THE "yin" of the 19th Century...........followed by the "YANG" of the 21st Century!

"Yin and Yang are the interdependence of opposites. Yin symbolizes earth, darkness, cold, night, moon, passivity, and Yang symbolizes heavens, light, heat, day, sun, activity. Yin and Yang, "imaginary" and "real", the mastery of their interactions provide opportunities where the weak overcomes the strong by borrowing from the enemy’s power."

19th Century Model for Business as Usual

More students, more cash

School districts consider enrollment bonuses

January 28, 2007

BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

When Bellevue Community Schools hired Scott Belt as superintendent this month, the district asked him to help reverse years of declining enrollment. Officials offered him $300 per student if Bellevue's enrollment grows.

The rural district between Lansing and Battle Creek isn't the only one showing the money. In Grand Rapids, teachers will get a cash bonus if the district loses fewer students than expected.

Cash incentives for attracting new customers have been common in the business world. Now, they're moving into education.

The idea is still young and largely in the experimental stage, but it makes sense to some school leaders in Michigan, where school funding is based on enrollment. Competition among districts for students has become so keen, some educators refer to schools of choice as "schools of theft."

"That's how districts survive today -- on enrollment," said William Mayes, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators.

Carl Hartmen, associate executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards, said the idea is likely to spread.

"I'm sure you're going to see more and more of it," Hartman said. "If you're losing students, you're losing money."

Not everyone sees bonuses as the answer to declining enrollment. East Detroit Public Schools have gone from 6,500 students to 5,200 over the last 10 years. The board recently voted to become a school of choice district, offer all-day kindergarten and close buildings to help cut costs and keep enrollment up.

But East Detroit doesn't offer financial incentives for enrollment.

"I see it as a slippery slope," Superintendent Bruce Kefgen said. "If your bread and butter depends on you being able to retain students, might you be less prone to suspend a student?"

Even though Detroit Public Schools has lost about one-third of its enrollment during the last several years and is closing schools, parent Samuel Ivory said the district would be better off putting the money in the classroom. Ivory has five children in Detroit schools, at Southeastern High School, Joy Middle School and Hutchinson Elementary.

"They should be spending it on the students, maintaining the schools and keeping the buildings open," if they want to retain students, Ivory said.

The incentives could also add to the growing concern that school districts are cannibalizing each other in their zeal to pick up students.

"It makes you like a bounty hunter," said Royal Oak Superintendent Thomas Moline. Royal Oak Public Schools' enrollment has been declining by about 200 students per year. The district uses a demographer to help forecast the change and is closing schools to keep pace with it.

But Moline isn't opposed to incentives.

"I think it stimulates the system," he said. "But the bottom line is, you'd better have better quality and better outcomes, because parents are very savvy shoppers these days."

Promoting the pluses

Bellevue has gone from 1,005 students in 2000 to 710 today. Some of the students have gone to neighboring districts, while others have been forced to move for economic reasons, Belt said. His job is now to run a PR campaign convincing parents to come back.

"If we can get the word out, get some good positive promotion going on, maybe we can gain enrollment," he said.

But Belt was a little uncomfortable with the bonus.

"I don't ever want anyone to think that I want a kid to come here so I can make an extra dollar," Belt said. "I want them to come because this is the best place for them to be."

Tim Reed, Bellevue's school board president, said Belt's role will be to be more visible in the community than previous superintendents and tout, in part, the district's new emphasis on students earning Michigan Merit Scholarships and its decision to offer more science classes.

"I expect him to be the leader and visionary thinker for the staff and teachers and bring these things to reality," Reed said.

Unions agree

The 20,000-student Grand Rapids Public Schools district has been losing between 800 and 900 students a year. Almost all the unions in the district -- including those covering teachers, administrators, secretaries and noncertified personnel -- have agreed to a plan in their contracts calling for a lump sum bonus in June if the district loses fewer than 800.

The bonuses will vary, from 0.25% of their salary if the district loses between 600 and 699 students, up to 1.75% if the loss is 100 or less.

"We all have a role in recruiting and retaining students. Even a secretary ... has things that can be done with customer service," said Fredericka Williams, executive director of human resources.

Employees are being urged to make parents feel welcome and make sure they are aware of programs that other districts may not provide, such as the district's after-school program.

Not everyone is convinced that teachers or superintendents can change enrollment.

The Lansing School District tried enrollment incentives for the superintendent, only to drop them, said Hugh Clarke, board vice president.

"Given the economy, the mobility of people ... it's kind of an unworkable goal," Clark said.

Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 586-469-4681 or pwalsh@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

21st Century Model for Creating & Innovating NEW Business Solutions that Add-Value to the Intentional Mission! (AIM)

Bill Gates says internet will revolutionise television

The internet will revolutionise television within five years. That was the prediction of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“I’m stunned how people aren’t seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we’ve had,” the Microsoft chairman told politicians and business leaders.

“Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it,” he said. “Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior.”

He said the change was coming “because TV is moving into being delivered over the internet — and some of the big phone companies are building up the infrastructure for that.”

Microsoft has had some success in signing up telecommunications companies to use its software to deliver audio and video, but worldwide only a few million customers currently receive television over internet technology.

The rise of broadband video delivered over the internet has been more spectacular, but for most people it is still not currently a substitute for watching television.

It is not the first time that Bill Gates has predicted that broadcasting will become irrelevant. Back in October 2004 we reported that he said that linear schedules were on the way out.

YouTube

Chad Hurley, the co-founder of YouTube was also speaking at Davos. He said that the impact on advertising would be profound and that YouTube would be experimenting to build an effective model that works for advertisers and users.

He also confirmed that the company, now owned by Google, is working on a revenue sharing mechanism that would reward users that submit material to which they own the copyright.

www.microsoft.com
www.youtube.com

Broadband, Business, IPTV