Good results from the School Board meeting last night, with an amendment added by Mary Adams, that resolves that the school will reopen in the fall of the school year immediately following the completion of repairs....without that, it was unclear whether the school would be reopened for students, used for another purpose, or closed. The amendment makes it clear that it will continue to serve the community as a school - and that it can become the neighborhood school envisioned by many of the 19th Ward residents!

SWCC Education meeting Sat. 7/28/12

In attendance: Alice Carli, Jackie Farrell, Leah Watson, Mary Reese, E, Jamall Watkins, Brenda Driscoll, John Boutet, Terry Davis, Dawn Noto, Deborah Wight, Charlotte Geibel, Joan Roby Davidson

Regrets: Eleanor Coleman, Sandra Fink, Margy Meath, Mary Adams

Highlights:

• John created a logo to encourage neighbors to stay involved
• We need to make sure to keep school staff in the loop and invite their opinions as we hash out what we envision for schooling in the SW.
• How can we get school principals to be more responsive to the community?
  • We should invite Mr Laniak, #16 Principal to a community conversation concerning a shared vision of what the academic programs will be like at #16 when it reopens.
  • Will he still be principal in 2 years? How can the community adjust to frequent staff changes at SW schools?
  • We need to better understand the bussing issue. What are the reasons that the RCSD is bussing so many elementary students? Is it for the $$ that the State reimburses, or for Special Education or advance programs, is it parent preference for convenience or are all of the SW elementary schools filled to capacity?
  • The ways that the community can stay involved:
    • join Location19.org SWCC Education and the SW Education FaceBook page
    • tolerate emails about issues in SW schools
    • write letters to school board, City Council, County Leg., the Supt, the D&C; City, & the Minority Reporter
    • read research reports, news, magazine & journal  articles, blogs, opinion, etc.  and share relevant information with neighbors.
    • Attend community meetings& forums & share what you heard.
    • Make phone calls
    • Bring attention to particular school issues by talking about them w/friends, family & neighbors
    • Share you ideas and internet links to relevant information with the group.
    • start & sign online petitions
    • sit at tabled events to share information with the public; put info in your church bulletin
    • hold rallies and marches
    • RCSD employees who happen also to be parents or neighbors may fear retaliation if they are too active.

Our “To Do” List:

Set up a community conversation with the principals (before the start of school)

Set up forum with Dr Spezio and Mary Thomas in which community members ask questions.

Develop a set of community criterion that school staff can expect us to hold the school accountable to.

Continually encourage more community members, especially parents to become involve in education in the SW and support their continued involvement.

Join the community group that will guide the rebuilding and reopening of #16.

Encourage neighborhood leaders to continue their efforts to impact schooling in the SW with renewed vigor.

Long range: use our influence to impact academic programming, bussing, principal selections and the graduation rates and college success for SW residents.

Points to Consider from community members:

• FYI, many people, us included, have encouraged the return to a K-8
• The Test scores at School 16 have plummeted over the last five years.  Who monitors and mentors the Principals so this sad situation isn’t repeated?  Our children don’t get do-over for the past five years. 
•  Young families with some means in our neighborhood commonly move away or find private or charter schools for their children when they reach school age.  The children of those who can’t do either are left with this awful school system, growing up without an education that can be considered adequate in any way.  We see the results every day in the young men on our corners, and the young women with no means to support the babies they push in strollers down our streets.  This mess must be fixed, and it must start in pre-K, and it must start today.
• Principal Marlene Blocker has moved from # 3 school to Wilson Foundation@ the Madison Building
• It is essential for the future of our neighborhood that we continue to have school choice. 
• I know of a lot of 19th Ward parents who do not want to send their kids to the closest school (especially school 29) (Question: why is this?), so we absolutely cannot take a "no busing" position
  • It is critical that the 19th WCA respond to the RCSD on this issue as soon as possible.
  • Tanya Wilson, Principal  #29 Kirkland Rd responses in bold: Questions asked of SW Principals:

We would like our work to contribute to the long range stability and improvement for RCSD education in the SW and we need your help. Would you be able to provide any insight on this matter?

Some examples of helpful information are:

• Is your school slated for the FMP? Currently happening
• Does your facility meet State requirements for grade 7 & 8 students? it will by the end of summer
• What percentage of your student population resides in the SW; would it be considered a neighborhood school? Neighborhood school
• Has your school experienced any of the growing pains revealed at #16? Slight but we adjusted
• Do you expect that your SW school may face the same fate as #16 in the next 5 years? no
• In light of declining RCSD enrollment what is your vision for schooling in the SW? What is your current enrollment (2012-13)? Is your school at capacity? Are your classes over crowded? 450, close to capacity, very full classes
• What about your school is most appealing to potential home buyers in the SW? we are offering 5 high school credits to 8th graders, we partner with B &G club for an after school program, we offer tutoring through Sylvan in our building

The attached chart includes some questions offered by Elliot Washor & Charles Majkowski from an article entitled, "It's Deeper than You think," in the Huffington Post, 2/2/12) that we might ask students to answer in regards to their education:  IMG_NEW.pdf

Diane,

I understand your comment on no busing, but ideally, there would be no busing.  We would have community schools where children could walk from their homes, and the schools would be of such excellent quality there would be no question.  How do we achieve this?  Maybe that is up to the new superintendant to figure out.   It would be the ideal, and we would have an excellent city school system with nobody wanting to go somewhere else.   We'll see what happens.

We CANNOT leave it up to the Superintendent to figure out.  A very appropriate quote here is, "If you do the same thing over and over, you get the same results."  We, as a community, have allowed others to make decisions for us.  Somewhere in here we've handed over our power and the understanding that WE are the consumers, these are OUR children, and WE have knowledge and experience about what is working and what is not that comes from raising our children and not a paper document.

Eleanor is absolutely correct.

The Principal and VP have been invited to set up a community conversation about the vision for #16. Once the date, times & place is set up, we need to make sure that neighborhood parents know about it so that they will also support the new and improved  #16.

All, I certainly did not make myself clear.  I said maybe it was up to the new super. to figure out, but I certainly meant with community input.  That is what we are providing, and hopefully he will listen.  Perhaps a reasonable solution can be found, and we can move to a workable solution for this drastic problem... a city-wide problem.  The more voices the better. 

No response from #16 Principal or VP about meeting with us yet; maybe it's vacation week. Next, I will follow Lori Thomas' lead to find out who is responsible for keeping community members involved. Still attempting to set up meeting w/in the next week or so...

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A Message from Lori Thomas:  http://educabilityrocs.wordpress.com/

RCSD Transparency and accountability.

SEG Title and Member Current Salaries
Chief of Youth & Family Services- Gladys Pedraza-Burgos
$108,000.00
Director of Security Operations – Lori Baldwin
$98,600.00
Deputy Superintendent of Administration – Anita Murphy
$160,000.00
Chief Financial Officer – William Ansbrow (9/1/12)
$150,000.00
Interim Chief Financial Officer – Vern Connors
$120,000.00
Information Technology Officer – Annmarie Lehner
$120,000.00
Directors Human Capital Initiatives:
Harry Kennedy - $87,500.00
Anne Brady - $85,000.00
Alpha Daly-Majors - $111,500.00
Derrick Jones - $84,000.00
Confidential Secretary to the Superintendent – Celina Agron
$74,525.00
Sr. Director of Communications – Linda Dunsmoor
$76,000.00
Deputy Superintendent for Teaching & Learning- Beverly Burrell-Moore
$160,000.00
Internal Control Specialist – Jerry Rose
$102,000.00
Associate Counsels
Michael Davis - $118,750.00
Cara Briggs - $118,750.00
Rashondra Martin - $116,000.00
General Counsel- Charles Johnson
$137,000.00
Chiefs of Schools
Shaun Nelms - $135,000.00
Anne Brown-Scott - $135,000.00
Chief of Staff – Patricia Malgeri - $155,000.00
Senior Director of Operations – Jerome Underwood
$126,000.00
Labor Relations Directors:
Elizabeth Camp - $85,000.00
Jamie Warren - $88,750.00
Director of Recruitment – Maurice Snipe
$85,000.00
Director of Benefits – Deborah Berardi
$85,000.00
Certification Specialist – Daisy McFarland
$75,500.00

TOTAL:  $2,997,875; with the superintendent, the SEG grand total is more than $3 million dollars in salary alone.

The question is, what are the roles and responsibilities of these individuals. What makes them worth more than some of our highest paid, longest working teachers who are responsible for the future educational lives of our children?

The next question, what evaluative process exists to hold the individual in the position accountable to their roles and responsibilities?

Next, has the individual successfully performed the duties of their position to the capacity negotiated within the level of expectation?

Finally, does the individual holding this position represent the beliefs and attitudes of the district?

Holding people accountable is not a difficult proposition, the most difficult aspect is first holding yourself accountable. It means reclaiming integrity and role modeling it for our children.

We change society by first changing ourselves.

Those are some mighty hefty salaries!! The amount of money spent at the RCSD is astounding.... our tax dollars at work with really poor outcomes for our local youth! 

The FMP meeting is this coming Monday @ 2 pm. Candace Lucas is willing to share our voices. She is the parent rep on the committee.