Assistant principal is first NYC swine flu death

A school assistant principal who was sick for several days with swine flu on May 17 became the city’s first death linked to the virus and the nation’s sixth.

Mitchell Wiener, who worked at an intermediate school in Queens, died the evening of May 17, Flushing Hospital Medical Center spokesman Andrew Rubin said. Wiener, who had been hospitalized and on a ventilator, had been sick with the virus for nearly a week before his school was closed on May 14. Complications besides the virus likely played a part in his death, Rubin said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the death of Wiener, who was 55 and had taught for decades, “is a loss for our schools and our city.”…Read More

House approves $6.4B for green schools

The U.S. House of Representatives on May 14 passed a multiyear school construction bill with the ambitious goals of producing hundreds of thousands of jobs, reducing energy consumption, and creating healthier, cleaner environments for the nation’s school children.

Opponents, almost all Republicans, objected to the cost associated with the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act. The cost would be $6.4 billion in the first year, with similar outlays approved over the next five years.

It passed 275-155 and now goes to the Senate, which did not act after the House passed similar legislation last year.…Read More

Unused eRate funding totals billions

About $5 billion of the estimated $19.5 billion in eRate funds committed to schools and libraries from 1998 to 2006 were never used, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In some cases, funds were not claimed because the applicants’ needs changed from the time they applied until it was time to file a Form 486, which releases the funding to applicants or their service providers. In other cases, the actual expenses that applicants incurred were less than the amount of funding they had applied for. Often, the sheer complexity of the program caused applicants or their service providers to leave money on the table.

Whatever the reason, more than 25 percent of the available eRate funding that was committed to applicants during the program’s first nine years has not been disbursed.…Read More

Bill would legalize online gambling

A bill that would overturn the federal ban on internet gambling has some educators wondering how minors, including students using school computers, would be prevented from logging onto the betting sites from home and during school time.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., introduced a bill in early May that would require internet gambling providers to be licensed by the Treasury Department and regulated to protect children and ensure the games are fair. The department would review criminal and credit histories as well as financial statements as part of the application process.

Some parents and teachers, however, are worried the bill might allow increasingly tech-savvy children–many of whom have access to their own credit or debit cards–to be sucked into the online betting world.…Read More

Obama proposes $1.3B increase in ed funding

Federal funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program would drop from $270 million to $100 million, a 63 percent cut, under President Obama’s proposed $3.4 trillion budget for fiscal year 2010.

Four leading ed-tech groups expressed "great disappointment" in the Obama Administration’s proposed cut. On May 7, the Consortium for School Networking, International Society for Technology Education, Software & Information Industry Association, and State Educational Technology Directors Association released the following joint statement, which read in part:

“During the past several months, the Obama Administration has outlined a vision of educational innovation and improvement to enable our nation’s children to compete in the global economy.  But today’s budget proposal falls far short of the targeted investments needed to ensure all students have the modernized classrooms and technology-rich instruction needed to achieve this vision." …Read More

Obama tax plan a double-edged sword

New corporate tax regulations proposed by President Obama could redirect more federal income tax money to education–and especially to programs such as Title I. Nonetheless, the president’s proposal generally is unpopular with companies that conduct business overseas and benefit from looser tax regulations in other countries.

Obama’s plan to impose U.S. taxes on corporate America’s overseas profits also threatens to open a large crater in the financial statements of several technology companies that sell equipment and services to schools.

Additional taxes are rarely popular, but Obama’s plan is a particularly prickly subject for technology executives, because the industry has been steadily boosting its overseas sales amid rising international demand for its products and services.…Read More

Support grows for common standards

It’s been a long-held tradition in American public education that decisions about standards and curriculum are best left to state and local school systems, not the federal government. But that soon could change, amid mounting evidence that American students are falling behind their peers in other countries.

Leading education groups and government officials agreed at a congressional hearing April 29 that adopting common academic standards across all states might be the way to give U.S. students an advantage in an increasingly competitive and international marketplace.

During the hearing, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said support is building for the creation of common standards, which he said would help the United States close achievement gaps not only among U.S. schools, but also between the U.S. and other high-achieving countries.…Read More

Tech keeps learning alive, despite closings

Though schools in a handful of states have closed temporarily to curtail the spread of swine flu, that hasn’t interrupted the learning process for many students–thanks to technologies such as video conferencing, classroom web pages, and more.

For instance, the New Braunfels Independent School District in Texas has closed its doors as a result of the H1N1 virus, but classes are still in session.

New Braunfels officials quickly searched for an online tool that would let students keep learning, and they chose SchoolCenter, a K-12 web site management solution. The district will put classroom web pages online so students can stay on track with their school work despite the closure, and SchoolCenter will train nearly 500 teachers and staff via webinars so they are able to add new educational content to their classroom sites.…Read More

Closing schools might not stop flu transmission

Students aren’t the only ones staying home as swine flu spreads through schools across the country. Parents are nursing their ailing kids while trying not to get sick themselves–and the decision to close schools can have repercussions that are felt throughout a community.

Raquel Mooradian and her husband, Greg, have been holed up in their apartment in the New York borough of Queens since their daughter Felicia, 17, fell ill on April 24. Felicia is a senior at St. Francis Preparatory School, where hundreds of students got sick after a group returned from spring break in Mexico.

Raquel has been skipping her classes at a local college, and Greg has called in sick at work. Raquel Mooradian said she covers her face when she goes into her daughter’s bedroom to bring her soup, water, or Gatorade.…Read More

Advice for schools on swine flu

President Barack Obama on April 29 said schools should close temporarily if any students have confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu. He was reiterating guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Education Department. Here are their recommendations for schools:

CLOSING

Schools and child care centers should close if they have a confirmed case of swine flu or a suspected case that is linked to a confirmed case. All school-related gatherings should be canceled, and parents and students should avoid gatherings outside of school as well.…Read More

Obama warns of more school closings

As worries of a possible pandemic intensified April 29 amid reports of the first death in the United States from swine flu, President Obama said school leaders should consider closing their schools temporarily if they think any of their students might be infected–and he urged parents to prepare for this contingency as well.

Speaking at the White House, Obama said he wants Americans to know the government is doing “whatever is necessary” to contain the emerging health threat, which was blamed for a U.S. death for the first time on April 29.

Flu experts have said any school closings that occur because of an outbreak of swine flu might not last for just a day or two–a shutdown probably would have to last a month or longer to be effective.…Read More

Swine flu fears close schools in three states

Esti Lamonaca’s illness started with a high fever, a cough, and achy bones, just a couple of days after she returned from a spring break trip on the beach in Cancun with friends.

By the weekend, her voice was hoarse and she was wearing a surgical mask.
 
The 18-year-old senior is one of at least eight students at her New York City high school who health officials say have been sickened by a strain of swine flu suspected in the deaths of 103 people in Mexico. It has now spread to the United States, where authorities have confirmed 20 cases.
 
However, all of those sickened in the U.S. have recovered or are recovering. That’s a stark difference from the lethal outbreak in Mexico that authorities can’t yet explain.
 
Officials at Lamonaca’s school, St. Francis Preparatory in Queens, learned that something was wrong there on April 23 when students started lining up at the nurse’s office complaining of fever, nausea, sore throats, and achy bones. It wasn’t long before the line was out the door.
 
The nurse notified the city Health Department that day. On Friday, more students were getting sick, and the department dispatched a team to the school at about 1:30 p.m. But they got caught in traffic and didn’t arrive until 3:30 p.m., just as classes were letting out for the weekend, said Brother Leonard Conway, the school’s principal.
 
By then, there were only a few students left, and health officials quickly tested them for swine flu. While only eight cases are confirmed, more than 100 students are suspected to have been infected. Officials think they started getting sick after some students returned from the spring break trip to Cancun.

Cleaning crews spent all day April 26 scrubbing down St. Francis, which will be closed for days.…Read More