Standard-Examiner: Watchdog Groups Vow to Keep Pressure on Ogden School District

A Weber County Forum Tip 'O The Hat to the fine folks of Focus Ogden and the Democratic Education Caucus of Weber County, inasmuch as we Ogden City lumpencitizens have been far too complacent for far too long

Notable development concerning the Ogden School District topic, with this morning's Nancy Van Valkenburg story reporting that "two local groups that sprung up in reaction to controversial decisions by the Ogden School District are pledging to make their voices heard, on both the district and state levels":

• Watchdog groups vow to keep pressure on Ogden School District

For our readers convenience, here are the web links for these community-minded groups, for those who'd like to "stay in the loop":

• Focus Ogden
• Democratic Education Caucus of Weber County

Within this morning's story, Ms Van Valkenburg also mentions "a June 12 letter to the Ogden board, seeking information." Inasmuch as we believe the information requests contained in this letter may have important significance as these two groups move forward, we've uploaded and linked it for future reference:

• 06/12/2013 Kim Irvine Letter

Notably, among other things, this letter obliquely refers to certain School Board "fiduciary competency" questions which we've previously raised here on Weber County County Forum, so far without much real public consternation:

• Ogden City Schools - Possible Tax Increment Malfeasance - Junction and River Project Bailouts  

A Weber County Forum Tip 'O The Hat to the fine folks of Focus Ogden and the Democratic Education Caucus of Weber County for perking up their ears, fine-tuning the issues and vowing to keep our "esteemed" Ogden School Board's feet to the fire, inasmuch as, in our belief at least, we Ogden City lumpencitizens have been far too complacent for far too long.

Weber County Forum Question of the Day: Is It Time For An Ogden/Weber School District Merger?

Theoretically, at least, the consolidation of these two districts could save Weber County taxpayers millions of dollars

More interesting over-the-weekend news concerning Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith's Adult Education Program "Friday Surprise," wherein Nancy Van Valkenburg expands upon her earlier story on this topic and reports that officials of the Weber County School District, upon learning of the OSD's "decision to eliminate its adult education program Thursday morning," and being asked by the Utah State Office of Education “to assume full responsibilities,” cheerfully and immediately rolled out the welcome mat to the Ogden District's "booted" AEP students, with open arms, more or less:

• Weber district to absorb Ogden district's adult ed program

This noble gesture of course invites the question, folks:  "Is it time for the citizens of Weber County to put the question of a "complete" Weber County School District/Ogden School District merger back on the table?"

WCF readers with long memories will of course recall a 1989 proposal to consolidate these administratively-redundant school districts, a measure which actually appeared on Weber County ballots in November of that year. Weber County voters however then "muffed" the chance to drastically improve these geographically-overlapping districts' inefficient government services redundancy, succumbing instead to the pleas of vested interests within both school districts, who beat the bush "door-to-door," warning of "dropped jobs" and "loss of local (Ogden) school district autonomy."

Perhaps it's time for Weber County lumpencitizens to revisit this issue again, we'll suggest.  Looking at this issue solely from the a "bean counter" point of view, the consolidation of these two districts, and the elimination of the redundancies of the dual tiers of "fat cat" existing school system administrators alone could save Weber County taxpayers millions of dollars:

• Utah's Right to Know - Salaries - Ogden School District
• Utah's right to Know - Salaries - Weber School District

Throwin' in the Towel?

Additional sodden questions:

1. Taking into account the OSD's recent "nuclear" attacks on the very foundations of the Ogden School System, is it possible that OSD officials are actually and intentionally operating with a hidden agenda, an agenda designed to once again force Weber County voters' hands on this issue?
2. Are OSD officials in reality owning up to their managerial malperfomance and gross financial incompetence, and essentially throwing in the towel?

So what do you think, O Gentle Ones?

Would the consolidation of the separate Ogden and Weber School Districts into a single "lean and mean" Ogden/Weber School District "educational machine" be the kind of idea whose time has at long last come?

Don't let the cat get your tongues...

The Sea of Troubles Continues to Boil in the Ogden School District This Morning

The plot sickens; 250 "reading coaches" tossed overboard

OSD "Captain" Smith

The "sea of troubles" continues to boil in and around the Ogden City School District this morning, in the wakes of Ogden School Superintendent Brad Smith's Ogden School District Media Specialist/librarian Massacre and his Adult Education Program "Friday Surprise," as the Standard-Examiner runs a couple of new items this morning demonstrating that our seemingly desperate and suddenly pinch-penny OSD Captain Smith is apparently nowhere near done with cutting the Ogden City Schools' budget clean down to the water line.

Check out this morning's Nancy Van Valkenburg's story, folks, which reports that Ogden City school-kids will be suddenly doing without the services of 250 "reading coaches" who'll be tossed overboard very soon:

• More than 250 reading coaches latest casualties in Ogden School District

And here's an eye-opening Standard-Examiner video piece showing the reaction to this news from the reading coach "crew":


"Who's gonna help the kids read?" one short-timer reading coach asks.

"Will the The Captain" "go down" with the apparently sinking OSD ship?" That's our sodden question, Peeps.

We'll close up Ms. Van Valkenburg's morning OSD article series with a story about the online petition we wrote about and linked a couple of days ago:

• Mom petitions over firings

Here's another quick link to the petition, by the way... just in case you "forgot" to sign it [wink-wink]:

• Petition to the Ogden School District: Retain Certified Librarians in our schools district wide 

And please don't let the cat get yer tongues (whatever you do).