Jeff Grisamore Not: Mo. Lawmaker Who Threatened To Resign Over Bills' Failure To Pass Changes His Mind | St. Louis Public Radio

Jeff Grisamore Not: Mo. Lawmaker Who Threatened To Resign Over Bills' Failure To Pass Changes His Mind | St. Louis Public Radio

A Missouri lawmaker who threatened to resign unless one or both of his key bills survived the last day of the 2013 legislative session is staying put, even though both bills failed to make it out by Friday's deadline.

State Representative Jeff Grisamore (R, Lee's Summit) said his resignation threat was based on frustration with the Senate's inaction on the bills -- House Bill 717 would have provided funding for disabled children and House Bill 727 for disabled adults.  Both bills died when the Missouri Senate chose not to advance them on the final day of session.

"We don't need to be waiting and allowing such important bills that impact our most vulnerable citizens in Missouri, folks with disabilities and at-risk women and children and families, be put off until the last minute," Grisamore said.

Grisamore changed his mind after talking with House Speaker Tim Jones (R, Eureka) and Majority Floor Leader John Diehl (R, Town and Country).

"They assured me that they'll do everything they can to help us next year insure that the omnibus disability bill passes," Grisamore said.

Grisamore's possible resignation, combined with fellow House Member Jason Smith's(R, Salem) possible election to Congress, could have resulted in Republicans losing their veto-proof majority in the Missouri House.  But Grisamore said his decision to stay in office had nothing to do with preserving the GOP supermajority in that chamber.

Jeff Grisamore Not: Will He Really Quit

Jeff Grisamore Not: Will He Really Quit

I believe that he will hold on to the only job that he has regardless of what his email says.  Not too many people will know that he made this threat and he will not stick to his word.  He just is using our families, once again, to make himself look good.  My opinion, of course.

“He expressed that this issue was of the utmost importance to him personally and professionally,” Parson said. He added that as far as the threat to resign, he’d “let the email speak for itself.”

Missouri budget will increase education funding | ksdk.com

Missouri budget will increase education funding | ksdk.com

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri public schools and universities will be getting a funding increase under an agreement by legislative budget negotiators.

A group of House and Senate members decided Tuesday to provide a $25 million funding increase to public colleges and universities based on whether they have met performance criteria such as student graduation rates. That's less than the $34 million increase sought by Gov. Jay Nixon but more than the House had approved earlier this year.

The budget also includes $10 million for the University of Missouri medical school to expand a residency program at the Cox Health system in Springfield.

Public school districts would get a $66 million increase to their $3 billion of core funding - the same amount Nixon recommended.

Court docs: Father struck son 5x for crying, sucking thumb | fox4kc.com

Court docs: Father struck son 5x for crying, sucking thumb | fox4kc.com

Court docs: Father struck son 5x for crying, sucking thumb

Posted on: 10:02 pm, May 8, 2013, by Macradee Aegerter, updated on: 10:10pm, May 8, 2013

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LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. – Punishing an infant for crying and sucking its thumb has a Lee’s Summit man behind bars.

Twenty-year-old Nathaniel Bearden is charged with one count of felony child abuse. Documents released by the Jackson County Prosecutor say Bearden does not allow thumb sucking or much crying — and that’s why he repeatedly hit his baby.

The injuries sent the baby to the hospital.

“It’s very important for parents to understand is crying is a normal part of child development and thumb sucking is a natural reflex that children have to self soothe themselves. I mean, they start doing it when they are in the womb and it’s a very normal part of childhood,” said Monica Enloe, Development Manager for Kansas Children’s Service League.

The baby boy, named in court documents by his initials “KB,” was struck in the face at least five times by his father, Nathaniel Bearden, documents showed.

Bearden told police he hit the boy because he was sucking his thumb.

“It’s a normal part of children growing up. There is a lot of brain development happening when children are that young. 90 percent of a child’s brain is developed before the age of 5,” Enloe said.

Police were called to the home by the child’s mother who noticed blood in the baby’s eyes and confronted Bearden, court documents say.

In a statement to police, Bearden admited the abuse.

“We know that hitting or striking a baby can cause blood shot eyes. Also shaking or choking can cause that as well,” Enloe said.

Kansas Children’s service League acknowledge the difficulties of parenting but say hitting, choking, shaking are never okay and have joined the purple hat campaign to remind parents that crying is part of a baby’s growth.

“We give parents the purple hats to remind them that it is normal, they are not doing anything wrong. And even though its incredibly frustrating it’s important to continue to care for your child and recognize when you are frustrated and to put them in safe place and to walk away for a minute,” said Enloe.

Bearden pleaded not guilty at his arraignment hearing on Tuesday. He remains in jail on a $75,000 cash-only bond.

Kate Casas: The Sky Isn't Falling on Public Education

Kate Casas: The Sky Isn't Falling on Public Education

The Sky Isn't Falling on Public Education

Posted: 05/06/2013 2:04 pm

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éducation , Education Reform , American Federation Of Teachers , Henny Penny , Jay Barnes , Kate Casas , Kathryn Swan , Kathy Swan , Missouri Association Of School Administrators , Missouri Association Of School Boards , Teacher Tenure , aft420 , Dwight Scharnhorst , Fables , Foundation For Excellence In Education , hb458 , hb470 , Masa ,Missouri House Of Representatives , Teacher Evaluations , Impact News

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When I was in kindergarten, my class put on a Mother's Day rendition of the play Henny Penny for our mothers, grandmothers, and other adoring fans. Almost three decades later I entered the education reform community and have been reliving scenes from this fable ever since. Only in this grown-up version instead of Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky, and Goosey Loosey confusing an acorn falling from a tree for a falling sky, it is the varying factions paid to protect the education status quo who are confusing an attempt to authentically engage parents, evaluate teachers partially on student progress and expand high quality education options with a falling sky.

Take for example the current, though almost over, Missouri Legislative Session. In late January Representative Kathryn Swan (R-Cape Girardeau) filed legislation to require that the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) issue a simplified school report card that would identify all schools as having received an A, B, C, D, or F.

Anyone without a Masters in Education who has tried to understand Missouri's current school report card would appreciate why a new one is needed. The lobbyists representing the teacher unions, administrators, school boards, and others assigned to protect the current system went pleading to legislators and editorial boards that if this bill became law, the sky would fall. They claimed that once a transparent school report card was implemented the first thing to fall from the sky would be a voucher system, then teachers and students with exceptionally low morale would come tumbling after, followed closely behind would be plummeting real estate values. Lastly they told legislators they would need to find much bigger umbrellas to protect themselves from the hoards of parents falling from the sky onto the Capitol grounds while advocating for expanded school choice.

Unfortunately for all those who spread the message to policy makers that the sky would fall if parents really knew how schools were doing, the real numbers tell a different story. This preliminary information, obtained from DESE through an open records request, reveals that about 75 percent of schools in Missouri would get an A or a B under the proposed legislation and that less than 15 percent of Missouri's 2000+ schools would be deemed failing.

Likewise, when reformers and legislators have proposed teacher evaluations be based in part on student academic growth, the education establishment's reaction has been paramount to Henny Penny's. For example, in Missouri an American Federation of Teachers Local 420 representative told the Senate Education Committee that if we altered teacher evaluations and then "...fired all the bad teachers in places like Saint Louis..." we would have "tons" classrooms with no certified teacher. However, in a New York Times article on March 31, 2013 it was reported that changing evaluations only resulted in a small increase in the number of teachers rated below effective. These findings support what education reformers in Missouri have been saying -- we don't want to change evaluations so that the sky will fall on Missouri's teachers. We want to change evaluations to begin measuring and providing meaningful feedback to educators about the only thing that really matters, student academic growth.

Lastly, the screams to duck and cover because the sky is going to crush us all are at their most shrill when someone dare suggest children should have access to more high quality education options. To see examples of this you again need not look beyond Jefferson City, Missouri. This year, Representative Dwight Scharnhorst (R-Saint Louis County) and Representative Jay Barnes(R-Jefferson City) each are offering modest proposals to provide educational opportunities to unique learners. Scharnhorst offered HB458 that would provide a scholarship tax credits to children on the autism spectrum. Barnes offered HB470 to allow enrollment in a virtual school program for no more than 1.75 percent of Missouri K-12 students. These two bills combined would affect an incredibly small number of children in an enormously positive way.

To no one's surprise when these two bills started moving through the Missouri House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee first the administrators association began running through the Capitol hallways and sending emails shouting that the sky was falling. They were followed closely by the teacher unions who went along with them yelling about the falling sky without question. Eventually the school board association and cooperating school districts of both Kansas City and St. Louis went along with the others. They were all chanting in panicked tones to legislators that if they give permission to parents of autistic children to send their child to a school better equipped to educate them that the sky would fall and crush the entire $7 billion public education system in Missouri.

Once again, the evidence that such panic is not only unnecessary but also in many ways a deliberate attempt to mislead, is strong. Idaho, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, and Virginia all have virtual school options and yet the sky did not fall on their still strong traditional public school systems. Likewise, Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia have scholarship tax credits for children with special needs and in each of those states the sky is still firmly in place.

At the end of Henny Penny, all the barnyard animals are so desperate to get to the King to warn him of the falling sky that they believe Foxy Loxy when she tells them she knows a short cut. Sadly for them, they follow Foxy into her lair where she presumably eats them. The barnyard animals' ridiculous panic about the falling sky blinds them from the actually dangerous fox. This is also not much different than what is happening with in the factions of the education establishment. Their fear of change is blinding them from the real danger -- they are becoming stagnant and unable to meet the changing needs of America's parents and students. I would hate to see our public school system meet the same fate as Henny Penny and the bunch. Maybe soon one of them will look up and see the "dangers" are actually just acorns.

 

Stansberry stood for leadership


Do we really need to ask ourselves why Lee's Summit is never held accountable by DESE?  The person, at DESE, that is responsible for holding them accountable has a building named after himself.

Stansberry stood for leadership

BY RUSS PULLEY

rpulley@lsjournal.com

Former school and city leaders get their names slapped on roads and buildings.

But when the Lee’s Summit R-7 School Board named the district’s central office building on Tudor Road it made a very specific choice to note what it’s namesake meant to this community.

The Tony L. Stansberry Leadership Center at 301 NE Tudor Road is named after the superintendent of schools serving from 1996 to 2006.

Patti Buie and Jack Wiley, two school board members who worked with Stansberry, said calling the administration building a leadership center wasn’t just symbolic.

It was picked because it evokes the mark Stansberry left on the district. A focus of his administration was developing leadership at all levels and for continuous improvement.

“He modeled that and expected it of his staff,” Buie said.

“I was really impressed with his gentle leadership,” Buie said. “He believed in a collaborative process... making certain people who are going to be affected by a decision have a voice in that decision.”

Stansberry’s career included being school superintendent in Grandview, Colorado Springs, Co. and the Basehor-Linwood District in Kansas. He also is a retired U.S. Army brigadier general serving 32 years in the military.

Lee’s Summit schools had exceptional enrollment growth during those years and losses in state funding.

During his administration voters approved five bond issues to build eight schools: Cedar Creek, Hawthorn Hill, Highland Park, Longview Farm, and Woodland elementary schools, Summit Lakes Middle School, Lee’s Summit West High School, Summit Ridge Academy and, Summit Technology Academy and Great Beginnings Early Education Center.

He used partnerships with local developer David Gale to help finance Longview Farm Elementary and with local businesses for construction or facility costs for Summit Technology Academy and the R-7 Transportation Center and raised charitable donations for the early childhood center, saving the district close to $10 million for the four facilities.

He also oversaw major additions to existing schools.

Voters also passed two levy increases to offset state revenue loss.

Wiley said Stansberry is a people-oriented person and very affable.

Stansberry was always able to find the positive in a situation, Wiley said.

“He’d shave away and find the diamond in the middle of it,” he said.

Wiley said he thought Stansberry’s influence continued on the district, with the superintendent, school board and others working as a team with mutual respect.

Wiley said the district strives to follow one of Stansberry’s tenants: “Tough on issues but soft on people.”

Wiley said Stansberry was a great family man, always talking about his grandchildren.

After retiring Stansberry moved out of Lee’s Summit to be closer to those children. But he kept his ties to education.

He’s working for Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and occasionally crosses paths with old Lee’s Summit friends, Wiley said.

Stansberry is a people-oriented person and very affable, he said, and humble when the district chose the name.

“He was very surprised, very honored when we made that announcement, he was just floored,” Wiley said.