Category — Talking Back

The Marshall community is still waiting for  clarification from MESD regarding some basic boundary change petition requirements.

Meanwhile, here’s what PPS could lose when the Marshall cluster secedes from PPS:

• $28,162,711 in general funds
• 4,400 students
• ESL students (cluster average is 25%  of the population) and the funding that comes with them
• SPED students (cluster average is 18% of the population) and the funding that comes with them
•  $2,158,055 in Title I funds (probably an underestimate since I don’t have 10/11 projections)
• 10 buildings
• over 94 acres of land
• costs of legal expenses to fight the boundary change
• 1/2 the cost of the election

That could be quite a loss.

Thanks everyone who has offered to help us collect signatures to move Marshall to the David Douglas school district.

We had a brief delay while waiting for MESD to catch up with us.  They weren’t aware that we could petition a boundary change so their lawyers had to draft guidance.

We will begin collecting signatures within the next couple of days.

Please email me at carrie.adams@comcast if you would like to help us with this effort.

 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.

The turnout for Thursday’s community meeting at Marshall was great despite PPS failure to send out an auto-dialer message as promised.  Carole Smith, Zeke Smith and Mark Davalos took questions and statements from students, parents, and community members.

Unlike all of the other high school redesign meetings that I’ve attended, Zeke Smith started out by sitting in the crowd.  Carole and Mark were in the hot seats while student after student asked the same question.  Why did you choose to close Marshall?  Just when you thought you’d heard the last why Marshall question, another student would ask.  They must have caught on quickly that the answers varied each time the question was asked.

One student switched the why Marshall question to “what was the criteria used to make the closure decision?”  I think it’s reasonable to expect both Carole Smith and Mark Davalos to be able to answer the question but Zeke had to jump in and rescue them.  

One student was very direct and asked if Marshall was selected because district administrators thought it would be the path of least resistance.  Yes students that’s why.  It’s also how PPS makes hiring decisions.  The district hires and promotes administrators that aren’t likely to make waves.  Mark Davalos is an example of that.

There were a couple of common messages from students, parents, staff, and community members. 

• The Marshall community wants and expects to have a comprehensive high school in our cluster.
• Students and parents love the Marshall teachers.  It was great to see the strong relationships between staff, students and parents.  I haven’t seen that since my kids were in elementary school (when our cluster still had them).

There was also broad and strong support for moving the PPS boundaries if the district moves forward on the current high school redesign proposal. 

We will pursue moving the entire Marshall cluster to David Douglas school district if that’s what it takes for students in the Marshall neighborhood to have a comprehensive high school program.

Mark Davalos’ role in the meeting seemed to be focused on making sure time was wasted and that good questions were overlooked.  A community member asked Carole and Mark how the high school redesign supports the Lents Urban Renewal Plan and suddenly it was time to talk about wrapping up the meeting. 

Carole talked with a small group of people after the meeting.  She asked what we saw as the best redesign outcome for Marshall.  We told her that we want a comprehensive high school on the Marshall campus.  Carole started talking about trade-offs and problem-solving a solution for the Marshall campus.  The Lents Education Committee chairperson asked Carole if she would be willing to meet with us so we could problem-solve together.  Carole said yes but backed away from it when the committee chairperson tried to pin her down on a meeting.

Carole did what she usually does which is to praise people on their testimony (that was really powerful) and to say she gets it.  I have no doubt she gets it.  She just isn’t going to do anything about it.

Dear Members of the Board of Education,
 
Prior to April 26^th, as a parent, I concentrated on advocating for the 3 small schools on the Marshall campus to stay open and educating people about the stigma we have to overcome as a school and community. My testimony and that of my 9^th grade daughter were delivered with these points in mind, mainly concentrated on RA2 since that was where our ‘expertise’ was rooted.  
 
Since April 26th we’ve had the amazing opportunity to connect with parents, students and community members of the Lents neighborhood. My hope was to understand the people most affected by these proposals and become a better advocate.  My main goal was to get the students involved. I had hoped for teacher feedback. After all, this is their community being uprooted and it’s their world that PPS is changing.  Again.  
 
I am not sure if I have succeeded in my goals, but I am writing to share with you what I have learned.  It is clear to me that parents, students and community members are absolutely in favor of receiving the equity that has been promised to all the other schools. Even many students, who treasure their small schools, seem to support a comprehensive model out of a desire for more offerings but also out of fairness to their peers who would lose their school.  No one I have spoken to wants to see Marshall so limited.  In a 2 day Marshall student survey that gathered approx. 275 responses, only 6% chose the focus-option (2 Administrators are included in the 6%). It is widely believed that this focus-option will weaken the community, increase commute times by almost double for students that would land in Franklin or Madison, increase drop-out rates among already at-risk students and will starve off athletics by decreasing the student body. Not one person I have spoken to seems to agree with decreasing Marshall’s population. The common message I have heard is “Increase Marshall”.  
 
So, if the only option for this neighborhood with the largest catchment in the district, for this campus and its current 750+ students is to turn it into an undefined focus option with an undefined core program where only 400-500 students apply to attend, based on a virtually non-existent leasing conversation with another school district, I say no thank you. Can you blame me? Can you blame anyone? It is too limiting and not equitable for this neighborhood.  It’s totally undefined. It does not appear to be secure or sustainable. And even more importantly, I don’t understand dismissing several hundred students and a real chance at building bridges with the Lents community to help improve public perception about Marshall and celebrate its successes to increase the benefit of existing programs.
 
I do understand the main point Superintendent Smith took from the Marshall students was their relationships with teachers. So why limit this effective way of learning to just 400-500 students? Robb Cowie, during a meeting at Marshall on May 20^th, suggested attendance didn’t have to be capped at 500. What exactly does that mean? Would attendance be capped at 750? 1200? 1600? It would be thrilling to have those teacher relationships in every school. If it’s the “relational” aspect that makes Marshall so successful, why not implement this district-wide for everyone? I am positive the beloved test scores would be through the roof, everywhere, closing the gap for sure. Let’s make Marshall another pillar of education by closing the boundaries and allowing all of our students this powerful method of teaching along with the educational equity that the Superintendent is demanding to provide. 
 
Demand that your vote is further informed by putting in some time at Marshall and fully understand the neighborhood you are about to drastically affect. Allow your perceptions to change. Spend a day on campus with one of our student representatives. Come to our community meeting next Thursday.  As elected Board of Education members I hope you would take every opportunity to learn about this neighborhood and its complexities and not just spending a moment or two to hear “yes we love our teacher relationships” but to also hear “we want more electives” or “this community deserves better” or “leave our school alone”. 
 
It is not Marshall’s burden to carry to make sure PPS helps other good schools get even better.  It upsets me that when Marshall challenges and dares to ask for a piece of the equity pie, it seems that responsibility is somehow put on Marshall to buck up and take it so everyone else can benefit.  Our 750+ students are not sacrificial lambs, yet we are reminded of the impact “we” would have on other schools by staying fully open. We? This is not OUR proposal. That kind of “reminder” seems similar to blaming the victim. When our students protest, should we start reminding them that they are responsible for making sure other students do better and have more? That somehow, they owe it to the others? That they need not complain about passing their former, closer high school on their way to their newly assigned high school via an extended commute, time for a babysitter, cut hours at work, less time for homework, impossible athletic schedule, because students all over the district might be able to receive a few extra classes?  
 
Finally, if it’s solely up to us as parents and community leaders in any PPS school to create effective communication and education about your process, if PPS representatives are booked to the hilt with meetings, design meetings are being scheduled within and parallel to the 30 day “public input” period, it’s clear that WE ALL NEED MORE TIME. Please extend the public input period and delay your vote. Allow our communities, and others like ours that struggle, to unite and thoughtfully deliver what you need.
 
As the Lents Neighborhood Association’s Educational Committee says,
“Slow Down. Listen. We’ll Help.”
 
Thank you,
 
Kelly McGrath
Parent
 
*****
Marshall’s Community Meeting will be on Thursday, May 27th from 6:30 – 8:30pm in the auditorium.  Light snacks, childcare and translation services will be available.

Let’s be clear on Superintendent Smith’s high school redesign proposal. 

She is recommending that 3 Marshall Campus schools close and a new school opened on the campus.  She is also recommending that Benson High School close and a new program is housed on the campus.

Both recommendations are in violation of  PPS School Initiation and Closure policy 6.10.030-P.  Where are the School Initiation and School Closure Reports?  Is she planning to produce those after the board votes?

Dear Superintendent Smith,

We are extremely excited that our youngest children have exited or will be exiting your public education system very soon.  For the past twenty years each of us has spent countless (until we counted) hours volunteering in schools or working on the outside to improve your woefully inadequate public education system.

We never planned to be paid for our services because we felt like it was our duty to contribute to our community AND we thought that PPS was broke.  Thank gooodness for Zeke Smith.  Zeke made it clear to us last Monday that PPS isn’t concerned about the money. 

Marshall parents have had to work twice as hard as parents from other schools just to get a minimal level of district support in our neighborhood.  Many of us are the reason that you have successful high poverty schools.  You blame us for failure.  Credit us for success.  We’ve been involved in the education of children in the Marshall neighborhood and throughout the system.

We’ve attached a bill for our services.  We weren’t sure of the best way to bill you for our hours so we hired a consulting firm from Florida to figure it out for us.  They came up with BILLIONS of possible scenarios but we ignored those and decided to charge Zeke’s rate. 

We recognize that we are probably cheating ourselves by using his salary as a guide ($124,067) since EVERY one of us has more education experience than Zeke but we’re okay with that.  Besides, none of us have Zeke’s degree in theater.   

Sincerely,

Marshall Cluster Moms Inc.

From November 2008- The Bridgespan Group, a San Francisco-based nonprofit dedicated to improving schools, studied the efforts within PPS high schools and tracked student success. The results, although preliminary, show promise. Cleveland High School and Biz Tech High School on the Marshall Campus reported the most notable results, greatly reducing the number of freshmen failing three or more classes or missing more than 20 days of school.

Much Love,

PPS Communications Department

I read this on p. 67 of the Superintendent’s HS Redesign proposal (emphasis mine):

 ”After high school boundaries are finalized, staff will undertake a community engagement process to address these structural issues at the K-8 level. Starting in fall of 2010, the process will result in recommendations on system wide changes to the school board during the 2010-11 school year and for implementation in 2011-12. The scope of these recommendations may include boundary changes, feeder pattern adjustments, school configuration changes and potentially school consolidation, and the initiation of a new focus school that replicates Sunnyside Environmental School.”

Didn’t we already ring around this rosy 4 years ago?  Isn’t this what CAUSED the “structural issues at the K8 level”?  How does doing more of the same fix the problem?  For example, how would “school consolidation” relieve the overcrowding at Laurelhurst, Alameda, Cleary, Rigler and Scott (which, interestingly, was also acknowledged in this document) as opposed to reopening Rose City Park?  How would “school consolidation” relieve the overcrowding at Sunnyside and Abernethy as opposed to reopening Edwards?  The School Board has already allocated $11.2 MILLION for trailers; five of the aforementioned schools are among the recipients.  Is there going to be a contest to see which school gets the most trailers???

WHERE DOES IT END?????

 Superintendent Smith’s recent recommendation to cut paraeducator and bilingual educational assistant staff is certainly consistent with PPS history.  Like a playground bully, Smith picks on the weakest members.

Her recommendation to close Marshall is just one more example of that.  She doesn’t have the courage to stand up to Grant or Lincoln or Wilson so she took the easy route.  She doesn’t expect resistance from the Marshall community. 

Her high school redesign plan closes Marshall without giving parents or students the opportunity to be on the focus school redesign team.  I’m sure that’s because the “redesign” will be the old design, certain to fail. 

The small focus school at Marshall isn’t going to open.  There isn’t any student or parent interest in it.  Remember the Young Men’s Academy?  The high school redesign plan says a representative from Marshall (staff member) wanted a small school at the campus.  One person wants it so the community suffers?

The parents and students in the Marshall area have been saying for years that they’ve been cheated by the small schools concept.  They weren’t happy with the small schools because they didn’t offer anything. 

The high school redesign is our chance to FINALLY get a decent shot at a public education. 

The superintendent couldn’t justify her recommendation to close Marshall based on the SEER data so she added bullshit criteria and lies.  One of the essential factors that informed decision-making was “local understanding of the city’s topography, neighborhood’s sense of community, and travel routes.”  How does she measure the neighborhood’s sense of community?  Do they complain about paying premiums for their homes?

Another essential factorinforming Smith’s decision-making is the opportunity for unique partnerships.  David Douglas isn’t going to lease Marshall.  The letter from David Douglas superintendent Rommell (Smith’s friend) says she’s encouraged by the possibility of providing opportunities for David Douglas and Marshall students.  How encouraged?  Has David Douglas made a commitment to lease Marshall?  Or does Smith expect the PPS board and community to assume David Douglas will be leasing Marshall when closing the school?  Has Smith seen David Douglas’ proposed budget?   

New homes are cropping up everywhere in the Marshall cluster and enrollment at Marshall has increased since 2004.  One issue Smith said she plans to address in the high school redesign is “very large enrollment at Harrison Park”.  That would be our multiple award winning Clark Elementary which was merged with Binnsmead Middle School illegally.  Harrison Park’s enrollment is very large because of the district’s decision to close Clark while the area was seeing significant growth. 

Here’s a profile of Marshall High School now:

How does closing a school that serves a higher than average percentage of students who are poor, minorities, and/or have disabilities promote equity?  It doesn’t but it does make them an easy target.