Congratulations to Barb Intihar, Joanne Coghill, Brad Paulsen and Jim Mathieson for being elected to the school board. Congratulations to the community for voting down the tax increase. And thanks to all my supporters for all your help.
I plan to stay involved, shining a light on curriculum changes. Please email janshaw200@yahoo.com if you are interested in helping
Due to last week’s snow, the PTA sponsored school board candidate forum was postponed. It has been rescheduled for April 4, 2013 from 7 to 9 pm at Wheaton North in the Commons. Hope to see everyone there.
Through curriculum, sports and extracurricular activities we must inspire all students to become the best they can be. The “American Dream” is achievable by all. School policies must give teachers the freedom and resources to be their best, so that they in turn will inspire students to be their best.
I have noticed a disturbing trend over the last decade. Test scores and graduation rates have declined. Teachers complain that too many people outside the classroom are micro-managing things inside the classroom. We need to get our public schools back on the right track.
The Jefferson referendum is not necessary. The district already has enough money in the building fund to build an appropriate new early childhood center that would hold the existing student population. CUSD 200 received a capital improvement grant for $14.46 million last May. That money is waiting to be allocated while they ask the taxpayers for permission to go $16.7 million further in debt.
As Burke and Muhlhausen sum it up:
HHS has released definitive evidence that the federal government’s 48-year experiment with Head Start has failed children and left taxpayers a tab of more than $180 billion. In the interest of children and taxpayers, it’s time for this nearly half-century experiment to come to an end.
See: The Heritage’s Morning bell 1/14/2013
and FRC: Getting Head Smart about Head Start
Last night (1/9/2013) the board voted to put a new Jefferson pre-school referendum on the ballot. I had spoken out against doing it now.
I am concerned for the children - all the children. I am also concerned that we are in the “worse economy since the great depression.” I want to be sure that the board allocates money to staff the school as well as build the new school.
Since the CUSD200 board has overspent in the past, we already carry a heavy debt burden. At this point, a new Jefferson is up to the taxpayers.
Jan and her husband, Craig, have raised four sons, Mike, Brian, Will, and Phil, all of whom attended CUSD200 schools K-12.
Jan worked as a software developer for Western Electric/AT&T/Bell Labs/Lucent (1979-2002)
Jan has worked in many of CUSD200 schools as a substitute teacher (2003 – 2007) including both high schools, all four middle schools and a couple of grade schools. She has worked in a variety of classes from self contained special ed to AP calculus.
She has a bachelor’s of science from Purdue University in math with minors in economics and computer science and from National Lewis University, she is certified to teach high school math.