This is partly a question but mostly a complaint. I am a student at a district 11 middle school and I have noticed that we are if not the only, then one of the only districts in the city where the students are not allowed to wear flip flops. I have read a few articles showing your position, and I respect it, but this rule is ridiculous. I understand that you are worried about the safety of your students, and that's wonderful. However, I find it, to be perfectly frank, stupid that we aren't allowed to wear flip flops. You need to understand that this is just another kind of shoe. Flip flops are not exactly a hazard. I'm sure that almost all of the students and teachers wear them over the summer. Why not at school? I'm sure you have a good excuse like ' they are distracting to the learning environment' or ' they are a common cause of hallway incidents' but those aren't good reasons at all. Try going through a middle school hallway, even when you're wearing tennis shoes, and not getting your feet stepped on. I assure you it's near impossible. If you were in the position of the student, and not the person telling the student what to do, I'm sure you would understand. However, you're not in that position. Try putting yourself there. Also, if you were in this position, you would know about the actual hazards in school hall ways. Those back packs with wheels are about the easiest things to trip over in the world, but the school board is alright with those. Why? Also, the students themselves can be dangerous. This, however, you can do nothing about. If you were to take 10 random kids from any middle school with our dress code, I am positive that 9 if not all 10 of them would share my arguement. If you haven't noticed, I am not the only with this complaint. You shouldn't be telling us not to wear and innocent, slip on sandal when there are bigger problems you should be dealing with. I won't go into that right now. Back to an earlier point, I must remind you that many other school districts in Colorado Springs are allowed to wear flip flops. Is there less chance of them getting hurt? No, there is just more thought in the dress code. I'm not trying to offend anyone with this e-mail, I'm just speaking the truth that all of you on the board know is true. If you can give me one answer that truely makes sense, I'll be astonished because this is a completely absurd issue. Please actually give thought to this e-mail before typing some rule book response because this is one issue where the rule book is wrong. You need to understand that flip flops are worn all over the place and people are seldom injured wearing them. Please give this e-mail the thought you and I both know it deserves.

How will a divisive policy addressing a personal and private matter such as marriage relate to the providing the best education for ALL our children? I feel this is so far out of bounds of the school's role. In addition, the message it sends to the children who may not not come from a 2 parent household is that something is wrong, broken. This is not the message we need to give students. There are many circumstances under which this may occur; death, military; prison; divorce; abuse. Who are you to draw that line and judge? Instead we should be focusing on how we can SUPPORT these families, not discriminate and send the message that they are as, Mr. Breazell states 'part of the problem we have in the district'. As a school professional, I have had ample opportunity to work closely with families of all constellations. In fact, some of the most involved and committed families were those headed by same sex parents. The real challenges are not the number of parents involved or the gender, but rather the love, commitment, and resources available to the children. If safety is a factor in their home situation, then by law we become involved. If this is a personal vendetta, we are in dangerous territory. This is the type of 'resolution' that would cause meand others to withdraw our children from D-11. We are suppose to be committed to ALL children and leaving no child behind. Please keep the focus of education and achievement at the forefront, and special interest politics OUT.

I'm looking for the District's Policy and Procedures on line. Is there such a site. If so, please send me a link. Thank you Deborah Buchanan, RN, MS

It is possible for me to view the current transition policy used by employees in district #11? If possible, I would like a copy of it. Thanks

I thought the permit policy had been revised to eliminate 'voluntary' permits. The January 2004 D-11 Digest mentions that voluntary permits are available in school offices at any time. Please clarify.

Often times there are questions regarding activity fees being waived for free and reduced meal students. The current board policy states that Free AND REDUCED eligible students are to be waived fees in their entirety. Some schools waive, some just discount fees. What about kindergarten registration fees? Are these waived for F &R students? Do the guidelines (board policy) need to be updated? Why do we not hold students accountable to pay fees (for instance, lost book fees, broken windows, etc) if they are Free and Reduced? I am often asked these questions and would be interested in your response. Thanks.

From an insurance point, are employees allowed to use facilities at Geiger Blvd.( saws, welders etc.) for their personel use?

Does District 11 have a policy that prohibits students from bringing cell phones to school?

I am curious about the board's intent to approve the three charter schools under consideration. I want to know why the board intends to do so contrary to the recommendations of the DAAC and all others giving recommendations. I especially want to know how the approval of these charters can be justified when it would create a budget shortfall of three to six million dollars for the district - that seems extremely irresponsible fiscally as well as be contrary to the recommendation and will of the board's constituency. I want to know how the board intends to adjust for the resulting budget deficit. Even if all admin positions were eliminated (which simply cannot be done - D-11 admin does serve many useful and necessary purposes) it would not make up the shortfall. Thus, it seems the board must be intended to reduce salaries, fire teachers, or close schools to make up the funds - none of which seem to be in the best interest of staff, parents, or students in D-11. A responsible choice would be not to approve the charters - even if the new board members ran a school choice platform and readily took money from voucher and charter proponents like Schuck and various out-of-city special interests. The board is obligated to make choices that are best for everyone and an important part of that is to make fiscally viable decisions.

To the District 11 School Board: We oppose the recent decision to extend contact time by adding 30 minutes to the school day because: --Making the school day longer does not improve the quality of education for our children. It simply adds minutes to their day. --A longer school day makes for more exhausted students with decreased morale and less time for extra-curricular activities. --Teachers lose valuable planning time preparing to teach students. --Short notice of the policy change means that families must quickly adjust car pool, work, and after-school activity schedules. In many cases this is difficult or impossible, especially for families with children in multiple schools with different schedules. --Kindergarten students in full-day programs are unduly burdened by this change, as their contact hours are already above those of students in half-day programs. --While 900 teachers responded to surveys about the change, parents were caught off guard with no opportunity for input. –Colorado weather is difficult to predict. Accurate weather forecasting is a science best left to meteorological professionals, not school board officials. We ask that the board rescind this decision and follow exiting policy originally outlined by the district. If closures due to inclement weather/emergencies preclude attainment of required contact hours, then the school year should be extended by the appropriate amount of time to achieve that requirement. Regards, Kim and David Newberry Concerned Parents

What is the policy of schools in District 11 regarding dressing up for Halloween?

This letter was NOT published by the Gazette. Comments? In a recent Letter to the Gazette, Cay Jurgensen stated the following: “Pay for performance, merit pay, longevity incentives or any other name for similar programs are not new in education or District 11. They have been investigated, studied and rejected because there is no objective method for determining who will and will not receive them.” Does this statement mean that this is the end of the discussion? I think not. The word “objective” is the cogent indicator of why they cannot make progress. Objective has a definition of “independent of individual thought and perceptible by all observers”. This implies that any system requires a cook book of “yes” or “no” answers to questions so everybody feels good that their decision is perfect and requires no personal judgment for the consequences. Sorry, but life isn’t so simple or “fair”. I propose a different starting point for developing a merit pay system. 1. Each school has an annual budget for teacher salaries. Some schools may have a bigger pot to distribute in salaries as determined by factors that might make their teaching environment harder or easier than others. 2. Define that there will be a bell shaped distribution of relative performance. Not all teachers are equal. That’s a fact. Sorry, but life isn’t fair. Be honest. 3. Each principal is responsible to rank his teaching staff in order from best-to-worst. I use the term worst for a reason. We want the best. We are willing to pay the best more than the rest. We actually want the worst to leave. 4. Those at the top of the ranking will get paid more than those at the bottom. Post graduate education and longevity will not be independent weighting factors. There are teachers that are better without additional experience or extra education. It will be the responsibility of the individual teacher to determine what they need to become the best, or avoid being the worst. 5. It shall be the responsibility of the school board to develop performance evaluation form that links the words on teacher evaluations to the position in the rank list of each teacher, and subsequent pay. 6. It shall be the responsibility of the school principal to write individual performance evaluations explaining their ranking with feedback for improvement. 7. A compelling question used by those doing the ranking could be – “If I had to start a new school, which teacher would I take with me and why?” After >30 years in industry managing engineers and other professionals, two things are true. If you can’t dedicate the effort to fairly assess and reward performance then everybody suffers. Highly skilled and important positions require more than “objective” attention. Employees know who the stars and laggards are. Impersonal pay-performance processes discourages motivated and competent employees. As in socialism, the norm tends to move down over time. Stars get burned out! Stars should be visible an noted as positive examples. I am convinced that teachers deserve a pay system that is more than a cookbook. Each teacher is a valuable person and they deserve a system that treats them as individuals and valuable resources. It is unacceptable to say “We tried and failed, so let’s just stop.” Arnie Ellsworth Father of Past D-11 Students who refuse to live in D-11 territory with their children

This letter was NOT published by the Gazette. Comments? In a recent Letter to the Gazette, Cay Jurgensen stated the following: “Pay for performance, merit pay, longevity incentives or any other name for similar programs are not new in education or District 11. They have been investigated, studied and rejected because there is no objective method for determining who will and will not receive them.” Does this statement mean that this is the end of the discussion? I think not. The word “objective” is the cogent indicator of why they cannot make progress. Objective has a definition of “independent of individual thought and perceptible by all observers”. This implies that any system requires a cook book of “yes” or “no” answers to questions so everybody feels good that their decision is perfect and requires no personal judgment for the consequences. Sorry, but life isn’t so simple or “fair”. I propose a different starting point for developing a merit pay system. 1. Each school has an annual budget for teacher salaries. Some schools may have a bigger pot to distribute in salaries as determined by factors that might make their teaching environment harder or easier than others. 2. Define that there will be a bell shaped distribution of relative performance. Not all teachers are equal. That’s a fact. Sorry, but life isn’t fair. Be honest. 3. Each principal is responsible to rank his teaching staff in order from best-to-worst. I use the term worst for a reason. We want the best. We are willing to pay the best more than the rest. We actually want the worst to leave. 4. Those at the top of the ranking will get paid more than those at the bottom. Post graduate education and longevity will not be independent weighting factors. There are teachers that are better without additional experience or extra education. It will be the responsibility of the individual teacher to determine what they need to become the best, or avoid being the worst. 5. It shall be the responsibility of the school board to develop performance evaluation form that links the words on teacher evaluations to the position in the rank list of each teacher, and subsequent pay. 6. It shall be the responsibility of the school principal to write individual performance evaluations explaining their ranking with feedback for improvement. 7. A compelling question used by those doing the ranking could be – “If I had to start a new school, which teacher would I take with me and why?” After >30 years in industry managing engineers and other professionals, two things are true. If you can’t dedicate the effort to fairly assess and reward performance then everybody suffers. Highly skilled and important positions require more than “objective” attention. Employees know who the stars and laggards are. Impersonal pay-performance processes discourages motivated and competent employees. As in socialism, the norm tends to move down over time. Stars get burned out! Stars should be visible an noted as positive examples. I am convinced that teachers deserve a pay system that is more than a cookbook. Each teacher is a valuable person and they deserve a system that treats them as individuals and valuable resources. It is unacceptable to say “We tried and failed, so let’s just stop.” Arnie Ellsworth Father of Past D-11 Students who refuse to live in D-11 territory with their children

What is the D-11 plicy on tobacco use or possesion on school grounds? What is the procedures when someone is caught with tobacco on school grounds?

Where does one go on the Website to pull up or download the policy on visitors to all public schools? Is this policy posted on the School Board stating that any stranger/visitor must obtain a pass to visit a child? I need information re: this!!

Recently a comment was sent out concerning the wearing of Hats. Hats are issued to employees to help identify them as District Employees and for protection purposes when completing their job assignments. Does this not allow for District Employees to wear their hats while performing their jobs?

I understand you are considering extending the length of the typical school day to make up for snow days-HELP, as a small business owner offering an after-school arts program, this would be devastating to our schedule and we fear many students would drop our program and severely affect our livelihood.

What is the Districts requirement for Student/teacher ratios in the the classroom? Specifically how many students, at the kindergarten level, are required before an Aid can be hired to assist the teacher?

Hi, I have a quick question regarding your district's foreign student policy. I have a friend who is planning on moving to Colorado to study abroad. She will have the student visa, and I am wondering if foreign students could enroll in one of your your district's high schools. I am not sure if foreign students are allowed to attend public schools at all (I believe these students have to pay some sort of fee including their tuition and other expenses), so could you please forward me some information regarding foreign student policy at your district (and perhaps in the state of Colorado)? Thank you very much and I will look forward to hear from you. Young Yi

Is there a policy against the children of Dist.11 saying The Pledge of Allegiance? Is it the same for all schools in the district or do the individual schools make this choice?

Reading the BOE meeting agendas on the web site I find references to proposed policy revision recommendations. Where do I find these proposed revisions to read before the meetings? The March 17 and 31 agendas refer to a Legislative Agenda, and a draft Legislative Agenda. Where can I find the current agenda and the draft proposal? I see the link to D11's Bill Position summary and I want to read the agenda that supports the positions.