An Appointment With Failure

In 2011-2012 the Rochester City School district lost $27 million dollars to charter school funding and is expected to pay out $33 million to charter schools in 2012-2013.

Board Commissioner Elliott asked Interim Superintendent Vargas, “What are we doing to reverse that and make our schools quality schools?”

The answer from Dr. Vargas, “That’s an excellent question that you ask and I think that I have said many times that we don’t want to be like Buffalo where $100 million of their budget is going to charter schools. That would be a situation that is not desired for our district and I think that this Board [has] been asking me to do two things that I think will begin to give families and other folks up there and people who work here more confidence in the district. For example, the fact that families will know by June what program will be available to them. And, one other thing that charter schools do well is that they register kids well, early, on time. And, by May, they know what their kids are going to have. So, I would say that we have to increase the quality of our schools, there’s no question. And also, on multiple levels, even how we register our students and the experience. I would communicate with parents, parental engagement. I mean, this is a very important question that you ask. It is a question that I have a conversation with everyone in the district. It won’t be just the Board who will have to respond to this challenge that we have.

It is evident that Dr. Vargas is unaware of why parents are choosing charter schools over public schools and has no definite plan for reversing this trend.

The fact that the Board has chosen to support Dr. Vargas as the next superintendent speaks more to his political affiliation than his acumen as the current superintendent.

Our children deserve more than a political party prefect. Our children deserve a superintendent who knows how to lead them and this district to success.

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To Lie, To Cheat, Perchance To Scheme

Integrity: Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

In an interview with Rachel Barnhart on April 2, 2012, School Board President Malik Evans said, “The process isn’t rigged for any candidate. The process is open for anyone who’s interested to apply. Everyone who applies will have a fair shot.”

There was a time in our history when the truth was expected and respected. It seems, however, that those days are long gone. Where silence was once golden it has now become an omission of truth so one will not incriminate oneself. Honesty, in days gone by, was the best policy, whereas today the best policy is that which makes the most money for the fewest people.

Charles F. Aked is quoted as saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Good men have been doing nothing for too long, something must be done now.

Failure is an evil that has been running rampant in our system of education for decades. It has destroyed the hearts and minds of countless numbers of our children while we sit back passively and bemoan its consequences.

The statement made by President Evans is an outright lie. It is time the good people of this community come together and expose the rampant evil that pervades our system of education causing the failure of our children. Our educational leaders have shown, countless times, that their main concern is the business of education not the children education is supposed to serve.

The members of this community have a moral obligation to enter the temple and drive out the money changers who would sell the futures of our children for their political gain.

There was no integrity in the superintendent search process or in the selection process. There is no integrity in our process of education. Until members of this community come together and protest the lack of integrity that operates within our district we have no one to blame for the enslaved masses of the mis-educated but ourselves.

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Back To Our Future

The Superintendent Search Committee met in Executive Session to discuss the applicants for the district’s superintendent position. Board President Malik Evans stated, “people from all over the country applied for the position, and characterized them as a solid group of applicants.”

Of course people from all over the country applied. In these times of economic woe the offer of $220,000 a year with a three year contract would bring people from all over the country. However, this community, in public forums and focus groups, all agreed that we did not want someone from all over the country, we wanted someone from Rochester, someone local, who understood our culture, background, and diversity.

It is time for this community to take a good look at the individuals who are in charge of hiring the individual who will be in charge of our district.

This Board has consistently hired superintendents who have been unable to increase the educational success rate of our children above 55%. The Board hired and supported the plans and budget of Jean Claude Brizard even after he left to go to Chicago. The Board had to be forced by the community to include them in the search process. The Board had to be forced into including the community in the All City High decision. The Board, except for one member, has yet to support the First Amendment rights of a student while certain members chose to exert their authority to deny a teacher her First Amendment rights.

This is not past history, this is recent. Conditions in our schools are getting worse. Strife between students, between teachers and parents, and between students and staff are becoming all too common.

In “whittling” down the candidates for this district’s superintendent, this Board may very well whittle away the best candidates for the position. As a community we should know, at the very least, the criteria for acceptance or denial of an applicant. We should know how many “homegrown” candidates there are. We should know that our children’s educational success is crucial to the selection process.

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What More Can Be Said, Something Must Be Done

When asked his views on Rochester City School District parents calling for Parent Trigger legislation, School Board President Malik Evans said, “I just think it’s a way in which we can engage people.”

Once again this community and its concerns are not being taken seriously by the Board. Parents are engaged. The community is engaged. We have been engaged for many years now.

We haven’t been respected, supported, accepted, acknowledged, recognized, or regarded but we have been engaged.

Parents, students, and the community have offered suggestions, plans, time, experience, and expertise to help the district and its leaders create and produce a successful system of education for our children. We have met, talked, work-shopped, forum-ed, collaborated, spoken, rallied, and protested. We have given our time and resources and we have been continually dismissed while this district fails to properly educate our children.

Parents have tried to work with individual school and district leaders and have been shut out of the decision making process. Students and teachers have tried to work with district leaders and have been shut out of the process. Tax payers have tried to work with district leaders. Retired teachers and principals, former superintendents, business leaders, faith-based leaders, higher education leaders, community group leaders, have all tried to work with this district’s leaders only to see the Superintendent and Board move ahead with their own agenda.

Even now, when things have gotten to the point where frustrations are high and patience is low, its business as usual at the district. There has been no effort by the Superintendent or any Board member to publicly apologize to Jada Williams. There has been no sincere effort by the Board to consider the recommendations made by this community concerning the superintendent search, All City High, or the facilities modernization plans.

We have engaged, we have met, we have talked, and we have offered, now we must act.

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Take Issue Not Sides

In the Glen Beck interview of Jada Williams it is made very clear that what was done to Jada was wrong, not white.

For years this community has worked diligently to overcome the racial barriers that have kept us from uniting in our efforts to affect change in the failing system of education for our children.

Working together, parents, community members, and educators, have stopped the closings of numerous schools, removed the Brizard threat, forced the district to retain the arts and librarians in our schools, voted a new voice and perspective onto the school board, created a superintendent search committee, stopped the adoption of an unsanctioned high school program, and exposed a fraudulent attempt to increase trade union quotas without increasing women and minority employment in the construction trades.

We now have another, even greater reason to remain united as a community Jada Williams. Jada Williams was not discriminated against, she was silenced. She was denied her rights as an American, she was denied her Constitutional right to freedom of speech.

The issue is a group of adults, who are not only to teach citizenship but should role model and protect the constitutional rights of every child in their purview, chose to harass and bully a child until she no longer felt comfortable attending school.

To reduce this situation to a matter of black and white is to devalue Jada Williams as a human being and as a United States citizen.

To allow this situation to divide this community, pitting parents and students against teachers and administrators is to fall prey to the hundreds of years of ignorance that has brought this country to the educational failure in which we now live.

We must not forget how long we have fought, together, how hard we have fought, together, to bring about change. We must not forget that it is only by working together that change in the system of education for our children can be accomplished.

What was done to Jada was wrong and we must work together as a community to make it right.

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Now Is The Time For All Good Men To Come To The Aid Of Our Children

In her book, “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt states, “Nothing positive can be accomplished, regardless of how much money and good will exist, unless we Americans learn again to stand on our own two feet, as individuals, . . . who accept their responsibility to be contributing participants in our constitutional republic instead of being observers in a so-called “participatory” democracy where only those who agree with the status quo will be allowed to have a voice.”

The district has made many statements that allude to interest in parent and community involvement however the process remains virtually unchecked since there is no accountability of true commitment in place.

The superintendent search process, All City High, and now the Rochester’s Schools Modernization Program, which will hold an outreach event tomorrow, from 6pm to 8pm at Wilson Foundation Academy, 200 Genesee St., are all examples of decisions that are made with minimal to no parent and community input.

As a community, we must recognize that our voice, while being acknowledged, is not being listened to and is certainly not being taken seriously. Public meetings are held because it is the law. Unfortunately there is nothing in the law that says they have to heed our suggestions. It is our responsibility to make sure that our government reflects, not rejects our voice.

If, as a community, we are willing to simply be heard, without making sure that our elected officials actually listen to and act upon our suggestions in a substantive way, then we have given up our right as change agents in and for our community. To do that is to commit ourselves and our children to a world of domination and control by those who would enslave the masses to ensure their profit.

There is a growing movement that extends across the country to push back against the impending evil that is upon us. It is time to stand up, not only for ourselves, but for our children. It is time to reclaim our power so that we may empower our children.

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Think Outside the Box

Superintendent Search Committee members shared their findings from focus groups held in December. Most groups held the same concerns and were looking for similar qualities and attributes. Collaboration and communication with parents and community were foremost in many groups.

However, the most interesting comments shared came from the Business focus group. It was reported that this group was concerned with expectations for our children first. They wanted to make sure that our next superintendent actually demonstrated a “Children First” attitude and wanted to know how their leadership would place our students in competition with or above suburban students.

Another outstanding requirement that resonated throughout the focus groups was demonstrating a commitment to the Rochester City School District. Groups wanted a superintendent who is not just passing through on their way to higher grounds. Given the average length of tenure for superintendents in New York State is 3 to 5 years, it is doubtful that this requirement will be met by anyone who is not already a longstanding member of our community.

Members were then charged with compiling a list of questions to be used to interview potential candidates for our district’s next superintendent. It was stressed that there should be multiple levels of questions, those that are more general and those that would actually get at the heart of who the candidates are and what they actually believed about education.

Search committee members seemed intent on finding a superintendent that had and could display experience and success in an urban setting. Once again, given the state of urban education throughout the United States, it is questionable that any seasoned superintendent from any urban district can fulfill that requirement.

As with our system of education, the search for our superintendent must take on a new perspective. It is time to think outside the box and set innovation and creativity free to show us the way to success. As adults we must be role models for our children. When we use our imagination to problem solve, we can teach children to do the same.

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When The Lines Are Blurred You Must Read Between Them

During a recent WXXI conversation with Interim Superintendent Vargas the question was asked, “Opening and closing schools has been done here and all over the country and there has not been significant progress due to what critics describe as the “shell game” where schools are disrupted and students shuffled around. How can you execute such a plan to avoid making these criticisms a reality?”

The answer by Dr. Vargas is interesting, “I am looking to accelerate the closure of the phase out schools and am not looking to continue this approach in the future.” It suggests that in the next five months or by the end of the school year, several schools will be closed. It also suggests that Dr. Vargas has or is planning to apply for the position of permanent superintendent and that he fully intends to be hired for that position.

There is a great deal of question and controversy over the superintendent search process that has all but disappeared from the public eye. No more meetings have been held, no more information as to where we are in the process, no mention of how many candidates there are, what the pool of candidates looks like, nothing.

The district generated and garnered a great deal of public interest and engagement in the process of selecting our next superintendent only to come to a dead halt leaving the public in the wilderness wondering what, if anything, is happening now.

Has the decision already been made? Has Dr. Vargas tipped the district’s hand and let us know that he will be the next superintendent? If this is the case, why continue the ruse? President Evans has already stood firm on the premise that it is the Board who will determine the outcome of the search. And, if that decision has already been made then stop the subterfuge, pay the search firm, and let’s get on with the struggle.

Lest any man or woman be fooled, this process is far from transparent and even farther from publicly driven.

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We Interrupt The Scheduled Report For Important News

The purpose of reporting on the results of the community forums and focus groups was so that the community would know what attributes were most important to us and be able to hold the Board of Education accountable for their search and selection of our next superintendent.

On December 19, 2011, the district posted their final superintendent search description of attributes which included some of the attributes compiled by the community but also left a few key requirements out and lessened the strength of others.

For instance, the community was adamant about hiring a superintendent who intended to remain with the district for seven years or more. This translated in the posting as, “Has demonstrated sustained leadership and long-term commitment in previous roles.”

The commitment to politically support alternative assessment and evaluative measures for students and staff became, “Has successfully implemented alternative student assessment methods.”

There is no mention of the fact that the majority of the community wanted a superintendent with ties to our community.

Must be a master-teacher, having successfully taught in the classroom for more than ten years is now, “Has classroom or teaching experience (preferred).”

Addressing poverty is at the bottom of the district’s list with no mention of addressing institutionalized racism and sexism.

Another disturbing aspect of the post is the salary range. This community distinctly said that in light of the current budget difficulties and to promote a true level of commitment from prospective candidates, the salary range should be comparable to that of our governor who makes $179,000. The district’s offer, “will be in the range of $225,000 plus an excellent comprehensive benefit package.”

While Board members may tell us the community voice has been heard, we must ask, “Have we been listened to?” Are we to feel comfortable knowing that our involvement in the process is over and that ultimately the decision is that of the Board?

If we are not willing to hold the Board accountable for our input into the process, our time and efforts amounted to nothing more than writing a letter to Santa Clause.

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And A Little Child Shall Lead Them

The Superintendent Search Committee held several focus group sessions to ascertain the attributes and qualities necessary for the next superintendent of our district. The following contains those attributes and qualities the Student Focus Group found to be the most important. Unfortunately, the audio recording of this group’s session was ended before each student presented a summation of their thoughts.

The Student Focus Group was led by Sophie Gallivin, President of the Student Leadership Conference and Student School Board Representative.

Students want a superintendent who is well known within the community, someone who will connect with students, visit schools to see how to make them better, someone who is open minded, will take ideas from the public and is not afraid to take charge.

Students want someone who is honest, and can make themselves available to student questions and opinions on decisions about what is most important in their schools. They want someone who will take notice of their voice and who is willing to spend quality time in the classroom sitting down with and listening to them.

Students want a superintendent who will share information about the process with the public before decisions are made and will make decisions based on relevant data.

Students want a superintendent who can guide teachers and administrators, who is positive, very serious about their job and loves doing it. They want a member of the community not someone who wants to run the community. A superintendent who is inclusive, collaborative, and able to learn from others.

They want someone who is committed to this community, someone who can motivate students, and build connections between parents, students, and teachers. They want a superintendent who will make assessments relevant with methods that will benefit students and teachers. Someone who will raise the level of standards and expectations for students, raise the GPA level for participation in sports and extracurricular activities. They want someone who will spend money wisely, someone who will show students the reality of life and recognize and celebrate all hard workers.

Open minded – dialogue with community – shares information – people skills – leadership skills – experienced in finances – cooperative.

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