THE UNION Articles on
Schools --
October - December
Nevada Joint Union board’s future to be decided, Trina Kleist, December 14, 2005
New president likely for Grass Valley school board, Trina Kleist, December 13, 2005
Montessori school chief resigns post, David Mirhadi, November 1, 2005
Superintendent to truants: Get to class, David Mirhadi, October 4, 2005
Nevada Joint Union board’s future to be decided
- copy of agenda includedBy Trina Kleist
Staff Writer, trinak@theunion.com
December 14, 2005Leadership of the area’s high school district could be shuffled at a yearly organizational meeting Thursday.
Trustees for the Nevada Joint Union High School District will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday at Bear River High on Magnolia Road. They are required to elect a president, vice-president and clerk.
However, the board does not rotate those jobs nor has any set succession method other than an open election at the meeting, current board President Dan Miller said.
Trustees also will consider a plan to give $500 bonuses to teachers who give the district early notice of their retirement plans. The bonus would go to employees giving notice by Jan. 31 of plans to leave at the end of the current school year.
The plan is part of an agreement with the Nevada Joint Union High School Teachers Association.
Trustees also are looking for a new assistant superintendent of personnel and pupil services. The job was left vacant when Christine Clark left the position over the summer, after being on the job for one year, Miller said. Trustees will consider hiring a headhunter, 4 Administrators, to recruit candidates, at a cost of several thousand dollars.
The firm previously recruited Marty Mathiesen to become principal of Nevada Union High, Miller said.60-KB pdf download: Nevada Joint Union High School District agenda - Dec. 15, 2005
To contact staff writer Trina Kleist, e-mail trinak@theunion.com or call 477-4231.
New president likely for Grass Valley school board
- copy of agenda includedBy Trina Kleist, trinak@theunion.com
December 13, 2005The Grass Valley School District will likely get a new president when its board of trustees meets at 7 p.m. today.
The December meeting is the annual organizational meeting for the board. If things go according to tradition, current board President Thomas J. Petitt is likely to step down at the end of the meeting, and members will elect board clerk Bonnie Taylor to take on the mantle, Superintendent Jon Byerrum said Monday.
The clerk traditionally is in line for the board presidency as it rotates among trustees. Taylor has been on the board for 20 years. It would be her sixth time at the helm of the district, Byerrum said.
In other matters, board members are expected to revise the district's dress code to forbid the wearing of clothes with images or words relating to the use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. However, the change reflects what already is practiced in the schools, Byerrum said.
They also are expected to approve academic plans for Hennessy, Scotten and Lyman Gilmore schools. The plans have been adjusted to fit the state schools' budget, which was delivered recently to the district, Byerrum said.1.16 MB pdf download: Nevada City School District Board agenda - Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2005
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To contact staff writer Trina Kleist, e-mail trinak@theunion.com or call 477-4231.
Montessori school chief resigns post
David Mirhadi, davidm@theunion.com
November 1, 2005
The founding director of Nevada County's first free Montessori school has resigned.
Jason Marsh vacated his $61,000 post as executive director of the 140-student school Friday, two days after the school's four-member charter council voted to place him on administrative leave.
Citing a confidentiality agreement, the board and Marsh said they could not discuss the specifics of why Marsh was placed on leave.
"This was a necessary decision for us to move forward," said Brandy Alvis, president of the Sierra Montessori Academy's charter council.
Stan Miller, superintendent of the North San Juan-based Twin Ridges Elementary School District, said he and assistant Carrie Roemer will run the Montessori school until a new director is hired.
Marsh, who has two children at the school, established Sierra Montessori after a career in the computer software industry.
"This was a different world for him," Alvis said. "This is a very, very normal situation for charter schools. Founders are necessary, but we need someone with a public-sector accountability history."
Marsh said he'll still be active in the school's affairs.
"I wanted to do anything I could to help the school. This has never been about me, so I thought the best way I could do that to continue the success of the school, was to resign."
Asked why he was put on administrative leave, Marsh said he was never sure.
"If I knew, I would have tried to do something about it," he said.
The Sierra Montessori Academy is a public charter school administered by the North San Juan-based Twin Ridges Elementary School District. Day-to-day operations of the Montessori school are carried out by an executive director and the charter council.
In an Oct. 28 letter to parents and the charter council, Marsh praised the school community for the school. "My original vision for a school has only improved and expanded," he said. Marsh said the community succeeded while weathering delays in opening a Wolf Road campus.
"Without question, the parents and families and teachers have done amazing things this year," he wrote. "Their commitment is beyond question and I value every one of them and their children."
The school has faced multiple setbacks since a group of local investors purchased the 5,000-square-foot estate in May for $1.45 million.
Almost immediately after plans for the school were announced, Wolf Road residents said the narrow but heavily traveled south county road had too many blind curves for school buses and parents to safely negotiate.
Residents also objected to portable classrooms on the site of the 34.7-acre property, on land surrounded by single-family homes.
The school may open in early 2006 after a left-turn lane is built on Highway 49 and adequate Wolf Road improvements are made. The Sierra Montessori Academy has been operating out of the Grass Valley Elks Lodge since Aug. 17.
Trish Pietrzak, the school's middle- and upper-grade elementary department head, said Marsh's departure should not change how the school operates.
"The school is sound. It's not going anywhere. Everybody's together," she said Monday before leading students in a group discussion on the U.S. Constitution.
Marsh, Alvis and Miller said the school's ongoing plans to secure the Wolf Road site played a role but was not the reason for Marsh's departure.
"This school was his vision, what he set out to do," Miller said. "I think it just was not a good match. Once the doors open, it goes from the founder's vision to the parents' vision."
To contact staff writer David Mirhadi, e-mail davidm@theunion.com or call 477-4229.
What is Montessori?
Montessori schools were pioneered by Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952), an Italian physician. The Montessori approach focuses on child-centered learning as opposed to learning that is teacher-directed. Students generally are grouped in relation to age and ability, not grade level. Conflict resolution and problem solving are prominent, as well. In many cases, the interests of the children form the curriculum for students in Montessori schools.
Superintendent to truants: Get to class - ordinance pdf included
Schools chief looks to county to draft truancy law
David Mirhadi
davidm@theunion.com
Staff writer,
October 4, 2005
Terry McAteer has a message for perfectly healthy yet chronically truant students: Get to class, or the cops might be coming.
With the blessing of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors, McAteer is exploring ways to craft a countywide truancy law based on a Grass Valley city ordinance created five years ago.
McAteer, Nevada County’s superintendent of schools, said he is targeting a group of less than 100 students he said consistently lack a credible reason for skipping school, and scores more who end up having to defend their absences each month in front of a countywide school attendance panel.
Losing those students means Nevada County’s 10 school districts potentially lose $3 million a year in daily attendance revenues, McAteer said.
But the effort has more to do with students taking responsibility for their education and their actions than it does with money, McAteer said.
“Compulsory education means you have to go to school,” McAteer said. “I want to show kids that they have to learn how to be responsible.
“Without that child in school, their potential for being a success in life drops,” McAteer said.
Grass Valley’s ordinance states it is unlawful for school-aged minors to be in any public place between the hours of 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. when school is in session without a valid excuse. Those found in violation of the ordinance are subject to fines of $25, $50 or $75 each for first, second and third offenses, respectively. Violators can also opt to serve 12 hours of community service in lieu of the fines, according to the ordinance.
McAteer doesn’t expect the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office or Nevada City police officers to become truancy cops trained to seek out troublemakers.
At this point, the ordinance has only rarely been used by Grass Valley police, McAteer said.
“I think we need to give the police departments the tools to ensure kids are in school. Right now, police officers (outside Grass Valley) are powerless to stop kids from skipping school.”
Nevada County Supervisor Nate Beason said the county hasn’t begun to work on a truancy plan yet, but welcomes McAteer’s input. So far, the county hasn’t committed money and is only directing staff to look into drafting an ordinance.
“We’re going to look at it and make sure that it’s fair and equitable, and that we account for the alternative types of schools in this county,” Beason said. “We are definitely interested.”
A countywide ordinance would help the Nevada County Sheriff’s four school resource officers in stemming chronic absences, said deputy Rob Davenport, who is stationed at Nevada Union High School.
“We’ll be able to get to those kids who aren’t getting to school, and they know that there’s nothing we can do about it now,” said Davenport, who has been a school resource officer at Nevada Union for a decade.
McAteer said a truancy ordinance might allow law enforcement officials to go into the home of a habitually truant student and ask the teen, for example, to get out of bed, get dressed, and go to school.
McAteer said he’s prepared to counter those who might see this as an invasion of someone’s civil liberties.
“I come from an old-fashioned point of view that a kid’s place between 8 and 2 is in school.”
To contact staff writer David Mirhadi, e-mail davidm@theunion.com or call 477-4229.