Would you put a GPS tracker on your teen’s car?

By Megan Gildow | Monday, December 1, 2008, 11:13 AM

Last night while I was watching TV I heard a commercial directed at parents of teenagers.

The ad was for a GPS tracking system — not one of the handy little GPS systems that give us directions to our destinations but one that allows parents to know exactly where their child’s vehicle is.

A quick Google search reveals that there are a lot of these trackers out there for sale.

The GPS tracking systems can monitor not only your child’s location and how long they’ve been there but can also tell you if he or she goes over a speed designated by you — a feature I imagine some parents might find more attractive than the locating part.

There’s some more information on the Youth Driving Safe Web site. YDS is a group that, according to its Web site, offers low-cost trackers to parents to promote better team driving.

Would you buy one of these devices?

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Could MySpace suicide case verdict lead to more online criminal charges?

By Megan Gildow | Thursday, November 27, 2008, 04:49 PM

The New York Times has a story this week about the possible implications of a Missouri woman’s conviction on three misdemeanor charges stemming from cyberbullying on MySpace.

Legal experts expect the case to pave the way for future criminal trials over bullying on the Internet, the Times reports.

In October 2006, 13-year-old Megan Meier committed suicide and it was later revealed that a classmate’s mother had been taunting the girl using a fake profile on MySpace. This particular case made headlines late last year when her parents started talking about their daughter’s death.

The mother, Lori Drew, created a fake MySpace page for a fake boy and used it to get to know Megan. Then she and her daughter and the key witness in the trial, an employee who had helped create the site, sent Megan messages that said he didn’t want to talk to her again and the world would be better off without her.

Hours later, Megan Meier hanged herself in her closet.

Drew was convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles of three misdemeanor charges of computer fraud. The jury rejected felony charges and it’s unclear what kind of sentence could come from this, but legal experts are saying this case could be the first cyberbullying conviction.

And it could have a big impact on future cases.

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Auditor meets with district on preliminary revaluation figures

By Megan Gildow | Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 11:31 AM

The Clark County Auditor’s Office told Springfield schools that the district could lose more than half a million dollars in property taxes after revaluation appeals are settled, my colleague Bridgette Outten reports today.

The worst case scenario is that the district could lose as much as $551,991, according to district treasurer Penny Rucker who got the preliminary figures from Auditor George Sodders.

Springfield is already preparing for $1.4 million in budget cuts, so this could bump those cuts up to $1.9 million.

A final report is expected sometime in the next couple weeks. Look for more information from individual districts on what their potential loss could be and what that might mean in terms of budget cuts next week.

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Springfield selects search firm for recommendation

By Megan Gildow | Wednesday, November 26, 2008, 08:31 AM

Springfield City Schools will likely hire BWP Associates to find a new superintendent and the district’s first permanent Springfield High School campus director.

Board members met in special sessions last week and last night to interview BWP and another firm, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates. Both firms are based in Illinois.

The search, including expenses, could cost up to $50,000, said Board President Donna Picklesimer.

That’s the cost for both the superintendent and campus director search and both will be national searches. The state board of education’s recent national search for a new state superintendent carried a similar price tag.

BWP’s process includes gathering input from the community and staff members to create a profile of what the district is looking for in its next schools chief, according to the company’s Web site. They then develop an advertisement and solicit candidates they feel would be a good match.

The board will vote at a special meeting Dec. 2 and will hear a presentation from BWP at that time, she said. The process will include community input and input from staff members.

The board conducted the final interview last night and it was decided that a recommendation would be made in favor of BWP instead of Hazard, Young, Attea.

Hazard, Young, Attea is the firm that conducted Cincinnati schools’ recent superintendent search until the board terminated the contract after learning that one of the five finalists for the position had settled a sexual harassment suit brought against him by a principal in the district he is set to resign from in June 2009.

The board interviewed these two firms because they are “nationally recognized as the top two firms,” said Picklesimer.

They did not seek bids from other companies or organizations, she said.

But does Springfield need a national search?

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Is MySpace an educational experience?

By Megan Gildow | Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 09:25 AM

Parents who worry about their kids’ time spent goofing off on the Web may have some good news - a new study suggests that time is actually educating today’s youth.

In fact, the media and technology literacy lessons students pick up during their time on the Internet actually rivals the ones they get in a formal education setting, according to a three-year study called DigitalYouth out of the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley.

Nearly 90 percent of teens use the Internet and the average student spends 7 to 8 hours a week on the Web, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

The DigitalYouth project found that students gain these lessons regardless of their online activities, whether they are participating in “interest-driven” activities (looking into subjects they want to know more about) or “socially-driven” activities (MySpace and Facebook).

A 2006 Pew study found that most parents felt the Internet did not have an effect on their children. It also found an increase from 2004 of parents who felt the Internet was not a good thing for their kids.

The DigitalYouth research suggests that students are learning social and technical skills from any time spent on the Web. The study also suggests that cutting teens off from the Web will keep them from learning these skills that are necessary “to fully participate in contemporary society.”

And students may benefit more from time online during school if educators took a more relaxed approach to those sessions, according to the research.

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How do you have a successful parent-teacher conference?

By Megan Gildow | Friday, November 21, 2008, 09:07 AM

Parent-teacher conferences are cropping up on almost every school calendar I have this month.

The National Education Association, familyeducation.com and Discovery’s Parent Channel all have tips to help you make the most of these meetings.

I believe we have a few educators reading out there; maybe they will offer up their own tips as well?

Here are a few of each organization’s suggestions with links to the rest of the article.

Do your homework: Prepare for your conference by making a list of things you may need to notify your child’s teacher about (changes at home or problems you are noticing, for example). Also come up with questions prior to the conference so you know what you want to ask and discuss.

Ask your child: Talk to your child before the conference to get ideas about what you might hear during the conference and what concerns you might raise.

Ask about the school: Find out the teacher’s and school’s policies in the classroom, for evaluating your child and what your child will be expected to learn over the year. Also ask the teacher what you can do at home to help your child be more successful.

Looking for more? Here’s a list of how to handle a few different specific circumstances and an article on continuing effective communication after the conference is over.

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Central Academy: A closer look

By Megan Gildow | Thursday, November 20, 2008, 12:54 PM

About 50 community members attended Tuesday’s forum about Central Academy, a public school of choice in Middletown, hosted by a local parent’s group.

Springfield Partnership for Academic Challenge and Enrichment hosted the presentation by Dr. Dianne Suiter, principal of Central Academy at Middletown City Schools. They are hoping a similar program could be a fit for Springfield.

There’s a pretty generous amount of information about Central on it’s Web site if you are interested in learning more. Here’s information about democratic schools, the curriculum style Central adopted as its philosophy and model.

Parents with the group told me Tuesday they would like to organize a visit to Central Academy and keep the conversation going about whether a similar school could fit in Springfield City Schools and a relatively diverse population.

All five board members attended the meeting and I spoke to board member Don Reed afterward. He acknowledged that Central is an interesting concept, but the district does have finances to consider and there would have to be much more consideration before jumping into a project like that. He also mentioned that Suiter said the best way to start such a program is to have kindergarten and first grade classrooms and build up as the students get older.

We’ll see what happens from here.

There were a few big elements to Central that were part of the presentation and discussion Tuesday night. I went into most of them a little in Wednesday’s article but I’m going to delve into them a little more now.

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