By Travis Reems
Filed Saturday, September 30 at 7:45 AM
The St. Louis Board of Education will hold two Board Meetings on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 at the Administrative Building, 801 N. 11th Street. A Special Board Meeting will begin by moving into closed session at 6:45 PM. The Administrative Meeting of the Board will be held at 7:00 PM in Room 108 and is open to the public. The agenda is as follows:
SPECIAL BOARD MEETING AGENDA
1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call
3. Motion to move into closed session
4. Legal Matters
5. Motion to return to open session
6. Resolution on Benefits
7. Motion to adjourn
ADMINISTRATIVE MEETING AGENDA
1.1 Call To Order / Roll Call
1.2 Placement of Items on the October 10, 2006 Regular Board Meeting Agenda
a) Call to Order/Roll Call
b) Pledge of Allegiance
c) We Are Up To Good Things
d) Public Comments
e) Approval of Minutes
f) Superintendent's Report
i) Finance Report
ii) Consent Agenda
g) President's Report
i) Board Member Travel
ii) Retirement Board
iii) By-Law Changes
h) New Business
i) Information/Request
j) Announcements
1.3 Adjournment
25 Comments:
Anyone have any idea what new bombshell the board majority is going to drop on us this time. Time for an end to "payback". All seven should resign.
Sunday, October 01, 2006 7:28:00 AM
Actually, the last few meetings have been very quiet, calm and efficient. Perhaps we are beyond the drama.
Sunday, October 01, 2006 7:51:00 AM
Travis
Is that simply because the "meeting" is taking place today(Sunday) on the phone and not in the "sunshine" with all members present?
Trouble
Sunday, October 01, 2006 8:38:00 AM
Steve Giegerich reported a couple weeks ago that the Post Dispatch is challenging the board's handling of Bourisaw's contract based on what they claim is sunshine law violation.
What is the status of the complaint? If it were to be abandoned, would that be reported?
Sunday, October 01, 2006 10:26:00 AM
Now the Post is worried about the Sunshine Law? Where were they for the past 2-3 years when the roles were reversed?
Sunday, October 01, 2006 10:45:00 AM
What's interesting is that the Post and its stepsister, the Journal, knew about the change in title before anyone else in the building the night of the meeting. How can they complain about a personnel matter being discussed in closed session and them immediately being released to them between the closed and open sessions? It sounds like a red herring to me.
Sunday, October 01, 2006 4:22:00 PM
It is still disappointing that the current board majority chose the path of two wrongs make a right. Archibald, Jackson, Schoemehl and Clinkscale were wrong to exclude the public and parents and so were/are the current board majority. All seven of them are in glass houses. It was disappointing that fowler had gotten on the lawsuit. He had been the only sane one.
Sunday, October 01, 2006 4:35:00 PM
this is some of what was in the pd on the 20th---gray areas---yes. but really terrible for public relations. making the change to permanent should have been explained ahead of time---it was not a very controversial thing to do.
The school district has not complied with a request the Post-Dispatch filed under Missouri's "Sunshine Law," asking the district to provide e-mails and correspondence among board members and district administrators regarding Bourisaw's contract.
O'Brien said the board majority did not meet or talk by telephone or e-mail in connection with Bourisaw's employment.
Fowler said, "They must have had some idea of what was going on because they didn't present any resistance (to the contract) or open anything up for discussion. It was pretty much a rubber stamp."
St. Louis University law professor Peter Salsich said the board is within its rights to discuss and act on personnel issues in private.
But to push through a major contract without the full board's knowledge, he added, "is not the way an organization that is trying to work together would usually operate."
Said Fowler: "If you're going to have an effective team, then you need trust to make it work. Even if the law has not been violated, it has been violated in spirit."
Board member Peter Downs said he received a "heads up" about the contract a few hours before the meeting. "I'm not sure why it was done in closed session. I guess it was justified because it was a personnel matter," he said.
Downs said public input will be appropriate if the board decides to consider contracting with Bourisaw for an extended period of time.
Bourisaw was hired as interim superintendent at an emergency meeting on July 14, the same day former Superintendent Creg Williams resigned under pressure from O'Brien and the board majority. Jackson, Archibald and Fowler had not met her prior to that meeting.
O'Brien said she turned to Bourisaw because she believed the district needed a qualified educator in a time of crisis. Bourisaw previously headed the Fox School District in Jefferson County and worked with the state education department
Sunday, October 01, 2006 5:41:00 PM
There you go blog monsters, be negative and keep talking about old issues. Move on. Do you all have any ideas how to increase MAP scores?
Sunday, October 01, 2006 9:00:00 PM
I gotta agree with Anon. This is old news. But the Sunshine Law question is old news that has never been settled.
Increase MAP scores? Sure, lots of ideas...cut class sizes in half, open at least two alternative schools for elementary, middle, and high schools, slash the paperwork required for every mundane task, hire lots of security guards, secretaries, teachers, aides, counselors, etc. to make schools safe zones (not war zones), INCREASE Special Ed. services not deny that they are needed, throw away Reading First (a waste of precious time), burn Open Court (we aren't even getting the workbooks anymore), etc. etc. etc. I'm not trying to whine, but these are the things we really need that no one wants to pay for.
Lots of ideas, no money.
Sunday, October 01, 2006 9:17:00 PM
If Williams hadn't been forced to resign, the Mayor would have been in a position to have had to support a tax increase for the schools. Lower class sizes, etc., cost money. Now he can say that there is too much chaos to support tax increase. Yes, it would be best for all concerned to move forward and try to improve district. With the personal hatred these two groups on school board have, moving forward will never happen.
Sunday, October 01, 2006 9:39:00 PM
Anonymous said...
There you go blog monsters, be negative and keep talking about old issues. Move on. Do you all have any ideas how to increase MAP scores?
Sunday, October 01, 2006 10:00:32 PM
I was not trying to be negative-----I have been very frustrated with the way things are flung out there, and then not followed up---an example would be the case to remove Purdy.
The threat to do it was loud---the dismissal of the case was whispered softly by the media.
It might be old news, but as recently as Thursday, it was the basis for another attack by the pd in an editorial.
Since they did not mention the "request"---I wondered if it was just another thing that quietly went away.
Sunday, October 01, 2006 10:50:00 PM
Anon, Don't hold your breath for the Mayor...(no matter who the Supt. is/was) The mayor is all about charter schools and privatizing education. (Did you see how he embraced Jeff Smith like a long-lost son?) The failure of these charter schools to perform may be the only to defeat (or at least slow down) his agenda. Charter schools give Mayor Slay the opportunity to look like he is doing something for education, while not raising taxes...the best of both worlds when it comes to being re-elected.
Spiro, the PD's handling of stories has been, and continues to be, relevant.
Monday, October 02, 2006 4:56:00 AM
^ I thought charter schools were public schools (i.e., free, non-sectarian schools funded by taxpayers), just without a district bureaucracy attached.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006 1:43:00 PM
Charter schools are not public in the sense that they can fill up; a true public school takes any child who lives in the district, they can't say there's no room. I know families who have been told the St. Louis Charter School can take one of their kids but not the other because that grade is full.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006 2:38:00 PM
"Charter schools are not public in the sense that they can fill up"
So, if the demand is filling them up, why not just build more charter public schools?
Tuesday, October 03, 2006 4:24:00 PM
Sure they can build more. The comment was responding to the one above which described charter schools as public schools. Had nothing to do with the demand for them.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006 4:44:00 PM
Charter schools don't have to take students with special needs or behavior problems, and they can limit grades to a certain number. Even with these advantages that the regular public schools aren't allowed to exercise, no City Charter school made AYP in 2006 - see
http://dese.mo.gov/
planningprofile/
apr/2006115115.html
Filling up is often a function of parents wanting their children not to have disruptive classmates. What we really need is to offer more alternative programs for disruptive students so that our regular schools could operate with that advantage.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006 8:23:00 PM
It is the different management style that separates charter schools from all public schools, not their enrollment, as magnet schools and even community schools can both "fill-up" based on racial quota or physical capacity, respectively.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006 11:50:00 PM
Charters also get about $3500 less per pupil annually, compared to regular public schools (http://www.edexcellence.net/institute/charterfinance/reportdata.cfm?state=MO&year=2003).
And who's to say that existing charters are not currently being used as "alternative schools" for students with discipline problems who've had trouble in the regular publics? -- BeeDub
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 11:17:00 AM
Travis,
Are you saying that a non-magnet city school can turn away a student in their zoned area if they fill-up a certain grade or total number?
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 12:49:00 PM
so.....anything noteworthy happen last night?
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 3:45:00 PM
If Giegerich was at the meeting, perhaps the PD is still rewriting his report for him. Shawn Clubb, who writes for the journals, seems to be writing more than Giegerich since the middle of september, but I have been told that I do not understand how things work at the pd, so I will leave it at that.
Bourisaw: City schools offer better education than charter schools
Shawn Clubb
Of the Suburban Journals
North Side Journal
10/04/2006
The superintendent of the St. Louis Public Schools says her district provides a better education than charter schools, but others say it depends on which charter schools and which city schools you compare.
Diana Bourisaw said at her introduction to the public on July 17 that public schools provide the best option for St. Louis students. She has made it a goal of her administration to attract students now at charter schools back to the district.
Bourisaw mentioned the loss of students to city charter schools and said the numbers prove the public schools provide a better education than charter schools.
"Our goal is to make St. Louis Public the best choice in St. Louis, not the last," she said.
The district has lost 10,000 students in six years. Many are from families that have moved out of the city, but 4,700 have gone to charter schools.
"Why aren't we a better alternative to charters? Three of our magnets, Metro, McKinley and Kennard, are some of the best performing schools in the state," Bourisaw said.
Jocelyn Strand, director of A-Plus schools and charter schools for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said it is difficult to make a comparison between a charter school and the St. Louis Public Schools. She said a charter school could be compared with the entire school district, or just the magnet schools, or just non-magnet schools.
Strand said it is possible a charter school will come out better than some public schools and worse than others. For instance, she said, there is the comparison of one charter school's sixth- through eighth-grade communication arts scores versus the entire middle school level in the public schools.
"They do perform worse than some buildings, but they do perform better than some buildings in the district," Strand said.
Tracy Garrett, head of school for St. Louis Charter School, 5247 Fyler Ave., said her staff used data from last year's Missouri Assessment Program test to compare her school with the public schools. Garrett said the school ranked third in the city in seventh-grade math when compared with 29 schools in St. Louis. In eighth-grade math, she said, the school ranked sixth of 27 schools.
Garrett said it is harder to compare grade levels where her school administers Terra Nova testing. She said not all schools use that test.
St. Louis Charter School, which is now in its seventh year, offers grades kindergarten through eight. Garrett said enrollment is 930 students with a waiting list of about 300.
"With charter schools, in general, some are good and some bad. Some of the schools are newer and some have been around longer. Some are failing, but there are quite a number that are doing well like us," Garrett said.
Strand said it is difficult to compare schools' test scores from one year. What has made it even harder is the state changed MAP testing before the tests given in the spring of 2005. She said comparisons would be more valid once another year of tests have been given.
Bourisaw said the public schools need to replicate the successes at Metro, McKinley and Kennard at other city schools. She said improved academic achievement and increased enrollment would help the district become fully accredited. Increased enrollment, she said, would signal the district turning a corner.
Strand said charters can be part of the solution.
"The whole charter school concept, it's about improving schools through competition," Strand said.
Garrett said competition forces the schools to get better.
"You can't run with the status quo," she said.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 3:56:00 PM
If Charter Schools are such a ggod idea, why do County and Rural Districts avoid them like the plague?
Friday, October 06, 2006 7:53:00 PM
Shouldn't the "Building Commissioner" be at least an Engineer and preferably someone who carries a License Professional Engineer? You can not get a building built with a professional engineer sealing and approving the drawings. So why should our children have less than that?
Thursday, October 19, 2006 4:43:00 PM
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