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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > September
September 2007
The growing debate over razing old schools
The former Julienne High School
In Sunday’s DDN, Joanne Huist Smith and I take a look at a controversy that is about to come to a head — a community effort to stop Dayton schools from tearing down the former Julienne High School building, a project scheduled for the spring.
This marks the third controversy about the district’s plan to rebuild its schools with nearly all new buildings by 2010 along with the long-running debate over Roosevelt High School and the recent concerns raised over Wilbur Wright Middle School, which helped prompt Shirley Crisp’s school board run.
These issues stir strong emotions on all sides. Columnist Mary McCarty, daughter of a Julienne grad, does a good job of summing up the sentiments of those who want to save the building.
But for the sake of argument, let me offer one opinion on the other side. This came from a school district employee who is completely uninvolved in the decision-making process regarding Julienne. When I brought the subject up in conversation, they unloaded on me about it.
I thought their take was interesting, and it seemed to sum up one under-discussed side of the school district’s argument for new schools at the Julienne and Wilbur Wright sites. In essence, what they said was, “why should our kids have to learn in a 100-year-old, out-of-date building instead of a state-of-the-art learning center just so a few old timers can walk through their old school a couple times a year?”
That’s, um, a bit politically incorrect. You probably won’t find anyone connected with the district who would say it publicly because it sounds rather insensitive. But perhaps it’s a fair question anyway.
Is sentimentality a good enough reason to keep Dayton kids in old schools where they have to work around the limitations of the structure to learn while for more advantaged kids in the suburbs the school buildings actually enhance their learning experiences?
It’s difficult to explain if you haven’t been into one of the new schools. If you haven’t, I suggest you schedule a visit to tour one. In terms of technology, security, safety, usability, air quality, lighting, etc., there truly is no comparison to the schools that were built 100 years ago. Those old school buildings might still be useful, but probably not as schools in the 21st century.
Dayton students have lots of disadvantages in terms of home life, poverty, etc., the person told me. The district at least has an opportunity to remove one barrier to learning by giving them great facilities. Why would we hesitate just so adults can have their memories?
This is especially persuasive in the case of schools that are not truly historic, which is most schools. Last year, I laid out my personal test of significance while discussing Roosevelt High School. In fairness, Julienne, I think scores pretty well on that test.
It seems likely that Dorothy Stang, the martyred Catholic nun from Dayton who was called to service as a student at Julienne, will eventually be named just the fourth American saint. Proponents of saving the building say the Julienne building should be the place in Dayton where people can come to remember Dorothy Stang. They make a compelling case.
But it’s still difficult to balance the needs of the community to remember against the needs of the kids to learn effectively. My source in the district believes it is nearly always wrong to choose yesterday’s buildings over today’s kids. What’s your view?
(Image credit: Teesha McClam, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (21) | Categories: School Construction
Thompson and Crisp face off
Crisp and Thompson
There are seven candidates for four school board seats this November, but two of them will face off just against each other in a special election to fill a two-year term — incumbent Stacy Thompson and challenger Shirley Crisp.
Last week, the two came in to meet with the DDN’s editorial board and I sat in on the discussion. Since Crisp was less well known, a few more questions were directed her way. I’ve pulled together some comments from both candidates here so you can get a taste of their views of the issues facing the school district:
Shirley Crisp
Personal
—Grew up in Kettering and graduated Fairmont East in 1968
—Married a Belmont High School graduate and moved to Wright Avenue in 1991
—Works as a quality assurance supervisor for Integrated Logistic solutions, a distributor of nuts, bolts, screws and fasteners around the world.
—She has never run for office before. She said she got interested in school board when she became active in trying to save Wilbur Wright and was encouraged by Joe Lacey, whom she met through her Wilbur Wright activity, to run.
On the future of Wilbur Wright Middle School:
Wilbur Wright was built as a high school in 1926 and Oville Wright was the first commencement speaker, she said. A new school would not fit in the neighborhood of older homes.
UPDATE: I don’t think I made it completely clear that Crisp’s position is that the building is historic and should not be torn down. I asked her what made the building historic in her view and she said the age of the building, its architecture, its famous name and the fact that Orville Wright gave a commencement address there. Sorry. When I read this section this morning I just didn’t think that came through very clearly.
On customer service in the school district:
Crisp said she had one grandchild assigned to Belmont and the second was assigned to Meadowdale High School. The initial response from the district was that the child at Belmont could transfer to Meadowdale. They live on the east side of town. She said her step daughter had to go to the administration building and wait for hours and then afterward heard nothing. When she called tow days later she was left on hold.
“She was trying for weeks. Then I went to a board meeting at Wilbur Wright and spoke with (administrator) Rebecca Lowry and within two days he was switched over.”
On the district calendar:
Crisp said the district should move back to a more traditional calendar, in part because baby sitting and child care are big problems. She said she does not believe the argument that kids backslide academically in the summer is convincing.
“I don’t agree with that at all. Children need a break, I think. What would my grandkids do during two week breaks? In the summer they can get jobs. They can mow lawns or something.”
On the May school levy:
Crisp said she voted no.
“I thought it was very high and didn’t have a prayer of passing. The board hasn’t asked for a levy in 15 years. I say shame on you. You should have asked for less a few years ago. Less this time would have been better.”
On the school board:
“It doesn’t seem like anybody is accountable. Everyone votes yes for everything except for one board member.”
Crisp said only Joe Lacey was independently-minded on the board but that he was shouted down at a recent board meeting, which was unfair.
“He was pretty much shut down. Meetings are for people to ask questions and voice concerns.”
Crisp said the board has not lived up to its promises.
“They said they would take us back to neighborhood schools, that there would be adult classes at night, community meeting rooms, children within walking distance. That’s not what’s happened so far.”
On the purchas of the Ludlow Street administration buildings:
“They bought that building downtown for $15 million and $5 million for renovation. That is money out of the kids books.”
On student behavior:
Crisp said children in the district should speak and dress correctly.
“We should get schools back to a place where we teach kids to speak like a commentator on T.V. I can’t understand what kids say. They have sloppy pants. They should be taught to speak and dress correctly. We need more discipline back in school. It’s not working th way it is.”
On Percy Mack:
“I don’t know Dr. Mack well. I’ve only seen the photo ops. What you see is someone who is only there for the pictures. But don’t want to think that is what man is all about. I’m sure he cares about kids. He probably does have passion for children. The errors made, I don’t know if it’s all his fault. The administration as a whole need a to take a step back and look at decisions being made, like the buildings downtown and the number of administrators we have. I want to find out how it compares to 20 years ago. I’ve heard that we they have more chiefs than indians. That never works.
On the district’s academic reform effort:
“I don’t like it. They’re pushing the kids to do the testing. They went from academic emergency to academic watch. Thats a step up I realize. They need to do a lot better. Give the teachers the things they need. Teachers say they don’t have pens and paper. You’ve got to give people the tools to work with. Set people up for success. You need to look at things and is it working as well as we thought.”
Stacy Thompson
Personal:
—Appointed to the board last June, replacing Tracy Rusch
—She is a 1983 Meadowdale graduate. She attended seven Dayton schools in 12 years
—She is a graduate of Spellman College with a degree in computer science.
—She worked in Chicago for 14 years before returning to Dayton in 2001
—Chairs the superintendent and treasurer evaluation committee
—Sits on the policy committee
—Serves as the liaison to the Downtown Dayton Partnership
—Has served as a tutor several times since college
—She now works as assistant vice president for regional compliance at Key Bank
—She said she puts in an average of 25 to 30 hours a week on school board business
On board policy:
In response to a question about the board’s tendency to largely vote together with little dissent, Thompson said she had no criticisms of current board policy.
“Certainly there are areas where we dissagree with one another, areas where we have more discussion. We try to get answers to questions and work with administrators to make sure we have the data we need. It’s an unfair assessment that we are rubber stamping by coning to the same conclusion. Usually the data substantiates the conclusion we’ve come to it individually and as a board. Unity important but not to point of rubber stamping. I push for clarity and at times disagree vocally. It’s important for the board.”
On the May levy:
“We looked at what we were facing — $30 million. We couldn’t even ratify contracts if we couldn’t show we had the money to cover them. We had to go for levy earlier than thought. The question was how much? I am sensitive to taxpayers. My dad is 84 and on a fixed income. I know the average home prices. I knew it was a tough levy. I was very sensitive to how much we were asking. It boiled down to the passion I had to maintain the reforms that were put in place and for keeping the district moving forward.”
On the future of Wilbur Wright Middle School:
Thompson said the board had a good meeting recently with residents of the neighborhood around the school and alumni. She said five of the seven schools she attended in Dayton are still open and she understands why people feel strongly about their old schools.
“What I heard was the memories and emotional attachment. In five schools, I still feel something when I go in there. As a board member, though, I have to look at the sentimental value vs. the economic reality of where they are. We must build schools to support 21st century education.”
Thompson went on to say saving old schools requires a community commitment, including money. She pointed to Stivers School for the Arts, where an outside group pushed for renovation and raised $1 million toward the effort from private donors.
“The question is — is there a credible alternative?” she said of Wilbur Wright. “Is there a way to save it? We want you to save it. We got no feedback about what they were wiling to do or can do.”
On neighborhood schools:
Thompson said schools will be more neighborhood based as new buildings are constructed.
“That has been a challenge since we are still in building mode.”
On Percy Mack:
On his strengths:
“I work very well with Dr. Mack. He’s done something I think is very critical — he’s engaged the community. He has done a very good job. He has a strong passion for children.”
On his weaknesses:
“If anything it’s his level of passion. The failure of the levy was very challenging for all of us and certainly for him. He invested a lot of time and energy to move the district forward. It took him a little longer to come to grips with it not passing. Serious cuts had to be made. This ties into his commitment to the district and the children, the need to continue the reforms that were put in place.”
On his possibly leaving:
“He has stated to me he is here now. I did not want to see him go. I don’t want a superintendent nobody else wants. People come after good people. It was saying something about the work he has done here. We still have a long way to go but the level of passion and dedication is there. People see it.”
On the district’s academic reforms:
“You have to look at the entire picture. I can’t speak for other big 8 (urban districts) for where students are starting, but 80 percent of our kids are not entering school ready. We also know a big part of the reform plan is K-3. If we can get a student reading and introduced to math better chance to keep them on task and grade level. It’s starting with students not coming to us prepared. I’m excited about new staste focus on ealry chidlhood education. And around the county. We have to bridge the gap. It’s hurting us. We have a reform plan in place focused on literacy and math. We have accountability with teachers and administrators. We focused on results. These things are critical. There are fundamental challenges. We have 27 percent of kids in charter schools, second only to New Orleans. Nobody else has that. There’s funding. We have a $212 million budget with $50 million going out to charter schools. Expectations through NCLB are growing. The funding is stagnant or less. That has to be addressed. We can’t stay where we are. We have to get real creative and go out of the box, get all stakeholders in the city committed to school district. We have 16,000 kids that can either become taxpayers and property owners or dependent on social services.”
NOTE: I converted a lot of these comments from raw notes I took during the editorial board meeting. Unfortunately, there were a lot of typos when I first put this up. I think I cleaned up most of them. Sorry if they were distracting.
(Image credits: Jan Underwood, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (25) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Kettering levy: It’s up to parents to pass it
Bob Mengerink
Check out these amazing numbers from Kettering Superintendent Bob Mengerink, who visited with the DDN’s editorial board Monday to tout his district’s 4.9 mill levy on the ballot this fall following a defeat in May:
—Kettering has 55,000 residents and the district has 7,400 students.
—In last year’s November election, which included a race for governor, about 20,000 people in Kettering voted.
—In May, just 8,000 Kettering residents voted, and the levy lost by about 300 votes.
—About 7,000 Kettering school district parents live in the city.
—Of those, 5,600 are registered voters, a significant gain from 2002 when just about 3,500 parents were registered to vote.
—In the may election, just 1,400 Kettering school district parents voted. That’s only one in five district parents and less than a third of Kettering school parents who are registered to vote.
—There have been four school levy votes (new money or renewals) since 2002. Just 500 district parents have voted in all four.
The message was pretty clear. If parents show up and vote, Kettering school levies will pass. If they don’t vote, the levies will fail.
Here are a few more interesting bits from our discussion with Mengerink:
—The levy campaign will be buying and distributing about 1,000 yard signs at a cost of about $3 a piece. In May, the committee did not buy yard signs, a move some blamed for a lack of community awareness about the levy.
—The district has made $4.2 million in cuts over the past two years, mostly through attrition by not replacing employees who retired or resigned.
—Kettering, which has 490 teachers, hired just three new teachers this year — an occupational therapist, a speech therapist and a construction trades teacher. Not a single classroom teacher was hired for the first time in recent memory.
—The percentage of students in the district labeled poor by the state has grown dramatically in the past five years. Now about a third of student in the district come from low income families.
—The district’s annual budget is about $70 million. The levy would raise $6.7 million in new dollars and cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $150 a year in new taxes.
—School consolidation is not currently an option on the table, but it has been discussed. Kettering has two elementaries with small enrollments — Moraine Meadows (135 students) and Orchard Park (281) — and two middle schools. Mengerink said neither elementary could have its students easily redistributed to other schools and that is why the district has not seriously considered closing either school. Also, he said he believes the community supported the 2002 building levy in part because they want to keep neighborhood schools as they are.
—About 90 Kettering school district residents now attend charter schools — about half online and half in brick-and-mortar schools in neighboring communities. About 15 of those kids attend Moraine Community School, which was recently sued by Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann in an effort to close the school.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Schools and Politics
A little secret about Dann’s war on charters
Marc Dann
Overall, the charter school movement in Ohio is very concerned about Attorney General Marc Dann’s move this month to sue low performing charter schools with the goal of closing them down. The rumor is that Dann has a list of about 40 schools that eventually will face lawsuits.
The big fear is that this is just the first phase of a war on charter schools. Proponents of charters have long worried about this new Democratic administration. The feeling is that Gov. Ted Strickland and Dann would just love to close all the state’s charter schools. Neither has actually said they want to go that far, but Strickland did initially seek a moratorium on new charters back in March.
Still, Dann’s posture on charter schools is tough for many proponents. It hits them where they live. That’s because the true believers in the charter movement don’t like low performing schools either. Quietly, some will even tell you they wouldn’t be sorry to see the lowest performing charters close. Even if it’s the attorney general — someone they view as an enemy — who does it.
In fact, I’ve heard some grudging admiration in pro-charter corners for Dann’s tactics. His legal argument is novel and interesting, taking on the schools’ status as “public trusts,” a legal designation that is under the attorney general’s purview. And he was smart about the schools he targeted.
Notice he has picked schools that have been around and therefore have a pretty long track record of poor performance. That makes them harder for the pro-charter crowd to defend. Dann also so far has only targeted charters that are not affiliated with big national management companies, which means the schools he sued won’t have deep pockets to fight back in court.
Overall, the move is seen as a political attack among charter proponents. Some of them have even filed public records requests seeking correspondence with teachers’ unions to see just how closely this move was coordinated with them. (The union agreed to drop lawsuits against the state over charters after Dann took his action.) And some see his choice of three Dayton schools as initial targets as a slap at the very pro-charter Republican House speaker Jon Husted, who hails from the Dayton suburb of Kettering. I did ask Dann’s spokesman about this complaint last week and he flatly denied politics played a role in the attorney general’s actions.
Even so, the charter school crowd has mobilized to fight Dann as a defense of the movement in general. But the truth is many of the movements leaders, including Husted himself, have been saying for a few years now that consistently low performing charter schools only hurt the argument for charters as a reform and should be shut down.
One interesting comment I never got into my stories about this because of space limitations came from Todd Haines, who heads the Ohio Department of Education’s charter school monitoring operation.
Haines said there already are several checks on charter schools in Ohio, including a new mechanism that would shut down consistent low performers starting in two years. He said he was not at all bothered by Dann’s actions.
“The attorney general is pursuing one avenue under the authority of his office and we have some under our office too,” he said. “If this is another avenue of accountability, we welcome that accountability.”
If not for politics, is it possible that charter critics and proponents could see that they actually want the same thing here — to close down low performing charter schools?
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Moraine school next target for Dann
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann filed suit today against another local charter school.
This time, Dann has targeted Moraine Community School, a five-year-old charter school in Moraine.
A spokeswoman for Dann said the state has spent $5, 879,000 on the school over five years and yet the school has “failed to achieve its purpose of establishing a high quality program in which all chidlren can achieve success.” Therefore, he will ask a Montgomery County judge to close the school.
Earlier this month, Dann sued two other Dayton charter schools, Colin Powell Leadership Academy and New Choices Community School, for the same reason — consistently bad academic performance. Because of that, he argues the schools have have failed to fulfill their obligations as a publicly-funded charitable trusts.
So that’s three charter schools Dann wants to close down and all three are in Dayton. His office has said there is more to come.
UPDATE: Dann’s press release is out. Here is his rationale for seeking to close Moraine Community School. In his filing, he says the school:
—Met only three of the 32 applicable indicators for school performance
—Amassed persistently dismal Performance Index Scores, averaging 66.1 out a possible 120, giving it an institutional GPA of “F”
—Failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards for the past four school years
—Consistently lagged behind the performance of the West Carrollton City School District on State tests.
Permalink | Comments (40) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Building project gets new manager, rules
A new construction management team has been picked to run Dayton’s $627 million school building program and the school board set new rules for hiring on its projects Tuesday.
The choice of managers still has to be approved both by the city school board and by the Ohio School Facilities Commission, but John Carr, the district’s construction chief, said Shook Construction of Dayton and Touchstone, a division of the Tuttle Services construction company in Lima, are the tentative picks.
The team of Danis Construction of Dayton, Columbus-based Ruscilli Construction and Quandel Construction of Pennsylvania ran the first phase of construction but disagreed with the state over fees for the second phase, leading the management work to be rebid.
Going forward, the board will stick with its current goal to spend at least 25 percent of construction dollars on local companies and 35 percent on minority-owned businesses. That level of participation has been elusive. For the five-school first phase of the project, local participation was 26 percent but minority participation was only 11 percent.
Last month, Terri Allen, the district’s diversity and outreach coordinator, proposed that the board drop the district’s goal for the inclusion of small and minority companies to 20 percent of the district’s construction spending and expand the definitions of small and minority-owned companies.
Allen said the board’s original goal was too ambitious as there were too few companies that qualified to work on school projects and a 20 percent goal would match Columbus, Cincinnati and other nearby cities with similar programs.
The board voted Tuesday to keep the original goals, but did expand the pool of eligible companies by altering its inclusion program so that companies already certified as local or minority-owned by the city or the state would not have to follow a different process to be considered for school projects in the city.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
Fireworks at Dayton school board tonight
Lacey and Isaacs
Wow. Tonight’s Dayton school board meeting nearly devovled into a shouting match between board members and teachers’ union president Pat Lynch and among board members themselves.
Here’s what happened:
Lynch, during her usual report at the monthly business meeting of the school board, was very critical of the board again, as she was last month. Here’s a summary of what she said:
—Charter schools. Lynch hailed Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann’s decision to sue low performing charter schools. She said her union had been the first to sue charter schools and was instrumental in persuading Dann to take his action. She said the board “did little to deal with the negative issue of charter schools.”
—School calendar. There is no evidence that a year-round schools improve school performance, Lynch said, and the union urged the board not to move the district to a calendar that starts all schools in early August. She said the board “ignored” this advice and “our predictions proved true,” Lynch said. She said hot classrooms in August were “one cause” of last year’s lower test scores and this year likely would be the same given the six days canceled this year due to heat.
—Ludlow buildings. Lynch said the district already had three administration buildings when they bought the Ludlow buildings from Reynolds & Reynolds in 2003. She derided what she called the board’s “cavalier decision to spend the children’s money on building you didn’t need.”
—Academic achievement. The union has documented 30 instances in which two classrooms were combined into one under one teacher, Lynch said. She said the cost cutting by the district this year is “too expensive for the children” and that if academic performance slips again, “it will not be the fault of the teachers, who you will surely blame,” she said. Lynch went on to to argue that the board took too much credit last year when scores went up and that the credit was due to the teachers. She said the board too often listens to administrators rather than teachers.
“How long before the board listens to the people who teach and not the career administrators and politically motivated members of this board?” she said.
Her comments did not go over well with board President Yvonne Isaacs.
“You come before this board and you bring written statements and slander the board and throw rocks,” she said. “And you make interesting statements. Last year you were outraged the board didn’t give enough credit to teachers for our success. This year, because the scores have slipped it’s no longer your fault. It’s the board’s fault.”
She went on: “When there is credit to be taken, you take it. When there is responsibility to be taken, you don’t take it. You throw rocks at career administrators. I’d say there’s not an administrator here who has not taught in the classroom. you also speak about how this board has misspent funds when you know it has been 15 years since the last operating levy in this city.”
She said few boards have ever gone as long as Dayton schools before they finally sought a new levy in May.
“I’m not sure how hard you even worked to help pass that one,” Isaacs said. “We told you and the community there would be repercussions.”
Isaacs said Lynch knows the board cannot operate in deficit, necessitating cuts, and that the board has not been cavalier in its handling of the budget. She called Lynch’s comments “very offensive and irresponsible.” She said the union “has not invited us to sit down and talk about the issues”
” When we come to you we are met with hostility at times. If we are to go forward and work for the best interests of children, the adversarial tone you have been setting these last few months isn’t going to get us where we need to go. I invite you, Mrs. Lynch, to come to the table to work for the good of children. Why don’t we work together to solve these problems?”
At this point, Joe Lacey jumped in and asked, “could we have a definition of slander from our attorney?”
For an uncomfortable moment, attorney John Concannon waited for instruction from Isaacs who told him it was not necessary. Lacey went on to say slander means someone is telling untruths and intentionally trying to injure the reputation of another person.
“I don’t think it applies in this situation,” he said. “Slander requires malice toward the board and saying what is untrue. You are out of order to say such things.”
Isaacs replied by saying: “I think it’s an objective term.”
Lacey went on to challenge Isaacs’ assertion that administrators were teachers in the past.
“I’d like to have a show of hands of administrators here who have not taught.”
Isaacs began to interrupt and Lacey loudly asserted “I have the floor. We have order here.”
Isaacs replied: “Mr. Lacey there is no need to raise your voice.”
Lacey then began again to try to get administrators to raise their hands until Isaacs said it is irrelevant whether they taught or not.
“Then why did you bring it up?” he asked.
Isaacs said she did so because most of the administrators probably had been teachers at one point in their career and she didn’t understand why he was viewing that as a negative.
“If you don’t think it’s relevant, then I suppose it’s not relevant,” Lacey said.
At this point Lynch asked if she could respond to Isaacs.
“No,” replied board member Mario Gallin.
“You had your five minutes,” Isaacs said.
Board member Lee Massoud ended the conversation by saying she felt there was no evidence the new school calendar has had a negative effect on student test scores. She said scores went down across the state this year because new tests were added to the report card.
Permalink | Comments (61) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
What would you ask about NCLB?
Spellings and Maddox
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will be at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Thursday as part of a bus tour promoting the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. I have a chance this afternoon to interview Lauren Maddox, an assistant secretary of education, for about 15 minutes.
Maddox is a communications specialist, not an educator, but she is one of the key players crafting the department’s reauthorization pitch.
So here’s your chance. What would you like to ask a key player from the Bush administration’s education policy team about No Child Left Behind? If you were in charge of reworking the law to make it better, how would you change it?
If I can, I’ll try to ask Maddox your questions.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Schools and Politics
Finding money to make pre-school better
Last week I wrote about an effort to expand access to and information about pre-school in Montgomery County. Percy Mack described to Dayton city commissioners how just $400,000 in spending could bring $2.8 million in state and federal grants. Mack said probably more like $5 million a year needs to be spent to improve pre-school to reduce the huge numbers of kids who come to kindergarten not ready for school.
My big question at the time was, where will the money come from? Well, I got a partial answer Friday.
It turns out the county’s Family and Children First Council already has put up the initial $420,000 (funded with money from the human services levy) to hire a small staff to begin seeking and administering grants for pre-school over the next 16 months. With this group in place, the county should soon be able to access the $2.8 million in annual state and federal aid that’s available through 2010.
Jenni Roer from the Tait Foundation, which has matched $50,000 to the effort, said the hope is that this can help the county grab even more federal and state grants, as well as go after large foundations for additional aid. The idea is not to hit up governments for money, she said. That’s good since the city and school district are too strapped to put up any cash.
Here are the stated goals of this effort:
• Ensuring more early learning professionals are highly qualified
• Making high-quality early learning available to more children
• Supporting parents and families in promoting their children’s early social, emotional, physical and academic development
• Accessing state, federal and private funding to maintain a quality system of early care and education
As a parent of three young children, I can tell you this — quality pre-school is not cheap. One issue that is yet to be addressed is how to make good pre-school affordable to low income families, but Roer said there are good strategies to address that once the first steps of this new countywide pre-school structure is in place.
For now, the effort will focus on its goals of providing professional development and technical assistance to existing pre-schools, coordinating resources and helping families learn about and access quality care and education services.
I’ll be meeting with these folks next week and they are just getting off the ground, so I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about their plans soon.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Young Children
Stivers on Court House Square
(Stivers students paint on Court House Square in downtown Dayton Wednesday to kick off a school fund-raiser.)
Shon Walters stood watch alongside a wall-sized canvass on Court House Square as his students swished and swiped their paint brushes in broad and short strokes.
It’s the kind activity Walters would have loved to participate in when he was a high school student growing up in Fairborn. In school, there were teachers that nudged him to explore his artistic side, but nothing like the nurturing atmosphere of an arts school like Stivers School for the Arts, he said.
At Stivers, students stand shoulder-to-shoulder every day with real professionals like Wolters, who has made a living from his art work for seven years.
“I would have loved to have gone to a school like this,” he said. “They can see what it takes to excel and get paid for what they do.”
On Sept. 12, Wolters helped lead a group of about 80 Stivers students in performances downtown — music, drama, dance and visual arts — to kick off a fund-raising campaign that seeks to keep the professionals like Wolters in the school.
Walters was laid off by the school district in June after six years as an adjunct instructor because of budget cuts caused by the defeat of Dayton’s 15.17-mill school levy in May. But in August, he was brought back when an initial fund-raising burst by the Seedling Foundation, a school support group, raised enough money to convince the district to restore the positions that were cut.
The school pays Walters for 15 hours a week, but he donates another 15 hours for free. Seedling President Bill Pflaum said the group needs $145,000 to keep the adjuncts all year. So far, it has raised $125,760, mostly from foundations and large individual donors.
The Court House Square event kicked of the next phase of the campaign — asking a wide array of individuals to each donate $18, the average cost of one hour of adjunct instruction. The group collected $1,120 from the Court House Square event.
Pflaum said the donation that most impressed him wasn’t from a foundation, philanthropist or even one of the downtown workers who gathered to watch the lunchtime show. It came from a man, apparently homeless, who approached him on the square and put a quarter in the jar.
“He asked me what it was all about and when I told him, he said he wanted to help,” Pflaum said.
To donate to the Seedling Foundation, mail a check to P.O. Box 1858, Dayton, Ohio, 45401-1858. E-mail Pflaum at wdpflaum@ix.netcom.com with questions or call the school at 542-7380.
Permalink | | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Obama: Give teachers more and extra pay
A sharp-eyed reader here at Get on the Bus pointed me to this clip in which Charlie Rose asks Barack Obama for his thoughts on education that is part of a mashup on all of the candidates’ positions on a variety of issues.
In the clip, Obama calls No Child Left Behind “false advertising,” saying the U.S. Education system does well for some but not for all.
Obama goes on to say he favors bonuses for those willing to teach math and science or in inner city and rural schools. He talks up an impending teacher shortage and the need to attact new people to the profession. To do that, he says we’ll have to pay them more, offer them more professional deveopment and rely on their judgement to set standards. He also says he favors universal early childhood education.
This post also appears at the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
“Marley” author visits Kettering school
(John Grogan at Kettering’s Oakview Elementary School Friday)
Back at the beginning of the summer, my wife returned from a trip to Books & Co. with a big smile. A friend had turned her onto a great book called “Marley & Me” a sentimental story written by newspaper reporter John Grogan about what he calls “the worst dog in the world.”
While she was at the bookstore to pick it up, she saw on the shelf another book called “Marley: a dog like no other.” The book was the same story, re-written for a younger audience. So my wife bought that book for our eight-year-old daughter and they spent the summer reading them together.
That turned out to be really fun for the both of them. With every chapter, they would discuss what happened. It was great mother-daughter bonding time and it kept my daughter reading during the summer.
Grogan happens to be in town today as part of a book tour. He will be at Books & Co. in the Greene at 6 p.m. for a book signing. But this afternoon, he visited Kettering’s Oakview Elementary School where I caught up with him for a few words.
In his talk with a gym full of elementary school kids, Grogan told stories from the book and read the kids another version of the Marley story — an illustrated, fictionalized Marley story called “Bad Dog Marley!” that’s aimed at kindergarten and pre-school kids. Grogan said he has another Marley book coming out with a Christmas theme.
I asked Grogan about this multiple book strategy. Was it marketing? Was this an industry trend?
No, he said. This all started when Grogan was on his first book tour and he noticed younger children showing up at his signings with the book — kids in grade 5 to 8. This made him uneasy — the original book has a few spots of adult language and content. He wrote it, after all, for adults.
So, Grogan and his publisher talked about this. Teachers also came up to him at events and said how much they’d love to use the book in class, if only they could get approval from their school boards. They considered first an edited version of the adult book before arriving at a simple conlclusion — why not re-tool the book directly for a younger audience?
The move turned out to be genius. Marley is now a worldwide best seller as the books have been translated into 30 languages.
During the assembly at Oakview, Grogan said he was pleased so many kids enjoyed the stories. He asked how many in the audience had a dog of their own. Probably three-fourths of the kids hands went up.
“I guess a lot of kids have bad dogs in their homes, too,” Grogan said with a smile.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Fear in Trotwood on the first day of school
(Alexis Roberts pricks her finger for a blood drop to check her blood sugar.)
My colleague Meredith Moss is following some families who this year are sending their first kids off to kindergarten, documenting their experiences.
One of her families got off to a pretty rough start in Trotwood.
Alexis Roberts is six years old and has diabetes. This is a potentially life threatening illness for a child (Alexis spent 12 days in the hospital in 2004) that requires several shots of insulin a day.
Under federal law, public schools receiving federal aid (pretty much all schools) cannot discriminate against these kids. The school has a legal responsibility to provide them a medically safe environment to learn in. That means someone qualified has to be there to administer Alexis’ shots. (This Colorado-based Web site does a pretty good job spelling out the rules under federal law.)
But Alexis’ mother says she got the run around when she began asking about her child’s care prior to the start of school, being told at times that a nurse wouldn’t be present for weeks, that she should either enroll somewhere else or that mom would have to come to school every day to administer Alexis’ shots herself.
We made a few calls to Trotwood. The district’s story is that the family hadn’t completed required forms and that the district was prepared to hire a contract nurse to adminster the shots until a permanent school nurse was hired.
So it looks like a happy resolution has been reached. But it made me wonder how many parents who just don’t know their rights face similar hurdles to get their kids the services they need and are entitled to.
I’d love to hear your stories.
(Image credit: Jim Witmer, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Student Health and Safety
Dann sues two charter schools
By Scott Elliott Staff Writer
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann filed suit Wednesday seeking to force the two city charter schools to close, arguing that they have failed to live up to their obligations to educate children.
The schools are Colin Powell Leadership Academy, 834 Randolph St., and New Choices Community School, 601 S. Keowee St.
The two complaints were filed in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. More low performing charter schools could face similar action, said Leo Jennings, a spokesman for Dann.
The move was hailed by teachers unions as an overdue step toward accountability. They have long been critics of charter schools but assailed by supporters of the charter movement as a declaration of war on charters.
Dann’s lawsuits target the schools’ status as “charitable trusts” under state law. He argues that by operating schools that produce consistently poor academic results, the trusts are not living up to the law’s requirements.
“These two institutions are not meeting their fiduciary responsibilities under Ohio’s charitable trust laws,” Jennings said. “They are not achieving their charitable purpose. They are not educating kids and they need to be held accountable.”
Ron Adler, president of the Ohio Coalition for a Quality Education, said the move was an attempt to circumvent state law.
Ohio has just implemented new rules that will close charter schools rated in the lowest state category for three straight years.
“I’m not opposed to closing schools, but you have to do it orderly and you have to follow the law,” he said. “It seems like they’re trying to expand the powers of their office.”
Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, said charter schools have tougher accountability than regular public schools.
“A neighborhood public school has no threat of being shut down under current law, but we will shut down these schools at the end of the year if they don’t improve under our law,” he said.
Permalink | | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Dann sues two Dayton schools
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann today filed suit in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court against two Dayton charter schools — Colin Powell Leadership Academy and New Choices Community School. He argues that they have failed to fulfill their obligations as a publicly-funded charitable trusts by their poor academic performance. Here is the guts of the compalint against Colin Powell:
“Colin Powell Leadership Academy (CPLA), a state funded community school, Ohio’s name for a charter school, is a charitable trust and/or a public trust. It is a charitable trust under R.C. 109.23, 109.24 and the common law because Ohio law provides that recipients of public moneys hold them in trust subject to fiduciary duties, the general structure and specific provisions of the CPLA arrangement manifest intent to create fiduciary relationships, CPLA has declared itself to be a charitable organization under federal and Ohio law, it has represented that the funds it receives will be used for educational purposes, and education is a purpose traditionally recognized as charitable. It is also a public trust because it is largely funded by public moneys and such funds constitute a public trust fund. CPLA is therefore subject to the principles of trust law.
It has failed under trust law standards. CPLA’s performance would be measured by generally applicable State standards and a comparison of CPLA’s performance to those standards reveals that:
- It has met only 1 of the 61 applicable indicators of school performance during its six years of operation.
- Its Performance Index Scores have been persistently abysmal, averaging 51.58 out of a possible 120, giving it an institutional G.P.A. of a very low “F.”
- It has failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards for the last 5 school years.
- It has consistently lagged behind the performance of the Dayton City School District on the State tests common to both CPLA and Dayton.
No one doubts that CPLA’s organizers meant well and tried hard, but those undeniable facts show that the trust has failed.”
And here’s what Dann wrote in his complaint about New Choices Community School:
“A comparison of NCCS’ performance to those standards reveals that:
It has met only 1 of the 29 applicable indicators for school performance during its six years of operation.
Its Performance Index Scores, which more precisely measure how its students have performed on State tests, have been persistently abysmal, averaging 49.26 out of a possible 120, giving it an institutional G.P.A. of a very low “F.”
It has failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards for the last four school years.
It has persistently lagged behind the performance of the Dayton City Schools, from which it draws most of its funding and students.
Trust law therefore requires that the trust funds be redirected to enterprises more likely to achieve the trust’s general purpose: to provide a public education meeting State standards. The Attorney General therefore asks the Court to restrain NCCS from further operating a community school and directing NCCS, its directors, and its sponsor to see that NCCS’ students and their accompanying state funding are transferred to other schools in an orderly manner and that NCCS’ affairs are properly wound up.”
Permalink | Comments (44) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Sources: Marc Dann to challenge charter schools
There is a potentially explosive charter school issue brewing that has a lot of people around the state buzzing.
I’ve been told by several good sources this week that Attorney General Marc Dann will move to strip the tax-exempt status of 37 Ohio charter schools, including at least one in Dayton, possibly as early as today.
I’m told Dann will file a lawsuit seeking to close the schools, charging that they are chronic academic underperformers and have violated their tax exempt status, sources said. When I spoke to Ted Hart and Michelle Gatchell, spokespersons for Dann, both said that they could not comment regarding Dann’ possible move against charter schools. When I pressed them and asked if that meant there was nothing to story, they stuck with their “no comment.”
One of the schools that my sources say is on Dann’s list is the Colin Powell Leadership Academy in Dayton. When I told this to the school’s superintendent, William Peterson, he said the school’s Columbus-based attorney has had no formal notice from Dann’s office, but has also heard Dann was seeking to challenge the tax-exempt status of charter schools. Peterson said the school has done nothing to violate its tax-exempt status as a non-profit.
“If they file suit we will respond to it,” he told me. “It sounds like more of a political move than anything else.”
Ron Adler, president of the Ohio Coalition for Quality Education, has also heard Dann was preparing to move to strip the tax exempt status of charter schools. He said his group has already prepared a statement in response and is ready to fight for charter schools if Dann takes action against them. Adler said any effort to close charter schools must go through the procedures spelled out in state law.
“I’m not opposed to closing schools, but you have to do it orderly and you have to follow the law,” he said. “It seems like they’re trying to expand the powers of their office.”
Even Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted said he’d heard the story.
“He’s told people he would go after them for violating there not for profit status,” Husted said. “I’m sure that will be thrown out in court like a lot of other things hes been doing.”
I’m still trying to get more than a “no comment” from Dann’s office. I’ll let you know if I find out more.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Nobody has any money
I have a story in Wednesday’s paper about a big idea that Dayton Superintendent Percy Mack pitched to city commissioners in a joint meeting Tuesday — that Montgomery County should spend $5 million a year to improve pre-school.
Mack said a recent study showed 80 percent of school district incoming kindergarteners are not school ready. In other words, they cannot tell you any letters of the alphabet, don’t know the colors, etc. The county is eligible for $2.8 million annually for pre-school programs if it would just put together an infrastructure to run programs, which he estimated would cost about $400,000.
The question is — where will the money come from? City commissioners in attendance were supportive of the idea, but when I spoke with Mayor Rhine McLin and Commissioner Nan Whaley after the meeting, both emphasized that the city just doesn’t have money to contribute. In fact, they went out of their way to emphasize that the $250,000 they contributed to the effort to restore high school busing this year was a one-time deal and that there wouldn’t be money to offer next year if circumstances don’t change.
Neither the city nor the school district have money. The county is a little better off, but getting buy-in from the suburbs to spend money on the city is a challenge.
Which leaves us with the question — where does the money come from?
(Image credit: www.geekwhat.com)
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, Young Children
Stivers fundraising kicks off Wednesday
The lunchtime event at Court House Square to kick off the fundraising effort for Stivers School for the Arts is today at noon. If you’re downtown, I hear it is going to be worth checking out.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
What administrators really do all day?
I saw this video over at This Week in Education and it put me in mind of our recent discussion here about the usefulness (or not) of the central office and administrative pronouncements in school districts. Enjoy:
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Schools and Politics
The saddest story of the week
See that bright young man in the center of the photo at the top of this post? That’s Edward Brooks as a senior at Colonel White High School in 1999. In the photo, he helps lead the school’s Junior ROTC drill team in a demonstration at Fairport Middle School.
Yesterday, Army Spec. Edward Brooks was laid to rest in Dayton following his death last week in Ramadi, Iraq, from an improvised bomb explosion. He leave behind a wife and three children, along with countless friends, relatives and admirers. Just take a look at the sentiments in the 20 pages of remembrances and tributes at the DDN’s memorial guest book in his honor to get a sense of how many people are mourning him today.
I’ve wanted to write about Brooks since the news last week of his death. I remember him very clearly as a senior in 1999, my first year covering Dayton schools, when he was one of the leaders of an extraordinary Junior ROTC drill team that ranked among the top 60 of nearly 1,500 such teams across the nation. They were everywhere that year, it seemed, attending loads of school events to present the colors.
So I went looking in our archives for a photo of Brooks to put with this post and stumbled across this one. I just found it very moving. Shot by former DDN intern Damon Higgins, it shows Brooks looking so young but standing tall with pride, adorned with a chest of medals from competitions and framed by the American flag on one shoulder and the Ohio flag on the other.
It also does a nice job capturing the spirit of Major Odell Graves’ fine Junior ROTC program.
Graves has built the ROTC program at Colonel White into one of the district’s best recognized and most highly regarded student activities. A few years ago, then-Gov. Bob Taft was so impressed by them he asked if they would present the colors before his state-of-the-state address.
Graves does a brilliant job of hiding a character building program under the guise of fun in a fancy suit and a shiny helmet. Kids are attracted by the flash — those junior soldiers-in-training look darn impressive marching around so precisely and dressed so sharply. But for those who sign up and stick with Graves and junior ROTC, along the way they’ll learn stress management, integrity, leadership and responsibility.
The program attracts a lot of different sorts of kids. Some are from military families and know they want to be soldiers. Some are attracted by Graves’ magnetic personality and by the chance to have him and the other members of his staff as role models. For some, the program truly turns their lives around and opens their eyes to opportunites they might have missed.
In my work through the years, I’ve just found the cadets I’ve met all to be great kids — smart, polite, contemplative and fun to talk to. Just prior to the start of the Iraq war in 2002, I interviewed Graves and some of his kids about the military and the war. Graves spent an hour pulling out pictures of his graduates who went into the service and telling me where they were stationed around the world and what they had been like as students. And when I spoke to kids in the program, just months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, they were amazing — thoughtful, honest and patriotic.
Edward, it seems from the comments on the tribute page, shared those attributes and is remembered for a great sense of humor, too.
Here is just one comment about him from a high school friend who also was in Junior ROTC:
“Edward, You have helped create a road for many Colonel White Black Knights including myself. You always set the standards high and never accepted anything but the best. A part of you will always be in the sweat, tears, and blood that is shed while maintaining the standard of Greatness. Thanks for everything you have done for this nation. And one more “Ah lo ha Welcome to Hawaii” for the road.
Black Knight Drill Team (Dayton, OH)”
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, My Favorite Posts
Dayton’s plan for school improvement
Because Dayton schools have consistently failed to make adequate yearly progress on state tests the federal No Child Left Behind law requires the district to submit an improvement plan to the state. On Tuesday, Deputy Superintendent Debra Brathwaite presented the district’s plan to the school board.
The plan is jargon-heavy and contains lots of curriculum-speak. It did catch my eye that part of the plan places Brathwaite directly in charge of five schools that had have the longest run of failing to meet AYP. That apparently counts as intervention, even though Braithwaite was indirectly in charge of those school before.
This approach seems like a pretty mild sanction. Other options the district could have used included replacing the principals, “reconsitituting” the schools with different teachers, closing the schools, turning them into a charter schools or turning them over to a private company to run them.
Instead Dayton’s move was to put a new boss over the principals of the five most troubled schools, except that the new boss is really their old boss.
Follow the “continued” link for the rest of the plan, as it was presented Tuesday, and give us your thoughts. Does this approach have a good chance of improving academic achievement in Dayton?
The district has seven goals this year. They are:
—Improve student achievement
—Prepare students to score proficient or higher on Ohio’s achievement and graduation tests
—Build capacity and consistency in the delivery and understanding of the core academic program
—Use assessment and comprehensive data analysis for decision making and targeting assistance
—Provide interventions and support for students and schools that are behind
—Restructure the high school program to respond to 21st century needs
—Increase communication with parents and the community to involve them more effectively with schools
The district will maintain nine “assurances.” It will:
—Continue to align curriculum and instruction materials to content, process and performance standards
—Ensure availability of standards-based instruction to all student groups
—Continue to align professional development to standards-assessed student performance, and to professional needs
—Provide services to underperforming students to meet standards
—Use state and local assessments to modify instruction and improve achievement
—Use external resources to supplement the core instructional program
—Conduct curriculum audits and instructional walk throughs
—Use the services of the Montgomery County Educational Service Center to provide external coaches and implement Ohio’s integrated systems model of intervention.
The district will use an intervention model of academic and behavioral systems
Brathwaite flashed up a slide of a cone-shaped graph with this data on it:
—Percent of students who need intense individual intervention: 1 to 5 percent
—Percent of students who need targeted intervention: 5 to 10 percent
—Percent of students who would benefit from schoolwide universal interventions: 80 to 90 percent
She listed these benefits of this new intervention model: administrative leadership, collaborative strategic planning, scientifically based research, data-based decision-making, culturally responsive practices and academic and behavior supports across the three tiers.
Brathwaite said an example of intervention would be small group instruction with two to four students and a teacher or aide with three to four sessions a week of 30 to 60 minutes for eight to 12 weeks. This would all be paid for by Title I federal funds.
She also said there would be literacy and math support with “in-school specialists.” These folks would be “regionally based literacy and math specialists” offering support to teachers. I take it this is the people from the ESC, mentioned earlier. At high schools, there would be on-site professional development by curriculum coaches.
Other aspects of the district’s new intervention plan are:
—Additional instructional development, including two full days of professional development for teachers.
—Continuation of the district’s credit recovery program that allows students who fail classes to make them up before and after school through online programs.
—After school and weekend learning opportunities.
—Volunteers trained to help students through tutoring.
—Curriculum audits at schools.
Brathwaite ended the Q&A with the board by making an appeal for community volunteers to work as tutors. To inquire about volunteering, call 542-3333.
Permalink | Comments (41) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Iowa teachers to Obama: Kill NCLB
Wow, some Iowa educators really seem to hate No Child Left Behind.
At least that’s what they told a representative of the Barack Obama campaign who came to hear their concerns.
Inez Tenenbaum, former South Carolina superintendent of education, came to Marshalltown, Iowa, for Obama and according to the Times Republican newspaper, educators from the Marshalltown area unloaded on her about NCLB. One teacher said if NCLB were ever fully funded, as some politicians have urged, it “would be the death of public education.”
Meanwhile, on a recent visit to a sweltering 111-year-old school in South Carolina’s “corridor of shame,” where educators have complained about the inequities in facilities, Obama called for federal aid to upgrade outdated facilities, while at the same time cautioning that money is not always the answer to problems in education, according to a TV report.
And at Huffington Post, Dave Riegel says Obama is trying to have both ways on performance pay.
This post also appears on the Education Writers Association’sEducation Election blog.
Permalink | Comments (21) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
