Wilmington City Council To Hold Meeting On Priority Schools “Plan”

If you’re free on Thursday, you may want to attend this:

WILMINGTON CITY COUNCIL NEWS AND INFORMATION News Release Wednesday, September 24, 2014 Wilmington City Council’s Education, Youth and Families Committee to Focus on the State’s Priority Schools Plan     Public is Invited to the Thursday, October 9 at 6 p.m. Meeting Featuring a Priority Schools Presentation and Questions from Council Members and Citizens Wilmington City Council President Theo Gregory and City Council’s Education, Youth and Families Committee Chair Nnamdi Chukwuocha (D-1st District) announced today that City Council will give the State’s Priority Schools Plan a public airing and review on Thursday, October 9 beginning at 6 p.m. Gregory and Chukwuocha are inviting citizens to attend the council committee meeting which will be held in Council Chambers on the first floor of the Redding City/County Building at 800 North French Street in Wilmington. The committee meeting will also be televised live by the Wilmington’s government access television channel-WITN, Channel 22 on the Comcast Network, and will be rebroadcast and available on-demand anytime at WITN22.org. Gregory and Chukwuocha said State Education Secretary Mark Murphy will present the Priority Schools Plan to the committee to be followed by questions from Council Members and citizens. They said local school officials have also been invited to attend the meeting. On September 4, Delaware Governor Jack Markell and Education Secretary Murphy announced the availability of nearly $6 million in resources for the state’s six lowest-performing district schools, which they said would provide the opportunity for substantial changes in their approach to improve their students’ academic performance. Markell and Murphy said the Priority Schools-Christina School District’s Bancroft Elementary, Bayard Middle and Stubbs Elementary schools; and Red Clay Consolidated School District’s Warner Elementary, Shortlidge Academy and Highlands Elementary schools- would share $5.8 million over four years to implement what they described as locally-developed, state-approved plans. “The Priority Schools Plan has a lot of moving parts and has generated quite a bit of discussion in the short time since it was unveiled,” said Council President Gregory. “While we all hope for nothing but the best for our children and the education system in Wilmington, should the Priority Schools Plan be unsuccessful, what would happen to the children and the six City schools? Would the schools be converted to charter schools managed by companies or organizations not based in the community? Council Members, parents, administrators, school board members and other engaged citizens need to assess whether this plan will result in a school system that offers a better education for our children. The October 9 meeting will give everyone an opportunity to hear the details and ask questions. I urge citizens to attend and participate in the discussion.” “All of us, whether we are elected officials, parents, teachers, administrators or citizens who care about the state of education in Delaware today are struggling to find the answers to an improved education system for our children,” said Council Member Chukwuocha. “We know that a child’s chances of succeeding in life start at the early education stage and progresses from there. Will the City have a role in the Priority Schools Plan to help get our schools back on track? These and other questions will be explored at the committee meeting on October 9. I encourage citizens to participate in this process by attending the meeting or watching it on television.” John Rago Director of Communications and Policy Development Wilmington City Council Phone: (302) 576-2149 Mobile: (302) 420-7928 E-mail: jrago@WilmingtonDE.gov City government website www.WilmingtonDE.gov WITN22 website  www.WITN22.org Friend us at www.facebook/WilmingtonDEgov Follow us at http://twitter.com/wilmingtondegov

First, what plan?  The MOU?

Before we get into the details of the MOU we have to discuss how it was presented.  In early September, Governor Markell stood on the steps of Warner to unveil his Priority Schools plan.  Needless to say, this event was long on “a wonderful opportunity” and short on details.  I wrote about it here.  But one thing became clear.  September 30th was an important date.  It was the date that Red Clay and Christina would have to sign the MOU.

Everyone scrambled.  What would the school districts do?  What would happen if they didn’t sign the MOU?  Well, the districts didn’t sign, which led us to… the MOU is not a plan – it’s an invitation to collaborate.  Sorry, but that wasn’t the way it was presented.  Which leads me back to the City Council Meeting…

Wilmington City Council President Theo Gregory and City Council’s Education, Youth and Families Committee Chair Nnamdi Chukwuocha (D-1st District) announced today that City Council will give the State’s Priority Schools Plan a public airing and review on Thursday, October 9 beginning at 6 p.m.

Exactly what will be aired?  Since the districts didn’t sign the MOU, there is no plan to be aired.  Yes, there’s a discussion to be had, but not the one this MOU addresses.

Now, let’s look at the MOU.  A few things stand out.  First, at no time are children, poverty, re-segregation, equitable funding, smaller class sizes, etc. mentioned.  This document spells out its priorities quite clearly.

Let’s look at what the MOU specifically addresses… in other words, its priorities.

The main focus is on the newly labeled Priority Schools’s CEO, um… I mean School Leader.  I’m going to summarize.  Click on the link above for more details.

The School leader shall have:

1. Unprecedented authority.  This includes lengthening the school day, calendar, curriculum, etc.

2. The annual 12 month salary of the School Leader shall be no less than 160,000.00

And there’s another thing the School Leader will have control over – Human Capital.

Not kidding, that’s how the MOU refers to all school staff, who, btw, must reapply for their positions.

Now… wait a minute.  Didn’t the State implement a teacher evaluation system?  And didn’t this State evaluation system rate 99% of Delaware Teachers effective or highly effective?  I seem to recall reading about this in the News Journal. So… is the State now saying their teacher evaluation system is bogus?  That it isn’t to be believed?  Either the State’s evaluation system isn’t worth the paper its printed on or these teachers, including the ones in these Priority Schools, are effective/highly effective.  It cannot be both.

And about that 160,000.00 School Leader salary – that’s one of the only specifics spelled out in the MOU.  Talk about priorities!  I’m not sure what principals in these schools are paid, but if it’s less then the $160,000… who makes up the difference?  Will the districts be expected to readjust their budgets to meet this salary requirement, or will the difference come out of the (roughly) 200,000.00 per year per priority school?  If it’s the latter then we’ll need to drop that 200,000.00 per year per school figure.  Right?

The MOU also states there will be additional teacher compensation.  Where is that money coming from?  The Districts? The 200,000.00 a year?  If it’s the $200,00 per year then… that’s it.  The money designated to these schools will be pretty much gone.

Know what else?  Know what you call a person who has to manipulate the population in order to (possibly? hopefully?) show improvement?  A charter school CEO?  LOL!  That’s true, but.. a leader leads.  A real leader doesn’t need to stack the deck because their message is strong enough, their vision is contagious, their motivation infectious.  A school leader that has to manipulate his/her staff isn’t a leader.  Not by a long shot.

Moving on… Take a look at this… which, imo, is the only thing in the MOU that’s truly honest.

“The plan must be submitted to the State by December 31, 2014. If the plan is not approved by January 9, 2015, the State will elect one of the following options: closure, reopening as a charter, or contracting with a private management organization to operate the school.”

There’s the end game, and in my opinion the entire point of this.  But I called this years ago.  The city schools are heading for charter and privatization.  Hey, look at how well the State has handled Moyer!   There’s your privatization. And if I’m right, how will that work?  City schools that convert to charter will no longer have attendance zones, right?  Charters are all choice schools?  So where will city children who don’t get into these charters (or children who are “counseled out”) be assigned? If the State can’t answer this question, then they have no business putting forth this condition

* I would be linking to the DDOE website, but for some reason they are playing around with (changing, changing back, who knows what) their low income data.  Is that allowed?  Someone needs to look into the legality of this behavior.

One more thing… I find it astonishing when our Secretary of Education and Governor hold up 2 charter schools and a Vo-Tech school as schools to emulate.  All of these schools are Choice schools – not one student is assigned to these schools.  And do you know what happens to the students who don’t get into these schools or who are counseled out?  Yep, they’re sent back to our true public schools.  Remember when the leadership of Pencader Charter School misspent our tax dollars and didn’t have enough money to finish out the year AND they threatened to close down the school in April unless we paid their ransom?  Remember that stunt?  Do you also remember what our public schools did?  They prepared themselves to take in these charter kids.  That, my friends, is what a true public school does.

Hope to see a big turnout tomorrow night!