RIPTIDE

Pacifica School Volunteers Fundraising Campaign

Unfortunately, the K-8 School Success Workshop scheduled for Tuesday, January 31 at 7 p.m. must be postponed. We apologize for any inconvenience. We will reschedule the workshop in the spring. Watch for details in this space from Pacifica School Volunteers. Meanwhile, please support our fundraising campaign.

CLICK FOR INFO ON FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN

Oceana High School's New Athletic Facilities Take Shape

DAVE YUHAS

Why Kids Can't Search

Why Kids Can’t Search
By Clive Thompson   November 1, 2011  |   Wired November 2011

We’re often told that young people tend to be the most tech-savvy among us. But just how savvy are they? A group of researchers led by College of Charleston business professor Bing Pan tried to find out. Specifically, Pan wanted to know how skillful young folks are at online search. His team gathered a group of college students and asked them to look up the answers to a handful of questions. Perhaps not surprisingly, the students generally relied on the web pages at the top of Google’s results list.

But Pan pulled a trick: He changed the order of the results for some students. More often than not, those kids went for the bait and also used the (falsely) top-ranked pages. Pan grimly concluded that students aren’t assessing information sources on their own merit—they’re putting too much trust in the machine.

Other studies have found the same thing: High school and college students may be “digital natives,” but they’re wretched at searching. In a recent experiment at Northwestern, when 102 undergraduates were asked to do some research online, none went to the trouble of checking the authors’ credentials. In 1955, we wondered why Johnny can’t read. Today the question is, why can’t Johnny search?

Who’s to blame? Not the students. If they’re naive at Googling, it’s because the ability to judge information is almost never taught in school. Under 2001’s No Child Left Behind Act, elementary and high schools focus on prepping their pupils for reading and math exams. And by the time kids get to college, professors assume they already have this skill. The buck stops nowhere. This situation is surpassingly ironic, because not only is intelligent search a key to everyday problem-solving, it also offers a golden opportunity to train kids in critical thinking.

Consider the efforts of Frances Harris, librarian at the magnet University Laboratory High School in Urbana, Illinois. (Librarians are our national leaders in this fight; they’re the main ones trying to teach search skills to kids today.) Harris educates eighth and ninth graders in how to format nuanced queries using Boolean logic and advanced settings. She steers them away from raw Google searches and has them use academic and news databases, too.

But, crucially, she also trains students to assess the credibility of what they find online. For example, she teaches them to analyze the tone of a web page to judge whether it was created by an academic, an advocacy group, or a hobbyist. Students quickly gain the ability to detect if a top-ranked page about Martin Luther King Jr. was actually posted by white supremacists.

“I see them start to get really paranoid,” Harris says. “The big thing in assessing search results is authorship—who put it there and why have they put it there?” Or, as pioneering librarian Buffy Hamilton at Creekview High School near Atlanta says, “This is learning how to learn.”

One can imagine even more entertaining ways to help kids grok the intricacies of the search world. Why not let students start a class blog on a subject and see how long it takes for it to show up in search results?

Mind you, mastering “crap detection 101,” as digital guru Howard Rheingold dubs it, isn’t easy. One prerequisite is that you already know a lot about the world. For instance, Harris found that students had difficulty distinguishing a left-wing parody of the World Trade Organization’s website from the real WTO site. Why? Because you need to understand why someone would want to parody it in the first place—knowledge the average eighth grader does not yet possess.

In other words, Google makes broad-based knowledge more important, not less. A good education is the true key to effective search. But until our kids have that, let’s make sure they don’t always take PageRank at its word.

Environmental Service Learning @ Skyline College

"I'm taking Environmental Science from Professor McCarthy this semester. I've been taking classes at Skyline for 17 years, and she is one of the best professors I've had the good fortune to work with. She has pioneered this class in collaboration with another professor. If you have the opportunity to take this class, don't pass it up!"

JIM WAGNER

Measure L Victory Margin Increases: 69.2 Percent YES

PACIFICA SCHOOL DISTRICT MEASURE L (2/3 APPROVAL REQUIRED)
Completed Precincts: 28 of 28
Vote Count/Percentage
YES
5,453/69.2%
NO
2,424/30.8%
(Thanks to Mark Stechbart for the update.)

Measure L Passes Muster: 68.8 Percent

BY LIONEL EMDE, RIPTIDE CORRESPONDENT
 
In a late-inning victory, Measure L, the Pacifica School District parcel tax, passed with a 68.8 percent majority. Early mail-in ballots had the measure below the threshold to pass, but Election Day voting put it over the top. This correspondent witnessed canvassers in his neighborhood working the electorate, and apparently the campaign was well organized enough to pull it off.
 
Measure H, the San Mateo County Community College District bond issue, failed with a 52.7 percent majority, less than the required 55 percent. But voters apparently did not want change on the college board, as the three incumbents (Dave Mandelkern, Karen Schwarz, Patricia Miljanich) were returned with a comfortable majority.
 
In San Bruno, Measure O, a bond issue requiring 55 percent approval, failed by more than four percentage points. There was organized resistance to the measure, as this writer saw printed signs in multiple locations in San Bruno.

CLICK FOR MEASURE L WEBSITE

Oceana's Naftali Moed Wins Cox Conserves Hero Award

Oceana High School student Naftali Moed has won the Cox Conserves Hero award in the Bay Area and was awarded $5,000 for the Oceana High School Garden, which he made a reality, complete with chickens and now maybe goats! For more of the story and a video, click the link below and search for San Francisco Bay Area:

CLICK FOR COX CONSERVES HEROES

Naftali selected Pie Ranch to receive the $5,000 award. Naftali had a vision for an organic vegetable garden to teach fellow high school students about the value of organic gardening and sustainable agriculture. Under his leadership, the vision has become a reality with 10 garden beds, a chicken house, and an outdoor classroom space. The garden is a living lab for science classes and a source of food for the nutrition classes.

Opinion: Crunching the Numbers of PSD Parcel Tax (Part Deux)

Following my recent comments here on Riptide and in the Tribune about the new Pacifica School District (PSD) parcel tax increase, Measure L supporter and Saving Pacifica Schools president Kalimah Salahuddin and PSD board member Joan Weideman contacted me for a sit-down to discuss the disparity between what I feel the district spends per student per year ($9,170.76), based on total overall expenses of the district, and what they feel the district spends per student per year ($7,253), based on an accounting procedure that separates overall expenses into two categories, one for staff and staff-related expenses that comes directly from the district’s general fund, and the other for infrastructure improvements, which are restricted funds. The rationale in splitting the two categories is that neither students nor teaching staff receive a direct benefit from building maintenance and capital outlays.

By separating the two categories, it appears the cost per student is indeed $7,253 a year, but if, like me, you choose to combine the two categories because without buildings or capital improvements there are no structures to house teaching staff and students, it equally appears the district spends $9,170 per student a year. The difference between these two sums is $1,917 per student per year. That is a big difference and it highlights the magic of governmental accounting.

Speaking of governmental accounting and its Magical Mystery Tour logic, Weideman went over another figure I mentioned recently, an accounts-payable liability of more than $8 million. It doesn’t represent unpaid bills, as I had suggested. No, it’s much more entertaining than that. Half of that amount ($4 million) represents an accounting error by the State of California that requires the district to repay $4 million, but at the same time the state is refunding the $4 million through a different governmental accounting maneuver. In essence, no money is changing hands, but an accounting practice required by the state, so it doesn’t look like it made a $4 million mistake, is being satisfied.

In stark contrast to the accounting games of the State of California, most of the remaining $4 million represents straightforward payroll deferments by teaching staff so they will receive summertime paychecks while on hiatus. I always wondered how that worked.

I’d like to personally thank Joan and Kalimah for their offer and subsequent meeting. Joan came well prepared to discuss the district’s expenses and explain the staffing positions that Measure L will fund, and Kalimah provided extra support through her Blackberry and a mystery contact when questions could not be answered.

I wish the district luck with Measure L but strongly feel the district and Measure L supporters must include information on the district’s split accounting practice in any political literature published for their parcel tax campaign to be honest, open, and informative to the voting public. The difference of $1,917 annually per student equals a whopping $6,184,242. And make no mistake about it, the district does spend that extra $6 million annually whether it accounts for it separately or not.

Whether you choose to support Measure L, which will raise our property taxes by $118 a year for the next seven years to fund PSD staffing positions, or choose not to support Measure L, please do go to the polls November 8. It would be a shame if a small turnout swayed this parcel tax ballot measure one way or the other. The sums of public money at stake are huge, and real people will feel their impact for the next seven years.

TODD MCCUNE BRAY

Opinion: Crunching the Numbers of PSD Parcel Tax (Revised)

Whether or not you decide to increase your property taxes by $118 a year to support Pacifica School District (PSD) employees and their pensions by voting for the parcel tax renewal November 8, you may want to ponder a few numbers readily available on pages 6 and 13 of PSD's most recent audit, which you can verify by visiting PSD offices on Reina Del Mar. The company preparing the audit admittedly did not fact-check the financial information, relying on staff assurances that it was correct.

PSD has a combined enrollment of 3,226 students and an operating budget last year of $29,584,810, or $9,170.74 per student. By comparison, a popular local private grammar school on the north end of town charges $6,421 a year tuition per student—$2,749.74 less than what we collectively provide per PSD student. PSD has outstanding liabilities of $44,589,611, including a $36 million bond obligation and $8,057,645 in accounts payable, or in lay terms, unpaid bills. It is surprising since PSD has sold so much public property to private developers. PSD reported a $13 million surplus after the last 10-acre school property was sold a few years ago. PSD now is going through the motions of selling off two more public properties, but that has nothing to do with renewing the upcoming parcel tax.

I've requested PSD salary information three times in the past few weeks. The info I ask for is identical to that found on State Controller John Chiang's website showing what employees from the City of Pacifica and North Coast County Water District earned last year—so helpful last spring with the fire tax. Compensation sheets list positions only (no names) and amounts shown in Box 5 on annual W-2 forms that PSD must give each employee. PSD has no such info, I am told, which is stonewalling, in my opinion, as W-2s are required by IRS. I'm sure PSD easily could pull this info together from its accounting software. If PSD would make public the compensation paid to its administrators, facilities department, groundskeepers, and the like, we would have a better idea of why it spends $9,170.74 per student. Since PSD so often boasts of how little it pays its teaching staff, the money must go somewhere. 

Clearly, PSD, which is its own government body, needs to be more transparent to show it deserves more of our tax dollars, especially in understanding its obligation of openness to the public at large, not just to motivated parents, who want us to further fund their children’s education. At $9,170.74 per student, PSD needs to own up and publish a full compensation sheet that includes non-classroom staff like administrators, facilities, and groundskeepers, among others, in a timely fashion well before Election Day.  

You may or may not support the parcel tax renewal, but please vote on this item either by mail ballot or at the polls November 8. It is an off-year election, and voter participation is expected to be low. Millions of dollars of our property taxes will be voted on, and whether or not you want to tax yourself and your neighbors to further fund PSD salaries, pensions, and other expenses, it is important that this parcel tax measure get a large turnout so, win or lose, it gets a fair shake. 

TODD MCCUNE BRAY

(See PSD response to this op-ed in the following post.)

PSD Answers Questions About Parcel Tax and School Budget

School district's response to Todd's Bray's op-ed on adjoining post:

Page 6 of the audit report reflects all of the district’s funds using accrual basis accounting. The Other category of $2,535,453 is detailed on page 12, it is comprised of the following:

Other outgo = $609,659 (this is mainly the cost of special education students attending county classes).

Interest on long term debt = $1,925,794 (interest accretion value of capital appreciation bonds) – this is managed by the county office of education

Other Designations: page 13 – these are not expenditures or monies spent, they represent the components of the districts ending fund balance. The unaudited actual can be found on our web site (http://www.pacificasd.org/newpsd/Board%20Packets/2010/09-15-10/7e.pdf)...It has been necessary for the district to maintain these reserves in order to meet monthly payroll as the state is not paying school districts, they are deferring funds throughout the year and between school years. In addition, the district has to be prepared for midyear budget cuts from the state.

With regards to the salary information that you are requesting, unfortunately we don’t have a similar report to the one you found on Controller John Chiang’s web site. I do have what is called the J-90 scatter gram for certificated teachers that is prepared each year...I have also contacted the San Mateo County Office of Education to see if they know of a report that may be of interest to you. I hope this answers your questions.

Josie Peterson
Chief Business Official
Pacifica School District
375 Reina del Mar Avenue
Pacifica, CA  94044
650.738-6613  Phone
650.557-9672  Fax
www.pacificasd.org

Child Care Coordinating Council: Eligibility Changes, Playgroups

CLICK FOR 4C WEBSITE

Teachable Moment: Girl Saves Her Grandmother's Life with First Aid

CLICK TO SEE STORY ABOUT KID WHO SAVED GRANDMA WITH FIRST AID

Thanks to Pacifican Jim Alex for forwarding this story. He also happens to know the lucky survivor of this scary incident and her brave, smart granddaughter.

Pacifica School Volunteers Launch Newsletter

CLICK FOR PACIFICA SCHOOL VOLUNTEERS NEWSLETTER

Sign up on this sample page to get your own free subscription.

Click Here for Environmental Education in Schools

Our friend Jim LeCuyer writes: Environmental education should be taught in every subject at the secondary level, as a lesson or as research within the context of the subject itself. In this manner, our public school students would become knowledgeable and involved in environmental issues while their minds are still open. Environmental education has been proven to improve student grades and reduce the dropout rate. So I created a petition to Governor Jerry Brown, which says:

"We, the environmental educators of the state of California, do hereby petition Governor Jerry Brown to direct the State Board of Education to have their schools and administrators make a yearly report to the Board concerning environmental studies in the public schools."

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://signon.org/sign/environmental-education?source=c.em.cp&r_by=268779

UPDATE: Education Is Our Best Investment—Measure C Gets 59% Support But Fails

As a state-credentialed teacher (part-time) and elective nonparent, I gladly support good schools and good teachers. Education is the foundation of our democracy and our economy. It is literally our best investment in the future.

I know many teachers like Susan Grandfield who are forced to buy classroom supplies and books out of their own pockets because of budget cuts. I know many teachers like Susan who prepare for class, grade homework and exam papers, and attend continuing education sessions, all on their own time. If you calculate all the freebies that teachers give, their hourly pay shrinks to shamefully low levels.

We Americans spend freely on cable TV bundles, foreign wars, grass-fed beef, and video games, but we begrudge a hardworking teacher a few dollars to guide our confused, impressionable young people through their formative years and into the workplace or the college campus. What job could be more important to our country's future than this underpaid, overworked profession? Teachers are a very thin chalk line between civic responsibility and mindless servitude.

I hope you think about that when you vote on the future of Jefferson Union High School District. I hope you vote with your head and your heart. I HOPE YOU VOTE YES ON MEASURE C.

JOHN MAYBURY, EDITOR & PUBLISHER

(UPDATE: Measure C got 59 percent of the vote, not enough to pass the mandated two-thirds majority.)

Pacifica School Volunteers: Children's Book Sale, Raffle, ThinkBridge Summer Camp

 Time to start spring cleaning and clear your shelves of all those books your children have outgrown. Donate your gently loved children's books to the Pacifica School Volunteers children's book sale. Board books, picture books, early readers, chapter books, novels, nonfiction—all children's books are welcome from baby books to high school level. Drop off books through May 4 at Pacifica School District Office, 375 Reina Del Mar; Starbucks, Linda Mar or Fairmont shopping centers; First National Bank, Linda Mar Shopping Center; Pacifica Community Center, 540 Crespi at Highway 1; Pacifica School Volunteers Office, Linda Mar Education Center, 830 Rosita Road. All donated books will be sold at the Ninth Annual Children's Book Sale, Saturday, May 7 at Linda Mar Shopping Center. 

Raffle Time! Champion Pacifica's youth by supporting Pacifica School Volunteers! Tickets available now for our Ninth Annual Children's Book Sale and Raffle. Great prizes include: NorCal 9-foot surfboard, donated and shaped by world-famous big-wave surfer Shawn Rhodes and fine-tuned by Gordon Guptill of NorCal Surf Shop (see it at Linda Mar Starbucks); one-week timeshare at Pine Acres Lodge in Pacific Grove; debris box (14 cubic yards, for 2 days) donated by Recology of the Coastside; handmade quilt; Pacifica Performances package; Granucci's Italian restaurant gift certificate; and much more. Raffle tickets on sale at Starbucks (Linda Mar or Fairmont Shopping Centers) and First National Bank (Linda Mar Shopping Center). Tickets for the surfboard draw available only at NorCal Surf Shop (Pedro Point) or Linda Mar Starbucks. $2 each or six for $10.

ThinkBridge Summer Camp. An exciting new summer camp in Pacifica. This summer it is time to think, create, and innovate. ThinkBridge Summer Camp is a new program in Pacifica that challenges young minds to explore new ideas, analyze situations, and solve creative problems through innovative thinking lessons and games, computer exercises, and music instruction. Our fabulous staff of experienced Pacifica School District teachers—Sydney Tyler Parker and Marilyn Wells—lead campers through a summer of creation and innovation. ThinkBridge is a four-week, half-day program at Vallemar School. Pre- and post-camp onsite child care is available. Registration is now open and space is limited. For more information, visit http://www.thinkbridgecamp.org or call 650-355-9432. ThinkBridge Summer Camp is presented by Pacifica School Volunteers, a local nonprofit organization that recruits, trains, and places volunteers in Pacifica public schools. Proceeds from ThinkBridge Summer Camp fund year-round support of public schools in Pacifica.

Sign Up Your Kids for ThinkBridge Summer Camp

Yes on Measure C: Help Our High Schools

http://www.voteforstrongschools.com

Please vote Yes on Measure C to help our high schools and our high school kids. Be part of the movement to strengthen our schools. Spread the word! Encourage your friends to join you as a supporter. Go Green! Help the environment (and get less mail) by becoming an e-supporter. Voter Alerts! Measure C will be a mail-only ballot. Get the most current election information. Measure C will:

• Cost property owners $8 per month  
• Expire after four years  
• Provide an exemption to senior citizens  
• Maintain and improve core academics: 
  
  • Math  
  • Science
  • Reading  
  • Writing
    
• Continue funding for:  
  
  • Computer Tech  
  • Vocational Training
    
• Help attract and retain highly qualified and experienced teachers  
• Maintain smaller class sizes  
• Protect arts, music, and after-school sports  
• Be spent only in classrooms, not on administrators’ salaries

MIKE O'NEILL AND LAURIE FRATER

Cal Professor Michael O'Hare to His New Students

UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR'S OPEN LETTER

Excellent analysis of what's right and wrong with California and its educational system.

Laurie Frater Appointed to Jefferson School Board

LAURIE FRATER APPOINTED TO JUHSD BOARD