THE FACE OF ANN ARBOR VOLUME 3, NUMBER 29

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Thursday, July 21, 2011

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Schools may ask for tech millage

Proposal must be submitted by Aug. 16
By James David Dickson
A2 Journal

On the RAIL

Voters in the Ann Arbor school district not only have two school board positions to vote on in November, they also will be

asked to support a technology millage. At the Board of Educations July 13 meeting, the boards seven trustees voted unanimously to direct the Ann Arbor Public Schools administration to put together language for a technology millage that would appear on Novembers ballot. The language must be submitted to the Washtenaw County Clerk

by Aug. 16 in time to make the ballot, leaving district officials just over a month to complete the proposal. The board discussed directing the administration to ask for a 0.5-mill levy, but ultimately chose to leave the nuts and bolts of the proposal to the districts administrators. Recently, the board had also discussed preparing the school district for a possible state mandate to run

all-day kindergarten in the 2012-13 school year. District officials have said that the school system doesnt currently have the space capacity to offer all-day kindergarten. Ann Arbor would need to build to reach that capacity and the thinking was to pursue a millage to that effect, those officials said. But at last Wednesday nights meeting Robert Allen, deputy superinten-

dent of operations and former interim superintendent, referenced a 2009 document asserting that the school district only needed to build one more classroom to get its capacity up to par. We could almost just bring in a portable classroom for that, Trustee Andy Thomas suggested. Others agreed that could
PLEASE SEE MILLAGE/3-A

Sports
A2 swimmers set record amount for Red Cross.

Page 1-B

It will cost more to play sports

Flat-rate fees increased from $150 to $250
By James David Dickson
A2 Journal

Summer learning

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We took a mulligan on our first proposal, but I think we hit this one down the fairway, said Ann Arbor Board of Education Secretary Andy Thomas of the revised cuts to athletics the administration presented to the board July 13. Because the school district already has passed its 2011-12 budget, including a $475,000 reduction to athletics, it didnt need to give more than a nod of approval to the updated proposal. Begrudgingly, last Wednesday night, it gave that nod. Administrators offered a proposal to hike athletic participation fees to a flat rate of $250, up from $150 last year. This was in lieu of an earlier proposal that would have eliminated transportation to in-county competition except for football and track and eliminated every freshman sport but football. That late-June proposal drew fire from the community and the school board instructed district athletics directors to draw up another play. For the single-sport athlete, the $250 flat fee is a $100 bump from 2010-11 prices. But for the multi-sport athlete, who had to pay $150 for their first sport and $75 for their second ($225 total), its only $25 more. The third and subsequent sports are free. The middle school participation fee rises from $50 to $75. Athletic directors Dottie Davis of Huron High School

Check out our video:

Photos by James Dickson

Sean Slay, a University of Michigan student intern at the Summer Learning Institute, teaches a math lesson to thirdgraders.

2 for U Growing marijuana; 90 days probation Harry Potter magic to fans

Institute aims to keep kids from failing

Teachers help kids catch up in math, reading
By James David Dickson
A2 Journal

The time 8:15 a.m. is the proverbial bottom-of-thebleachers moment for Lisa Thompson and her fellow teachers at the Summer Learning Institute. Thompson, a kindergarten teacher with a two-decade tenure in Ann Arbor Public Schools, likens 8:15 a.m. to her bleacher runs at Ypsilanti High School. She knows its going to be a long way up, but takes comfort in knowing shell be going full speed. In a few short minutes, PLEASE SEE SPORTS/9-A

the stopwatch goes off, Thompson grabs the sign bearing her name and waits for her first-graders to come off of the bus. Some 300 students, half first-graders and the other half third-graders, will arrive in time for the school bell to ring at 8:30 and the learning to begin. Running from July 5 through July 29, half-days every Monday through Friday, the Summer Learning Institute is a fourweek reading and math intervention that seeks to get students caught up with their peers before school returns in the fall. Classes meet at Ann Arbor Open, 920 Miller Ave., in Ann Arbor. Chuck Hatt, the districts literacy coordinator and the head of the Summer

Learning Institute, said that he would love to have every elementary level grade represented, but the districts financial situation wouldnt allow it. Incoming first- and third-graders were chosen because those years are crucial, Hatt said. First grade is a students first taste of real school. Classes arent half-day anymore wont be ever again, actually and the stakes are higher. Habits and attitudes formed in first grade can set the tone for the rest of a students career. Students entering third grade, meanwhile, are entering the world of standardized testing the Michigan Educational Assessment Program test is offered in October a world from which there is

no escape until college, at the earliest. The Summer Learning Institute focuses on core competencies math and reading. There is no social studies and no science. Kindergarten and secondgrade teachers recommend students for the institute. Busing is provided, classes only last a half-day, including a crucial 20-minute recess period, and the students come home without homework.

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INDEX
Second Front Editorial Calendar A2Live Deaths Page 4-A Page 6-A Page 5-B Page 6-B Page 12-A

A chance to see themselves as learners

Thompson started the morning class with a counting circle. The class
PLEASE SEE KIDS/7-A

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