameter (or other appropriate number). If you fall in one circle then that is the school you attend. If you fall within more than one circle you get to participate in open enrollment based on available slots in the school of choice. If you are in no circle you can participate in open enrollment county wide but with transportation provided only to the nearest circular zone.
What of socio-economic fairness? It will work out naturally. What of population densities? I don’t have data on that but dollars to donuts, it too will pan out. I am not suggesting that this be the plan. I suggest this type of basis to begin a plan would make better sense than what Mullins is proposing.
Update: Brian Hornback points out that some of the circles stretch outside of Knox County. He’s right that I never intended to imply that other counties would come into the Knox County system. I see I also completely overlooked Central.
Update: What of natural barriers like rivers? I suppose that if you had to bus through a school zone that you were not zoned for in order to circumvent that natural barrier, then you would also be considered for that other school zone (for instance, West on the South Doyle side of the river).
On obligations
I have to let someone down today. I just cannot figure out who.
How are people feeling about the rezoning?
Michael Silence has a poll online. Add your opinion! At the time of this post, 39% of responders said "accept it" while 61% opposed the plan (36% tweak it; 25% scrap it). The percentages at this time were based upon 28 votes.
Do Bearden High School and West perform the same?
No. So, does this mean my children’s college opportunities have been reduced? Data from SchoolMatters a service of Standard and Poor’s.
More info on Bearden and West.
|
|
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Student Proficiency on State Tests – 2005 |
||||||
|
|
97.8 | 87.5 | ||||
|
Math Proficiency (%) |
94.1 | 82.6 | ||||
|
Reading and Math Proficiency (RaMP) (%) |
96.1 | 85.2 | ||||
|
Reading Proficiency by Subgroup (%) – 2005 |
||||||
|
All Students |
97.8 | 87.5 | ||||
|
White |
98.3 | 89.2 | ||||
|
|
90.9 | 83.1 | ||||
|
|
100.0 | 90.0 | ||||
|
|
100.0 | n.a. | ||||
|
American Indian/Alaska Native |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Multi-Racial |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Female |
98.7 | 88.7 | ||||
|
|
97.1 | 86.3 | ||||
|
|
91.8 | 74.7 | ||||
|
|
98.5 | 95.9 | ||||
|
English Language Learners |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Students with Disabilities |
85.4 | 33.9 | ||||
|
|
98.9 | 95.7 | ||||
|
|
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
94.1 | 82.6 | ||||
|
|
94.4 | 85.5 | ||||
|
Black |
95.3 | 73.6 | ||||
|
Hispanic |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Asian/Pacific Islander |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
American Indian/Alaska Native |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Multi-Racial |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Female |
94.1 | 83.1 | ||||
|
Male |
94.4 | 82.2 | ||||
|
Economically Disadvantaged |
87.8 | 63.2 | ||||
|
Non-Disadvantaged |
95.1 | 92.6 | ||||
|
English Language Learners |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Students with Disabilities |
67.4 | 27.7 | ||||
|
Non-Disabled Students |
97.3 | 95.6 | ||||
|
Migrant |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
|
||||||
|
ACT – Average Score |
23.3 | 22.1 | ||||
|
ACT – Participation Rate (%) |
70.8 | 61.4 | ||||
|
Classroom Profile – 2004 |
||||||
|
Enrollment |
1,911 | 1,339 | ||||
|
School Facts |
||||||
|
Address |
8352 Kingston Parkway | 3326 Sutherland Avenue | ||||
|
City or Town |
Knoxville | Knoxville | ||||
|
|
Knox | Knox | ||||
|
|
Knox County School District | Knox County School District | ||||
|
Telephone Number |
(865)539-7800 | (865)594-4477 | ||||
|
Urban Status |
Mid-Size City | Mid-Size City | ||||
|
Grade Levels Served |
9-12 | 9-12 |
Online Forums Have an Inherent Problem
The problem with online forums is that you cannot tell if the commenter is a child or a Republican.
Rezoning unopposed: Why are we here?
As a reminder, if you do not have children, this decision by the school board could impact your property value. If you have young children, they will be in high school sooner than you think, and this rezoning will likely be a model for the middle school and elementary rezoning which will follow soon.
On Aug 3 2006, Sam Anderson ran unopposed for the School Board 1st District, Dan Murphy ran unopposed for the School Board 4th District, Thomas A Deakins beat H Lee Martin by 372 votes for the School Board 6th District, Rex Stooksbury ran unopposed for the School Board 7th District, and Robert Bratton ran unopposed for the School Board 9th District. I am not sure about the other districts.
According to two commenters on No Silence Here, at least one school board member’s neighborhood seemed to escape rezoning. (can anyone verify this? are there others?)
Isn’t it amazing that Karen Carson’s neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods are no longer in the rezoning area????????? Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Gee, what a coincidence. [Source]
I noticed that Chairwoman Karen Carson’s neighborhood did not get rezoned to either Bearden or Hardin Valley even though the area is sandwiched between those being rezoned. Just curious if any school board members’ neighborhoods are being rezoned? [Source]
Are we, the people, being properly represented by our elected officials or have these elected officials found an easy way to serve their own best interests? Seems to me that if I had the foresight to want to greatly influence this rezoning that I should have simply run for the School Board. If the majority of the people do not want this rezoning approved and it happens anyway, then the democratic process is failing and we, the people, need to remove the elected officials from their duties and replace them with officials that will better represent the people’s wishes.
Now we beg the question, what does the majority want?
From the mouths of babes
Amy, 4 years old: "I’m having a heart attack."
How many police reports does a school file?
I saw a website once that allowed you to search out your child’s school and find out how many police reports that school filed each year. Now I can’t find it. Is anyone else familiar with such a site?
