That Was Powerful
Absent from tonight’s school board work session – Close the Gap Not the Schools. Who saw that coming? Gosh they seemed so sincere too.
Present – The Oregonian. Betsy Hammond attended the Marshall community meeting but didn’t write a story about it. Nice. The only school recommended for closure and the Oregonian doesn’t want to give it any ink. Eastsiders cancel your subscriptions.
Superintendent Carole Smith couldn’t possibly be any more disingenuous. She says the same shit at every meeting. “That was powerful.” No Smith, people with money whining about property values is powerful. Smith heard a cafeteria full of Marshall parents and community members say that they want a comprehensive high school on the Marshall campus.
Smith told me tonight that she struggled with the decision to close Marshall. She claims she’s heard from a lot of incoming 9th grade Marshall students who want a small focus school. I hope she took their names because they seem to have disappeared.
With the exception of having somebody at the table (even briefly) who is an experienced and licensed educator (Chief Academic Officer Botana), tonight’s meeting was no surprise. Marshall was recommended for closure, Carole was fake, Ruth interrupted Martin, Trudy was stingy about sharing resources, Pam talked about career tech ed, two board members were injured and Zeke wore his only suit.
Note to Zeke – yard boots don’t work with suits.
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As someone who has chatted with hundreds of students, I will also call Smith out on that statement- believe me, students overall DO NOT want a focus school. Overall, they want a comprehensive with small school mindset- three “majors” within the comprehensive, so to speak.
Mike Caldwell called Supt. Smith and present board members out on their empty eyesockets (though he more eloquently referred to the lack of sincerity in their) during his wonderful Marshall Community Meeting input. I’m not too surprised that this is the outcome, but hey, thanks for “slowing it down” for us, Smith.
Also, you would think Zeke would find a way to spend that salary of his.
I heard he’s fixing up his house. Glad he can afford it.
Zarwen – No doubt, Zeke was certain that he would be happy with the redesign plan. I wonder how Robb Cowie fared. His kids attend Sunnyside. Unless they’re Sunnyside neighborhood kids, they’ll have to attend their neighborhood high school.
Zeke, really needs a new suit. Baby crap brown doesn’t look good on any one. I may not like the guy but hey the least he can do with all the money he makes talking circles around people is get another suit.
I’m not exactly a fashion expert (more of a fashion victim), but I always heard that you don’t wear brown suits west of Pittsburgh. (And I was born in Pittsburgh.)
Robb Cowie sends his children to Sunnyside because of its focus on Environmental Studies. Robb’s major in college was Environmental Studies. How did he get to be Excutive Director overseeing communications, school choice, ESL family support centers, TAG… (over 50 people) is a mystery to me. He is often times clueless about education and comes across as an East Coast elite. You are all making fun of Zeke. It is a real shame. If Carole has any chance of surving her superintendency, both of these guys need to be gone and a few others. Carrie, can you make suggestions as to who else should be gone? I am behind you 100%.
Show Me, I make fun of Zeke because he isn’t qualified for the position but somehow he always manages to put himself front and center. I didn’t see Carole invite him to the table last night but I may have missed it. Why can’t Carole answer the high school redesign questions herself? Why do board members allow both Smith’s to talk around a question without answering it? It was interesting to watch Zeke’s ears turn red last night while Martin was asking questions. Zeke looked uncomfortable. Why?
I have no confidence in Carole, Zeke or the high school redesign plan. Even if it’s funded, it’s not likely to decrease the achievement gap. Of course they can always close the achievement gap by leaving more poor white kids behind.
If there are so many incoming 9th graders that want a focus-option, then why is PPS going to urgently reroute them to more “appropriate” choices for Sept. 2010? If this is true, why not allow them the choice to attend the phasing out of the small schools that should be open (all 3, really?) through 2013? Wouldn’t it make more sense for a student to transition from a small school to a focus-option in the same building, instead of from a Comprehensive 30-40 minutes away to a new building and learning model? I don’t buy it.
And this reminds me, last night attending the work session it felt like the discussion bore an eerie resemblance to the rule of fortune cookies. But instead of adding “….. in bed” to each new fortune, replace with “…..except for Marshall” to the majority of the questions and answers. However, I eagerly await responses to Board questions like, “Why Roosevelt and not Marshall?” in relation to how Roosevelt also has 3 small schools but will receive the chance and $ to build up enrollment and eventually convert to a Comp.
I expected to hear what we’ve been fed over and over, “The Green Max line!” or “students REALLY love their teacher relationships” but… nothing. At first. After (my interpretation of) Carole’s silent moment ‘how do I get around this very direct question and instead acknowledge the last part about the Roosevelt schools retaining their individual school IDs’ there was a vague mention of working out the technicalities of a School Improvement process. It reminded me of Marshall’s community meeting when a student asked point blank “what was the criteria for choosing Marshall?” and we got a couple of blank faces in return. Then shuffling between Carole, Mark Davalos and Zeke on who should answer. It also reminds me of every single time I hear someone try to answer anything about DDSD.
I always feel so good about the way our kids are treated! They are so lucky to have three years to phase out! Oh I almost forgot, wonder what kind of programs they will offer those lucky kids. After all we had very few options with 750 kids so I can only image what they will get at 600 then 400 and 200! I can just see the equity now!
Kelly, you can’t have criteria if there is no educational philosophy or definition of what constitutes a good education to base it on. And PPS doesn’t have any idea of what is considered a good, solid education. So, hence, no criteria and the malaise that is called high school redesign.
This proposal about no freshmen at Marshall and Benson next year is the most ominous sign yet. It points to those buildings being shut down completely. This must be what Carole meant at the Marshall meeting when she talked about not closing any buildings completely because we are in an enrollment slump but in 10 years we will start growing into our facilities again.
Carrie, remember, this “redesign” was never about closing any achievement gap. It has always been about deciding which schools to close and then making some kind of case for it.
8th grade students in Mashall feeder schools received letters in early May from Charles Hopson’s office notifying them that since Benson and Marshall were slated to be closed, they could respond if they are interested in transfering to their proposed new neighborhood school–Franklin for most, Madison for a few. What most of the students and their families didn’t understand was that this is not a done deal. So Franklin is waiting on these “proposed” student transfers but will not forecast them for classes until the board approves the plan. However, the incoming 9th grade numbers for Benson & Marshall have been dwindling.
So, when will these 8th graders know what high school they are going to in 12 weeks? How will they be sure they get the classes they need or want? I’m sure there’s lots of coordination going on at the district level to make sure teachers are being redistributed to these schools . . .
These are some of the district’s most vulnerable students and families who are left in the lurch as the district goes through its machinations. Interestingly, for all the wailing, gnashing and press about the need to “retain the middle class families” in Portland Schools, a significant number of Marshall-area students are fleeing PPS through the porous eastside boundary to go to stable high schools in adjoining districts. Can you blame them? They just don’t get the press coverage, for anything.
teacher, I’ve been reading the PPS Focus High Schools Initiative 2010-2011 which covers the application process for the creation of a focus school at Marshall. The more that comes out about the high school redesign, the more convinced I become that the redesign is just a huge fraudulent scheme and all of the students are hostages. The focus school application packet contradicts itself in a few places, describes a public school that sounds more like a charter school and leaves the final decision to the superintendent with her chief of staff by her side. (I’ll write more about it in another post). Where is the Chief Academic Officer in the plan?
The public must demand that the superintendent and board slow this process down. It’s a train wreck in the making.
I wasn’t able to attend the work session in person, but watched it on TV. (Thereby getting the words, but not the full sartorial splendor of the evening.) It seemed to me that the discussion was much more revealing than the written document. The tone of the written revisions belied some pretty significant changes.
First, the Benson compromise sounds like the worst of all possible worlds, producing an exceedingly small school (400) that will provide students with neither a comprehensive nor a real CTE program. As described by Carole, there would be only one CTE “strand” available at Benson. As we have seen over and over, schools of only 400 cannot support a sufficient staff to provide the kind of “robust curriculum” that I thought this whole 2-year rolling mess was about. Never mind a “deep” CTE education that has always been Benson’s claim to fame.
Meanwhile, the other CTE “strands” that are currently housed at Benson are apparently going to be farmed out one apiece to various comprehensive schools around town. If a student wants a “strand” that isn’t offered at her/his home high school, s/he can take courses at another school. So the plan now envisions high schoolers schlepping all over town to take specific courses. This sounds remarkably similar to the Regional Flex model that was one of the “Big Ideas” proposed last year and, as I recall, pretty resoundingly shot down — especially by students. Carole has always said that she favored that model from the beginning, so it sounds like we might be getting it after all, just through the back door. (And, in a statement that surprisingly hasn’t elicited any comment that I’ve heard thus far, Carole even floated the idea that this might mean the Jefferson dance program might again be opened up to kids who don’t attend Jeff.)
This new CTE model (that was apparently cooked up in the last couple of weeks) will require a uniform class schedule across all high schools. (And probably an 8 period schedule. I haven’t heard how PAT feels about that.)
In addition, the revisions included the splitting up of several middle school cohorts, an idea that contradicts one of the stated core principals of the original proposal. This change was apparently an attempt to respond to complaints that the redesign did nothing to promote greater diversity. (One interesting footnote to this: Skyline will now articulate to Roosevelt. I don’t actually expect that this will ever actually happen, but I do like the concept.) In any case, the impact on diversity will be marginal at best given the generally segregated housing patterns in town, but will have a big impact on some groups of kids and communities.
Then, of course, we have the wholesale shifting of incoming 9th graders at Benson and Marshall, a whole 2 weeks before summer break. I’m guessing that will make for an exciting summer for them.
The one encouraging point was David Wynde’s request that Carole & Co. clarify exactly what the collaboration with David Douglas around Marshall might look like and how serious a proposition this is. I agree. Clarity might be a nice change of pace.
All in all, it seems to me that the changes are pretty big and I’m surprised that there hasn’t been more pushback. I wasn’t able to attend the public meeting yesterday, so I don’t know what was said there. In fact, I’d love to hear what happened from those who attended. Notes anyone?
So, yeah, the train wreck gathers speed.
Rita, Few people attended the hearing on Saturday. Interestingly, Betsy Hammond from the Oregonian was there despite the fact that fewer people showed up than what the Marshall community was told is needed before the Oregonian will cover a story.
A few people testified in support of a full CTE program at Benson. Three self identified angry parents of incoming Benson and Marshall freshman talked about how the changes for next year affects their kids. About a half dozen people testified in support of the academic priority zones. Several parents of immersion program students spoke of their concerns about watered down immersion programs. Some parents unhappy about the newest feeder changes (Skyline, Sabin) also testified.
The Lents Neighborhood Association chair testified in opposition to the small focus school proposal for Marshall and the 9th grade changes for next year. He requested that PPS let Marshall go completely if the district isn’t going to provide the students with a comprehensive high school in the Marshall neighborhood. He also responded to an email that Ruth had sent to a Marshall parent. Ruth gave a weakass excuse for closing Marshall. She basically said it’s a tough decision but somebody has to close and each school could come up with reasons not to close. She also tried to sell the idea that placing a small focus school on the Marshall campus could help with the Lents Urban Renewal plan. (She must know more than the people who crafted the economic development plan for the Lents area. The plan relies on the area having good neighborhood schools that bring in families and business. The district’s proposal has the opposite effect.)
I’ve been to more high school redesign meetings than I care to count. There was a time when I thought Carole might not be very smart because she seemed to miss so much. I underestimated her. She’s smart. She’s just a liar willing to do whatever it takes to push this plan.
Is that why she lets Zeke and others do all the talking for her?
If the district picks on Lincoln, Cleveland, Wilson, or Grant then you will see push back.
For what it’s worth Ruth is the only board member that has ever returned my emails and actually followed up on my written response regarding the discipline policy. Bobbie Regan on the other hand rolled her eyes at me when we were working in a group at a community meeting.
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