Friday Open Thread
The district is looking for volunteers for yet another committee - this on on Equity and Race.
Interesting story over at Publicola about Garfield shutting down three boys' bathrooms for three days in October based on a rumor that students were being robbed. Apparently, according to someone who attended a PTA meeting where the principal confirmed the robberies did happen, they found the culprit and got him to return some of the items. However, it according to this person, the culprit was not turned into police and it is unclear if he was even suspended.
If true, this is another in a growing list of questionable judgments by Principal Howard (see the Athletics department).
What's on your mind?
Interesting story over at Publicola about Garfield shutting down three boys' bathrooms for three days in October based on a rumor that students were being robbed. Apparently, according to someone who attended a PTA meeting where the principal confirmed the robberies did happen, they found the culprit and got him to return some of the items. However, it according to this person, the culprit was not turned into police and it is unclear if he was even suspended.
If true, this is another in a growing list of questionable judgments by Principal Howard (see the Athletics department).
What's on your mind?
Comments
They should just call up Carol Simmons. She would lay it all out for them in, oh, 30 minutes.
Get it, got it, GOOD.
We ask for public input, the district is making an attempt to give us some...
eyes open
Get it, got it, GOOD.
Caving to extreme pressure only so she could save her own job is not a sign that Susan is a good listener.
Remember, she had the nerve to fire Floe based on the recommend-ation of an unqualified person whom Enfield personally hired (and, then, laterally promoted). Bree's husband (who receives Gates money for his teacher-bashing organization) and Susan Enfield's TFA fixation help connect the dots and explain why MGJ hired Enfield in the first place.
MGJ hired Enfield because Enfield has been in the reform-ka-ching machine since she started following her BFF Vicky around.
Enfield had to tout her connections to this machine or MGJ would have never hired her.
The basic direction of this district will not change as long as Goodloe-Johnsosn's pick and right hand person, Enfield, is in the driver's seat.
The fact that a recently fired and disgraced (you'd think) superintendent could be rehired into a lucrative position before her huge $$$ parachute (paid by we taxpayers) ran out demonstrates the power of the machine that Susan and Maria sold out to years ago, before we'd even heard of Broad, Kopp and MAP.
--new superintendent ASAP
Anyone have information?
~nora
Cons: Hard to get the electives you want. Institutional feeling, many many "rules" like always walk on the right side of the hall.
Overall though, I'd say it's been a fair to good experience.
We have a lot of friends with kids at JA. They all LOVE the elementary school but we've heard conflicting things about the MS. Too small, not many extracurricular opportunities, sparse sports program, etc.
Depends on what your kid is into I guess.
Ecksteiner
Ecksteiner
Notheaster
..... takes a hit in the NY Times
Chicago News Cooperative
Education Group Tries to Rebound After Diatribe
By KRISTEN McQUEARY
Published: December 2, 2011
My feeling is that kids should not be hit at any time and the forced submission we witnessed in the Youtube video from TX does lasting damage to child.
If it is music or math or school sports or social diversity, that really motivates your child then Eckstein can be a good fit. If you have a daughter who tends to get involved in girl drama, I would steer clear. Or if you have child who loves writing, or likes doing plays, but not musicals, or wants the CAD program that just went south, you should look at other schools.
Eckstein's blended special ed program can be a really great experience for some kids. The option to choose self-contained for a couple of periods a day & blended for others is rare in SPS.
The principal is really great. There are a number of wonderful teachers and some pretty mediocre ones. They do get rid of the damaging teachers quickly.
As far as advanced learning, there are kids there doing calculus & reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. They do use readers/writers workshop though.
They also are instituting standards based grading.
There are a lot of rules. That bothered my kids.
Eckstein parent
I'm not sure this will solve all issues around RBHS, and it still seems they need additional programs at the school, but it seemed very positive to this SE parent's ears. I'm feeling very bullish about the future at RBHS.
Good for you regarding your "bullish" position about R.B. Yes, it is my understanding that teachers are being trained for the IB program and I am convinced that there will be great interest in the program, but as you say it is two years out. I would hope that the District would also place the skills center program at RB and also the World School program there. These would certainly be a draw and RB deserves these programs. I always thought the International School Program should have been placed there, but it was placed at Sealth.
Thank you for your continued support of and confidence in Rainier Beach High School and the RB community.
School districts can use race in decision-making, feds say
School districts can use race in decision-making, feds say
I might suggest a petition here (and elsewhere) to demand that Carol Simmons be given a slot on the Equity and Race committee...If she brought her files with her, they'd be done by dinner.
Get it, got it, Good.
Garfield must have at least over 800 Free and Reduced price kids in their student body. If only half of those can be fed, it makes one wonder where the other half (along with the all the "non-F&R" kids) go during lunch?
Getting robbed in the bathrooms, it sounds like.
And staff who know the kids and all bathrooms open during the school day.
Maybe Ted Howard might find out how they do that.
Amazing!
My daughter & her friends went to Starbucks/Ezells/DurDur Cafe.
I'm sympathetic to families who did so in the past, if their local school didn't cut it, but the world is smaller now, given the abundance of local media, blogs, and various forms of public messaging available today, so lingering problems should not be allowed to go on in struggling schools like in years past. And we all need to pay for the extra help that struggling schools and students need now. If not, we'll pay one hell of a lot more later, as history shows time and time again. Pre-K and after school programs are sound & wise expenditures, and as a fiscal conservative, I completely support them.
But the real key is not just making the schools better, but having all City planning policies embrace diversifying neighborhoods as a common goal. This will bring gentrification to places that resent it, of course, but the ultimate goal is to have diverse schools all over, and that will only happen when the demographic composition of the neighborhood reflects the same diversity as the composition of the local student body at the neighborhood school.
Busing works for some, but it's a band-aid. And an expensive one at that. Seattle lost the racial tie-breaker case because it was a half-assed policy that created winners and losers without truly diversifying the schools, but allowing a handful of kids to switch schools. It's hard to argue with Justice Roberts statement that: "In order to stop discrimination based upon race, we need to stop discriminating based on race."
I don't want to see anyone trapped in a bad school, but, at the same time, giving people the option to leave the school simply does nothing to solve the problems that people are leaving to get away from. That problem has been the Achilles heel of this district and one that is way overdue being dealt with properly. I hope this latest decision doesn't inspire people to return to that way of thinking, because it didn't work either. WSDWG
He thought it would be a good decision to hire Bob Gary's former son-in-law (Clint Webb) as a "Hall Monitor".
Those that recall know that after someones daughter was raped by Mr. Webb, Mr. Howard knew nothing.
Glad our son was safe.
Someone asked where the Garfield kids ate lunch, I was just replying.
Daughter is also a pretty tough cookie and traveled in a pack- admittedly not something you are necessarily going to be doing just to use the restroom.
But that was before the District got all transparent, accountable and evaluation-y, wasn't it?
You betcha!
Just pointing out that Howard has been playing fast and loose with decision making for a long, long time.
There's been a lot of teflon for way too long.
I think they actually have some kind of closed campus there as well.
Well played Ms. Wiley and a nice contrast to Ted.
I think it would be hard to make Garfield a closed campus, but I think that it isn't helping anyone, when accountability/responsibility depends on who you are.
Glad to hear Franklin is doing well.
I'm sorry, but this is a zero tolerance area. Not to mention how ridiculous the enabling of anti-social and criminal behavior is from an authority figure, which any child psychologist would firmly advise against.
I want some answers here. If this were my kid, I'd report both the perpetrator and Howard into the police.
Sadly, I've heard a former School Board member excuse known criminal behavior from teens before too. So it ain't just Howard who appears to think this way. It's a lot of apologist, excuse-making enablers who feel sorry for the perps, while showing no concern whatsoever for the victims.
They aren't helping these deviants in any way by helping them avoid deserved consequences. They may mean well, and I'm sure Howard does, but he's exacerbating the problem. Not solving it. WSDWG
North parent
But still, there must be consequences to deter the behavior, and to send a clear message that its serious and won't be tolerated. From the descriptions, it does not appear that happened, so I'd like to hear Howard's comments on it. I think we have a right to know what was done, so we know what to expect in our public schools. WSDWG
Howard is from that school and has had a free ride for too long.
Not true, when you are getting a better, safer education for it. Families who waited for better "neighborhood" schools when the kids were in primary schools and now they're in high school are glad to have the choice system. Waited 10 years and that's too long for changes.
-choice was good
(By the way, I would send my child to Eckstein. In the end, however, I decided not to due to its lack of diversity.)
You mean the same (useless) department that had the very ignorant position that only whites can be racist (see Potter, Silas), and that a forward-thinking mind-set, and setting goals, was privileged and racist? The same department that said Thanksgiving was not to be a time of celebration, but rather a time of mourning? The department one teacher claimed at a regular board meeting helped him see that he was a racist, and that although he was still in the classroom teaching elementary school children, he was working through the issues with the help of Caprice (instead of a clinical psychiatrist)? That department?
MGJ's disbanding of that department was one of the only smart things she did during her tenure here.
LOL!
Helen Schinske
In today's day and age, how could someone not see a clinical psychiatrist if they discover that they are racist? An even broader question (although admittedly not part of my original post) is how could the district allow this man back into the classroom after publicly admitting that he has a inate (inbred?) tendency to discriminate based on the color of a child's skin?
Why wouldn't it be appropriate to seek professional support from an administrator? It isn't. Unless, that administrator has racist tendencies also. Anyone who claims or espouses (or perpetuates) the belief that only whites are racist, is most likely a racist themselves as well as a con-artist.
Well, we clearly have a completely different view of what it means for a person to admit racism. I think it's so common for people to grow up with unconscious racial biases as to be unremarkable in our culture. I wouldn't trust anyone who said outright that they had never needed to fight such bias in themselves. It would be like someone who said they'd never been cruel or thoughtless.
Helen Schinske