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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > February
February 2008
Brathwaite not picked in Akron
Debra Brathwaite
Akron school have picked an internal candidate as superintendent, passing on Dayton Deputy Superintendent Debra Brathwaite, who had been one of three finalists for the job.
This was Brathwaite’s third try for a superintendent’s job, having been a finalist before in Toledo and Lorain. She expect to complete a doctorate this summer and told me earlier this month she is ready to be a superintendent.
I think the Dayton school board has liked the idea of having a capable No. 2 ready behind Percy Mack should make look around again. After being passed over in Mobile, Ala., last year, Mack has repeatedly told me his is not looking for a job and plans to remain in Dayton for some time.
Permalink | | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Cub Scout saves friend
After our recent discussion here about the merits of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, I couldn’t help but point you to this story out of Texas in which an 8-year-old Cub Scout’s quick action saved his friend who was choking on a rock on the playground.
It seems the boy learned the Heimlich Manuever while watching his mother teach it to a Girl Scout troop.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Schools and Politics
Smith not charged; 12 others are
My colleague Katherine Ullmer reports that Centerville police filed charges against 12 people including seven juveniles in connection with the party at former school board member Cheryl Smith’s house.
But the big news is Smith was not among those charged.
Police say there is no indication that she supplied the alcohol for the party. Those headed to court face charges including underage drinking, possession of marijuana and keg law violations.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Schools and Politics, Student Health and Safety
Brain Awareness Week is coming up!
It really is going to be Brain Awareness Week next month. Insert your own joke here.
In all seriousness, this week is designed to promote brain research, which has made a huge impact on our understanding of how kids learn and has fueled a big national push for more early childhood education, as the research has reinforced the view that learning in the first few years of life is key to school success.
All this has happened over the past 15 years, too.
(Image credit: science.ca)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Young Children
Kids, activities and politics
I’m a big fan of the Girl Scouts. And it’s not just because I have more than 100 boxes of Girl Scout cookies currently stacked up in my living room.
I have three daughters who I hope will all participate in Girl Scouts. Right now it’s just the oldest — a cookie selling fiend. Cookie sales are a good fit for her. She is competitive and a natural at sales so she is shooting for the top prizes for hitting sales goals.
But it’s not just the cookie sales. Her troop is a nice group with a very good leader. They do fun stuff together. And I like Girl Scouts as an organization.
But when it comes to Boy Scouts — the boy’s versions of youth scouting — some people have big concerns with the group’s politics.
I was thinking about this as I was reading the New York Times Magazine Sunday. Every week they do a celebrity interview and this week it was Texas Gov. Rick Perry, an interesting figure who has played a big role in education in that state. So I was very interested in reading about him.
The interviewer, Deborah Solomon, eventually started asking Perry about his deep involvement with Boy Scouts. And she really pressed him about the Boy Scouts record regarding homosexuals and the relevance (or not) of some of the badge activitities to today’s world.
I have a few friends who are wary of Boy Scouts for their sons because they disagree with the group’s politics on gay issues. But it’s a tough sell to the kids. They don’t understand, or care about, the politics of it all. They just want to go camping with their friends and wear a snazzy suit to school.
Have you had this experience? Have you ever found your personal politics come into conflict with an activity your child wanted to participate in?
Permalink | Comments (21) | Categories: Schools and Politics
Ohio teachers: Where is Obama on vouchers?
(Obama and Clinton after last week’s debate.)
It seems Barack Obama was opposed to vouchers before he was open to them before he opposed them again.
You may recall that Obama told the big teachers unions that he opposed vouchers on a questionnaire back in the fall but then told the Milwaulkee Journal Sentinel he would consider changing his position if vouchers in that city were proven to work to raise student achievement.
That prompted the Ohio Federation of Teachers, in advance of next week’s high stakes primary, to demand an explanation of where Obama stands. Obama replied that he is still solidly opposed to vouchers, Education Week reports. (We should probably note that OFT’s national union, the American Federation of Teachers, has endorsed Hillary Clinton while the other big national teachers union, the National Education Association, has yet to endorse.)
Meanwhile, over at This Week in Education, Alexander Russo is skeptical of Obama because of his inspiring rhetoric about the power of education and the nation’s ability to improve in that area. Russo says generally the people who speak most eloquently about education are doing the least to actually make it better.
Russo also takes note of Obama’s knock on NCLB for not addressing foreign language instruction during the last debate with Clinton.
Note: This post also apppears on the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog.
(Image credit: AP)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Tracking Barack Obama
Hmm … More details on the Centerville story
I may have spoken too soon in defense of ex-Centerville school board member Cheryl Smith. Today my colleague Katherine Ullmer reports this wasn’t the first time police were called due to a loud teen party at Smith’s home and in the past Smith herself refused police entry to the home, a move one witness told police was protecting illegal teen drinkers, according to a police report.
We’re still waiting for the final police report and possible charges and school discipline for last week’s incident.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Student Health and Safety
John McCain’s secret Sinclair meeting
(John McCain at Young’s Jersey Dairy Thursday)
Over at her new On Campus blog about colleges and universities, my colleague Stephanie Gottschlich writes that presidential candidate John McCain made a second, secret stop after visiting Young’s Jersey Dairy in Greene County Wednesday.
McCain’s other stop was a private fund-raising event for key local supporters. The strange thing is that the closed, invitiation-only event was held at Sinclair Community College. The school didn’t even mention McCain’s visit to anyone until AFTER he had headed out of town.
Gottschilich asks a simple question: should a public college host a closed door event with a candidate for president? Especially given that McCain met with the college president and reportedly discussed important local issues related to colleges and workforce development?
Did Sinclair have a responsibility to open that meeting up or politely recommend that McCain find somewhere else to do his fund-raising? A chance to meet the potential next president seems like a missed opportunity for Sinclair students, perhaps one that they should have had?
Go on over to On Campus and give some feedback.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Colleges and Universities, Schools and Politics
Was it bad enough to close school Wednesday?
(Matthew Weisbrodt, 8, shovels his grandmother’s Fairfield driveway Wednesday after getting a day off of school due to the weather)
Three winters ago, my family spent an academic year in Ann Arbor, Mich. It turned out to be the city’s snowiest winter ever — nearly 80 inches of snow! Just imagine if every two or three inch snowstorm we got this year was eight inches. That’s what it was like.
But the funny thing is I can’t recall the school district taking many snow days. There were probably a couple of them, but I don’t think they were threating to go over their alloted five days. (Ann Arbor schools is a mid-sized city district serving about the same number of kids as Dayton Public Schools.)
Today, with three or so inches of snow, most area school districts called off school (not Dayton, by the way). As I drove to work today, I kept thinking “this closed school?” It didn’t seem that bad to me.
In Michigan, they just seemed to have a different attitude about winter weather. Granted they get more of it and it’s worse than here. But, for instance, my daughter’s school up there was constantly reminding us to send the kids to school dressed warmly, with snow pants, on cold days because they were going outside for recess no matter what.
I don’t think they’ve had outdoor recess once at my daugther’s school in Kettering since Jan. 1.
What do you think, are we wimps? Should kids have gone to school Wednesday?
(On a related note, I should mention the Dayton school board on Tuesday did indeed approved a plan to shorten spring break to make up for using too many calamity days.)
(Image credit: Greg Lynch, Cox News Service)
Permalink | Comments (26) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
What are the kids doing when you’re not home?
Cheryl Smith
I feel sort of bad for former Centerville school board member Cheryl Smith.
Last week, on Valentine’s Day night, her teen-aged children apparently threw a party at her house when she was not home that brought the police to her door. The kids refused to let them in, forcing officers to wake up a judge for a search warrant. Smith arrived home at about 3 a.m. to discover the unpleasant scene. And this all ended up on the front page — with her photo — of Saturday’s DDN.
An embarassed Smith resigned from the school board the day after the party. We have a new story on our Web site today in which she says she resigned because she didn’t want to be a distraction for Centerville schools.
There is a lot we don’t know about the incident and a police investigation is still underway. Did Smith know there was going to be a party? I’m going to assume for now she did not. I don’t know any of the people involved personally and I don’t know enough to know how much responsiblity Smith might bear for what happened.
But at least for the moment, I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt.
If you assume this party took place without her knowledge, then I have to tell you something like this could happen to almost any parent. Teen-agers are tough to handle. It can difficult to know where to draw the lines when it comes to trust and responsibility. Sometimes, you’ll make mistakes or they’ll let you down.
The difference is, you probably won’t end up on the front page if it happens to you.
In this case, Smith was a public figure, even if she was a minor one in the grand scope of things. She was the immediate past president of the Centerville school board, and this incident seems likely to get some Centerville students some serious discipline for what they did at Smith’s house. It’s a news story for sure.
Even so, I feel bad for her.
What do you think about this incident? Should Smith have resigned? Should she be getting the benefit of the doubt? Am I off the mark when I say this could happen to almost any parent?
Permalink | Comments (33) | Categories: Student Health and Safety
Is Obama for or against vouchers?
(Obama with students at Northcentral Wisconsin Technical College.)
It seems that Barack Obama, who told the big national teachers unions last year that he opposed public financing of vouchers for students to attend private schools, has changed his tune.
Campaigning in Wisconsin, where Milwaukee’s popular voucher program sends more than 15 percent of the city’s school children to private schools using vouchers, Obama told the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he is open to the idea of vouchers if studies end up proving they are effective in raising student achievement.
Obama said he remained a “skeptic” about vouchers, but would reconsider if the research showed otherwise. There has not been a conclusive longitudinal study of the effectiveness of Milwaukee’s voucher program, although a new study is underway.
Rival Hillary Clinton has been highly critical of vouchers, even warning that widespread use of them could even result in public financing for kids to attend schools that teach “jihad.”
This Week in Education’s Alexander Russo points out, however, that this isn’t the first time Obama has spoken this way about vouchers and that he likes to use education as an example of his independence from Democratic orthodoxy.
I suppose it doesn’t hurt to bring this up on the eve of Wisconsin’s hotly contested primary.
This post also appears on the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog
(Image credit: Wausau Daily Herald)
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Tracking Barack Obama
Dayton expected to shorten spring break
Dayton Public Schools appears likely to shorten its spring break to make up for days lost to inclement weather.
The district is set to begin a two-week spring break on March 24. District spokeswoman Jill Moberley said the board is considering shortening that break.
Teachers’ union President Pat Lynch said this is not surprise to teachers. She said she had discussions with Superintendent Percy Mack about shortening spring break in August after heat forced school to close for five days, using up all of the district’s pre-planned calamity days.
Lynch said she alerted teachers in an e-mail at that time that it was likely the second week of spring break would be shortened and to adjust their vacation plans. Lynch said she expects the district to be in school on April 3 and 4 while adding one additional day to the end of the calendar in June to make up for three calamity days Dayton has used for inclement winter weather. In all, Dayton has been off eight days this year for bad weather.
The spring break plan, Lynch said, will give teachers more instructional days when they matter — before elementary school students take state tests in May.
“It made sense to me to make it up before the test,” she said. “To make it all up in June wastes everbody’s time. I’ve been in the classroom with kids in June. You are not getting back instructional time you need before the test.”
The board could act to make the calendar change as early as Tuesday’s meeting.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
More love for GOTB
I just learned that the good people who run our website here at the DDN entered this blog in the Inland Press Association’s New Frontiers Interactive Media Awards and it won second place for Best Staff Written Blog. Inland is an association of media companies from across the country. (First place went to a Mount Blogmore, a political blog at a South Dakota newspaper.)
This is a very nice honor. And it’s GOTB’s second national award and third major journalism award overall. (Last year, it was named Best Blog in Ohio by the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and in 2006 it was a national finalist for Best Online Commentary from the Online News Association.)
As I’ve written in the past, no blog would merit recognition if it were just one person yaking on and on. What makes a blog useful and interesting is the exchange of ideas that can only come from active reader participation. So once again, all you readers have made me look good.
Thanks for getting on the bus!
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Journalism
Life is like a box of chocolates
A snarky friend of mine, upon hearing about Checker Finn’s memoir about his life’s work in education policy, jokingly described him as the “Forrest Gump of education.” Let’s see, can you can pick out the education reformer from the pictures at the top of this page?
While it’s true that sections of Finn’s newest book, Troublemaker, trace his early career as a mostly behind-the-scenes player in places like the Nixon White House, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s office and Bill Bennett’s U.S. Department of Education, Finn was not an aimless observer. And by the 1990s he became a huge force in school reform — big enough that both he and the foundation he heads were ranked about a year ago by Education Week among the most influential players in education.
As the book’s name suggests, Finn is known for sharp elbows. He is both reviled by some who view him as hostile to public education and surprisingly well-liked by others who might be considered his natural enemies.
Thus, the occassional snarky comment is hurled in his direction.
For those who don’t know much about him, Finn grew up here. His father was a successful lawyer and he attended Jefferson Elementary School and Colonel White High School before heading to a New England prep school and earning a couple degrees at Harvard. His career jumped back and forth between Washington, D.C. and Vanderbilt, where he was a college professor, before he got his big break, thanks to his father.
The senior Finn has long served on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a local charity named for wealthy industrial-era Daytonian who died young and left a fortune to his also young wife. When the wife died and left her estate to the foundation, the board chose the junior Finn to lead it.
Checker Finn turned Fordham into a national school reform advocate, funding research and outreach efforts in support of school choice and standards reform. Finn and Fordham, now relocated from Dayton to Washington, fanned the flames of a wildfire movement as Republican-led legislatures across tha nation embraced charter schools in the 1990s.
But Finn, staying true to Fordham’s roots, played a special role in pushing charter schools here in Dayton. This helps explain why Dayton has been either No. 1 or No. 2 for the highest percentage of kids attending charter school of any city in the nation since the start of the decade.
Fordham now has a Dayton office and sponsors Ohio charter schools. Its support of charters was a major factor in forcing reform inside the city school district here, also, in part by creating an urgency about education that set the stage for new school board leaders.
The book, however, touches lightly on Finn’s interactions here, sticking mostly to his childhood remembrances and a thin chapter on Fordham’s role in the school choice explosion here.
As he spoke about the book at an event Thursday, it was most interesting to hear him say how Fordham’s work in Dayton helped teach him how difficult it can be to translate neat and clean theories about reform into the nitty gritty, on the ground realities of schools and kids.
By the way, someone asked me today to expalin Finn’s nickname, Checker. His given name is Chester E. Finn, Jr. My understanding is that his father, Chester senior, picked up the nickname “Check” in the Navy. Somewhere along the way, Chester the younger became “Checker.” That’s what everyone who knows him calls him.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Science education in Dayton wins big
Berhnardt and Bodary
The Dayton region got a big Valentine’s Day kiss Thursday from the state that will bring nearly $2 million here for science education.
The crown jewel among four large grants was $600,000 to fund the start up of a science-focused high school on the campus of Wright State University, which was given the green light to open in the fall of 2009. The first class will have 80 ninth graders and the school eventually will expand to serve up to 600 in grades 6 to 12.
“We believe the school will spur tremendous individual achievement as well as the economic growth of our region,” said Greg Bernhardt, Wright State’s education dean.
Dayton’s science high school was one of just two that won start-up grants, even though eight groups around the state applied for what could have been up to five grants.
But the good news did not stop there. Three other local science education projects won funding. Among them were:
—A New Lebanon-led consortium with Oakwood, Dayton, Valley View, Jefferson Twp., Brookville and Northridge school districts won $545,000 to improve science instruction in elementary grades.
—A Fort Recovery-led group including St. Henry and New Bremen school districts along with Sinclair Community College, Wright State, Edison Community College and the University of Cincinnati won $545,000 to implement a middle school engineering program.
—Dayton Public Schools won $250,000 to expand its Challenger Center at Kiser Elementary School, which offers space shuttle mission simulations to kids throughout the Miami Valley.
All told, the Dayton area won nearly half of the $4.2 million awarded by the state for science education Thursday.
The science high school — a collaboration of several school districts, career technology centers, education service centers, universities and businesses — will be open to all students in Montgomery, Clark and Greene counties. It is tentatively named the Dayton Regional STEM School. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The state hopes to eventually see several of the schools open around Ohio.
“We are thirlled today to be home to one of the first STEM schools in the state of Ohio,” said Susan Bodary, executive director of EDvention, a collaborative advocating for better science instruction locally.
The first class will be selected next year. For more information, call 775-2821.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
State moves to take Goff’s license
Roseda Goff
The Ohio Department of Education will seek to strip former charter school superintendent Roseda Goff of her teaching license.
Goff, who was convicted of trying to obstruct official business last month, has refused to surrender her teaching license as a judge asked.
Rebekkah Brewer, a probation officer, said she spoke Monday with the Ohio Department of Education and Montgomery County Juvenile Court Judge Tony Capizzi sent a letter asking for her license to be revoked after Goff missed a deadline Capizzi set for her to surrender it voluntarily.
“They are taking the necessary steps to have her license permanently revoked,” Brewer said.
Karla Carruthers, an education department spokeswoman, said she could not comment on Goff’s case but said, “anytime an individual is ordered by the court to surrender his or her license, and that person fails to do so by the time allotted, ODE will begin disciplinary actions to revoke that license.”
Brewer said Goff has otherwise followed her sentence as instructed, paying her $500 fine, performing her community service and meeting with probation officers.
Goff was convicted in December of a misdemeanor charge of attempted obstruction of official business after former City Day teachers testified she discouraged them from reporting cases of suspected child abuse to law enforcement as they are required to do by Ohio law.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: City Day Investigation
Obama backs charter schools
Presidential candidate Barack Obama hasn’t put too much detail to his education positions so far. But in an interview with the politics Web site Politico Obama used his support of federal aid to charter schools as an example of his willingness to take positions outside of the mainstream for his party.
Obama also talked up his support of teacher pay raises based on performance and acknowledged that the big teachers’ unions are not thrilled with these positions. The Politico story suggests these positions might be a bridge to reach out to Republicans and right-leaning independents for support.
This post also appears on the Education Writers Association’s Education Election blog.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Tracking Barack Obama
Braithwaite in the final three in Akron
Debra Brathwaite
The Akron Beacon Journal is reporting that Dayton Deputy Superintendent Debra Brathwaite is one of three finalists for superintendent in Akron.
I just spoke to Brathwaite, who confirms she has been called back for a second interview along with two others — Joseph Redden, a former superintendent from suburban Atlanta, and David James, Akron schools’ director of business affairs.
Brathwaite was was a candidate for superintendent in Toledo and in Lorain last year but pulled out of both searches.
She said her doctorate in education is nearly complete (she hopes to be done by June) and it has long been her goal to be a superintendent.
“Its a natural progression in my career,” she said. “It is a great opportunity in Akron. I am ready to be a superintendent.”
Braithwaite said her five years in Dayton have been good but that she is looking around because Superintendent Percy Mack, she believes, is not going anywhere anytime soon. Mack was finalist for superintendent in Mobile, Ala., in September but has insisted since then that he is not job hunting.
Brathwaite’s chances look as good as anyone else under consideration. James is well liked in the district but has no background in academics. Redden, a former Air Force general, was superintendent in Cobb County, Ga., from 2000 to 2005 but was forced out after the school board revolted over his plan to use sales tax money to buy every teacher and student in grades 6 to 12 an Apple laptop.
Brathwaite came from Cleveland to become Mack’s top lieutenant and has led the district’s day-to-day operations for instructional programs. She went to Cleveland in 1997 to work with then-Superintendent Barbara Byrd Bennett, a former colleague in the New York City public school system.
Akron is significantly larger than Dayton, with 25,985 students to Dayton’s 16,206.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
What’s a state ed board member’s job?
Susan Haverkos
I was talking with Susan Haverkos yesterday about the debate over the future of the Ohio Board of Education and her comments in Sunday’s paper on the matter.
Haverkos wanted to make a couple things she said clearer. First, she said she disagrees with Gov. Ted Strickland on many issues, including his plan to change the role of Ohio Board of Education. She is in no way allied with the governor. Second, she said she takes her duties on the state board very seriously.
In the story I wrote for Sunday’s paper, she said she felt the state board of education posts should be full-time, paid positions so state board members could be more effective. And she responded to a comment here at GOTB that asked if her statements in the paper suggested she was not attending to all the state board business that her post requires.
Her answer to that critic gives you a good sense of what state board of education members do. Here’s what she said:
“Concerning my comments about attendance at hearings (meetings). Some background. The Board of Education sends legislative recommendations to the legislators. Some of those recommendations are then introduced in bills.
We (Ohio Department of Education) send our legislative department personnel to cover testimony, answer questions and speak on behalf of the board. My comments were simply that I personally would like to attend and hear first-hand discussions about bills — a bill that may become a law — that would eventually require our board to write rules and policy.
I have testified before the House on several issues. I cannot speak for the board, but I can express my personal opinion. I am not paid for my travel time or any time I am in Columbus to advocate for education issues. I think it is important for the legislature to see board members in these hearings. I think it is important to have two-way communications with the lawmakers.
I get paid for approximately 16-30 hours per month for attending board meetings (or subcommittee meetings). Each month we receive “board books,” consisting of 5 volumes, 600 to 700 pages. We receive them approximately 1 week before our board meeting, it takes on average 15+ hours to read, make notes, research the issues we will be discussing and vote on (there hours are not paid) . I spend and additional 10 to 20 hours a week on state business (answering questions, reading department mail) that also is not paid.
When you testify or listen to testimony in hearings it consumes most of the day — four hours travel and two to four hours of hearings. All of this takes place during the day, when most people have to work. Most people who attend hearings are paid lobbyists. The “public” is usually not represented.
Not many people can ask for 5 to 10 days off work per month without pay. My previous comments were not complaints, just a wish. If I could somehow squeeze more time, more days into each month I could be more effective. Unfortunately I don’t have a maid, a chef, a gardener or a personal secretary. I have a real life. I never thought there would be someone out there who would turn what I said into an attack. Get real.
We can’t wait for someone else to fix the problems. We need to be actively engaged in becoming part of the solution, not just complaining that “they” haven’t done enough yet. If readers have concerns about education in Ohio I would like to hear them, what works, what doesn’t and how we can make it better. My email is susan.haverkos@ode.state.oh.us.
One more thing. I didn’t have tons of donations to run my campaign — no support from the unions or political parties. I had just a few friends and a lot of hard work, like attending a pig roast in Darke County or passing out homemade cards at township festivals. Grassroots work, no gimmicks. Sorry that offends some of your readers.”
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Schools and Politics
A good day for Stivers
The same day that the city school district celebrated the formal opening of Stivers School for the Arts students and staff were learning that the their jazz orchestra won the prestigious Berklee Jazz Festival competition in Boston.
The national competition, which Stivers won previously five years ago, is considered the Super Bowl of high school jazz competitions. Last year, Stivers’ kids never made it to the competition because they were trapped in the Charlotte airport by bad weather.
Seems things went a little better for them this year.
Stivers is on a bit of a roll lately. It’s funding support group, the Seedling Foundation, was at the open house wearing “Got Adjuncts?” T-shirts in an effort to raise money to keep adjunct arts instructors. Ajduncts were cut deeply during the budget woes of last summer but restored temorarily thanks to contributions from Seedling.
They were touting a silent auction on March 7 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Dayton Art Institute. The auction includes donated jewelry and gems from famous Daytonians including Martin Sheen, Allison Janney and Tony Hall. Later in the spring the school is planning a big 100th year celebration.
And they’ve just about said goodbye to the ever-present construction crews. After some touch up work, construction chief John Carr said he wants to close the books on Stivers by month’s end.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Carl Wick: What does Strickland want?
Carl Wick
If you read today’s paper, you saw that members of the Ohio Board of Education aren’t wild about Gov. Ted Strickland’s plan to cut their clout dramatically by advocating for an appointed directorship to oversee K-12 education in Ohio.
One of those board members, Carl Wick, sent me some thoughtful comments on the issue, but most of them did not make it into the story for the paper. Still, I thought you might like to hear more of what he had to say, so here is his statement on Strickland’s move:
“It seems to me that Governor Strickland’s proposal simply adds another level of bureaucracy to Ohio K-12 public education. While (Board President Jennifer) Sheets points out that it will insolate K-12 education issues and debate from the public, it simply adds another layer to the overall organization. This is not good public organization (private too) conventional wisdom sense.
We now have a state board of education directly reporting to the people of Ohio. The new proposal will have a director reporting to the governor with the board of education and state superintendent reporting to the director. I do not understand how another level of bureaucracy adds to better K-12 education.
What’s different from the recent changed Board of Regents model of governance?
Ohio public education is spread throughout over hundreds of public school districts. All are governed by a local board of education, mostly elected with some appointed. The state of Ohio model of governance reflects this model.
Since most of Ohio children from age 5 through 18 attend public schools (about 1.8-million with another 300,000 attending private schools and also some having dropped out) the current state board of education public forum model allows, if they choose to, any and all to engage in the debate as well as any and all knowing exactly how public policy is determined. The proposed Gov. Strickland director of education model will not allow public debate nor overall exposure for public scrutiny.
While we have more road to travel to make Ohio public education more effective for all students, we have progressed in the last five years to being ranked seventh in the nation. This is pretty good under the current governance model. How will the new governance make this even better?
Other points, or at least questions:
—Why is Governor Strickland doing this knowing that there has been good improvement in the past few years in Ohio public education?
—What is it that he wants to change?
—Is he anti-school choice? Is he frustrated for not being able to get at community schools to close them out?
—Does he want to dismantle No Child Left Behind which he’s been critical of? NCLB has been successfully implemented in Ohio and can be pointed to for some of the recent success for Ohio public education?
—Does he not like recent Ohio Board of Education decisions?
—While Gov. Strickland has met with our board president, he has not sought to meet with or engage with the state board of education. A meeting had been set up with him only for him to cancel the meeting a few days before scheduled. The meeting was never re-scheduled. The previous governor met with the state board on many occasions.”
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Schools and Politics
Pulling a fast one on big college sports
I kind of feel sorry for this kid, but he created one heck of a stir that exposed the farce of the college football recruiting process in a pretty humorous way.
A mediocre (but very big) high school football player in Reno, Nev., named Kevin Hart so badly wanted to play major college football that, over the course of several months, he conjured up a fantasy that he was actually being recruited by some of the nation’s top football programs.
And here’s the amazing part — everybody bought it! His coach believed him, his friends and classmates believed him. The principal and school district did too. In fact, the school held one of these showcase press conferences to celebrate the final choice of what they thought was going to be the school’s first major college football recruit.
Students packed the gym Wednesday and local media covered the event as he placed two hats — one for Cal and one for Oregon — on a table and picked the Cal hat. The crowd went wild. Coaches and friends hugged him. The media interviewed him.
There’s just one problem. Not a word of this was true. Hart made the whole thing up.
He had never been contacted, much less recruited, by any of the schools he claimed were after him. Things began to unravel on Internet discussion board where amateur “experts” follow recruiting. They began asking questions about this unknown recruit and eventually the colleges denied any involvement. Eventually, Hart admitted he just wanted to play college football so bad that he spun a story that went out of control.
Wednesday was the first day of the college football “signing period,” during which recruits can formally sign binding letters of intent to attend their schools of choice. It has become a circus. High school kids hold huge press conferences and colleges make media events out of tracking the commitments coming in. Millions of fans watch the process online. It is completely crazy.
Hart’s school apparently wanted so badly the noteriety of sending a kid to a big time football program that nobody asked any hard questions. How could the kid’s coach not have figured this out? Would Cal recruit one of his players without ever talking to him? Where were the kid’s parents? Didn’t any of the reporters covering this bother to call the colleges? It is incredible that not one adult figued this out before it became a national joke.
Again, I feel sort of sorry for a kid who so badly wanted to be a football star that he fooled himself into believing he could just will it to be true. He needs help. It’s a shame none of the adults around him recognized that need in their haste to hitch their own wagons to what they thought was a college sports gravy train.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Sports and Athletics
What they’re saying about Roosevelt
There was limited space in today’s DDN for the story about the school board deciding to raze Roosevelt High School, so let me put a few additional comments about it here.
School board president Yvonne Isaacs and board member Joe Lacey mixed it up some over procedure. And both of them had valid points.
Lacey complained that the only two public votes on Roosevelt that the board ever took — one to change the construction master plan to include a new building on the site in July of 2006 and last night’s vote to demolish the school — were done at meetings that did not allow public comment.
Isaacs countered that there had been many, many board meetings at which Roosevelt was discussed and lots of opportunity for those concerned about the school to speak to the board about it. She said the issues had been aired and the decision made.
Lacey, who filed a suit that he later dropped charging the school with failing to deliberate in public about Roosevelt, said he asked for the Roosevelt vote to be moved to the next meeting to allow public comment and demanded to know why it was not moved.
Isaacs said the board had decided “by consensus” to go ahead with the vote last night, prompting an argument between the two over whether “consensus” means a majority or unanimous consent.
This argument did make my public records law antenna quiver a bit. How did the board arrive at this “consensus” outside of a board meeting and a vote? Public boards are not permitted to make decisions in private. I’d like to hear an explanation of the board’s decision-making process on matters such as this.
Isaacs had this to say about the issue in sum:
“This Roosevelt decision has been a long and somewhat agonizing one. I feel in my heart of hearts we have given every opportunity for the community to have some input into this decision and come forward with a plan for reuse of the building. It was something this district could not take on. We had so hoped a community partner would come along. But that was not to be.”
Lacey’s view was this:
“I think it would be appropriate to move this item, since I think there’s a lot of people who might want to comment, to the general business meeting that does take comment.”
It was interesting that, other than Lacey, the new board came down on the side of demolishing the building. This included Nancy Nerny and Sheila Taylor, perceived by some to be Lacey allies.
Here’s what Taylor said about the decision:
“It feels a little strange to be voting on Roosevelt school becuase everyone else (prior board members) was so involved in the decision. It’s sad to me that the building going to go down, but we heard from the community, in lot of ways, who said it is time to move forward. Many of those people were involved in asking for the building not to take it down. The community is trying to work together with us. There is still room to talk about some items in the school.”
Mayor Rhine McLin and city commissioners Nan Whaley and Joey Williams attended the meeting in support of the redevelopment plan, which includes a city-owned recreation center and a district-run elementary school sharing the site.
McLin had this to say:
“I look forward to us moving ahead to make something really worthwhile for the community. The recreation center and education complex will be in a great location. It will be something that will energize the city and it’s an important investment for the whole city.”
Two other bits of news from the board meeting:
—Lori Ward, who formerly was the district’s technology chief, was promoted to Director of Business Operations at an annual salary of $96,390. Ward replaces Larry Hoskins, who left that job for a similar post at Columbus schools in April.
—Treasuer Stan Lucas was not one of the four finalists for the treasurer’s job at Lakota schools.
Permalink | Comments (24) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Roosevelt’s a goner
The city school board, with Mayor Rhine McLin and city commissioners looking on in support, Thursday voted 6-1 to demolish Roosevelt High School.
Only board member Joe Lacey voted no. Demolition could begin by late March. Lacey unsuccessfully urged the board to postpone the decision until a meeting that allowed public comment. Thursday’s meeting was the board’s informational meeting, at which they normally just hear reports. Public comment is allowed at the board’s business meeting later in the month.
“I think it would be appropriate to move this item, since I think there’s a lot of people who might want to comment, to the general business meeting that does take comment,” Lacey said.
But board President Yvonne Isaacs help up a file of papers she said were from board meetings at which Roosevelt was discussed.
“I feel in my heart of hearts we have given every opportunity for the community to have some input into this decision and come forward with a plan for reuse of the building,” she said. “We had so hoped a community partner would come along. But that was not to be.”
The board decided in 2006 to replace Roosevelt with an elementary school and city-owned recreation center. Mayor Rhine McLin, two city commissioners and five former board members were in attendance.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
The pros and cons of a state board of ed
(Former state board member John Griffin at a board meeting.)
Susan Haverkos and Carl Wick, the two state school board members representing the Dayton area, have interesting views on Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposal to reduce the Ohio Board of Education from a rule-making body to an advisory board.
Haverkos, as she said in today’s paper, understands Strickland’s frustration. She was an outsider who ran for the board out of her own frustration with its actions and won in 2006. Wick had a different experience. He was defeated in a run for the state board by John Griffin, a fringe candidate who ran for dozens of public offices and pratically lived in his car, and only joined the board after then-Gov. Bob Taft appointed him.
They added some interesting insights into the debate over the state board.
