Update From Our School District Leader!
Our Guest Speaker was Jim Hogeboom, the Superintendent of Schools for the Lucia Mar Unified School District. He attended Cal Berkeley; received his teaching credentials. Taught high school in
Jim started out by saying our club has the best energy and thanked us for having him as a speaker. Jim: "...I've been the Superintendent for 3 years; I loved high school. Did a lot of stuff in high school. Always knew I wanted to be in administration. Opened a brand new middle school; hired all the teachers. In
"These are changing times for education. Things have changed but education has not. The classrooms look the same as they did 20 years ago. We put handouts on the tables. What skills do we need in this century? We are preparing students for what is coming. Richard Riley, the Secretary of Education under President Clinton, had a lot to say about the emergence of ideas and China who does things faster and cheaper than we.
"We were always told that the left brain was important but now the right brain is important. He talked abut the future being for the right brain people. There is manufacturing overseas although we (the United States) are the leader in manufacturing. The ULA School of Art and Design is more competitive than Harvard. When you have an abundance of something you can't have a (simple) flyer anymore; it has to look good. Creativity and innovation are far more important as the world is changing.
"This is my third year and we are surviving the budget cuts. There were some mistakes during this three years; lost 26 million dollars during the last three years. Where are we going now? What do we want our students to know? And what do we want them to do? We have to engage, challenge and inspire the students. We have to make them active leaders. Passion and enthusiasm is what we need. Resilience is what we need. Kids give up so easily. Some are great speakers but don't have resilience; they give up. They are super cocky until someone tries to beat them. They need tenacity. Vision is to be the leader in the nation for the 21st century.
"Skills and critical thinking are important. Reading, writing and management are the basics but are not engaging; have to be a great communicator with problem solving and resilience. You can't measure this. State testing isn't the only way. You have to be able to solve problems. Watch Destination Imagination!! We just move forward despite budget cuts. We have kids in our system now that can't wait. There will be cuts. We have taken a misappropriate amount of cuts. $12 million in cuts seemed fair. We are getting (now) that we need to cut another $5 million.
"There is a $26 million deficit in this state. We need to do things differently. We need to be more innovative. We need to give kids skills. We hired a grant writer to obtain incentive grants for teachers. We just received TAP grant program money. Read about it. It will help our teachers, as an element of it are program-based incentives with cash. These teachers who show the best growth will receive compensation as will the principal of the school. We are setting up a foundation to support innovation. We are looking for board members right now.
"We need $150,000; need 30 groups at $5000 each. One is international baccalaureate program (teaching Spanish); technology high (team approach). We will send out a letter to help get us going to help kinds become critical thinkers. See what happens with the economy. Our fund is getting so low that it is hard to do anything. We are laying off people but we are a people-oriented business. We can only lay people off. A large percentage of our budget is people-oriented. Language and music and arts and people are all at risk. So with that...these are difficult times and appreciate all the help from the Rotary clubs. We still feel optimistic and there are grants. Stuart Foundation had been a great help. Seven schools will work the TAP program."