Budget season begins

There is all kinds of new budget and four-day week information at the district website today, including this podcast of last night's work session:



Both budget and four-day week now have dedicated web pages where you can learn more and provide input. Click here for the 2010-11 budget homepage, and here for the four-day week homepage.

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NBAPS has important announcement

North Branch Area Public Schools made a very important announcement today. You can read it here.

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NBAPS on the map

The Minnesota Department of Education has a neat new feature at its website called "Minnesota Education Mapper". It allows users to view schools, districts and education regions and includes other useful map information. You can also identify schools and districts by location and view report card information and more.

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SEE the solution

Schools for Equity in Education has released its 2010 legislative platform, which you can read here.

Among other things, it calls for a new funding system, greater taxpayer fairness, reductions in funding disparity, and the elimination of reliance on the operating levy.

As you know, NBAPS has become the poster child for problems with the current state funding system. I encourage each and every one of you to call your representatives and encourage them to work toward changing the system that has been so damaging to our district and community.

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Hoops for a cure

In just a few short weeks, the North Branch Area and Chisago Lakes high school basketball programs raised over $9,000 for cancer research. A check presentation was made to the American Cancer Society during a double-header between the two programs on Jan. 12.

It's a wonderful outcome for cancer research and the student athletes and coaches involved. Many thanks to a community that really stepped up and answered this call.

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Where it's all headed?

Here's an interesting trend in post-secondary education:

Both the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system say they've seen double digit increases in recent years in the number of students taking online courses.

Online courses can take multiple forms. The article linked above talks about "hybrid" courses, in which students spend a portion of their time in class, and a portion learning online. North Branch Area Public Schools has something similar, its distance learning program, which blends classroom time with both offline and online learning.

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