Saturday, March 27, 2010

QUESTIONS FOR UPCOMING ECISD BOARD ELECTIONS

This post is set up to collect questions people would like to ask the incumbents and candidates for the upcoming ECISD School Board election.

If you have a question you want asked, just go to the bottom of this post and click on "comments." A screen will come up that has a comment format where you can type your question.

52 comments:

Unknown said...

Stance and rationales for either supporting or not supporting the current methods of teaching English to non-English speaking students
Bi-lingual education
Dual language
English immersion

Unknown said...

Stance on sending "migrant" children to militant, communist-founded school in DC to learn how our government works and how to lobby

Unknown said...

How it was possible for at least 2 members of the Board to be unaware that they had passed the motion to send migrant students to DC?

Anonymous said...

Ask them why they fired a bus driver for telling a misbehaving student to behave when they kept a Board member's son on probationary status after he was arrested on felony charges.

Unknown said...

NEWS: A member has contacted the VP of Texas Eagle Forum. She is sending him a list of questions she thinks will be of help to us.

Anonymous said...

Mar54tin

My question is: If they (the school board members) were aware of teacher concerns over the reading textbook adoption, why did they not postpone the vote and give ALL classroom teachers the opportunity to voice their recommendation and VOTE? This was the way it was done before, why did they change the method now? The vote of 13-14 committee members does not speak for all teachers, especially when the head of the committee is influencing the vote.

Unknown said...

Thank you, mar54tin.

Anonymous said...

How would you raise the mathematic scores of students in the school system?

Unknown said...

Do you believe schools should give primary emphasis to teaching basic skills (e.g. reading, grammar, spelling, arithmetic) rather than social or psychological matters?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you support the use of intensive, systematic phonics to teach first-grade children how to read?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you support the teaching of abstinence as the norm for unmarried tenagers and as the only truly effective way to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you support the goal that children should be able to read by the end of the first grade?

Unknown said...

Do you believe the topics of homosexuality and alternative liefstyles should be excluded from the classroom?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you support teaching that the use of illegal drugs and the unlawful use of alcohol are "wrong?"

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you reject classroom instruction that downgrades American sovereignty,limited constitutional government, or private enterprise?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you support local control of education, with accountability through the local school board, rather than federal and strate bureaucracies and business partnerships?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you reject federal control of curriculum through the Goals 2000 and School-to Work laws?

Texas Eagle Forum

Note: Information on these laws is forthcoming.

Unknown said...

Do you oppose the establishment of school-based health clinics, which may perform examinations, provide immunizations and medications, and dispense birth control devices and abortion referrals, without parental consent or knowledge?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you oppose the collection and maintenance of data on student health, performance, attitudes, behavior, and family, as well as academics, in computerized databases?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you oppose allowing the school district to deduct money from the paychecks of school employees and forward it to political funds without the annual written consent of each employee?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you believe in the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you support a school board policy allowing parents the right to inspect and review instructional materials and methods?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you support a school board policy forbidding psychological evaluations, testing, treatment, or physical examinations of students without prior written parental consent?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you believe parental consent should be required prior to giving information and care to students regarding sexuality and reproductive health?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you oppose requiring students to answer nosy questionaires about sex, drugs, suicide, and family behavior without prior written parental consent?

Texas Eagle Forum

Unknown said...

Do you support the right of parents to homeschool their children?

Texas Eagle Forum

Anonymous said...

Would you be willing to provide extra funds for tutoring and remedial education for students who have difficulty with their studies?

Anonymous said...

Would you support the expansion of the curriculum to include subjects that would teach students how to function in society so they can deal with real life issues. (The curriculum in the public school is geared to vocational training and the learing of skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic.)

Anonymous said...

Would you be willing to insure that there is an intensive teaching of American and Texas civics, American history and the significance of the U.S. Constitution and living in a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles?

Anonymous said...

What would you do differently to address the academically unacceptable rating given to the ECISD by the Texas Education Agency? Schools singled out as unacceptable are: Permian High, Odessa High and the following junior highs: Hood, Crockett and Bonham.

Anonymous said...

Would you be willing to address the issue of whether bi=lingual classes or English immersion classes produce better classroom performance across all subect matter?

Anonymous said...

What is your position on the celebration of foreign holidays as Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence day with the display of the Mexican flag in Ector County schools to the neglect of Texas Independence Day?

Anonymous said...

Would you support a school board policy allowing the public the right to inspect and review instructional materials and methods including lesson plans across subject areas?

Anonymous said...

Would you support allowing teachers to evaluate their principals and policies as teachers are now evaluated by their principals?

Anonymous said...

Would you support a classroom for each teacher to teach in, be available for conference in, and to work in?

Unknown said...

Hot dog! Look at the questions coming in! We're going to probably reword these into some kind of format that will not be cumbersome to answer but will allow voters to knowledgeably vote. We're also working on a page for each candidate - with their pictures so you can see what they look like and we'll try to get some input from them to go on the page also. We're open to suggestions so if you have any ideas to expand/improve, please be sure to log them in as a comment.

Anonymous said...

http://www.oaoa.com/news/div-45246-none-display.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6938846.html

"Hammett said in a brief phone interview this week from her Odessa home. 'I thought of it standing here washing dishes.'"

They might be finding "Truth", and thought of the same question because of their search for "Truth". Now, go eat your pudding.

Dave said...

I would like to know more about how it’s going to work after the lawsuit. Have we settled a lawsuit only to be held hostage by CRUCIAL and two supervisors, one of those being associated with MALDEF? This is beginning to look like the 100 Year War.

gunghoman said...

How many questions are we aiming for? It looks like we're only going to ask about abstinance. What about asking about the other programs available? And I'm not sure about the Judeo Christian thing either.

Unknown said...

One cannot eat dessert without having finished the main meal and the meat was missing. Therefore, there will be no pudding.

Unknown said...

Talley, I'm not sure how many questions there will be. A member is still working with a couple of teachers. When we get all the questions, then we'll reword and format them. During that process we can evaluate each question and see if we can present all sides so we'll know where the candidate stands.

Unknown said...

Yeppers. That was a strange meal. First the meat disappeared, then the entire 2 plates disappeared.

Unknown said...

So I didn't get to eat my pudding.

Unknown said...

Dear Pat, (Carlson, President of Texas Eagle Forum)

We are working on compiling a questionaire for our upcoming Ector County Independent School District (ECISD) Board of Trustees election on May 8, 2010. One of our members contacted... he only said "VP of Texas Eagle Forum.... and obtained the list of questions being put forth by Eagle Forum. One question asks the candidates if they reject Goals 2000 and School to Work. I have been researching this question and found that Goals 2000 was a program instituted in the 1990's under Clinton which has now been replaced by / morphed into No Child Left Behind. School to Work also seemed to be a 1990's creation.

If I put the question out as it exists, there will be an objection that this no longer exists and our organization will just look dumb. I think the objective to the question is to call into question the education being provided, the teaching to TAKS, the funneling of children during early childhood into vocational educational tracks instead of preparation for college, the lowering of standards which has continued under TAKS and NCLB which will evitably lead to more lowering of standards under the more stringent STAR soon to be initiated, and the subsequent dumbing-down of our children.

Can you, or will you guide me to someone, explain the wording Eagle Forum has used in this question. It looks like deep water to me since this involves federal encroachment into a state responsibility via funding mechanisms and requirements to be met in order to obtain those funds, failure of schools to meet the requirements and subsequent closing or take-over by the feds, and State Board of Education members being unable to attend closed door meetings at the federal level and being denied information even through FOIA. This is a current problem which needs to be addressed.

Unknown said...

evitably should be inevitably.

Unknown said...

That was fast. Here's Pat's answer:

I agree with you, including Goals 2000, School-to-Work or outcome
based education in any question would be a mistake. It is outdated and has morphed into something else. I am going to forward your email to MerryLynn Gerstenschlager, VP TEF. She covers education for TEF and has for many years. I believe she will be better able to give you up-to-date language.


Pat Carlson

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that so much emphasis is place on TAKS,or STAR or whatever in the future. Since state mandated testing begins in the 3rd grade why don't we put a cap on kinder - second grade at 15 students. It seems logical to me that primary teachers can't teach "reading, writing, and arithmatic" when the have so many students. There is no way in the world basics can be taught with 20 students in a classroom. The range of learners is so wide teachers have to be able to spend time with slower learners. Why can't ECISD hire more K - second grade teachers?

Anonymous said...

Why does ECISD rehire retired principals? Schools need principals that care about teacher and students, not people that are just there drawing a paycheck, which some of them are proud to announce to anyone that will listen.

Anonymous said...

This is a question you can ask them. Good question.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Dt2qQohF8&feature=related

Anonymous said...

Yes. "They" like to clown downtown. This is not funny.

This is funny. You can watch this while you eat "air" pudding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QhuBIkPXn0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVcUuTg5oSc

Anonymous said...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/011208dnmetkinderprivacy.2c1f955.html

cagey50 said...

School has become more than it should be. Funding is not spent on intended targets. Budgets are not BUDGETS. Do all teachers teach the same number of academic periods(not athletics or other UIL activites)for their teaching salaries? Move teachers to the schools where/when needed rather than bussing students all over the place.