District 32 Dems on Act Blue

ActBlue now has a page up for all three of our forward-looking Dem candidates in Robbinsdale! (All three are Obama supporters too.)

Record Dem registrations

This is the benefit of the Hillary - Obama contest going on this long. (WaPo)

In the end, it will help the entire Nation push back from 25 years of nonsense, here in South Dakota and across the nation.

Go out there in Pennington County and register Dems!!

Richard Reedy gets that right

Richard Reedy, in a post on the Sioux Falls Argus Leader blog, ponders, as I do:

Can someone please explain how creating second-class citizens out of the gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender community is for the greatest good?

I find it interesting that many of the people who actively campaign to accomplish this are at the same time actively working to secure all human rights for the unborn. So according to their logic, the unborn has more civil rights than a retired, combat-disabled Marine who just happens to be gay. Most of these people make their arguments based upon their religious beliefs, a belief that is constitutionally protected and a belief that I defended as a Marine for years.

No kidding Sergeant! You are sooooo invited on July 12 to join us and other Patriots at the Shrine Of Democracy, Mount Rushmore, to celebrate the sacrifices of all our vets. This event is part of SD PrideFest 2008.

The guest speaker will be Judy Shepard of the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Hope to see you there!

Cinco de Mayo is coming!

Cinco de Mayo celebration on May 4, 12-4 pm at The Armory in Sturgis!



Join us for lots of Mexican food, a jumping castle for the kids, and your Meade County Democratic Candidates:
Pam Chalkley
Dennis Levin
Fred McPherson
Nyla Griffith
Kevin O'Dea
Dennis Finch
Jeff Nelsen
Kim Henderson
Gary Loudner


All the food and fun for $15, $30 for the whole family!

Let's carpool to Sturgis!!

Download a printable flyer here....

Earth Day Tomorrow!

This crossed my desk from Mary Jo Farrington, who works in Student Affairs at SDSM&T, just north of Robbinsdale...

This should be a really wonderful event, not withstanding the Marxist overtones.

I highly recommend Karen Hall's talk. DIA's flyer on recycling in Rapid City is excellent, that alone is worth showing up!

Here is the final schedule of events at the School of Mines on Saturday,
April 26th. Bring your friends and forward this on! Thanks!


9:00 a.m. - LITTER PICK UP. Come to Kansas City St. and
Elm St. between 9 to 10 a.m. and pick up a bag
and gloves. We will go along the big hill (near Mines)
on Kansas City St. There will be another pick up day
from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 27. (same place)
.

2:00 – 5:00 Learn about the hybrid car. A Honda Civic hybrid
and Honda Civic Coupe will be on display
in the front of Surbeck. Don Cicchelli will be there to explain the technology.

2:00 – 9:00 Environmental booth displays: Surbeck Ballroom
(Plus, free popcorn, smoothies, and children activities)
Black Hills Sierra Club
Black Hills Mountain Lion
Black Hills Photographic Society
Democracy in Action
Environment Club, and CCPC
Friends of Sand Creek
Human Society
Izaak Walton League
Maka Foundation
Norbeck Society
Powertech Co.
Protect Private property
Prairies Hill Audubon Society
Prairie Dog Coalition
Roots and Shoots
SDSM&T Student Government (Kids table)
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

2:30 - 5:-30 Discussion Groups – McKeel (next to ballroom)
2:30 - Karen Hall “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”
DIA will give excellent recycle info booklet.
3:15 - Shirley Frederick “Uranium Mining in SD”
4:00 - Jim Petersen ‘Keeping Rapid City’s water
Clean!” Protecting our aquifers.
4:45 - Philip Bangs - “Wind, Solar power and
net metering”

5:45 – 6:40 FILM – “Kilowatt Ours” - McKeel

5:00 – 7:00 Food and drinks served in the Miner’s Shack
(downstairs in the Surbeck Center)

6:45 – 9:00 MUSIC, POETRY AND FUN!
6:45 p.m. MARAV starts the evening off with
Romany and middle eastern inspired music, with
hand drumming, guitar, vocals and dancing.
Leonard Running and Sue Hay will entertain!
Willy Grigg and Jon Clark will sing and
play guitar, keyboard and mandolin.
www.willygrigg.com
Philip Bangs video - Concerto For Winds
UU Haiku poetry
Open Mike - singers and players should sign in
at 6:45 p.m. and are welcome to perform too.

Earth to Leah Lutheran...

The RCJ (coming this morning with a ad sticker from a payday lender, sweet) reports this comment from School Board member Leah Lutheran's last night. I heard her say it too, but I'm hoping she misspoke:

"Sports, music, drama, anything that doesn't give a credit for graduation, you have to pay for participation," Lutheran said. "I want to keep it all, but I don't want to cut academics."

My kid's report cards have academic credit for music and drama. All the colleges my oldest is looking at have music and drama academic degrees. Not so for track, tennis and football ... hello, hello?

A few thoughts on some other proposed cuts...

I was convinced that the childcare at Jefferson must NOT be cut. We need to do all we can to help young moms graduate, and also provide them family health education and mom-mentoring. Every dollar spent on that will come back to us ten: these babies of high school students will grow up and have very expensive needs if we don't help. It's a very good investment our community can make.

I'm a little less sympathetic about the virtual high school. The people running it said yesterday they have to build economies of scale to make it more viable--I don't see why we have to do it ourselves when there are so many accredited options available out on the web. Perhaps we could contract these services too at far less than the current reported $9600 per participating student. The VHS folks would need to give me some good reasons we have to do it ourselves. Some better evidence is needed other than counting course enrollments instead of students participating. We are still talking about a very small population served.

Packed meeting at Rapid City Central, with surprises

The RC Weekly News was quick on the draw to publish information about the meeting today. It was packed.

Photo: RC Weekly News [click on it to go there]


One of the big thrills of the day (for me) was to see Ethel Rounds there supporting elementary school music. Ethel was teaching little kids strings in RC back in the 1960s, driving from school to school in a VW. She's more than 85 now and still a tireless supporter of teaching kids instrumental music. You can find her at almost all band and orchestra concerts in town (for the last 40 years)!

Ethel showed up along with a huge crowd, to urge the school board to find some other way to squeeze through the coming school year.

Stan Adelstein wandered into the room about 4:15 pm, waited his turn behind the mike, and announced 1) he will give $160,000 to the RCAS in 2007-08 to preserve elementary music no matter what and 2) promised to fight (if elected) in Pierre to fix school funding. We're still kind of dealing with the shock; at the time he got a huge standing ovation. The question is, will good feeling toward Stan for his support of school music translate into votes from District 32 to put him back in the state Senate? His opponent, incumbent Sen. Tom Katus was also there and spoke to the root of the problem in Pierre and urged everyone to take a broad view and consider all options to get us out of this mess.

I'm sure we'll have opportunities to comment as we careen toward November 2. The school funding apocalypse in Rapid City will certainly be coloring the campaign...

The Truth from Robert Reich

The average man in his 30s is earning less than his father did thirty years ago. Yet America is far richer. Where did the money go? To the top.

Are Americans who have been left behind frustrated? Of course. And their frustrations, their anger and, yes, sometimes their bitterness, have been used since then -- by demagogues, by nationalists and xenophobes, by radical conservatives, by political nuts and fanatical fruitcakes – to blame immigrants and foreign traders, to blame blacks and the poor, to blame "liberal elites," to blame anyone and anything.

Rather than counter all this, the American media have wallowed in it.

More on Reich's blog.

Bait and Switch?

The Rapid City Weekly finally gave us details about what's up with the Rapid City Schools Budget this evening. Finally some straight info.

Eric Abrahamson (State House candidate in 32-Rapid City) named the real reason we're in hot water:

Abrahamson said once it became obvious the Legislature and Rounds were not going to alter the state funding formula for schools, it was apparent that Rapid City’s schools would be in a financial mess.

I thought this was interesting:

Wharton said the district may prepare two preliminary budgets: one with the cuts and one with revenue from an opt out. The next several months will offer a tremendous challenge, he said.

If this sounds like strong-arm tactics to take your money, consider these facts:

1. We in RC have never voted to opt-out and raise our school taxes above the state's formula, although 70 (almost half) of SD's school districts have already given up on the Legislature to hold up their end of the deal and opted out
2. The legislature and Rounds criticized districts for stockpiling a large reserve fund while not properly compensating teachers (remember this is a state government sitting on a billion of tobacco money, in the People's Trust Fund, basically in stocks instead of our kids!) Good luck with that.
3. Wes Storm, an opt-out proponent, points out that opt-out taxes stay here--instead of sent out to help out other school districts.
4. We're not talking about a huge tax increase here; Storm has pointed out that someone with an $100,000 house would pay $49/yr extra taxes to get us $1 million that we have control over.
5. If we don't solve this, we will lose the teacher labor market to Wyoming and retirements. How do you recruit new teachers when they could make the same working less hours elsewhere?

If the Legislature doesn't do their part, how will be educate our kids? I need to learn more before I have an opinion about the opt-out deal, but we sure have a problem to solve.

AME stands up for Rapid City School Music

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Advocates for Music Education (AME) Strongly Oppose
Cuts to Elementary School Music



Advocates for Music Education Media Contacts:
Jane Pfeifle
Tel: (605) 343-6963 or 484-1558
Kenny Putnam
Tel: (605) 390-8804
saveschoolmusic@yahoo.com

RAPID CITY, April 14, 2008 -- Our Rapid City School District Administration, in response to budget shortfalls, has proposed eliminating the first two years of orchestra and the first year of band. Advocates for Music Education (AME) strongly opposes this recommendation.

1) The facts say it all--thirty years of case studies prove eliminating one year of elementary instrumental music will decrease the number of students in the middle and high school music programs by half in four years! The current recommendation of eliminating all elementary instrumental music will effectively eliminate all instrumental music as we know it.

This is exactly what happened when Lead/Deadwood eliminated 5th grade band. The number of students involved in High School music dropped by half within four years.

School administrators estimate saving $160,000 per year through this cut (4% of the estimated $4,000,000 shortage). This cut will not have the desired effect. John Benham, an independent consultant hired by concerned citizens the last time this cut was proposed, demonstrated these cuts will cost the school system $150,000 per year, not save it.

How can this cut cost the District money? Benham pointed out that:

a) One half of the students in middle and high school who are no longer involved in instrumental music will have to be absorbed in other, smaller, classes, creating larger class sizes or need for more staff.

b) Local private schools have created quality elementary music programs in order to compete with the outstanding music program in the public schools. If public schools eliminate the music programs, many parents may well decide to send their children to private schools or home school. It would only take 36 kids transferring out of public school to eat up the proposed savings ($4,500 is the current per student allocation). Presently there are approximately 726 elementary students benefiting from the music program.

c) Music is one of the few areas where one teacher can teach more than 30 students at a time. A 1.0 FTE music teacher is equivalent to a 1.4 classroom teacher. The music teacher has a significant financial value.

d) Much of what brings new business expansion to our community is our quality of education. Most of those in management making decisions to come in to an area inquire about the quality of the education, wanting the best opportunities for their children and the children of their employees. A strong music program is one of the hallmarks of an excellent school system.

Advocates for Music Education (AME) is a coalition made up of parents and community members who support a strong and vital music education program. AME believes music education is essential and not expendable or extraneous. For more information email saveschoolmusic@yahoo.com.

RCJ -- please do better on the school story!

The RCJ published an article of mostly hearsay on the school funding issue tonight.

I hope we see better journalism than this soon. My humble opinion: if they don't have many facts, and no time to write a more in-depth feature article, they should just lay off until more information is available on Tuesday and they actually have something substantive to report.

Orchestra and band under threat!

Through a combination of bait-and-switch by the state legislature and, who knows, some bad days at the track, our school district is contemplating cutting music. Talk about a sure fire way to lower our NCLB test scores!!!

Talk to your legislators, as that is the real source of the problem: uncertain and cheap funding of schools by our tax-cutting state religion as practiced by the State Legislature. Who pays for the free ride with no corporate or income tax, and minimal taxes on other things in South Dakota?

Our kids, of course.

This note from a RCAS parent came by email today:

Our elementary band and orchestra programs are on the cut list again. I feel I am in someways crying "wolf" but I think they mean business this time as they have not given music supporters any time to organize. I am forwarding information about a public meeting to be held at the Central HS Theatre at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15th that is with the board of education. They will be presenting information about cuts for next year. We need everybody there to express their support of these fine programs. If we lose our feeder programs, we will lose our upper level orchestras and bands within 4 years.

Please come and show your support. The school board is making their final decisions on Thursday, April 17th at another board meeting which may not be open to the public. Thank you so much for your help.

Special Meeting Notice Tuesday, April 15. 3:30 p.m. Central High School Theater A special meeting will be held by the Rapid City Board of Education to discuss the 2008-2009 school year budget. The meeting will be a review and discussion on necessary budget recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year. The public and district staff are welcome to attend. RCAS Board of Education

More information:

RC Weekly News:

• 4/11: No RC schools will close but other options on table
• 4/09: School district facing financial crisis
• 4/11 Editorial: The pain of touching a 'third rail'

Rapid City Journal:

• 4/09: Students suffer most as district makes cuts
• 4/09: The Ins and Outs of Opting Out
• 4/07 Editorial: Fix education funding

Attention Independents and Republicans!

Register by May 19 To vote in the South Dakota Primary

This year South Dakota voters will have an unprecedented opportunity to determine the next President of the United States. The race for the Democratic nomination continues to be hotly contested. Your vote could help determine the nominee.

To vote in the South Dakota primary, you must be registered to vote as a Democrat. Independents in South Dakota are not allowed to vote in the primary election. The deadline to register or change your registration is May 19.

For more information, contact the secretary of the Pennington County Democratic Party – demreginfo@gmail.com or 605/721-1636.

Vote Yes For Government Control

Northern Plains Anglicans is thriled that VoteYesForLife turned in 46,000 signatures for their new improved effort to have the government monitor your families medical decisions. And we wonder why young people leave the Church and our fine state.

He titled the post BREAKING - South Dakota Pro-Life initiative has needed signatures for November ballot!

Breaking is right. My heart is breaking.

People that argue against abortion have made me think, and would have a lot more respect from me if they did more to denounce violence against doctors, and prevent unintended pregnancy. I hope this year engages us in more understanding and battle. I simply don't think we are up to another year like 2006.

My comment to his post:

I praise God that that in this country you have the right to be politically active and yet keep your tax-deductible status, even if I couldn't disagree with you more.

Dear Lord, we pray for the families and communities in South Dakota that must navigate another season of division and heartache over this issue. May we all approach the political process with humility, working with passion AND compassion through the 2008 political process, with respect and understanding for those with whom we disagree.

May the peace of Jesus Christ, which passes all understanding, be present with us all.

Amen.

Center West looking to a new home

Rapid City Journal: March 29th 2008

Center West seeks cash and volunteers

Program must move to new location in a few months

The Center West is looking for the community's support in making its dream come true of having a full-service community center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in Rapid City.
The building in which The Center West is located is being sold, and the program must move in a few months.
Director Mike Coats said they have been negotiating with a property owner in Rapid City willing to rent to them. The property is large enough and has the facilities so the program could evolve into a real community center, complete with space for dances, events and a coffee house and snack bar, Coats said.

More info and how you can help at OMLW.