The meeting Wednesday (1/27/10) at Garrett Morgan, will be an opportunity to address some concerns about Dunbar, slated for the wrecking ball without regard to money put into it or concern for the students.  I hope that the saint that lmcshane heard tonight will come on over and give us a hand.

Has any of these outcries made a difference at all? 

Jeff Johnson sounded the clarion call to action at Whitney M. Young Academy last night.  Parents made heartfelt pleas and one gentleman, in particular, stirred emotions with his presentation decrying the money squandered and broken promises of the Eugene Sanders administration--which has seen most schools go from continuous improvement to academic watch.

The Plain Dealer failed to record any of the substantive proceedings--only noting that most of the 200 person crowd were in attendance to protest the closing of schools.

I called Councilman Jeff Johnson and Councilman Joe Cimperman's offices today to thank them for their efforts.  I will be calling and emailing all of the council representatives, asking them to pressure this school board to reject the entire "Transformation Plan."  It can not be one council person, fighting to save one, two or three schools in their ward.   It must be all for one, and one for ALL--Save our Schools.

(I am sorry I can't seem to upload my video of the event--not the greatest camera work, but does show the tenor of the presentation by Councilman Jeff Johnson).

Too little, too late for CMSD??

Thanks to Scene Magazine and Afi Scruggs for this coverage--

http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/schools-out-forever/Content?oid=1826198

How would I grade CEO Eugene Sanders and his crew?--F

I think one of the problems is that the majority of people that still live in Cleveland that have school aged children have taken their children out of the CMSD and enrolled them in other schools.  Maybe if all people that live in Cleveland, whether or not they have children enrolled  in the Cleveland Public Schools would write and complain about the system it would have a bigger impact?  I know it is difficult for me to get involved in this since I would like to see the entirie CMSD shut down and go for private schools for all Cleveland students. 

What would one even say if they were to write a letter?  My letter would say shut down the system and give the children of Cleveland vouchers so they can chose a school that is already successfully educating the children.  Children are NOT experiments...send them to a school that is already successful, not to schools that are trying to be successful.  The children deserve better. 

Really truly ask yourself why you think the CMSD system should be obliterated...and look in the mirror when you answer that question...

But you don't know the children in Cleveland Public Schools and you are not being fair to the kids in our schools...there is nothing "experimental" about schools, unless you are refering to kids of different cultural backgrounds in school together...as an "experiment."  You also have to know that there are many ways to measure "success."

  ...and the testing that goes along with it... is a joke.

  The thorny element here is between CMSD and charter schools and parochial schools is how teachers are remunerated...ask my sister, the teacher, about her charter school experience.  At some point...there is only so much a person can give of themselves...

 Giving unnecessary contracts to Bowen Architecture and the other vultures who lined up for construction work through the buildings facilities plan that was designed to bleed the school district and NOT provide warm, dry, safe schools for our kids...

Attendees at the CMSD Board Meeting on 1/26/2010 could SEE and FEEL a building that has received NO maintenance, whatsoever, at Whitney M. Young Academy...

Yes--Ward14 maybe the school district failed you, and it is not my place to discuss parenting--

Please detach yourself from the monumental--for a minute and consider how your tax dollars are spent and accounted and what you have already paid for with this administration and previous administrations.  Do you throw all of that out and lay it to waste?  Really--it does amount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  There is a place for common sense.  We have been robbed blind, again...

What!!!!! I wasn't talking about myself here.  I gave personal examples as to why I am not in favor of keeping the CMSD in operation here in Cleveland because you asked.  It has nothing to do with parenting except perhaps in regard to parents that have been intelligent enough to realize that the CMSD is not providing a good, quality education for their children and have disenrolled them from the system.  I cannot in good conscience recommend a system to others that I would not want my own to attend.

You know what is said about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  It is time, in my opinion, to dismantle the CMSD and try something different.  The children of Cleveland deserve a quality education.  The CMSD has failed too many times over the past 40 years....it is time to give up on trying to fix it and go with a different system of education here in Cleveland. 

Maybe, just maybe, if all parents would refuse to send their children to inferior schools the administrators would respond to the will of the parents?  But, allowing them to continue with more of the same is just insanity.  The system is broken and needs to be demolished.  The children deserve better.

  Ward14, you have the perception that the schools are NOT working, when they ARE working--I can't change that.  Teachers give of themselves every day. 

You CLOSE a school and you traumatize children, their parents, their family, and a neighborhood.  Face the reality of rebooting your own child.  There is no easy-erase-reboot solution to starting and running a school.

As much as folks want to malign teachers--they are NOT the problem--and you should know that there are award-winning teachers in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and that there are exceptional students. 

CMSD schools DO need more MANDATORY standards, parental involvement and oversight--AND this administration has intentionally shut parents out by design.  This administration has also stymied good teachers and good principals. 

I watched many people grovel before Sanders at the CMSD board meetings as if he were an emperor--well, he is a grossly overpaid and soon to be indicted "emperor"--the proverbial emperor with no clothes--it's time we recognize it.  Depose him and make the schools whole.

lmcshane, I didn't close the schools.  I would like nothing better than for the CMSD to have quality schools for the children that live in Cleveland. 

What I am saying is that I cannot support something I don't believe in...and I don't believe in the CMSD.  I can't fight to keep schools open when I would like to see the whole system demolished.  It sounds like you are not happy with the system either.  Why keep it? 

I agree that some of the teachers are doing a great job.  I agree that some of the students can find a way to excell in the system.  But it leaves too many out in the cold without a good education.  Just look at the graduation rate for an example. 

My concern is for the children.  And too many children are not thriving under the current system.  My suggestion is to use the voucher system to allow ALL students to chose a school that will meet their needs.  I don't see the point in continuing to support a system that has failed to meet the needs of the students.  If you don't see it my way, that is fine.  I respect your opinion.  But, that does not mean that I agree with it. 

Whatever decisions are made I hope and pray that the decisions will allow the children to receive a quality education. 

 The kids & the community have suffered under many superintendents. Some buildings are going to have to close. We have too many buildings that were constructed way back when it was acceptable to openly support segregation. The Cleveland way of doing things is bad corporate behaviors and that is not acceptable and the response to this plan is a result of years of being lied too, the waste of public dollars and the decades of corrupt school boards. 

Ward14resident: we owe kids in Cleveland a good, public education. Tossing the towel in and saying it doesn't work therefore kill it is not a solution that I support. Saying that you are so frustrated that you can not deal with it anymore is certainly understandable. However, closing the system down is not an option and advocating for that as a solution just victimizes the kids and the community as little bit more and supports what Sanders and the corporations really want: the end of public schools in Cleveland (but not the end of public dollars for charter schools). I try not to fight with parents on the voucher and charter school issue, but my bottom line is that I have supported all the levies, and pay property taxes for public education, but it is not my duty to pay to send kids to charter schools. 

Dwebb, I would rather pay to let parents have a choice in what school their children attend.  This way poor children would have an equal educational opportunity.  Forcing the poor to attend a public school that is not meeting their needs does not help them.  I am sure if parents had a choice, and the public school offered the best education, many would chose the public school.  A voucher program would encourage the public schools to offer excellent programs so they would get the funding.  The way it is now, where is the incentive to do good work?  No matter what they do, they keep getting money.  I strongly support the voucher system because it gives parents a choice and allows the poor to have the same educational opportunities as those with higher incomes. 

Why is our duty to pay to send children to failing public schools?   That doesn't help the children at all.  It is just a waste of money.

 We have had vouchers for a while now, and it has not helped the public school system improve; rather, it has depleted the system. Is it fair that public tax dollars are being used to educate kids in charter schools? The courts have ruled that it is, but rulings of courts do not always benefit society. 

I strongly oppose the voucher system. I just don't fight with parents that use them; I'd rather fight for better public education because the leaders of the public schools are the ones that are failing us all. 

 W14R, you ask "Why is our duty to pay to send children to failing public schools?   That doesn't help the children at all.  It is just a waste of money."

The children of the City of Cleveland deserve to have a quality education in a public school system. One of the things that promoted the immigrants into the mainstream a century ago was access to public education. Why deny the children of Cleveland the same opportunities available to children in near by suburbs? Are we too tired and apathetic to fight for them anymore?

There are a few good charter schools, and there are many that offer the same mediocre education of CMSD, and the are some charter schools that are worse. Charter schools are not a solution. They are a band aid when parents are able to find the few charter schools that are decent, and they are few. The success that you have cited in charter schools for your grandchildren is not the rule, and parents in Cleveland have had many disappointments in the placement of their kids into these schools.

The founders of the public education system in the U.S. fought for years to make education accessible to all children. The founders were told that education was a privilege, that the public should not have to pay to educate the masses, that this was a family responsibility. Are we headed back that way here in Cleveland? Money for public education, including vouchers, are way down.

Tying in the public education with other public concerns, such as social security, Medicare, Medicaid, disability pay, and public parks and recreations, and the arts, brings to mind that we as a society have a duty to ensure all of this for the sake of the future, especially here in Cleveland.

What I advocate is allowing parents to choose the best school.  Offering students vouchers allows choice to all, not just for the wealthy.  Cleveland schools have been given plenty of money to make the system work, but it is not working for about 50% of the students.  I am not against public schools, I am for quality education for all children.  Without vouchers many parents will have no choice, they will have to accept whatever the current public school system offers, even if it is substandard.  That is unjust. 

 why would it be ok to leave any child in a bad school?

and that is the reality many parents face every day. While vouchers may not "fix" the bad school, they do "fix" the immediate problem for that child, in that school.

and there ARE bad teachers - very bad teachers.

but nothing is done about those teachers. 

why?

why would 5 sets of parents pulling their child from one classroom, after unanswered complaints, not set off a series of action on the part of school administration? hello?

also - I would consider every teacher who sits in a playground and watches his/her students cuss, act aggressive and act destructive while he/she does nothing to be a very bad teacher.

but nothing is done about those teachers.

why?

  I agree Dbra, that there are bad teachers, too--and as a union employee--I wish the union would find a more efficient way to allow administrators to get rid of the bad apples.  But, your own story illustrates that parents can respond and correct the situation. 

You have the option to engage and disengage. 

Can we please agree that the buildings are NOT the problem?  Why tear down schools and blame a BUILDING on student failure?? 

Do you not find it HIGHLY suspect that all of the "BAD" buildings are on the east side of Cleveland??

God save us if this is the case--let's just go back to putting the unfortunate kids to work in factories, if this is all we have to show for Democracy in America.

Here is the link to the master article in this series:

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/01/transformation_plan_boxes_pict.html

Recorded at Whitney M. Young Academy 1.26.2010 Cleveland Metropolitan School Board meeting.

After, the demonstration of free speech at Whitney Young (see above video with Councilman Jeffrey Johnson) the District imposed their tried and true, divide and conquer approach by scattering participants into small "break-out" group sessions.  And, then subjected participants to the timed presentation period.

Nonetheless, the CMSD school board heard LOUD and CLEAR that students and parents with students at South High do not want their school closed.

Council representatives--Phyllis Cleveland, Zack Reed and Anthony Brancatelli were in attendance.  Thank you, especially, to all of the young high school students in attendance who gave of themselves today to voice their opposition to the closing of their school.  And, a personal thank you to Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland for echoing the sentiments of our parents and students present today.

 Students today also eloquently expressed their concern for the successful cosmetology and sports management program offered at South High. Where do these programs go if the school is closed?  You can see from the photos above that the school is not in "terrible" condition.  In fact, the school boasts a shared rec center/pool, media center/CPL library across the street, plentiful parking/major public transportation/RTA routes, football field and auditorium.

Thank you, Jeff Buster--for tirelessly canvassing the city for representation
of our community.

This mural depicts our children as they live together.  Not the divide and conquer attitude the school district would have you believe.  We can make
the public education system work for all of us.  Please believe in our children.

In terms of money: (reference to BCG's “human capital”)

According to Ohio School Finance Blue Book 2008-2009 edition by Robert G. Stabile, PhD, the formula amount, established by House Bill 119 as the minimum amount a district is guaranteed per student, for the 2008-2009 school year was $5,732. Because increases to this amount “are intended to match the rate of inflation, about 3% per year” the estimated amount for the current school year is $5,904 and $6,081 for the 2010-2011 school year (p. 37). This amount is determined by the number of students enrolled in a district and is calculated as ADM or Average Daily Membership during two weeks of each school year, the first in October and the second during the week of February 1st through February 5th, which is the week coming up.

“The counts are as follows: Each regular education student is counted as 1 student; Each kindergarten student is counted as ½ of a student; Joint Vocational School students are counted as .2 students at the home school” (p. 37).

The district also capitalizes on its poor performance and rating on the academic distress index as well as the lower economic status of its students and is afforded Poverty Based Assistance (PBA) as defined by Ohio Revised Code 3317.029 to aid in closing the achievement gap, which also stipulates that funds be spent on community outreach. (Stabile,  2007)

According to Dr. Dennis J. Kowalski, in Cleveland State’s College of Education and the director of it’s Greater Cleveland Educational Development Center:

As taxpayers of Cleveland we pay $1 in tax for every $1,000 of property value—we pay 35% of our property’s market value. This information can be found on the website for the Cuyahoga County Treasurer’s Office. What that means is that as a homeowner the total value of my home is $83,300 and I pay $1, 700 a year—46% which is $918 goes to schools (the other is split between the county, city, and libraries). Now due to the present state of the economy, market values have completely plummeted, but your tax rate is not automatically adjusted—you have to request to have this done.

My recommendation to students, parents, the board, and the community is to weigh the costs of education. Workers are united and represented by unions who look out for and demand that the needs of the workers are met. When teachers’ needs aren’t met—they’re not happy with their pay, the work day, the amount of children in their classrooms, the amount of planning time they’re allotted—when they don’t get what they want, when they aren’t brought to the table to negotiate, they strike.

Well, what union, what organization, what group is looking out for the needs and wants of students and parents? Our district is failing and it will continue to fail. It does need to make some drastic changes, but who will represent you as the community to make sure your needs and wants are met or even considered during this much needed transformation? How will you ensure you are at the decision making table, that you are heard? Money talks; demand to be heard! I don’t want to take money away from the schools, I want them to be accountable for what they have and what they do.

Make your dollars work!!!

don't take it personal, take personal responsibility

At Saturday's 1/30/2010 meeting at South High, the respondants, who were corralled into classrooms, still managed to get out their frustration with this "data-driven" process and their distrust of the plan. Students spoke out against the closure of their school, which has recently seen marked improvements under a new principal. You noted that students taking the Boston Consulting Group survey did not know what they were filling out and in some places were better coached to answer the survey.  So much for the purity of data.

Thank you for HeartCleveland for speaking out yesterday--I will see you, again with the other students and parents who will not tolerate this disrespect for the communities that do exist in Cleveland. 

I asked about "repurposing" in yesterday's meeting, because Lincoln-West High School has been intentionally given a shake-up this year:

http://www.plainpress.org/html/stories/2009-04/lincolnweststudentsscience.htm

This shake-up has disrupted one of the strongest academic programs in chemistry:

http://www.plainpress.org/html/stories/2010-01/lincolnwestprincipal.htm

Administrators yesterday indicated that "repurposing" = charter school.  What does this classification bode for the students, staff and families?  Councilman Brancatelli described the fate of South High yesterday as a done deal for a charter school at the South High location (mechanically--one and the same building with adjacent Stella Walsh Recreation Center), despite the fact that the District does not define it as a "repurposed" school.  So which is it?  Does South become another vacant eyesore to DEMO, or does it get "repurposed" as a charter school?? 

Let's keep talking here--asking questions of a CEO and the real driving motivation of this "Transformation" Plan.  As Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland noted we have been on this merry-go-round before and its not changing anything for the better.  She implored the board to do their job.  This is on their conscience.  We can do better for our students.

*correction to previously mentioned link-District is dumping cash into this program http://www.knowledgecollegeinc.om

  I didn't appreciate a query from one of the high ranking CMSD adminstrators yesterday on my affiliation with CMSD schools.  Should I be concerned?

He would like the district to demolish AB Hart School immediately--this according to the most recent Old Brooklyn News. The question is--WHY?

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldohioschools/

And, WHO is getting these contracts?

SEE: http://realneo.us/content/misfortune-mother-opportunityforeclosure-crisis#comment-19967

 You must be looking at paper, Laura. The link you provide has no articles except the PDFs of the "print copy of their newspaper" which open in computer choking massive files. The PDF link for the January 2010 paper directs to the January 2009 paper.

Oh, my NEO needs some tech help. Open and transparent falls to obfuscating here day after day. 

  Here is the article scanned from OBDC (February 2010--not January--corrected)

To quote Councilman Brancatelli--"Further, we must be sure that the closed schools do not become 'low-value' charter schools.  That is why I am advocating that A. B. Hart be demolished immediately..."

...BTW, one of the "Transformation" Plan "Growth" schools mentioned in the article-- William Cullen Bryant--was slated for closure/demolition under Barbara Byrd-Bennett's administration and successfully petitioned BY THE COMMUNITY to stay open. 

Ironic, isn't it?

We live in East Cleveland. Our community already tore down some old schools and built new ones. Most of our neighborhoods still have buildings intact, where students may live, so I think EC is set to grow as a community and provide residents with good schools capable of offering quality educations... my friend Patricia Blochowiak is on the School Board and our new Mayor Gary Norton is at work to make that happen.

We also have an historic school that is surplus and the school board wants to tear down... and I am fighting that - I propose to repurpose Rozelle Elementary as a different type of community asset... without a plan, it will be torn down. I can't argue with that - they don't need the school and have government money to get rid of it. The void would expand lower Forest Hills Park, adding green space to the neighborhood. We would lose a beautiful building.

I've had good and bad experiences with Shaker Public Schools, and learned a concerned parent may get a teacher removed from teaching if she is incompetent - I did it. That is considered an excellent school system, yet still they failed my daughter until I challenged them to succeed.

So, it was up to me to take action for my child, and that seems to be the secret to getting your children a good education.

I would definitely send my kids to East Cleveland public schools, and I would make certain they got a good education there, but I have one of the best schools in the world available to my children, as an alternative choice, free to me - The Intergenerational School.

TIS is not just one of the best schools in NEO, or Ohio, or America, but one of the best in the world.

TIS is the brainchild of two remarkable people - Peter and Cathy Whitehouse - and they built it from scratch, and I feel it employs a better model for education than any other school in the world... and has better leadership, as well, being led by the creator of the model and the school, Cathy Whitehouse.

So, I am very excited to be educating my children at an exceptional public school in Cleveland, even as I pay taxes and have attractive schools in East Cleveland.

That TIS is available for free to anyone living in Cuyahoga County is astounding... as a private school, TIS would be unaffordable to me.

As of last week, they still had openings in their Kindergarden. All children start in Kindergarden, and should stay in the program to completion at the 9th grade level... although they do not use traditional grade levels. Older children are generally not added to the class after the Kindergarden level, so they have a very unique program.

I've been excited about TIS since I first learned about it, at a NEO Excellence Roundtable and through many discussions with the founders and staff, and I've been very supportive of them expanding their impact further through collaboration with the Cleveland and East Cleveland public schools - the Charter Schools are "public schools" too. It appears that type of collaboration is happening.

I know real estate developers, bankers, lawyers and all other prosperous people of NEO would like to help make the schools here better - I think we all want that - and so I am not suprised to see industrial leaders at the board tables of the Charter Schools - if they were not at the tables, I would be suprised. In fact, the Charters depend on such industrial leaders to help raise money and support for their schools, as it costs more to educate children than is provided through the public funding of these quality charter schools... so these people help them raise money.

And smart developera and the Clinic want these quality charter schools in their backyards... I want them in my backyard.

A TIS in Tremont, or Fairfax, would transform those neighborhoods for better more than anything I can imagine.

The people on the boards of these charter schools are certainly friends with the Cleveland school board members, who chose the school leadership, all funded by the foundations, so they are all working together... no sense in pretending it is us against them.

Each existing Cleveland Public school needs a neighborhood to support it, and needs to be good enough to retain a strong neighborhood student population, or needs to be exceptional enough and allowed to attract residents from outside the neighborhood... or needs to be closed and repurposed as something other than a school, or they will be torn down.

We have at least one world-class, free school in real NEO, and I'm thankful for that.. and, I'm proud to be the parent of future TIS scholars, and look forward to sharing the learning experience there with them.

Disrupt IT

There is nothing more that  I can say to the folks who crafted the "Transformation Plan." 

  May you rot in hell.