No School Next Friday, February 25th. Ski Cascade Instead.

From Monona Park and Rec:

Looking for something awesome to do on your day off of school next Friday? Join the Monona Parks & Rec Dept along with Cottage Grove and Maple Bluff for our last ski trip to Cascade Mountain. Cost is $45 and includes a meal voucher. Sign up online or call the Recreation Department at 222-4167. Bus leaves the Monona Community Center at 8:15 am and we'll arrive back around 5:30 pm.

The Governor Is Taking Phone Input. Give Him A Call At 266-1212 And Let Him Know What You're Thinking.

Making Way For The New Blue Park

Governor Walker To Propose Axing Almost All Collective Bargaining Rights

From http://www.channel3000.com/:

Gov. Scott Walker said in an exclusive interview that he will propose removing nearly all public employee collective bargaining rights to help plug a $3.6 billion budget hole.
Walker told The Associated Press on Thursday that no one should be surprised by the move that he is asking the Republican-controlled Legislature to approve next week given that he'd talked about doing it for two months.

He said the cuts are necessary to avoid up to 6,000 state employee layoffs.
Walker will propose changing state law to remove the ability for public employees to negotiate on any issue except salary.
Read the rest here.

Proposed 2011-12 Budget Reductions

2011-12 Proposed Reductions

BOARD APPROVED BUDGET REDUCTION
Consolidation of Maywood and Winnequah Schools
 SUBTOTAL $243,531

PROPOSED BUDGET REDUCTIONS
Snow Removal Schedule $25,000
Eliminate Asst. Principal at Cottage Grove School .2 FTE $21,000
Diversity Coordinator Position by .5 FTE $23,000
Special Education Teacher - Winnequah 1.0 FTE $60,000
Early Childhood Teacher - .6 FTE $45,000
Early Childhood Educational Assistant - Maywood - .5 FTE $10,000
Early Childhood Educational Assistant $5,000
Technology Educational Assistant - Glacial Drumlin .4 FTE $15,000
Route Coordinator/Assistant Transportation Position $25,000
Building Checks (Sundays Only) $11,000
School-to-Work Coordinator $60,000
High School Writing Lab Educational Assistant $35,000
District Human Resources Position $20,000
High School Copy Position $11,000
Increase Walk Zone $50,000
Building and Department Budgets $100,000
SUBTOTAL - NEW REDUCTIONS $516,000

TOTAL PROPOSED BUDGET REDUCTIONS $759,531

Monona Grove Board Of Education Meeting This Wednesday, February 9th

The Board of Education will meet tomorrow evening, February 9th, in the District Office at 7pm. The full agenda can be found here.
Some highlights of tomorrow's meeting:
 Nancy Gagnon and Stephanie Ramer will present the Board with the details of the proposed charter School of Health and Environmental Sciences. This project-based learning charter school aims to serve students in grades 6 through 8.

There will also be discussion of the location of second grade students at Cottage Grove Elementary School for the coming school year.
The district's budget reduction process and proposals will also be discussed at length.

Also, many thanks for all of these generous donations!

 Donation from Diane Loui to Cottage Grove School to purchase a document camera
 Donation of $2,000.00 from Walmart to Maywood & Winnequah Schools.
 $1,525.00 from the Cottage Grove PTO to purchase SMARTBoards at Taylor Prairie School.
 Three winter jackets, 2 pairs of snow pants, 10 winter hats and 10 pairs of knit gloves for students from Joann Kerr to the Cottage Grove School
 $359.33 From the Monona Elementary PTO for the Winnequah School for 5th grade art
 $565.30 from the Cottage Grove Book Fair (Cottage Grove PTO) to Taylor Prairie School

Unfortunately, I will not be attending our meeting as my family is on vacation on the Gulf Coast, where the state of public education is truly dire, where school reserve accounts are running dry and 60 of 131 Alabama school districts have less than one month of operating expenses in their accounts. Read more here.

GO PACK GO!