providing parents with the truth about the public education system

So far this school year, there have been three reported incidents involving guns/shootings at or near PPS high schools.  While gang activity and violence has increased, PPS leadership has decided to utilize school security staff for supervision of required study halls.

The study halls are wrong for many reasons but using security staff in this way compromises safety.  The resources allocated to study hall could be used for game coverage when most of the incidents have happened.

Do you feel that your child is safe in PPS?

I don’t mean just safe from school shootings.  Is your child bullied by kids or staff?

Years ago, a PE teacher at Harrison Park put his hand on my daughter’s forehead and knocked her backwards to the ground…not once but twice.  He admitted doing it but said he got caught up in the heat of the moment.  The teacher had been reprimanded for the same thing in the past.  A letter of reprimand had been placed in his file years earlier and it said that he couldn’t be alone with female students.  Nobody enforced it.

While my son was at Benson, he observed a school custodian buying weed from a student.  The vice principal and campus security coerced him into participating in the investigation saying it would be anonymous.  Then they took him into the hall and had him identify the custodian face-to-face.  My son rode the MAX daily with this same custodian.  The custodian was fired and came back to the school the next day.  Campus security caught him after he’d cut some phone or power lines.

I was livid and told my son that he should never be alone with the administrator again.  The next day my son was called into the vice principal’s office but didn’t go.  He called me for advice then left school.  The Benson principal suspended him for insubordination for not going to the office.  Outside of district discipline policy, she gave him a MAJOR suspension.  It was just a few weeks until graduation and I wasn’t sure if he’d make it.  I dreaded every day that he went to school.

Do you trust the building conditions (air, water, hazardous materials…) at your child’s school?

PPS staff knew for years that students were sitting in a toxic building at Whitaker but they allowed it.  When they did move the students; they moved them to other dangerous sites.

Do you trust safety related decisions made by your child’s school principal?

Again, years ago at Harrison Park, the school caught fire but the principal refused to let anyone call 911.  He was afraid it would make the school look bad.  I may be crazy but I think calling the fire department to put out a fire would look better than losing student lives and the upper floor to a fire that you tried to put out yourself might look worse.

I am so grateful that all of my kids are now out of PPS.  Am I alone in my concerns about student safety in PPS?  What are your experiences?

From the Portland Tribune, 9/29/11:

Portland Public Schools – which has built only two new schools in the past 40 years – uses 129 portables, many of them with two classrooms each, says district spokesman Matt Shelby.

Those portables could easily provide classroom space for 5,000 or more students, or one out of every nine students in the district.

Let’s do the math: 5,000 students=10 elementary/middle schools, or 4 high schools.  PPS has closed more schools than that in the last 10 years (see Where are they Now?, the most recent being Marshall High School.

Now we are hearing on Oregonlive about overcrowded schools and the need for “boundary changes”:

Could “boundary changes” be code for more closures?  Given the fact that PPS last year allocated up to $11.2 million (see board document,  bottom of p. 13) for EVEN MORE portable  classrooms, it’s difficult to ignore the possibility.

Why isn’t the $11.2 million being spent on building maintenance and upgrades?  Given PPS’ history of selling shuttered buildings, it’s hard not to think that that’s where this is going. In the meantime, high schools are putting kids in 90-minute study halls with security guards instead of teachers to “save money.”  Well, we know what the money is being saved for.  Shame on a school district that puts over 10% of its students into trailers when building space is available!

Parents, while your high school students are sitting in crowded required study halls, PPS is hiring another central office administrator.

The district is hiring a Senior Manager for the Board of Education.  The position pays $70,805-$85,320.  The board already has a secretary.

Does the board really need a “liaison for Board members to district staff”?  Or someone who “responds to requests for information from Board members regarding district policy and operations, coordinates with district staff to research, analyze and present findings to Board members as required.”  Aren’t the people who run the departments responsible for following up on board information requests?

This position would also be responsible for assuming “primary responsibility for the coordination of the Board’s external meetings and outreach, with other local and statewide elected leaders and school districts, community groups, parent groups, the business community, etc., including the preparation of materials and talking points for Board members attending external meetings.”  Why couldn’t someone from the bloated Communications Department do this?

I agree that board members should have support for their work but this all sounds to me like work that could be picked up by current district staff.  Teachers, classroom assistants and lower level central office staff have had to pick up extra responsibilities over the years.  Why can’t upper management do the same?

On September 23rd PPS announced that the district’s Human Resources Director was leaving:

PPS Human Resources Executive Director Hank Harris announced that he will be leaving Portland Public Schools to open a private pre-K-12 HR consulting practice. Harris has led PPS’ Human Resources department for over two years.

Under his tenure, Harris guided the department through two difficult  budget and staffing cycles, during which he led the department in  significant initiatives related to diversity. Harris was also deeply  involved in principal and assistant principal hiring, executive level  hiring and working to ensure that strong candidates are coming into PPS  to meet the needs of all students. On the state level, Harris serves as  President of the Oregon School Personnel Association, where he  represents the schools of Oregon admirably.

Superintendent Smith will be announcing interim HR leadership shortly  and will immediately commence a national search for a permanent  department leader.

According to GovDocs, Hank Harris made $125,000 a year.  Wouldn’t it be a little risky to leave a job paying that much to start a consulting buiness?

I checked the state’s business filings and I can’t find any record of his company.  Does anyone know the real story behind Hank Harris’ departure?

It looks like it could be another interesting school year at PPS.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) my new job keeps me pretty busy and I don’t get much time to write for the blog.

I am still looking for guest authors.  Volunteers?

In case you missed it in Tuesday’s Oregonian:

By mid-October, the Portland School Board will be looking at a small list of schools that need a boundary change or other fix because their enrollment is too small to offer a full program or too big to fit in the building.

It will be the first step in a multiyear effort to close, consolidate or reshape many of the district’s elementary, middle and K-8 schools to try to make them more equal in size and offerings, Superintendent Carole Smith said.

According to PPS, seven K-8s have too few students to sustain a “robust” program.  One of those K-8s is the Creative Science School.  Several years back, the Creative Science School was moved into Clark Elementary and Clark students were pushed out.  Clark students were moved to Binnsmead.  The Binnsmead building was renamed Harrison Park.  Now the district is considering a boundary change for Harrison Park because it’s overcrowded.  Follow?

Does anyone on the PPS leadership team understand cause and effect?

PPS Internal Auditor, Dick Tracy, produced two audit reports last night (SPED and Status and Impact of Performance Audit Recommendations).  The Status and Impact of Performance Audit Recommendations report provides a comprehensive overview of the PPS performance audits conducted since January 2007 and summarizes the status of all audit recommendations.  This is from the report (emphasis mine):

Significant changes in response to audit recommendations

Some of the most significant changes made by the district in response to performance audit recommendations include the following:

Increased instructional time. New 90 minute block schedules at high schools; standardized bell schedules at high schools and K8; increased the student day at K8 schools by 15 minutes; eliminated union contract language that limited the length of the student day.

Improved management of school building maintenance. Upgraded maintenance management software; consolidated several labor trade shops and increased generalist work force; established maintenance standards for major equipment; developed performance measures for each labor craft.

Established new teacher evaluation system. District and teacher union agreed to implement a revised teacher evaluation system in the 2011-12 school year.

Increased charter school accountability. Developed clear requirements for charter school annual reporting; instituted a penalty when charter schools are late in providing required financial and performance data.

Moved to a common school calendar. District implementing a single, common quarter calendar for all schools and grade levels in 2011-12.

Remaining opportunities for improvement

There are also some remaining opportunities to more fully address some significant audit findings including:

Additional effort to expand teacher work-day and increase work load flexibility: The district should continue to negotiate changes in the teacher contract that will increase annual school days and the length of the teacher work-day.

Actions to improve the effectiveness of after-school tutoring: Pursue waiver of federal rules that reduce the effectiveness of after-school tutoring.

Implement ELL improvement plans: The district needs to transition from planning to implementation of ELL improvement initiatives.

What do you think about the changes and remaining opportunities?

The district has just posted the results of their internal audit of SPED.  The findings include financial management weaknesses:

My analysis of SPED financial management at PPS shows that the district has not managed program finances effectively.  Over the past several years, weak controls have allowed growth in staffing levels without sufficient management review, federal funding was not always used wisely, and technical errors in the budget development for 2010-2011 required modifications to the adopted budget.  The district also missed opportunities to better manage the growth in special education costs by appropriately controlling the maintenance of effort spending base.  In addition, the district used short-term increases in federal funding to staff on-going services causing a significant funding cliff in 2011-2012 as federal recovery resources end.   Finally, compliance problems due to the disproportionate referrals of African American male students for long-term discipline restricted the use of approximately $3 million in federal funds the past two years and precluded the district from taking advantage of opportunities to lower maintenance of effort spending levels.

Beginning this past year, the district has made significant efforts to improve SPED financial management through the development of improved internal control systems.  Specifically, the district created an independent budget analyst for the special education program, improved budget monitoring processes and financial information, and established a new method for reviewing and approving new staff positions.  These steps should help the district better plan and manage the ongoing operational costs of the special education program.

You can read the entire report  here.

This statement was sent out today:

My name is Erica Jayasuriya and I am the Founder and Creative Director of the R.E.A.L. Prep Charter Academy. Today is a very unfortunate day for the children and families who were inspired by the program that the R.E.A.L. Prep team has been developing and who anticipated being enrolled in our school. I am deeply sorry that this did not come to pass and the role that I played in not leading effectively to insure that we were fully ready to serve families on time. On behalf of R.E.A.L. Prep, I want to express my profound apologies to the students and families that enrolled in our school for the lack of good and clear communication about the roadblocks we were hitting. I take full accountability for my shortcomings that contributed to today being a day of disappointment and confusion instead of celebration.

As a mother of a teenage son who needs this style of program, I continue to believe that the vision and mission of R.E.A.L. Prep remains a very solid and needed addition to the offerings in our city and in the movement for transformational education. I am truly grateful and applaud the State Department of Education and the Portland Public School District for seeing the strengths of our vision and permitting us to move it forward. I also have deep gratitude for the countless educators, artists, activists, and community members both locally and nationally who have been supportive of our development and excited to participate once we were open. Everyone who has engaged with this work has done so with a deep commitment to finding new and better ways to educate and guide our targeted population of creative and independent minded youth who are uninspired to remain in a traditional school system.

Designing a school is a bold undertaking and we were attempting to include a great number of educational best practices, each of which had numerous elements that needed deeper understanding in order to be implemented correctly. The combined wisdom and passions of the educational, artistic and entrepreneurial community allowed us to begin developing a program that harnessed the power of the arts to unite community and transcend racial and economic barriers. There are many stories we could share about this process of innovation, but ultimately we were developing a public school and the accountability for the school not opening rests with our organization.

It is with deep regret and sorrow that I have been unable to lead this project to its full potential in the given time constraints. It is my hope that through the many positive relationships that have been built over the past years our work may yet come to fruition. By taking the time to reflect and learn from our mistakes there is still the potential to eventually come forward as a stronger and more effective organization capable of serving the many youth in our city who have amazing talent, wisdom and unlimited potential. It is to these youth that I offer my humblest apology for not fulfilling the promises I made and ensuring that we were ready to begin on this day. We built this school because we have seen you, we have listened to you, and more than anything we want to work alongside you in the creation of something new and meaningful. You have always been, and continue to be, our inspiration.

Anyone watching tonight’s school board meeting?  There seems to be a little tension over the new governance model.  I would love to have heard the conversations that took place behind the scenes.