St. Louis Schools Watch – April 13, 2010
By Cara | April 13, 2010
SLPS Advisory Committee Will Meet Today
The Special Advisory Committee on the St. Louis Public Schools will meet Tuesday, April 13 in St. Louis from 2:00-4:00 p.m., in the SW Bell Library at Harris-Stowe State University , 3026 Laclede.
The tentative agenda for the meeting includes a presentation by Dr. Kelvin Adams, superintendent of the St. Louis Public Schools , and a time for comments by members of the public.
The Special Advisory Committee was reconvened last November by Commissioner of Education Chris L. Nicastro. The five-member committee is charged with making recommendations about future directions for the school district. The members of the committee are:
Dr. William H. Danforth, Chancellor Emeritus of Washington University (co-chair)
Mrs. Frankie M. Freeman, Attorney (co-chair)
Mr. Ned Lemkemeier, Attorney
Mr. Michael Middleton, Deputy Chancellor, University of Missouri-Columbia
Dr. Donald Suggs, publisher of the St. Louis American
Why You Should Be Concerned
By Susan Turk
April 8, 2008-St. louis–Back in November, 2009 DESE Commissioner Chris Nicastro reconvened the Special Advisory Committee on the SLPS. Their present mission is to study the existing statutes, which deal with the transition from the SLPS district being governed by an appointed special administrative board to an elected board of education and to recommend possible additional legislation to effect the transition. Nicastro specified that they had one year to accomplish their task.
Since being reconvened they have held a total of one public meeting. That was on December 9, 2009. For the last four months they have been operating behind closed doors. They are planning a second public meeting on Tuesday, April 13, from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. in the Library at Harris Stowe State University. There will be an opportunity for those in attendance to provide public input at this meeting. However, the time, during the afternoon, will ensure that many of the people who are most invested in the district, parents and teachers, will be unable to attend because they will be either working or picking up their children from school. Schools dismiss at 2:18 p.m., 3:13 p.m. and 4:08 p.m. The committee apparently is not interested in what the peasants think.
A March 24th memo from SLPS Deputy Superintendent for Institutional Advancement Blake Youde stated that the Danforth Freeman Committee “requested to interview one or two parent representatives.” The memo went on to say that, “Dr. Adams has asked if you can recommend a representative of the Parent Assembly to be someone with whom the committee should talk.”
Apparently, that’s as much parental input as they think necessary.
Board of Education members were also contacted individually by Dr. Danforth’s staff and asked to meet in groups of one or two with one or two of the committee members. That appears to be a direct effort to place some cloud cover over the Sunshine Law. The Board of Ed has discussed how they want to proceed at their public meetings. They wish their meetings with the SAC to be public so that there is a record of the proceedings. As a consequence, there is a stalemate, which may result in the SAC may not receiving input from the BOE. That’s six more potential parents from whom they will not receive testimony although, Board Member David Jacksoin and Donna Jones attended their December meeting and made brief remarks.
When the SAC was initially convened by former DESE Commissioner Kent King in August of 2006, they were given a scant 4 months to develop recommendations to respond to what some perceived as a governance crisis. The corporate community had lost control of the elected board of education. Parents Peter Downs and Donna Jones had won election, besting Civic Progress and Regional Commerce and Growth Association backed candidates. Mayor Slay, Ron Jackson and Rick Sullivan were lobbying Governor Matt Blunt to take over the SLPS. Superintendent Creg Williams, unable to adjust to the change of command on the board of education, resigned. The SAC’s December, 2006 report wrote the script for the state takeover of the SLPS and the institution of the SAB. So, their new charge could have an equally cataclysmic effect on the future of our school district.
Consequently, if you can make this meeting, try to attend. It will provide a rare opportunity to speak your mind to the people who will determine how, or if, our school district returns to a democratic means of governance. During their December meeting, Dr. Danforth remarked that, “I assumed the SAB was a termporary situation that would not go one forever, but I could reconsider.” So, there is no guarantee that the outcome of this committee’s work will result in governance being returned to the elected board.
Concerns that the SAC demonstrate transparency were also expressed by Dr. Suggs at their December meeting. They have apparently not felt it was incumbent to do so. Dr. Donald Suggs advocated for allowing public input. But Michael Middleton stated that although he, “valued public input,” what they ultimately decide should be, “determined more by best practices and objective research than by public opinion.”
So, understand that while this committee unfortunately is of a mind that what the public thinks may not be of consequence, and may make decisions totally at odds with the aspirations of SLPS stakeholders, and that they are meeting at times that guarantee they won’t hear from many of those concerned, that if you can attend and don’t, they will be able to go about their business without having been forced to consider what you think. While they may prefer that scenario, the community should not.
The following are from Board of Education Member Rebecca Rogers’ remarks to the Advisory Committee on December 9, 2009 :
“The elected school board of the SLPS would like to be involved in the Advisory Committee’s process of reviewing the district. As per state statute, the elected school board exists to audit, monitor and report to the public the actions of the Special Administrative Board (SAB). As such, the elected board is comprised of seven members of the community — 6 of which are parents and 1 is a college professor in education. It is important to the community and the school district that these elected officials be included in this critical juncture in the school district.
The wording of the “statement of the SLPS committee” (a statement of mission and charge of the Advisory Committee) implies the committee is looking to transition SLPS to a form of governance other than the elected school board. The wording is as follows: “Recently Commissioner Chris L. Nicastro, has given us a further charge …. to recommend changes in current law necessary to support our recommendations.” I agree with SLPS Board of Education President Peter Downs’ interpretation of the state statute that all necessary provisions to return the SLPS back to local governance (an elected school board) presently exist in the state statute. To ensure that returning to local governance and an elected school board is one of the governance options for the district, the language of the committee statement should read as follows:
“[has given us a further charge] ….to review governance structures and to recommend changes — if any are needed — in current law necessary to support our recommendations.”
I also made several methodological recommendations including:
Add at least one member of the SAB and one member of the elected school board to the Advisory committee for consistency and also to ensure that the committee understands the complexities of the school district as well as successes and failures.
Conduct group versus individual interviews. Two members of the committee insisted on individual interviews because according to a member of the committee “we can’t expect a group to agree on everything.” To ensure accountability as well as transparency, people should be interviewed in a group of 2-3 people. The interviews should be recorded and available for public review.
I also urged the committee to review successful urban districts that are locally governed by elected school boards.”
During my comments at the meeting yesterday, I agreed with Michael Middleton’s suggestion that the advisory committee undertake a survey of governance structures around the nation to see what is working, what is not working and why. Additionally, I urged the committee to look to urban school districts that are performing well and are also governed by elected school boards. I pointed to a number of such districts including: The Atlanta Public Schools , Broward County Public Schools ( Florida ), Wake County Schools ( North Carolina ) and Jefferson County Schools (Louisville, Kentucky). The Atlanta school district is particularly impressive because their superintendent, Beverly Hall, has been in her position for almost ten years. These schools were recently awarded the Council on Urban Boards of Education “Annual Award for Urban School Excellence.”
Every year, the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) awards several urban districts an award for outstanding performance (achievement, stability, attendance, graduation rates, overall progress, etc.). In terms of messaging, I think we should be urging the Commissioner, the Advisory Board and the SAB to look to these districts for ideas that might ignite progress in SLPS. It would serve SLPS to consider how the school boards and superintendent might learn from Beverly Hall through coordinated professional development (visiting Atlanta Public Schools, a working group session with members of the Atlanta Public Schools school board, etc.).
Calendar
April 13, Tuesday, Special Advisoy committee on the SLPS meeting, 2-4 p.m., Harris Stowe State University, SW Bell Library, 3026 Laclede Avenue
April 13, Tuesday, regular monthly meeting of the Board of Education, 7:00 p.m., Carr Lane VPA Middle School, 1004 North Jefferson Avenue, dance studio
April 15 , Thursday, regular bi-monthly SAB meeting, 6 p.m., 801 North 11th St. room 108
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