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Schools

ABC School Board Faces New Changes In Brown's Budget

The ABC School Board has learned of the governor's "May Revisions" to the recently proposed school board budget.

On May 16, the ABC School Board discussed updates on the budget for the upcoming school year. Dealing with another blow from Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal, the district faces the May revision of the upcoming budget.

Budget Updates

Chief Financial Officer, Toan Nguyen, said the state deficit has increased from $9.2 billion to $15.7 billion for the 2012-2013 school year over the course of the past four months. June 15 is the date when the state legislature will decide on a budget.

“About $6 billion (of the $15.7 billion deficit) is pending on the governor's proposed tax initiative that hopefully the people will vote on in November,” Nguyen said. “Last week he (Brown) turned in about 1.5 million signatures which is almost twice as many as required to qualify for the ballot.”

Nguyen said that if the voters approve the tax initiative, then education funding will be flat on the current year. For next year, there will be no changes in funding if the people approve the initiative.

On June 6, the school district will approve a new Budget Plan A and Plan B, with revisions being made for the board's consideration.

Board Policy Revision: Conduct

Director of IT, Colin Sprigg, delivered some of the highlights to the revised policy on conduct. The two main policies that are being revised deal with cyberbullying and mobile devices in schools. Sprigg said that both topics are relevant with what's currently happening with students and how integrated technology is with daily life.

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The board policy states that cyberbullying includes “the transmission of communications, posting of harassing messages, direct threats, or other harmful texts, sounds, or images on the internet, social networking sites, or other digital technologies using a telephone, computer, or any wireless communication device. Cyberbullying also includes breaking into another person's electronic account and assuming that person's identity in order to damage that person's reputation.”

“The other thing that we are revising, which is fantastic, is the recognition of mobile devices and the value of mobile devices such as tablets, smartphones and laptops," Sprigg said. "Currently our board policies have stated across the country that mobile devices are to be put away and not brought out in schools. We have turned that upside-down, recognized the value and said that it CAN be brought into campus.”

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As for posessions/use of cellular phones and other mobile communication devices, the policy states that:

  • No student shall be prohibited from possessing or using an electronic signaling device that is determined by a licensed physican or surgeon to be essential for the studen't health and the use of which is limited to health-related purposes.
  • Students who bring their own mobile communications devices must adhere to ABC Unified's technology Acceptable Sue Policy for Students signed by the student and parent.
  • Individual teachers may maintain individual classroom policies that allow or restrict the use of mobile devices during class time.

Other News: Project Lead the Way

Anna Griffo and  principal Gina Zietlow presented a new Career Technical Education program called Project Lead the Way (PLTW). PLTW is a science, technology, engineering and math program which was designed to address the problem: a shortage of science, technology, engineers and math (STEM) workforce. The programs are in middle schools, high schools and post-secondary institutions. Griffo said students are going to learn about problem solving, how to work in teams and how to communicate verbally and in writing.

“They will be creating, designing, building, discovering, collaborating and solving problems that they can apply by using their science and math skills that they have learned,” Griffo said.  

The next school board meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 6.

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