The Board Agenda for this Thursday’s meeting is out now. We are listed as F-10 on the agenda. As we could probably expect more military presence to show up to the meeting, and as the teachers and the school district are in a fairly big fist fight, we can probably expect that it will be quite crowded, so you may want to show up 15-30 minutes early to stake out some seats.

The agenda item lists most of the facts that the district dug up, so I’ll paraphrase them here (these can also be seen on the agenda itself):

F-10. Report: College, Employer and Military Recruiter Visits to Campuses

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees on January 18, 2007, Mr. Donald Havis, Vice President Peace Action of San Mateo County, requested that the Board adopt a policy limiting the visits of military recruiters to the campuses. His point of view was either supported or not by numerous members of the public who addressed the Board on this topic. The Board directed that the Administration review with the Principals what are the current practices/activities at each site regarding access to students by college, employer, and military recruiters. That information is provided below.
It should be noted that the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) – Public Law 107-110, Sec. 9528 stipulates:

(a) POLICY
(1) ACCESS TO STUDENT RECRUITING INFORMATION – Notwithstanding section 444(a)(5)(B) of the General Education Provisions Act and except as provided in paragraph (2), each local educational agency receiving assistance under this Act shall provide, on a request made by military recruiters or an institution of higher education, access to secondary school students names, addresses, and telephone listings.
(2) CONSENT – A secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student’s name, address, and telephone listing described in paragraph (1) not be released without prior written parental consent, and the local educational agency or private school shall notify parents of the option to make a request and shall comply with any request.
(3) SAME ACCESS TO STUDENTS – Each local educational agency receiving assistance under this act shall provide military recruiters the same access to secondary school students as is provided generally to post secondary educational institutions or to prospective employers of those students.

In considering this issue, the administration discussed this topic with the District Principals and asked them to collect data relative to all recruiters on their campus. That data is summarized below:

• Aragon: Army, Navy, National Guard, and Marines 2x/month; Air Force 1x/month; Colleges 30x (06-07)
• Burlingame: None for Army, Navy, National Guard, Marines, Air Force; Colleges 1x/year
• Cappuchino: Army, Navy, National Guard, and Marines 5x/year; None for Air Force; Colleges 15x-25x (06-07)
• Hillsdale: Army, Navy, National Guard, and Marines 1x/month; None for Air Force; Colleges 20x (06-07)
• Mills: Army, Navy, National Guard, and Marines 2x/month; Air Force 1x/month; Colleges various times throughout the year
• Peninsula: Army, Navy, National Guard, and Marines by appt.; None for Air Force; Colleges 7x/year
• San Mateo: Army, Navy, National Guard, and Marines 1x/month-max; None for Air Force; Colleges various times throughout the year

Notes:
College of San Mateo appears to be the college that visits sites the most.
Employers come in at various times at all sites but always check in with the Career Center.
The individual sites have over the years hosted their own career fairs.
There is no roaming on campus
Military checks in the main office and at the College/Career Center
Military tables at lunch at AHS, HHS, MHS, and SMHS.
Military stays in the Career Center at BHS and CHS.

The number of students actually recruited as a result of the military visitations is as follows:

Number of Recruits 2002-2006:

• Aragon: 8 Army, 2 Navy, 7 Marines, 7 Air Force, 24 Total
• Burlingame: 2 Army, 1 Navy, 5 Marines, 3 Air Force, 1 Coast Guard, 6 General (no details), 18 Total
• Cappuchino: 8 Navy, 10 Marines, 7 Air Force, 25 Total
• Hillsdale: 3 Army, 2 Navy, 3 Marines, 3 Air Force, 1 Army National Guard, 1 National Army of Pakistan, 13 Total
• Penninsula: 2 Army, 6 Marines, 2 Air Force, 1 Coast Guard, 9 Total

Mills and San Mateo do not keep records.

Supported by the Principals, the administration is recommending that the Board of Trustees adopt a policy that would provide the following guidelines regarding all recruiters:

• Visits would occur once a month, on a designated day, and scheduled in advance (not including Career Days)
• Recruiters are to be assigned a designated location.
• Recruiters are to check in at the Main Office and Career Center
• Recruiters shall not have private meetings with students

RECOMMENDATION: At the discretion of the Board of Trustees

And now, here’s some of my druthers:
–First of all, I find it interesting that each of the military groups are listed in “times per year”, but the number of colleges is listed in “total number of times”, which can give a strange impression. This also implies that any time one college or another comes, it’s always seen as “a college”. Beyond Career Day, I certainly have not seen any college whatsoever come on campus (outside of a career day scenario) more than once per college. I also think that 30 times is a fairly high number, and as for coming at lunch, I’ve maybe seen a college table at lunch 1-3 times in a year.
–There is some good evidence from the data that the more recruiters come on campus, the more students sign up. Aragon and Mills both have the most visits, and the top three schools in terms of signups are Cappuchino, Aragon, and Burlingame. Aragon shows a good correlation here. Unfortunately, Mills doesn’t keep records of successful recruits, Burlingame has no data on frequency of visits, and Cappuchino, well, needs further explanation. The school that is visited the least from the data is Peninsula, and they have the least successful recruits. Hillsdale and San Mateo have the second-least visits (and the same 1x/month schedule proposed under the policy), and Hillsdale reports the second-least number of recruits. San Mateo, again, keeps no records.
–I find it interesting to find out from this data that there are five armed forces that visit the schools. I know the people in my school’s counseling office very well, yet I’m finding out that I was entirely misinformed about the number of military recruiters that come: I originally was told that only the Army, National Guard, and Marines came to school.
–The policy proposed is one much more lenient than the one we proposed. What we brought to the school board was three visits per year, INCLUDING Career Days. Considering that there’s now five armed forces, that adds up to a total of 15 military-related recruiter visits throughout the year, which is still plenty. The policy that the district is proposing is once a month, and although it’s better for schools like Aragon and Mills, that’s still about 45 military-related visits on campus per year, PLUS the ability to visit on Career Day (which, by coincidence, is March 8th at Aragon). However, what I’m more concerned about are the schools like Burlingame, Cappuchino, and Penninsula, who currently have less frequent visits. Will this new policy force them to open their doors wider than they’ve already been opened?

Anyway, this will be up for discussion at the March 8th meeting. Here’s a link to the agenda [PDF]. Again, anyone can speak before the board makes their decision and takes a vote by getting there early and filling out a “blue slip” requesting to speak. I’m planning to speak about it as well, including rebutting against some of the comments that the military folks said last time.

Hope to see you there this Thursday evening!