Did I Miss Anyone?

Why am I so pessimistic? I guess because I’m one of those people that is destined to grow up and be a cranky old lady. It’s my nature to distrust governmental agencies. When you read “real” newspapers (sorry Falls News) you get information about how non-elected administrators are spending our money. Take the Plain Dealer (Monday, January 29, 2007) the other day for instance. They point out that Mr. Sanders may have other favors, I mean reasons, for refinancing. He’s certainly handing out a lot of jobs to his buddies. These are the things taxpayers are tired of. And you can’t vote them out. Favors and grabbing all the taxpayer money you can is the main reason these jobs are sought. Trust me, I grew up in a family that had every extended family member in some sort of government job or another. That or they were a union officer and employee at one auto maker or another so I understand what unions are all about too. Most administrators aren’t in this “for the kids”, and unions aren’t in it for the employees. That’s my opinion anyway. Teachers are at as much of a disadvantage in the current school culture as our kids are. I’m told time and time again that it’s their own union contract that prevents them from teaching methods and curricula that they feel would be successful. Another thing I’m secretly told, but no one wants to say out loud is if they actually had a choice as to joining the union or not, some teachers would not join. But if you want to teach, you’re in. You pay the dues whether you want to or not. Kind of ironic that the union says the teachers are not paid enough, yet force people who don’t want to give up the money for dues to pay. Now let’s talk about administrators, favors and tax money.

The Falls News did do an article this week on the reconfiguration committee meeting. I notice little was said regarding the committee chairs or how this looked to several of us from CF. First let me point out that there are three committee chairs. Two from Silver Lake and one from Cuyahoga Falls. Take note of the ever-present Silver Lake majority. And for the record, nothing from the CF committee chair made it to the recommendation list. Only SL suggestions made it The PFE facilitator was fine with this. But I guess this is where the favors come in to play. The facilitators’ relative recently got a job in the CF school system. But this isn’t supposed to look funny to the taxpayer. After all, it is business as usual. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
SL chair #1 headed up “reconfiguration; grade level based” SL chair #2 headed up “reconfiguration; neighborhood schools. CF chair headed up “reconfiguration; best practices”. All committees agreed that class sizes directly impacted student achievement- yet one SL chair asked the question “Do class sizes really drive excellence?” I wonder if she would have asked this if her kindergartner was in a class of 28? Besides the fact that she had already said that class sizes do affect achievement. The only research not included in the recommendations was research on best practices. If we aren’t doing this reconfiguration based on best practices why are we wasting our time? There are two things I know for sure about grade level based configuration. #1, it’s the most cost effective way to even out all class room disparities and inequalities. #2, it’s the best way to achieve teacher curriculum collaboration. So when kids hit middle school, they don’t come from six different “backgrounds”. Strangely enough the only cost benefits or achievement benefits mentioned were ones that favored keeping things the same. Did I mention that none of the CF chair best practices made the recommendation list?

A disturbing incident happened when the various tables were told to discuss what would make it to the recommendation list. Four board members were present including myself. Two of us sat back with the audience and kept our respective mouths shut. Two of us participated in the discussions. One of those board members wasn’t even a member of the committee. The board will be expected to vote on these recommendations. I have to ponder if it will be difficult to vote on your own recommendations? And strangely enough it's the same board members that don't want a question about reconfiguration on the community survey. Even I'm smart enough to know that neighborhood schools would overwhelmingly win in a community "vote".

The one point made that I can possibly agree with is that no particular configuration drives achievement. Good! Then we can focus on which configuration is the most cost effective. Because isn’t that what project recovery and the plan for excellence was supposed to be? A way to responsibly spend tax dollars and achieve greatness amongst all students? One of the “Plan for Excellence” district beliefs is “All students can learn” LOL! Let me know when that happens. We’re too busy trying to find new and improved ways to keep things the same. How much do you want to bet me that the push will be to redraw the elementary school boundaries? I’ll bet you a bagel and a cup of coffee. I’ll warn you though. I drink $3.50 cappuccinos. This is a desperate attempt to keep a cash cow open. I guess people would rather continue spending $2000 per pupil extra of our own money on open enrollers. (68% of kindergarten at SL is open enrolled) to justify this neighborhood school. Meanwhile break out your check books for the pay to play fees. And school fees, which by the way I still cannot get a straight answer as to what “school fees” are actually used for. I mean I pay for the gym clothes, I pay for the weekly readers, I pay for the assignment books, I pay for workbooks. So what are the fees for? C’mon all you administrators have my Email address in the handbook. Somebody please give me a valid, non BS answer. Oh and if anybody wants to take me up on that bet, let me know soon. We just got the property tax bill so Tarzan said I can’t go to the coffee shop for a while. Something about us not getting a levy increase when our expenses rise. Must cut back. Look for ways to save. I miss that cup of coffee.