Fields of Extremes

Dickens once started a book with the line, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...".  That line struck a nerve for us after touring the athletic fields with the School Board's Planning Committee, chaired by John Welke, this week.  It was eye-opening, to say the least.  And it provided a plethora of blog fodder (Pardon the gratuitous use of the word "plethora" on the eve of the first NFL Sunday of 2013.  We wanted to beat the NFL announcers who always seem to work that word in).

It is the best of times, because we cannot agree more with board member Steve Schroeder, who remarked that the district is indeed blessed with an awesome set of athletic venues.  Of course, the taxpayers paid a pretty supertanker load of pennies for those fields.  We'd add, however, that it also appears to be the worst of times, because we are entering the 4th year of the new high school (and its fields) and they are in serious disarray.  With awesome fields comes awesome responsibility....that is to say...taking care of the fields.

What we learned

• We don't have enough [buildings and grounds] staff.  No surprise there.
• We file insurance claims rather than hold vendors accountable.
• We apparently need one guy to supervise two workers at the high school.  Really?  Then maybe we have the wrong supervisor...or wrong staff.
• We heard an awful lot of blame shifting onto the former buildings and grounds manager, Tom Brooks.  Hope our liability insurance is paid up.  Mr. Brooks might just be calling in regards to something like a defamation/slander claim.
• There is some serious "settling" in the outfield of the glorious Summit Field.  Someone is going to get hurt chasing a fly ball.  Shouldn't those fields be warrantied against defects like that?
• "Settling" in the fields?  looks more like isolated pits to us.  More like from underground sprinklers.  And the question to be asked is: how come there's no "settling"  occurring on the softball fields.  Wait...now we remember...that question was asked:  those fields were developed by a different contractor.   Things that make you go, "Hmmmm".  
• Were fields developed according to specifications?  We learned that the JV baseball field was constructed with only 6" of topsoil instead of the required $12.
• We need to replace about 40 bushes/shrubs because of snow plowed onto them or salt from the parking lot.   Hello?  Ag class?  UW Extension maybe?   Maybe work with the city to rethink the required plantings.
• We learned from our tour guide, Dale Wiesinger [sp.?], that our sprinklers don't overlap coverage.  Really? RUFKM?
• Oh yeah...before we forget...where was our highly compensated "construction manager"...our "buyer's agent on-site" during this? [http://sp-eye.blogspot.com/2010/05/cutting-cord.html].  We paid them $7,300 per MONTH to watch over the quality of work being done on the $84M high school project.  And that was for several years. 

The windstorm
Back in April, you'll likely recall, Sun Prairie experienced a powerful "derecho" wind event that wreaked havoc on the backstops of the varsity and JV baseball fields and tore out most of the outfield fence, including signs from advertisers that paid a hefty price for Summit Field to carry their banners.  The backstops are still seriously mangled, and the fence looks pretty cobbled together.  The signs are still missing.

Oh we had questions....why did the backstops bend like that?  Shouldn't they be warrantied against such structural anomalies ( we dont recall other schools complaining of their backstops being bent)?  Shouldn't we be working with the vendor?  Who's going to pay for the outfield fence and replacement signs?

All good questions, but the answers leave only more questions.  Apparently, it is our understanding that someone(s) added netting to the backstops and they were not engineered to handle the extra weight.  It's physics in its purest form, kiddies.  When you place something of significant wight at the top of something, the fulcrum point shifts.  Or something like that :-)  So it seems that while the logical thing to do would be to start by contacting the  vendor, it appears we might have caused our own problems.

So we make an insurance claim.  Want to bet that the insurer is asking the same questions?  Why did we do something that changed the structural integrity and then expect to be compensated when we suffer a loss?  Isn't that going to result in an increase to our premium?  Especially if it turns out that we added the netting without verifying that the structural support can handle it?

Jimmy Mac Goes Elvis

From the "This Was So Expected It Doesn't Even Qualify as News" Department:

Perhaps channeling some inner Elvis, Jim "Jimmy Mac" McClowry has metaphorically speaking left the building, having resigned as district Athletics and Activities Director.  We received multiple texts and e-mails alerting us to the announcement which quietly appeared in an addendum to the personnel table included in the May 28 School Board package.

We understand that he has accepted a similar position in Kaukauna, a smaller Division 1 school district. Sometime change is necessary to move forward.  Certainly the hockey fee fiasco, and the quality of data presented were an albatross which dogged him, but we understand from numerous reports that Mr. McClowry had more than one albatross hovering over him.  This, then, was probably the best move for Jim.

Personally, we wish Mr. McClowry the best in his new position.  Honestly, we do. Sure, we jab and we poke, but we do so only to effect change.  Change that district folks just don't seem wiling or capable of enacting on their own.  We tried to effect change the easy way...by asking politely.   Then we asked more pointedly.. Neither gets you anywhere.  We sincerely hope that the events that transpired over the last 6-12 months will be valuable to Mr. McClowry in shoring up things in his life.  Life is a series of challenges from which we all learn and use to better navigate life's highways and byways.

This will also provide the District with an opportunity to regroup regarding the Athletic and Activities Director position and determine what we truly need and expect there.

We'd be remiss if we didn't point out that it is a little disconcerting that Mr. McClowry put forth the budget initiative to hire an assistant Director given that he was clearly thinking of moving on.  AD positions don't open all that frequently in the state, and so we suspect that this was a move that had been in the works for some time.

Last but not least, as they say, when one door closes, another one opens. Last year Mr. McClowry made sure that the School Board was aware that he represented the Big 8 Conference AD with the most tenure.  That crown now passes on for  someone else to wear.

How a new SPHS sport is launched

And now you know....the rest of the story

Not too shabby

How many are wondering how Sun Prairie High really ranks against its peers?  Did anyone look?  How many can't wait until November 7th to get past all these ads?

Well we took a look at the "report card" data for comparable high schools.  Now, Dr. Culver would want us to state clearly what comparable we seek.  So...to be clear...we are NOT going to compare Sun Prairie High to other Dane Co. schools.  There's simply far too much variability there for any comparison to be worthwhile.

Instead we looked at the 20 school districts closest in size to Sun Prairie in terms of total enrollment.   These will be moderate to large sized cities who, at least in  theory, face many of the same challenges as Sun Prairie.   For the record, there is a school board policy which states that administrator salary ranges are to be based on averages from the 14 school districts closest in size to Sun Prairie.  We figure that if it's a good enough basis for administrator salaries, it must be good for student performance...right?

So...ho did we fare?  Not too shabby. 6th out of 31 high schools to be exact.  That's really pretty good...so why don't we have more National Merit scholars?

We looked at the data to see if there were any significant correlations between accountability scores and  school enrollment (NO!), percent of minority students (inverse correlation, statistically significant), and percentage of socio-economically disadvantaged kids (inverse correlation, extreme statistical significance).

As the clock ticks ever closer towards election day, perhaps one measure of a candidate's strength is the ability to fight poverty.  Coming in a very close second is the likelihood that a candidate will properly fund schools to deal with achievement gaps.

Here's a tip...making the rich richer is not part of the equation.

Sun Prairie Graduation 2012 - Still Exceeding Statistical Probability

It was nice.  It felt...comfortable.  But of course that maybe because things went as expected and as they usually do: a phenomenal percentage of honors and high honors graduates.

Sure, there floated the occasional beach ball until confiscated by the aisle monitors. There were several bold souls that "shook their stuff" on the stage before accepting their diploma case.  But could anyone help but notice    the inverted triangle of high honor grads?

Last year 1 in 4 students graduated with high honors. This second verse very nearly mirrored the first.  By our unofficial tally, 109 students graduated with "high honors" (cumulative GPA greater than 3.50, or between a B+ and an A-).  We don't have a final tally on the number of graduated, but with we use 440, the number of 12 graders in SPHS, the percentage is 24.9%. If we total all 12th graders (including PPA and virtual schoolers, the number of kids is just under 500 and 109 represents about 22%).

By contrast, the number of students graduation with "Honors" (cumulative GPA of 3.20 to 3.499) was only 63!  How could we possibly have more kids achieving High Honors, than plain old Honors?  It makes no sense...right?   As with everything, GPA should follow a pyramidical scheme....starting with a large foundation, and then as we move up, the proportions get smaller.

The baseball analogy
Hey, it's baseball season.  Once again, Rob Hamilton has coached a bunch of kids well into the state tournament.  So let's look at major league baseball (MLB) batting averages.  A pretty good hitter has a batting average of about 0.275, or gets a hit somewhere between every 3 or 4 at bats.  Really good hitters have a batting average of 0.300 (3 hits per 10 at bats; generally at least 1 hit per game).  Exceptional hitters cross the 0.350 batting average line.  These are often your leadoff batters because the probability of them getting on base each at bat is high.  Annually, the MLB batting champs have an average of about 0.325-0.350.  Given that, how unearthly was Teddy Williams when his season batting average was over 0.400?

GPAs should be like baseball averages...the higher the average (GPA) the fewer achieve it.  Not so in Sun Prairie!  It's called grade inflation, people.  We can ignore it and be oh so proud of our scholarly cherubs, but we're deluding ourselves...and our kids.  And the kids are the ones that will come smashing back down to earth.

In MLB today, 105 players with at least 175 at bats are hitting 0.275 or less.  Only 26 players are hitting better than 0.300.  This is reality folks.

 The snowman analogy
Don't like baseball?  Heat making you think about winter?  Let's talk snowmen.  Who among us doesn't know that a properly proportioned snowman has a mid-body section about 1/2 the diameter of the base, and a head about 1/4 the diameter of the base.

If we look at Sun Prairie's Honors grads as the mid-body segment, and High Honors grads as the head, we see that our snowman looks a little wack.

Something's not right here, and it's time someone looked into it.  We need to stop mollycoddling our kids and start preparing the for reality.  This Dr. Feelgood crap will only serve to have them wind up on some therapist's couch down the road.  Can't we be both loving and honest?  Wasn't honesty supposed to be the best policy?  Where has honesty gone?  And over-inflating anything is a formula for disaster.

You are not special.
If you didn't catch wind of the 2012 commencement address given by Mr. David McCullough, faculty member at Wellesley (MA) high school, you should.  He blew Dr. FeelGood out of the water.
Some excerpts are provided below.

Graduates....you passed an awesome milestone.  A round of applause is certainly in order for earning your diploma.  But let's not get overly caught up in class rank or what type of honors you graduated with.  The slate is wiped clean.  College acceptance is competitive and you are now among peers with the same GPA/ACT scores.  We wish you the very best.  Just do not be surprised if things are more difficult than expected, based on your GPA.  Do not get disillusioned.  Just do your best and you will persevere.  You may or may not get "high honors"from here on out.  And if you are off to work, be all that you can be.  The old adage "work hard and you will be rewarded still plays in some businesses".

But most of all...do not be afraid to fail.  Because if you're not failing at something, you're not trying.  None of you will be the best at everything.  A cumulative GPA of 4.0 in life is absolutely unattainable.  But you can get "A"s in some things.  Strive for "A"s in the things you enjoy, and be happy with average marks on the rest of life.

You are not special. You are not exceptional. Contrary to what your U9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you… you’re nothing special.
But do not get the idea you’re anything special. Because you’re not.

Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools. That’s 37,000 valedictorians… 37,000 class presidents… 92,000 harmonizing altos… 340,000 swaggering jocks… 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs.

You see, if everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless. 
 ---Faculty member David McCullough at Wellesley (MA) High School 2012 Commencement

Has Prom Become the Have-Have Not Line?

Next Saturday, Sun Prairie will hold its Prom ....at the Monona Convention Center. That's right...not at our fabulous new gymnasium at the TajMah High school. We received this e-mail from a loyal reader. We think it raises some valid points. Certainly points to ponder.

We don't mean to take away the "magic" from what is supposed to be a treasured moment in time. But at the same time, most of us enjoyed the camaraderie of decorating the gym. In fact, it made the event itself mean a little bit more. Times are tough and money is tight. Seeing as Sun Prairie just opened its ginormous awe-inspiring gym, we wonder if it couldn't have been held right here in town. Safer and less expensive. And maybe it might even have fostered a little "connectedness". N'est ce pas? Here's the e-mail received

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Dear SP-EYE...
Had a discussion this week with a friend with a daughter who is a junior at SPHS. Seems that prom season is here. My memories of prom are renting a tux, driving my dad's car to take a date to dinner, and then to a dance at the high school gym. Not cheap but didn't break the bank either.

Well, prom these days has a whole new meaning. My friend told me that between the dress, limo, dinner, ticket and other costs, they are into prom for almost a thousand bucks...and that is going with a group to split some costs! Prom is held at Monona Terrace, not at the gym in the Taj Ma-high school. When I commented on the absurd costs, my friend said "I am convinced they set it up this way to keep the poor kids out." She was only being half facetious.

When we have a school system looking at hiring a "diversity" person and we ahve a community with an obvious split between the "haves" and the "have nots" I think it is truly sad that the school supports such a prom. I am sure there are many under-privileged young ladies who would love to be able to attend their high school prom; things like this only serve to deepen the cultural (and racial) divide.

I am sure the "haves" enjoy taking pictures of their kids and thinking of a NYC coming out party but, seriously, shouldn't we be supporting a more inclusive type of prom...one that makes use of the gym...or is that just a time that has come and gone and I should get over thinking that things were better the way they used to be...seems I recall my dad telling me that once...

Going Out On a (Not So) High Note

Well...the 2009-10 school year is in the books. Graduation is over, and the summer parties have begun. What many may have missed--and certainly not something you'll ever see discussed on the district website or at a school board meeting--was a teensy little article in the State Journal this week.

Several Madison schools fail to meet No Child Left Behind standards.
DeForest, Middleton and Sun Prairie high schools also missed one or more testing benchmarks.

Statewide, 145 schools and four districts, including Madison, missed one or more adequate yearly progress targets. Under the law [like it or hate it], schools and districts that failed to meet the same progress targets for two or more years are identified as needing improvement.

Read the Journal article
See the data from the DPI website