Here is a link to a story regarding the WSU professor named newest elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
https://news.wsu.edu/2017/10/16/national-academy-medicine-professor/
Here is a link to a story regarding WSU’s Foundations highest honor, the Weldon B. “Hoot” Gibson Distinguished Volunteer Award.
https://news.wsu.edu/2017/10/06/scott-carson-award/
The House of Congress passed a bill a Involuntary Treatment Act (ITA) regarding integrating treatment systems for mental health and chemical dependency.
A person may be committed into mental health treatment if Designated Mental Health professionals (DMHP) find they pose a serious harm or is “gravely disabled.”
Link to a story on Whitman County’s future education on fevers from Pullman Regional Hospital.
http://www.pullmanregional.org/news/improving-fever-education-whitman-county
Here is a link regarding the newest member of Washington State University Board of Regents.
https://news.wsu.edu/2017/10/05/heather-redman/
Two-Sentence Explanation: The Associated Students of Washington State University passed resolution 47-03 for the support of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to continue to be supported by the University’s administrators, as well as the states congress. WSU President Kirk Shulz suspects that if President Trump continues to halt the DACA program, a multi-state lawsuit will be called to action.
Evidence: Washington currently has over 37,000 DACA recipients in the state of Washington. Many DACA students have work permits that allow them to legally live here. Those permits may expire and leave DACA recipients, some of those people students at WSU, unable to continue their pursuit of higher education.
Why Now: Resolution 47-03 was passed Oct. 6 asking all students to “stand in solidarity with their DACA Cougs.”
Interviews: Terry Boston, Student affairs; Jordan Frost, ASWSU President; Mary Jo Gonzales, Vice President of Student Affairs, WSU Provost Dan Bernardo, WSU students.
Final Story: WSU Community needed for DACA Reinstatement’s
Here is a story regarding the new school being built.
Here is a story regarding a WSU faculty member receiving awards for national early career research.
Lower Property Taxes Plague Rural Schools
Outline:
A) Introduce Colfax School District and some of the problems they are currently facing in educating its students. I also plan to compare an urban school district’s budget to Colfax’s budget.
B) Explain how a school’s budget is created and what factors contribute to that.
C) Explain to readers the future of Colfax High School and other rural schools budget concerns.
Teachers, parents, and students of the town of Colfax, Washington face great economic disparities from lower financial budgets.
Teachers at Colfax School District are often asked to do more than educate their children. Colfax has a population of 4,000 people, and is asked to fulfill the same requirements as schools with much higher budgets.
“What we have been dealing with in the state of Washington for the last number of years is the under funding of education,” said Jerry Pugh, Colfax School District Superintendent.
Colfax received slightly more than $7 million dollars in district revenue from all financial sources for 2016-2017. Colfax teachers and business managers are an extremely efficient group working with that budget according to Pugh.
“We became a lot more lean, a lot more efficient, we ask questions, we ask how necessary something is and what impact it will have on students,” said Pugh.
Issaquah School District is an urban district in Western Washington with a budget for supplies and material of $53 million dollars. On the other hand, Colfax School District supplies and materials budget is $650,000.
“[That covers] everything from custodial supplies, cleaning supplies, things within the grounds, maintenance of the equipment, the fertilizer. Then you come into the school building and that covers everything from copy machines, printers, paper, and the general supplies that comes out that way,” said Pugh.
A school’s budget largely depends on enrollment size of a district, as well as the money raised from local property taxes. This causes rural school districts with lower populations and property values to receive lower budgets. Colfax has slightly more than 1,700 homes in the district with the median home value in the area pricing roughly $167,000. Issaquah School District has 41,000 homes with a median home value of $673,000. Local taxes provided Colfax School District with a little over $1 million for financial revenue. Issaquah School District received more than $47 million in financial revenue.
“The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, but that doesn’t mean we have to stay that way. That means that we can do the best we can in a smaller community to make sure our students who are our leaders of tomorrow are well educated, who come out ready for life, ready for a trade school, ready for college, or ready for just blue collar work,” said Chanc Hiatt, parent of a Colfax High School sophomore.
“This school does well with its dollars. It really puts the money it gets to good use,” said Hiatt.
The future of Colfax School District according to Pugh is that the control of the budget has now shifted to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, also known as OPSI.
“I’m disappointed in the loss of local control. When the Colfax community wants something specific for our kids, the Colfax community should be able to say that’s what we want and we’re willing to pay for that,” said Pugh.
Hiatt also said voters in the past would pass levies to provide what’s important in the community.
“Two things you always support in your town are your hospitals and your schools. When there is levies we always pass our levies without a doubt. We always try and pass our school levies to try and make up for the funding we don’t get,” said Hiatt.
Some students from urban districts at Washington State University think the difference in budgets is necessary to keep the schools balanced.
“If a district has higher property taxes they deserve better education for their students. Also urban school districts often have more students in them. Part of living in a nice neighborhood is knowing you are also in a strong school district,” said Garcia Harris, student at Washington State University.
In order to increase the prevalence of technology the school has adopted a bring your own device policy to increase the number of laptops available to students.
“Colfax was one of the first around the state of the smaller communities to buy into the bring your own device policy. Students are allowed to bring their own device and connect to the network which helps every student that has a device in their hand,” said Hiatt.
“They have nice computers for our students. They are all nice tablet touch screens, said Astari Widner, Colfax High School senior.
The district recently purchased 3-D printers to be available to students in both buildings. Pugh said it was not a goal to get laptops for every student.
“There is not a bunch of computers. They have to request that period to have the computers,” said Widner.
Jennings elementary consistently scores above Washington averages for standardized testing.
% Proficient
English
88%
State avg: 58%
Grade 3
86%
State avg: 55%
Grade 4
88%
State avg: 58%
Grade 5
88%
State avg: 61%
Grade 6
89%
State avg: 58%
Math
91%
State avg: 54%
Details
Grade 3
97%
State avg: 60%
Grade 4
94%
State avg: 57%
Grade 5
84%
State avg: 50%
Grade 6
89%
State avg: 49%
Science
94%
State avg: 67%
Details
Grade 5
94%
State avg: 67%
Source: GreatSchools.org
Sources:
Click to access 38300F195A.pdf
http://www.nea.org/home/16358.htm
Some stories around WSU regarding education.
https://news.wsu.edu/2017/09/20/gift-advances-wsu-thermodynamics/
https://news.wsu.edu/2017/09/20/record-enrollment-fall-2017/
Two-Sentence Explanation: Rural public school districts such as Pullman Public Schools are at a budget disadvantage compared to urban schools. Rural schools often have lower property values which creates lower property taxes creating less revenue for school budgets.
Evidence: According to CensusReporter.org Pullman is home to roughly 31,000 people which an average household income reaching just over $26,000. On the other hand, Seattle is home to more than 704,000 people with an average household income totaling a whopping 83,000. This causes a vast difference in the overall budget available to the public schools.
Why now: School season is starting back up again and I think the people deserve to know the differences small town public schools face as far as academic deficiency compared to larger urban schools.
Interviews: Elementary, intermediate, and high school teachers, district superintendant, PTA presidents of local schools.
Final Story: Rural town school districts offering less resources to students
Federal Education Grant for Mcnair Achievement program from U.S. Department of education.
https://news.wsu.edu/2017/09/14/1-2-million-doe-grant-continues-mcnair-scholars-program/
Educational Lecture happening on campus today, Sept. 18. https://news.wsu.edu/2017/09/14/common-reading-lecture-future-always-female/
A juvenile of Spokane who attended Freeman High School killed one student and injured three others with a handgun before surrendering to staff Wednesday morning.
The defendant followed his routine schedule of getting on the bus in the morning from his home. Officials say that the shooter entered the bus carrying a large black duffel bag where he had an Assault Rifle, as well as a large coat concealing a pistol. Upon arrival the suspect immediately entered the school from a back entrance near his locker and began loading the assault rifle. The gun began jammed early in the suspects process forcing him to abandon the assault rifle and resort to a handgun.
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