By Antonio D. French
Filed Tuesday, August 29 at 12:34 PM
School board member and Schools Watch founder Peter Downs called yesterday's reopening of St. Louis Public Schools a "huge success."
"The stunning turnaround of the St. Louis Public School district was on display on the first day of school Monday," Downs wrote in his email newsletter. "A district that was on a course to crash and burn just two months ago opened its schools without major incident."
But an article in today's Post-Dispatch by education reporter Steve Giegerich painted a different picture.
"Simple arithmetic reflected the outcome of [the district's Back-to-School efforts] when better than one out of four city students - 28 percent of an expected enrollment of slightly more than 33,000 - failed to show up for the first day of classes," wrote Giegerich.
The Post reporter compares SLPS' 72% first day attendance with unnamed suburban districts which he says regularly top 95 percent. He calls yesterday's attendance numbers "the lowest since 2002."
It's not clear where Giegerich gets that number from. According to Downs and SLPS spokesman Tony Sanders, SLPS hasn't reported attendance numbers on the first day of school in three years.
"The last time the district reported attendance on the first day of school was in 2003 when, after delaying the start of school by two weeks, Interim Superintendent William Roberti reported that 76% of students attended school on opening day," wrote Downs.
The district has in recent years only given attendance numbers for the first week of school, which according to Interim Superintendent Diana Bourisaw have been around 80% -- a number which she told PUB DEF she was optimistic the district would beat this year.
24 Comments:
Antonio D. French said...
According to Tony Sanders, a SLPS spokesman (a position he also held in Dr. Williams' administration), the district has not released First Day numbers in many years. Only First Week numbers.
Monday, August 28, 2006 9:17:52 PM
uhhh.....Tony Sanders blowing smoke---or Giegerich doing sloppy reporting?
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 2:01:00 PM
neither.
I failed my reading test for today.
Hope to do better and raise my average to 80% by Friday!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 2:04:00 PM
Sloppy reporting by Giegerich. He has no way of knowing what the first day numbers were last year, or the year before, or the year before that, so how can he call this year's numbers a faliure?
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 2:19:00 PM
I read it right in the first place.
The second time i read it, I failed to note where they stopped quoting Giegerich.
The rest of the media reported it the same way as Giegerich.
By the way---------how hard a question is this to answer regarding attendance----WAS FLOYD IRONS PRESENT TEACHING A HISTORY CLASS SOMEWHERE YESTERDAY? IF NOT---WHY NOT?
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 2:27:00 PM
Spin, spin, spin. If I report for the Post-Disgrace, I can spin the headline as negative and put the one negative issue in the first paragraph, then lump all of the thousand things that went smoothly under one topic as though inconsequential. That way it looks like the one thing that the media spinners were able to have an effect on - parent perception - was actually a failure on the part of the District.
Does anyone have numbers for the Charter School attendance yet?
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 3:48:00 PM
I don't know if this is the right place to share this but my child just came home from school explaining that we now have to pay $25 for uniforms for her career path when Creg Williams had arrangements for them to pay only $10. She said the other children in the class wondered why couldn't Veronica Obrien give up her $20,000 security so that they could get their uniforms at a more affordable cost. My child is at Career academy and she is referring to their career path uniforms.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 3:56:00 PM
Last anonymous, what you communicated is apples and oranges. One has nothing to do with the other. Creg Williams cost the district big time for a school district armed guard even for his personal life and personal entertainment.
The police provided Darnetta Clinkscale 24-hr. protection.
Board funds are separate from District general funds. Ask the principal what happened. Everything is going up these days.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 4:03:00 PM
Philo-Teknos it would seem to me that your phsyic powers would provide you with better information. I dont even fill like breaking this one down, Just search alittle harder.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 5:33:00 PM
Creg Williams promised a lot of things that he couldn't deliver, dear. He had no way of actually supplying those uniforms at that price, he just said it because it sounded good. I heard him say lots of things that I knew were impossible to actually do. He was all about sounding like a hero, but we could never get him to "put up or shut up." He had so many friends and their friends on his payroll that he could have bought uniforms for every student in the district every year with the money he was paying them.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 5:53:00 PM
Anonymous, you can't break it down because there is no basis to your analogy. Apples and oranges (different species).
And the other party is right. Williams talked big and was known to say anything, but there was no follow through.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 6:16:00 PM
Ask Creg Williams why was he playing with federal funds? Why did he get 5,000 a month for expenses and pad his budget? Lay off O'Brien, the police wanted her to have they security as she may have recieved threats on her life by the same people that murdered one of Irons victims.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 10:06:00 PM
I usually refrain from posting but some of the comments by P-T and anon #5 & #6 are at best very biased (possibly worst, is that they are intentionally mis-leading). The plan now being implimented by "the District" is the plan devised by Creg and the team(s) he brought together.
As a parent of a student now enrolled at Northwest (HIGH SCHOOL), I can say that Creg delivered what he promised and more was on the way before he was forced out of office. The school had it's roof repaired and air conditioning installed all of which previous bBoards and Administrations promised but never delivered. He had new gym floors installed, new ceilings put in, walls painted and was working on having the foootball field redone. I understand that all of this was because Creg worked with the community rather than just posturing like some board members tend to do.
Before I am dismissed as a Slay supporter (or Williams, or Schoemehl, or Jackson, or Clinkscale) I should note that I did not suport Creg's spending on staffing at BOE HQ, nor do I believe the state should come in and take over.
Why can't people stop focusing on individuals and FOCUS ON THE STUDENTS!!!! None is perfect except Christ my Lord and Savior - so stop casting the stones before your house is targeted!
Lastly, just because "the cost of everything is going up" is not a good reason to increase the cost to students; as it has been reported a large percentage of SLPS student's families are surviving on income at or below povert levels so every dollar spent has to be carefully spent. So Phil, if you are willing to set up an expense account for those who truely need it, stay out of other peoples pockets.
It's not "apples and oranges" because it's all tax payer money OR is there something you know that we don't?!?!?!?!?!?
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 7:29:00 AM
Lay off O'Brien, the police wanted her to have they security . . .
Well there was at least one judge who didn't want her to have the police provide her with security seeing as she lost two hearings for 'orders of protection'.
I supppose you are one of those same people that believe police should have the power to decide for themselves when a person is guilty and condem a suspect to death by firing squad.
That is why we have court systems. P-T, I know you from the early days of protesting the decision to hire Alverez & Marsel, I hope you don't support that claim.
So many people on here post accusations about Creg, but don't follow through with facts. Let me add mine: {Comments deleted by posting person}. I decided it wasn't worth continue that pitiful tradition.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 7:44:00 AM
If it's not apples and oranges, then the same people should protest the horrendous cost of a security guard for Creg Williams even to gambling casinos.
You might ask people downtown who delivered on Creg Williams' promise for Northwest. He wasn't here to deliver.
Yes, this P-T still is against Alverez and Marsal for raping and pillaging the system. And I'm not the only one.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 8:51:00 AM
Oh, ask someone to reveal how costly it was to wine and dine Karen Marsal and William Roberti at the Chase Park Plaza, penthouse suites, first-class flights back and forth to homes and St. Louis. All paid for by your friendly taxpayers.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 8:55:00 AM
How Ironic you should have these two paragraphs---what a PERFECT SEGUE!!
"Well there was at least one judge who didn't want her to have the police provide her with security seeing as she lost two hearings for 'orders of protection'.
I supppose you are one of those same people that believe police should have the power to decide for themselves when a person is guilty and condem a suspect to death by firing squad"
Funny you should mention firing squads.
The money to protect O'Brien was voted within 24 hours of the death by 12 bullets of Timothy Bacon.
He was 15 years old in 2000, when he had the holy crap beaten out of him by Floyd Irons with his fists and a walkie talkie.
The murder happened after the judge denied the protection for O'Brien.
I know of no evidence which connects Irons to the killing of the kid he beat up.
But it is reasonable to believe that the board was aware of the murder when they voted the funds.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 10:48:00 AM
It doesn't matter if there was no connection to Irons or anyone Irons ever met, that young man was executed. Until the perps are caught, she needs to be protected. It's too late to retroactively protect her after they get to the bottom of the murder. For now, protect her and hope we didn't need to. For all we know, some misguided crazies did it to make Irons look guilty. If that's the case, she really could be next, especially if the first murder goes unsolved.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 12:43:00 PM
in response to "a real parent"... Creg Williams had little if anything to do with the roof repair at Northwest. The Buildings and Grounds Division appropiated budget funding (with the help of Fiscal Control). I personally solicited the designs and specifications for bid for the roof repair. I and I only directed deferring the repair of the gym floors and ceilings throughout due to my personal assessment (that was completed with the help of the only Roofer who was employed by SLPS) of the condition of the roof long before Creg Williams even knew this building existed. The hardwood material bids were in received and the ceilings were to be repaired by SLPS maintenance staff. The planning for the floors and the ceiling repair was completed under the Direction of the now defunct Buildings and Grounds Division. This all done back when Hammonds/Crues/& Hughes were here. The roof designers/specifiers were WP Hickman and Tremco. The ceiling tile selected was to be supplied by Ceiling Supply Company in Brigeton. The flooring repair materials were Maple to match existing. I'm sorry to dispute your report but Creg Williams didn't make this happen.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 8:08:00 PM
More to "a real parent"..... the work that was STARTED by Sodexho in partnership with a community group (Demetrius Johnson later jumped in and acted like he initiated the work at Soldan to get his mug on TV) at the fields including Soldan, Vashon and Roosevelt just to name a few, all started BEFORE Williams came to town. Northwest was down one the list for field repairs because it was a middle school. The A/C work is part of the old bond which is one of the reasons that my group selected the replacement boiler that we put in several years ago, keeping in mind that we wanted it to be compatible with a full blown comprehensive HVAC renovation. We ultimatley decided to install a low pressure steam boiler that could later be converted to hot water through the addition of a heat exchanger. I gaurantee that William had NOTHING to do with this. Plans have been on the board for Beaumont for about 3 or 4 years. All of this HVAC work is the result of the A/C bond issue--nothing to do with Creg Williams---Hammonds promoted it and even had a public rally at Banneker School with the help of Charlene Jones long before I even heard of Williams. Trust me this man didn't do any magic to make all this happen...I worked my butt off!
Wednesday, August 30, 2006 8:46:00 PM
Past employee, thanks for contributing fact, truth, and reality to this blog.
Few realize that there are procedures in place that often involve months, if not years, of implementing huge projects.
Thursday, August 31, 2006 6:29:00 AM
Helen Louise...
Your comment about "Few realize that there are procedures in place that often involve MONTHS, if not YEARS of implementing huge projects" is exactly why people who felt strongly that Creg Williams brought some fresh vision to the district with his strategic plan are upset. Dr. Williams, in spite of his obvious arrogance (I won't dispute that one) I believe was not given the time to try to implement much. Would I have lobbied for his removal if after a reasonable time it was looking like things were not working out? You bet!
"What time, is enough time?" That is the philosophical question that could be discussed adnauseam, but given the turn of events this summer, obviously, the "powers that are" did not agree with my assesment.
I know you know this, but thought it might be good to remind you why passions are still running high...why its hard for folks to move forward...even with the "hope" that each new school year brings.
Thursday, August 31, 2006 11:26:00 AM
EC, I am not in the loop, but I got the distinct impression Williams broke some Board policies and regulations. He might have even broken the law; we may never know. He certainly didn't abide by state statutes governing Missouri Public Schools. Consequently, more time might not have been possible. That's a problem with arrogance. It feels it is above the law, policies, and statutes. Just my personal opinion.
He was a very unwise man in so many areas; and, hopefully,he has learned from some very serious errors he committed.
Thursday, August 31, 2006 3:47:00 PM
Helen Louise--- yes there are many procedures that took years of experience and knowledge to develop. Most of the guidelines and procedures are good and were originally implemented for a good reason. An ongoing problem is when a new "latest and greatest" roars into town and decides to do things their own way with total disregard for policy. Perhaps some of the policies and guidelines need to be reviewed and amended, but total disregard for the infrastructure that took centuries to develop is a real problem. A fresh look at the old way of doing business can be a good thing but it needs to be done objectively and with a comprehensive knowledge of the system and their goals. During my (almost 2 decades) employment with SLPS B&G I've learned that you can't eat a side of beef in one sitting, you have to have many small meals. Long term dedication is the key to success.
Friday, September 01, 2006 6:43:00 AM
Past Employee, those are excellent points.
Friday, September 01, 2006 7:54:00 AM
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