Excellent Schools Through Local Control              


Summer is Here!


Event Recap: AMPS Town Hall 

On Wednesday, May 28th, AMPS held a Town Hall Meeting in the Community Room at Malibu City Hall. Thank you to everyone who was there and here is a recap for those who were not:

First, we have reached a huge tipping point!  Within the next six months, it is crucial we continue to maintain and speed up our momentum in order to move quickly down the pathway of separation.  This entails:

  • Legal review and negotiations with the Financial Oversight Committee and SMMUSD Board of Education
  • Development of WestEd III, which will be a detailed analysis of the preparation and implementation of a new Malibu Unified School District and Santa Monica Unified School District.  This will also include full budgeting details, management, administration, tax and budget constraints, infrastructure and school logistics. 
  • Initiate Process for Separation Petition Formulation
  • Public Opinion Research and Polling in Malibu and Santa Monica

Secondly, a possible new path has been discovered.  This could shorten the process considerably, and allow for the start of a Malibu Unified School District by as early as the 2016/2017 school year.  Now only two years away!

Finally, AMPS is at a critical phase and AMPS and the Malibu community have an incredible and unique opportunity to create an independent, locally controlled Malibu School District. Your help is necessary. We need your support more than ever in order to maintain momentum through our aggressive agenda. 

Join the AMPS Campaign today, by clicking here.


 


Malibu City Grant Awarded to AMPS

AMPS is happy to announce we have received a $2,000 grant from Malibu City's 2014-2015 General Grant Fund Program.  The grant will be used for Community Outreach and Polling.

The General Fund Grant Program provides funding to non-profit organizations located within the City of Malibu benefiting residents of the community.

AMPS "Texting Campaign"

Show your support and embrace your AMPS membership by joining the AMPS "Texting Campaign."  It's simple and easy! 

Use your phone and text "AMPS" to 41444 to become a member or renew your membership. Now you're done!

Become a part of a movement that will forever change the lives of the children, the community, the families and leave a legacy for future generations of Malibu.

Congratulations and Welcome
to the New Point Dume Principal 
 

Congratulations and Welcome Mark Demick the new principal at Point Dume Marine Science School.

Principal Demick is deeply committed to rigor, positive relationships and relevant instruction so that all students achieve success. He is very open, smart and strives to understand the vibe of the community, the need for excellence, innovation and creativity.

Principal Demick has some great ideas for curriculum and schools working together. An example of this philosophy can be seen at his last school, Chinook Middle School.  He strived for:

  1. Setting and maintaining high expectations for student engagement -- Chinook teachers help students practice their critical thinking skills, apply academic language, ask higher-order thinking questions, and interact positively with other students and teachers.
  2. Class scheduling and planning -- Chinook dedicates 120-minute periods (two hours!) to reading, writing, and math. All teachers of a particular subject area share a part of the building and a planning period. That means that all the English language arts teachers are grouped together in a section of the school and can plan within and across grades during a shared planning time.
  3. Supporting teachers -- Principal Demick meets with each teacher to set S.M.A.R.T. goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) around teacher professional development, achievement, and student growth. Teachers are then provided appropriate coaching and support to ensure that they are growing as instructional leaders.
  4. Implementing data-driven practices -- On Fridays, department data teams review student data and build on best practices. Each team has time to plan and two coaches help hold teachers accountable to their planning and goals. Student data is used to inform their planning and teaching.
  5. Building positive relationships with families -- Time is set aside for teachers to make positive phone calls to families; and they have already logged over 3,000 calls home! Principal Demick and his staff are also working on incorporating families into school-wide initiatives. Chinook’s game-changing work has led to a huge boost in school culture, and most importantly, their efforts have helped students grow socially and academically across core subjects. 

 Featured Video


Toxic Culture of Education
May 2014, by Joshua Katz at TEDx University of Akron

Joshua Katz is a high school math teacher in Orange County, Florida.

In the mid 1800’s, Horace Mann captured the potential impact of education on society.  We have yet to realize the potential he saw and in fact, we are missing the mark by a wider and wider margin.  We have created a “Toxic Culture in Education” in our country that is damaging students, impacting our economy, and threatening our future.  Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, we have embraced a culture of high stakes testing and are perpetuating a false sense of failure in our schools.  We have ignored research and data on effective policy making practices in order to serve the interest of private industries that have monetized our students. 

The impact is being felt in communities, on college campuses, and in our economy.  The solution lies in a common sense approach to student development, curriculum choice, career exploration, and relevant data analysis.  This talk will present a vision of an education system that allows us to embrace our full potential if we only had the courage to ask, “Why Not.”

Watch video: here

 Local Education News 

Malibu at Tipping Point for Own School District
June 3, 2014, by Chris Bashaw, Malibu Surfside News
Read more: here

Letter: Money for Malibu School District
May 29, 2014 By Craig Foster, Malibu Times
Read more: here

New School Curriculum Worries Parents
June 12, 2014, By Emily Sawicki, Malibu Times
Read more: here

 School for Thought 

These 12 Awesome Schools Could Change the Way You Think About Public Education
April 25, 2014, By Rebecca Klein, The Huffington Post Education
Read more: here

How Parents Can Stop Summer Learning Loss
May 30, 2014, by Staff Report, PR Web 
Read more: here

How to Fight Your Kid's Math Anxiety
June 11, 2014, by Manoush Zomorodi, Quartz
Read more: here


Needed: AMPS Volunteers & Ambassadors 

Would you like to get more involved in AMPS?
Then, please sign up here.

AMPS Malibu
Calendar:

Summer Break 
June 11 - August 18

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Membership

Please join AMPS in the goal of forming a locally controlled Malibu Unified School District.

To become a member click here.

Contact Us:

Website
www.ampsmalibu.org

Address:
Advocates for Malibu Public Schools (AMPS)
23805 Stuart Ranch Rd., Suite #105
Malibu, CA 90265

Phone:
(310) 734-2021

Email:
[email protected]