#daugaard

[dalblauw]

Handsome fishman

[dalblauw]

The Mermaid and the Broken Boat

The be fair I made this a few months ago, I just never got around to posting it here. 

[thewordisbond]

Daugaard and Riggz the Lord are lamping on "The Kick Back "

Posted on https://www.thewordisbond.com/daugaard-and-riggz-the-lord-are-lamping-on-the-kick-back/

Daugaard and Riggz the Lord are lamping on "The Kick Back "

https://open.spotify.com/album/3BU8C6aevDcviafo7zwT18 Ogden, Utah based rapper Daugaard links with fellow emcee Riggz the Lord for this laid back, bar fest of a track titled "The Kick Back ". As the title suggests, it showcases both emcees in their element as they kick free-form raps over the

[thewordisbond]

Daugaard "The Ways Of Wonder" Single

Posted on https://www.thewordisbond.com/daugaard-the-ways-of-wonder-single/

Daugaard "The Ways Of Wonder" Single

Daugaard, Hip Hop emcee and producer, releases his latest single titled "The Ways of Wonder." The Utah native links with Riggz The Lord for an out of body, compelling vibe. Listeners will venture out the 'ship' and into the matrix to experience the appealing mysteries of life. The lyrical

[notdistrictdialogue]

February is Career and Technical Education month

CTE Academy Principal Jim Kayl and Beverly Rieck with the Dell Rapids School District shared the proclamation with me last week. Kayl is the president-elect for the South Dakota chapter of the Association for Career and Technical Education, and Rieck is the president. Photo of the two and the governor's proclamation below.

[bradomland]

Senate Bill 70 will reduce budget, recidivism

The South Dakota state legislature is back to work and a bill that would significantly alter the state criminal justice system has already passed the Senate chambers and is on its way to the House.

Senate Bill 70, written on recommendations from Gov. Daugaard and Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson, proposes to keep non-violent drug and alcohol offenders out of prison. Instead of prison time, non-violent offenders would undergo intensive probation and parole programs supervised by an expanded court system.

S.B. 70 seeks to accomplish two goals: first, to reduce recidivism rates in state prisons and to save the state $212 million dollars in prison costs. Officials say if nothing is done to stem a rapid increase in the number of inmates, South Dakota will have to spend $212 million in the next decade to build and run two new prisons. Last Thursday January 24, this bill passed the Senate by a vote of 31-2. Wide bipartisan support is expected to come from the House as well.

Of all the bills proposed so far, this bill is by is far the smartest bill to come out of the legislature. First, policies targeted at reducing recidivism rates are effective because they reduce crime rates. Second, a reduction in crime rates brings lower costs. Third, SB 70 creates incentives for offenders to succeed.   

According to a Pew/Association of State Correctional Administrators research study published by the USA Today in April 2011, South Dakota had the highest recidivism rate from 1999 to 2002 and 2004 to 2007 with 34.9 percent of paroled inmates back behind bars within three years. This study points out that policies targeted at reducing recidivism offer perhaps the ripest opportunities for achieving the twin goals of less crime and lower costs.

Policies targeted at reducing recidivism are effective because they hold the offender accountable and keep him or her connected to the community. Therefore being employed and connected to family and friends can be just as, if not more, effective as a costly revocation.

The study shows, more recently, offenders respond better to the prospect of rewards than the fear of punishment. Behavioral incentives, such as the opportunity to reduce supervision times, can be a powerful carrot, motivating offenders to obtain and hold a job, stay sober and in treatment, and abide by other conditions of release and avoid new crimes. In addition to promoting positive behavior by offenders, earned-time credits help clear caseloads so agencies can focus on higher-risk parolees.

 If SB 70’s proposals become law, reforms will be slowly implemented into small areas and grow as the program sees success in the form of savings and reduced recidivism rates. Now, that SB 70 has withstood the scrutiny of the Senate, it must face the will of the people and face the fury of democracy in the House.

The criminal justice reforms in this bill seek to reduce South Dakota’s highest recidivism rate in the country, cut future prison costs by $212 million and offer incentives for offenders to succeed. To support this bill’s commitment to fiscal and personal responsibility please contact your state Representative. A 2013 legislator listing by district can be found at legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2013/MembersByDistrict.aspx.

[notdistrictdialogue]

Top 10 South Dakota education stories of 2012

From my perspective, these were the year's biggest stories in K-12 education in South Dakota:

10) Longitudinal data system – The state DOE finally has a data system linking students and teachers, along with a range of other indicators. It will enable the state to answer such questions as: Which teachers get the most out of their students? Does class size matter? Are online courses working for students? Which colleges produce the best teachers?

9) Project-based learning – Innovation Labs schools in southcentral South Dakota are dramatically changing the way those rural schools are run. Students learn through projects, taking advantage of technology, while teachers serve more as facilitators. Sioux Falls New Technology High isn’t rural but it’s a similar model.

8) Privatizing the school district – Working with the Sioux Falls School District, a company called Ombudsman opened a high school program for ELL students at the downtown Multi-Cultural Center. Next year, Ombudsman is taking over Joe Foss alternative high school, which will merge in 2014 with Ombudsman’s two-year-old alternative high school.

7) Spanish immersion – Parents of current, future and wait-listed students persuaded the school board to expand the Spanish immersion school, adding two kindergarten classes at Robert Frost Elementary. The board later agreed to give Spanish immersion its own elementary school in northwest Sioux Falls in 2016.

6) Teacher training – The Board of Regents decided every teaching candidate must spend a full year teaching alongside a veteran teacher before they graduate. The goal is to have them ready for their own classroom on day one. Private schools may soon follow.

5) School lunch – The Congressional health kick hit schools hard as athletes and other big kids left the cafeteria hungry. The USDA relaxed its rules a bit this month, lifting the cap on meat and grains.

4) ‘No Child’ gets left behind – South Dakota received an Obama administration waiver from No Child Left Behind and installed its own point system for keeping schools accountable.

3) School consolidation – The Sioux Falls School Board voted to close Longfellow and Jefferson and replace Mark Twain elementary.

2) Tax measure fails – A 1-cent sales tax increase to undo the funding cuts of a year ago failed at the polls, guaranteeing K-12 funding will be a top-three issue before the Legislature for years to come.

1) Reform fails – South Dakota lawmakers briefly caught the reform bug, passing by a single vote Gov. Daugaard's bill that would have changed the way we evaluate and compensate our teachers. The teachers union gathered the signatures to refer the law to voters, who overwhelmingly rejected it.

Honorable mention:

Common Core Standards implementation begins.

ELL students – DOE doesn’t think English learners should have to take the Dakota STEP, and some lawmakers want to give schools more money for ELL students.

Naughty teachers – The Argus Leader revealed details of educator misconduct, surprising school officials who thought those records were secret.

Legislative Audit raised legal questions about fees for summer school.

[notdistrictdialogue]

Should we be happy or angry about SD's budget surplus?

It’s hard to criticize a governmental body that finishes the year with a budget surplus.

Free money! Yay! Think of all the wonderful ways we could spend it!

But is it really a reason to celebrate, or does it mean our bureaucrats are kind of bad at budgeting? Shouldn’t the goal be to break even?

Granted, there are a lot of unknowns when it comes to projecting revenues and expenses. And I won’t blame the finance folks for skewing to the safe side.

But it doesn’t do us much good when government sits on our tax dollars.

The City of Sioux Falls had $4 million left over this summer and is spending it on parks, road projects (one of which has the water at my house shut off all afternoon today) and some other stuff.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard today is celebrating a $48 million state surplus.

As the education guy, I’ve watched the Sioux Falls School Board make and break plans to spend down its fund balance. In FY11, they planned to spend $4.7 million more than they took in; they wound up deficit spending by just $1.2 million.

The school district’s fund balance is now more than two times the size it should be, according to a group of volunteer finance superheroes the district calls the Finance Action Network.