Well...unfortunately, we have learned that our district has prioritized a few programs ahead of ours for the 2017-18 school year. This was to be expected; after all, this year's bond was loaded with $265 million in "must-do" things.
Worse, we have learned that monies that were supposed to be available for the construction and roll-out of our first mobile lab will not be available in totality. Instead, we will likely have to implement a less impressive package for our initial effort. And because of this issue, a subsequent lack of leverage for us, there is actually no reason for the district to provide us positions to run our mobile lab full-time, nor to plan future phases of the MISD CAS project. I know that this sounds more like a "permanently cloudy skies with thunderstorms imminant" type of announcement, but hold fast, my gloomy friends! The district has stated that it's still a priority project and the current climate does indeed favor our future efforts. As proof, the district is willing to allow us to teach a partial class load for the 2017-18 school year, providing us some of the valuable time we need. It's purely a good faith gesture on their behalf, since they truly recognize our needs and they see the promise of our project. So, while we aren't getting the "full-time" treatment as of yet. we will be given the opportunity to move forward, with some district resources being devoted to the project. And with the district's new STEM initiative, including a middle school STEM Academy slated to open next school year, we have the opportunity to verify and demonstrate exactly how a pure STEM subject like Astronomy can be applied. I view this as pure sunshine, indeed!
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AuthorsJay Ballauer Archives
April 2017
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