Bridging the Gap

When I encounter problems or challenges, I'll often refer to the solutions as "bridging the gap". In fact, I said that just a few days back when referring to curriculum and the means to access it - both may very well exist, we simply need to bridge the gap between the information and consumption thereof.

Bailey Bridge

For me, the phrase "bridge the gap" originates from 1993 when I realized working a handful of part-time jobs while a full-time Math & Computer Science student was too much. To relieve the financial burden, I decided to enlist in the US Army Reserves. The military occupation I chose was Combat Engineer, or 12C, because there was a unit just 45 minutes away in Ellsworth, WI in the 652nd Engineer Company. As a Combat Engineer our job was to "bridge the gap" whether it be over a river, or in the case of the float bridge: on the river! As an eventual boat operator, it was the best job ever.

Ribbon (float) Bridge

I took the fall semester of 1992 off from school to head to Basic Training, which for me meant the first time I'd be jumping on a plane in route to Fort Leonard Wood, MO. Some may find that experience scary, but believe it or not, I was excited to challenge myself and do something different.

1992

Fast forward to my room and bunk assignment, we had eight soldiers in my room and the guy I shared my bunk with - also known as my "battle buddy" - was Charles Lucas. Lucas was from Kentucky and he was a thin, quiet kid that was similar to me in that we'd be just fine if our names weren't known. That's a sign you're not making mistakes.

In Basic we had something called "Trailblazer" and if you were on the trail it means you have passed every written, oral and physical test. I'll admit - it was tough but Lucas and I worked our tails off. Despite the five or so hours of sleep and long days of non-stop training, we worked out every night and studied together.

By the end of basic training, only one guy out of 180 or so soldiers achieved Trailblazer status. It wasn't me, as I had made an error tying a "ring main" of detonating cord. However, the one soldier that earned the Trailblazer status was Lucas, and I think that meant more to me than if I had achieved it myself, because I know I encouraged him day after day, night after night.

Ten years later in 2003 I was mobilized and headed back to Fort Leonard Wood to prepare for Operation Enduring Freedom in Iraq, primarily because of the potential need to bridge the Tigris or Euphrates Rivers near Baghdad. As it turned out the permanent bridges on those rivers remained in tact and we did not end up deploying overseas.

2003

I share this because the military has played a big role in my life. I learned that missions require teamwork and selfless service in order to succeed. I learned how to balance physical and mental strength, as the absence of either could result in the failure of a critical mission. I learned that accountability is a two-way street - I needed my squad or platoon to trust in me as much as I trusted in them.

739th Engineer Company, St. Louis, MO, 2003

My unique blend of leading by example and individual relationships led to a strong foundation on which to get the job done, for those that counted on us to "bridge the gap".

Expanding Upon CRT and SEL

Happy Friday!

First, thanks to everyone that got out and showed their support on Tuesday! Finishing in the 2-slot out of nine only means one thing: we’ve got 45 days before the election and I’m on the ballot. That is an approach I adopted from Coach Schwendler, my high school wrestling coach, as we wrapped up the regular season and headed into the Regional Tournament: everyone is 0-0, and it is only what we do next that will matter.

That said, I understand we will be fielding questions. Some may be in our wheelhouse, while others may require further research.

For example, at Monday’s Board Meeting they were talking about partnering with TitletownTech - a partnership between the Packers and Microsoft - to craft a strategy as it relates to Information Technology, computing and even data warehousing! Considering I have a Masters in CIS and have been a Microsoft SQL Server Database Administrator for nearly 25 years, I would love to get involved with this initiative! I have already emailed the administration to lend my expertise.

On the flip side, there may be topics that will require further understanding. I don’t expect to be an expert on every topic, but I do hold myself to a high standard when researching topics I’m less familiar with. As a parent I brought data, facts, and my thoughts to the board for consideration, so as that model would imply, I’m now on the receiving end of that relationship as a candidate. What I thought in December has evolved to include your feedback, additional reading, and research.

That holds true for the CRT/SEL topic I see folks asking about. I’ve read Assembly/Senate Bills 411. I’ve read and watched videos produced by CASEL, which Wisconsin DPI adapts and defines SEL from. I’ve spoken with school board members – not only ours, but from across the state – to understand their approach to these topics. Folks I’ve spoken with agree that the social and emotional well-being of our children is a top priority, but in the context of curriculum this topic becomes much too broad to cover in an online post.

Most importantly, I will continue talking to those that will be voting in the upcoming election on April 5th. While I may have personal beliefs on certain topics, those beliefs will further evolve by going through this process. The job of a school board member is to absorb, learn and act in the best interest of the community and district. And that is what I intend to do.

Thanks, and have a great weekend!

Allen McGuire

District and School DPI Report Cards

 A few weeks ago I started to print and review the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Report Cards, which can be found here:

https://apps2.dpi.wi.gov/reportcards/home

You can download and review them for entire school districts as well as at the school level for all public elementary, middle and high schools. If you choose to "Download Files for All School Years", you will be prompted to download a compressed zip file that contains report cards dating back to 2011.

As someone that loves to digest data and do trend analysis, this will be interesting. I feel that not having reviewed these prior will lend a fresh perspective and undoubtedly result in my asking plenty of questions.

For example, at Bay Port I see our English Language Arts scores have gone from 47.4% at Basic or Below Basic to 55.6%. That is below Proficient. For Mathematics, it has gone from 43.8% to 60.8% - below Proficient.

Again, I have no preconceived notions or plausible reasoning that would explain these drops in proficiency. I'm reviewing the data as it is presented in the publicly available reports cards. The pandemic and subsequent policies undoubtedly put a strain on our teachers and children.

Your feedback is more than welcome on this topic, as I'll bring any concerns you may have along with me to the board should I get elected.

Parental Choice v. Mandates, Follow-up.

We've got about a week until the February 15th Primary here in Howard-Suamico, where six of the nine candidates will be selected by YOU - the voters!

Now, the reason I'm going to cover this topic one last time is because it drives home the fact that parents have done an outstanding job this school year as it relates to keeping your kids healthy and in school. It also underscores the fact that absent a compelling reason, parents are the ones that determine what is best for their child.

Today, February 7th, the HSSD dashboard shows we have seven (7) students out with positive tests, in a district of nearly 6,000 students.

Howard-Suamico Dashboard

Since early January, all leading indicators were pointing towards a downward trend in cases. The following graph is a computation called Rt: "the average number of people who will become infected by a person infected at time t. If it’s above 1.0, C19 cases will increase in the near future. If it’s below 1.0, C19 cases will decrease in the near future."

Rt for Brown County

Rt has proven to be a solid leading indicator once again. But I don't rely on predictive analysis in isolation, so then I'd do analysis on DHS data. I had to keep in mind that the data out of S. Africa and the U.K. indicated that the variant was quite contagious, but was not resulting in the same levels of severe illness as prior variants. At the same time, testing was being promoted at all levels of government and healthcare. I knew it would be problematic when I saw the district had instituted a 3% school-level threshold invoking masking for two weeks, which was breeched by both Lineville and Howard Elementary. One of the core reasons was because DHS includes "probable cases", which would include at-home rapid tests, for example. Those tests are known to be inaccurate.

DHS Data, By District for ages 0-19

You may wonder, what do the values on the graph mean? Well, those are the y-axis values, which is why I removed that axis on each of the nine graphs. The February 3rd value of 3.66 for "Positive Tests 0-19" on the Howard-Suamico graph is calculated as follows:

Raw DHS Data

Those are raw positive case counts for 14 days. POS_0_9_1D is the daily positive cases for ages 0-9, for example. If you take the average, you'll get 7.07 and 4.50 for children ages 0-9 and 10-19, respectively. In order to compare districts of varying sizes, we need a common denominator. For school districts it makes sense to use "per 10,000", whereas DHS uses "per 100,000" for county calculations. Howard-Suamico has 31,658 residents, so what we will get is a 10,000 resident cross-section of the district with equal distribution of ages.

(7.07 x 10,000) / 31,658 = 2.23 cases per 10,000 children 0-9 years old

(4.50 x 10,000) / 31,658 = 1.42 cases per 10,000 children 10-19 years old

Now, if you add 2.23 + 1.42, low and behold you'll have 3.65 (rounding puts it at 3.66). Worth noting, I obtain the residential population of each district from the DHS vaccination data file. So those are all per DHS as well.

So there you have it. I don't touch a digit of data from DHS. What I did was compare adjacent school districts to see whether policies were effective or not. If you look at the graphs, you will see that regardless of policy, masks required or masks optional, all of the trends were the same.