St. Louis Schools Watch

VIDEO: Advisory Committee Meets

By Antonio D. French

Filed Thursday, August 31 at 4:43 PM

State Education Commissioner Kent King and four of the five members of the special committee he appointed last month to analyze the current state of St. Louis Public Schools met today on the West Campus of Washington University.

Co-chairs Dr. William Danforth and Attorney Frankie Freeman were joined by St. Louis American publisher Dr. Donald Suggs and Attorney Ned Lemkemeier. Michael Middleton, the group's fifth member, did not attend today's meeting.

The group drew criticism for closing their first meeting to the public. Danforth today said it was later brought to their attention that they are subject to the state's Sunshine Law, which is why today's meeting was public.

"Now that we know we are subject to the Sunshine Laws, I suggest we obey the law and the spirit of the Sunshine idea," said Danforth.

In the meeting, which lasted about thirty minutes, King presented to the group some slight modifications to the points of its mission, all centered around addressing what he described as the "turmoil" in SLPS in the past four years.

Danforth introduced the group's first hire, Bethany Johnson who will serve as study director and an interviewer for the committee.

It was revealed that the co-chairs had already conducted private interviews with some members of the school board. Danforth said they would also be requesting interviews with Interim Superintendent Diana Bourisaw and Teachers' Union Pres. Mary Armstrong.

Bourisaw and School Board Pres. Veronica O'Brien watched tonight's meeting from the audience.

Danforth said the committee also plans to convene focus groups of parents, teachers and principals and to hire an expert in school finances to help paint a clearer picture of the district's finances.

No date was given for the committee's next meeting, but Commissioner King did say that their work must be completed by early December.

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

I just checked out the Adequate Yearly Progress info for Wellston, and if that's what a State takeover does for a District, then Heaven help us all!

And as for Irons helping Vashon students so much - why did they appear to be about the lowest SLPS high school for attendance, grad rate, and test scores for the last few years if he had so much positive influence?

Thursday, August 31, 2006 7:45:00 PM

Well maybe Irons and Slay can run the district!!! I agree that state takeover concepts needs to picked apart and we need to show the public what really happens when the state takes over.

Thursday, August 31, 2006 8:16:00 PM

You're right about showing the public, Veronica, but they still don't even realize that the State started this whole nightmare in the first place by approving Bill Roberti as a Superintendent! Until then, we were making steady gains in MAP at the elementary level and with drop out/grad rates in high schools. Roberti dismantled most of those initiatives (including 9th grade centers and alternative schools) which Williams came in and pretended were his "brand new brilliant ideas". I'm sure business people think they know way more than educators about everything, but Roberti's decision to use Metro cost us big in State funding, and that is just one small example of his lack of educational funding knowledge. That was the year we began to lose ground. Roberti frequently told us not to worry about test scores or accreditation until until he left. What a great superintendent! Thanks, MODESE, without your stamp of approval on his tenure at the top, we would never had his guidance through the loss of all of those MSIP points.

Thursday, August 31, 2006 10:03:00 PM

Let me see if I have this correct: the City of St. Louis will not give the SLPS the tax revenue it is supposed to provide and at the same time the Mayor is criticizing the school district's performance. In addition, the State of Missouri owes the SLPS millions of dollars as well and now it wants to step in and run the school district instead of paying the money so the district can run iteself.

I have a public school education myself and I am able to recall the definitions of 3 words that come to mind:
1) audacity - rude or disrespectful behaviour
2) arrogant - having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities
3) imprudent - not showing care for the consequences of an action; rash.

Sunday, September 03, 2006 8:35:00 AM

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