By Susan Turk On October 6, 2010 the Green Party held a school board candidate forum at Legacy Books. Donna Jones, Bill Monroe, Doug Petty, Bill Haas, and Derek Craft are the five people running for two seats on the school board in the November 2 election. Donna Jones is currently serving on the board. Haas served on the board from 1997-2005. Monroe, Petty, and Craft, a district parent, have all run before. Doug Petty could not stay for the entire evening. He was given the chance to speak and answer questions first so he could leave. He is the pastor of Fresh Start Bible Church on Finney Avenue. He was also a member of the FACTS advisory committee which helped pass the $155 million bond issue for the district in August and which has morphed into the oversight committee for the expenditure of the bonds. He said that some elected board members had encouraged him to run. The board needs an image makeover and he would be part of that. He said he had 30 years experience in education. Asked about his thoughts on charter schools and vouchers, he responded that,”They are a part of where we live and are going to be here. Since the SLPS assumed responsibility for the Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Charter School when it failed, SLPS Supt. Kelvin Adams developed a relationship with the head of the charter school association. The students need to be served.” Asked about the outsourcing of custodial and food service, he responded that, “I can’t say whether it was a mistake or not. But it is not good to take jobs away from people.” Asked what he thought about state accreditation scores having dropped since the state takeover, Petty said, “I did not think they had dropped.” (During the first two years of the SAB’s administration they did drop. They finally rose with this year’s Annual Yearly Progress report.) He mentioned having just attended a task force meeting where this was discussed and there was nothing to suggest they had dropped. Asked which task force, he said he was a member of the monitoring task force set up under the 1999 deseg case settlement agreement. (Although most of the provisions of the deseg settlement sunsetted in March, 2009 the interdistrict transfer program is still in operation. So long as there are students attending city and county schools using this program the task force will continue to meet and report. That task force is co-chaired by Dr. William Danforth and Ms. Frankie Freeman, the same people who co-chair the Special Advisory Committee on the SLPS which just recommended replacing the current elected board of education with a new elected board which will evolve out of the SAB if the district ever regains accreditation.) He was asked whether he thought the district was targeting black teachers to be fired. He said, “That sounds conspiratorial. Ethnicity is not a reason to lose a job. Teacher effectiveness should be the consideration.” After these few questions, Petty left. The evening then proceeded with each of the other candidates being given time to present their ideas. Bill Monroe was them next to speak. As the founder of the Thurgood Marshall charter school, he began by saying that Thurgood Marshall and Ethel Hedgeman Lyle were assassinated by a predatory management company. He said he is trying to kick down the doors of ignorance. He supported the $155 million bond issue which passed in August and remarked that some of the current board of education members went against the bond issue because of misspoken advice. He expressed pride in having served on the FACTS community team set up by the SAB to support passage of the bond issue. He said the mayor hijacked the charter schools and wondered why DESE doesn’t allow public comment at their monthly meeting. He mentioned that the SLPS spends more than $1 million/year on transporting homeless children to school. He said we’re not thinking about them. We need to think out of the box, to spend more money on police and more money on children. Derek Craft spoke next. He said he is running because, “It is my purpose.” He has worked with children since he began coaching at Matthews Dickey when he was 13. His oldest son attended Sumner from 2002 until 2006. At present he has a son at Central VPA HS. He is himself a graduate of Central. He is very concerned about civics and citizenship not being taught in the schools. Students don’t know who their aldermen or committee people are. Craft has a brother with hydrocephalus. He learned early that expectations are different for different students. When he was in school, he noticed expectations were different for schools on the north and south side of the city. He witnessed the difference once he enrolled in Shaw VPA after attending Walbridge Elementary. He knows we have good and bad teachers. His platform is to teach civics and citizenship in the schools and get students involved in making policy decisions. Bill Haas spoke next. He reminded the audience that he previously served on the school board for 8 years from1997-2005. For the last 4 years he has worked as a substitute teacher in the SLPS, subbing every day for the last 3 years. He has also worked as an adjunct professor at Harris Stowe State University for 11 years. He has just been certificated to teach math through the alternative ABCTE certification program. He is currently teaching at Compton Drew. Haas proposed a state wide referendum prohibiting state takeovers of school districts without a vote of approval by the constituents of the school district. H e also wants the state auditor, Susan Montee, to audit the SLPS. He said universal pre-k would turn the district around. He said there should be zero tolerance for students not reading at grade level by grade three. He said that if students don’t learn to read by then they won’t get it. He stressed the importance of parental involvement and said there should be a referendum passed to require businesses to allow parent off 3 hours a month to come to their children’s schools. He said discipline was important and chronically disruptive students would benefit from spending time in Juvy (Juvenile Detention). Haas referred to the state takeover by the SAB as the third takeover. The first was the 1993 Four Candidates for Kids slate put together by Civic Progress to stop an anti-busing slate from controlling the school board. The second takeover was the 2003 election of the Mayor Slay’s slate. And then the third was the 2007 takeover by the SAB. Haas said the same people who engineered the first two takeovers engineered that one. He referred to Bob Archibald as ”the worst school board member in history” but admitted that Archibald said the same of him. He reminded everyone that SAB member Melanie Adams works for Archibald. He said, Mussolini got the trains to run on time. That doesn’t make fascism a good system. He then quoted Winston Churchill who said, democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others”. Concerning the issue of micromanagement for which the elected board has been criticized, he said he was sure Rick Sullivan told Dr. Adams what to do now and again. He told an anecdote about how when he was on the board previously and wanted Dr. Hammonds to hire 9th grade facilitators to help new high school students adjust and lower the drop out rate. Dr. Hammonds insisted there wasn’t money for the program. At the time the district was in the process of buying the current administration building at 801 North 11th Street and Haas told Hammonds he would hold up the purchase of the building unless Hammonds hired the facilitators. Haas proudly said that that bit of micromanagement saved accreditation at the time. He ended by saying he was against outsourcing and vouchers but doesn’t mind charter schools. He admitted to applying for jobs at them. But he wants a level playing field with charters held to the same standards as the SLPS. Donna Jones was the last candidate to speak. She is running for a second term on the board of education. Donna formerly worked for the district as a parent liaison. She is the mother of 7 children who have attended the SLPS for the last 20 years. She ran for the board originally as an extension of her parental involvement in the schools. She was particularly concerned that the needs of children with IEPs were not being met because there weren’t enough resources. She said there should not be any additional charter schools opened until the district is right sized. “We need a moratorium on charter schools, she said.” Both the charter schools and the SLPS are struggling. Money is being spent and we are not using the resources we already have. The SLPs is broke because of mismanagement. Jones used to work for the St. Louis Lead Coalition. She reported that there were conversations in City Hall about getting rid of people in the city. By getting rid of schools, you destabilize neighborhoods and people move out. She said charter schools are a serious drain on the SLPS. That’s why a moratorium is needed. She also said, “We don’t need vouchers. The public schools need to be strengthened.” “It was a mistake to outsource the custodians. When they were district employees we knew them by name. They were like a second parent to the students. Outsourcing their employment destabilized the environment in the schools. Children look forward to coming to school when there is a stable environment. She called the food service which is outsourced, “lousy.” That is part of the reason she opposed the bond issue. She asked why accreditation scores dropped since the state takeover. She said it was by design, part of a plan to destroy the SLPS and bring in charters and run African Americans out of the city. She added that, “There is a concerted effort to get rid of African American teachers.” They are letting experienced teachers go to save money because you have to pay them more. She said it was a mistake to have Rick Sullivan on the pension board. She said people need to stand up and fight back because of the serious problems in the SLPS. On the subject of discipline, she said a lot of children were unfairly targeted, especially African American boys. This problem could be addressed by hiring back the counselors and psychologists and social workers who have been let go. The meeting was then opened up for questions from the audience. The first question was about racism and the curriculum as an element of the takeover and staffing of the SLPS. Bill Monroe started taking about the January 2007 community meeting at Harris Stowe that was held to allow citizens to comment on the impending state takeover. He mentioned that he was the first to speak because he got in line at 7:30 in the morning because it was so important to him. He said he could speak first hand because of his experience with charter schools. He said, “The state disregarded what Imagine was doing to me. You cannot speak to DESE,” he said. “ Racism exists. The mayor brought a charter school to the same building, Can, and it lasted 9 months.” He said he hopes Obama, the Democrats and Nicastro investigate charter schools of color and try to bring about change. He did not address curriculum. Donna spoke about the problems created by the OPEN Court reading curriculum brought in by the Slay board in 2004. She called it a disaster. “ We need a creative open curriculum. We lack books and technology,” she said. “ We should allow the teachers the freedom to be creative.” Concerning racism, she said a black face had been put on the SLPS on Jefferson City. As a result the SLPS has been allowed to become worse and worse. She said politicians and big business want to clear African Americans out of St. Louis by getting rid of neighborhood schools. She reminded that she was one of the leaders of the student takeover of City Hall in 2007. She was in Jefferson City when one of the students was arrested. She begged former DESE Commissioner Kent King not to have the student arrested. “We have no representation on the DESE board. Do we not deserve a seat on that board? It is intentional.” She said, “Kelvin Adams is a good guy. But he is doing what he is told.” She reminded that the elected board filed a law suit against DESE after they took away accreditation and the SAB’s lawyers interfered even though the SAB wasn’t even a defendant in the suit. Monroe then asked to comment about curriculum and asked what is the minority population of the SLPS? He said you should teach children of color about themselves. Bill Haas said, “I haven’t seen racism in the public schools but that I will start looking for it carefully if Donna and Bill (Monroe) say it’s there.” He said, “We need to address student self-esteem because of how shaky kids’ lives are.” He related an anecdote about when he taught at Walbridge last year and was working one on one with a child who was very disruptive. After repeatedly trying to get the student to be quiet, he finally lost it and told the student to, “Shut up.” The student then told Haas it was disrespectful for a white person to say “Shut up” to a black person, never mind that the child had been disrespectful to his teacher by refusing to be quiet in the first place. The child went on to say that, “My dad says we should be taught by black teachers.” Then he told Haas, “just kidding”. Haas said he was a big believer in computer based learning, also known as “programmed learning”. He spoke about the gains students made at the high school Larry Hutchens set up at Southwest using a computer based curriculum. He also said, “Kids should read a book a day.” Derek Craft said that civics and citizenship should be taught for students to evolve into the information age. The current curriculum is taught from an industrialized point of view. He said not having gym doesn’t work and you have to have parents involved. He reiterated that students have to learn the words and laws of civics. He said as far as racism is concerned in the SLPS, he experienced some but he experienced more classism. He mentioned a data entry specialist at Sumner. Craft was trying to help a young man re-enroll from a charter school. Craft said it was black staff members who made it difficult for the student to get back in. They gave him the runaround when he was trying to enroll a drop out wanting to return. He said he had good white and black teachers so he concluded that the problem is more one of classism than racism. The next question was directed at Derek Craft, asking how he felt about charter schools. Craft said students and parents should have a choice. His experience with Sumner reinforced that belief. The next question was about school district accounting. Donna said we needed an audit of the district to determine the amounts spent on legal expenses, classroom supplies and computers. She said there was evidence that supplies were missing. Monroe agreed that an audit was needed. Haas said DESE manipulated accreditation standards to take accreditation away from the SLPS. He said it was the worst thing to take democracy away. He called former board members Ron Jackson and Bob Archibald the sorest losers in history. Craft said he liked audits. The next question was whether the candidates supported a moratorium on new charter schools. Donna Jones said, “Yes.” Monroe asked what the questioner meant by a moratorium because, “Education has failed our children so we need charter schools.” Haas said, “No,” and Craft said, “No.” The next question was what they would like the Danforth Freeman Report to say. Derek Craft offered that, “I have no idea what it’s going to say. I need a foundation about what it is.” Bill Haas then filled him in. After Haas explained it to him, he said, “I would hope they give power back to the elected board.” Haas said they should say, “We’re embarrassed by what we did. We should have maintained democracy. We are giving authority to run the district back to the elected board.” He added a surmise that they might create a combined elected/appointed board. Then he said he would like to divide the district in half, give half to the elected board and half to the SAB and have them go toe to toe. He would put his money on he elected board. Monroe said that, “In June or July of 2011, the transition to the elected board will happen. They should set an agenda for the elected board and SAB to sit at a table together so the transition can happen with an honest overview.” He also said they should feed parents at board meetings like the spread at Metro for the Parent Assembly so parents would feel welcome. Donna Jones said that the Danforth Committee, which will present its final report on October 8, are the friends of the politicians. “I am not dreaming. They will be saying No. Frankie Freeman wants to hold hostages for another 5-10 years.” Jones said she was, “Talking from experience and being honest.” Haas then said he would love to be appointed to the open seat on the DESE board (the state board of education). In the spirit of full disclosure the next question came from this reporter. The SAB is concerned that charter schools are draining resources from and even bankrupting the SLPS. Several of you approve of charter schools. You are running for the St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education not the charter school board of education. So, what would you do to ensure there is adequate funding to provide the students of the SLPS with the education they deserve? Monroe said that money follows the child and that ,”Had not the district been unaccredited in 2007 and had not this district, and I’m a believer in this elected board, failed the child for whatever reason, I support the right of any individual to see that his or her child is educated at the best level possible and let me tell you something, the fact is that our young black youth are going to penitentiaries, they’re dying in the streets while people like yourselves debate certain things.” “This president (Obama) has made charter schools an action and we would be remiss if those of us that truly knew the answer and myself even being the father of a charter school knows how evil the management companies can be because they killed Thurgood Marshall. They killed Ethel Hedgeman Lyle…so what I communicate is from a learned experience that gives me the knowledge and the right to say that I will educate my child at the best level possible. Obviously the courts agree also because they opened the doors for the children to go to other places if the schools in their community weren’t right.” Note that eloquent as he is, Mr. Monroe dodged the question. Haas said he wanted to change his previous answer (to the question about supporting a moratorium on charter schools). He said, “I will do whatever you think I should do to stop the spread of charter schools. When a student leaves the district the money ought to follow over three years so the first year 1/3 of the students aide leaves, the second year 2/3 and the third year onward all of it.” That would ease the financial impact on the district. He also expressed dismay over the lack of security at closed schools which were repeatedly broken into and suffered the theft of equipment. Craft said, “I am definitely for choice, whether it’s magnet, charter. But I would say as a board member I would like to get with the board to come up with some policy or procedure where all schools are held by the same standards. That to me made more sense than anything because the status quo is not working for our children.” (Unfortunately, the board of education has no control over the differences in standards to which charters and our public schools are held. That is determined by the legislature.) Jones said, “I am 100% for SLPS no matter what it takes, and I am not concerned about charter schools surviving…. But right now c harter schools are sucking the life blood out of SLPS. So, w hy would someone want to be on the board and be in charge of services for a student body and not be 100% for that student body? I mean I couldn’t possibly represent SLPS students and keep talking about another total entity like charter schools. They are for profit. Many of them are and that’s just the bottom line. The powers to be the leaders in this community, that’s just another money source for many of them. They’re not looking at the student body, whether or not they get an education, it’s all about the dollar bill.” “But that’s what this country was founded on. This is what America is all about, equal education, equal opportunity and I saw this as a parent I’ve had 7 children go though SLPS. It’s because the resources are not there and because the oversight has not been there. DESE has done a horrible job of monitoring and doing what they were supposed to be doing and when that happened well, SLPS went down. What they’re afraid of is that right now we have a parent board. They are allowing the SAB to micromanage the district, something they accused our board of doing. But if we were able to take a hard look at every area of the district, I believe we could save millions of dollars. We could rehire teachers. We could lower classroom sizes. We could bring supplies back to the level that they need to be and we would see student achievement rise, just off the charts. “ The next question had to do with making sure the public knew the elected board was still functioning. Donna Jones said the SAB stopped the videotaping of the elected board’s meetings. They did it so people wouldn’t know we exist. She explained that there is no funding for the elected board. She said they need to be in communication more. They cannot use computers or phones at 801. (They are not allowed to meet there.) Monroe said visibility is needed. “I attend board meetings for both the SAB and the elected board. I am not here to cast blame, but I have not witnessed anyone person besides David Jackson to be persistently be at every SAB meeting. His visibility gets cooperation” (but not funding, or use of computers or meeting space). Monroe said he wants to see one or two elected board members at all SAB meetings and then we would have a visible presence that could not be ignored…. Some members chose not to be in presence of the SAB because they didn’t feel that they are legal recipients of responsibility for the SLPS system. But we all know that they are. We must set aside our differences and go to these meetings, go and make our presence known. I’d like to see all elected board members at SAB meetings so there are no excuses given that they didn’t reach out to us.” Craft said that, “If elected I will be visible.” Jones replied, “The SAB has never come to any of our meetings. I am not being petty. The SAB is dismantling the district. I don’t support them. The people I represent don’t like what’s going on. So there will be no picture ops for me. We have been banned from having meetings at 801.” That ended it. One notable realization resulting from the debate is that only one of the candidates is an absolute SLPS partisan. Monroe and Craft advocate for school choice, meaning they are strong advocates for alternatives to the SLPS such as charter schools and saw no conflict between their affinity for charters despite the harm charters are doing to the district’s finances. Petty and Haas appear to be conciliatory or adaptable towards the charters although Haas reconsidered his position on the spread of more charters. Since there are 2 seats to be filled by this election, if two candidates with attitudes favoring charters are elected it will change the character of the board of education. At the very least one new member will be friendlier to charters. There will be one more school board candidate debate, this one on Wednesday, October 20 at 6:30 p.m. at Metro H.S., 4015 McPherson Avenue. Given the extremely sparse attention being paid to this election by the media and the community, there will be far fewer opportunities to see and hear the candidates this year. If you would like to see and question them yourselves, try to attend Wednesday.
Donna Jones
Autobiography
Over the years I have accumulated a multitude of experiences that have prepared me for this moment in time. I was a community educator for the National Center for Alternative Solar Technologies. I volunteered and received certification as a deputy juvenile officer in my early twenties. I have volunteered countless hours as a neighborhood block captain and youth coordinator. During the early nineties I created and sponsored a young entrepreneur youth group for the neighborhood children.
I was a gardening and nutrition teacher for the University of Missouri. I have been a lead inspector and community educator for the St. Louis Lead Prevention Coalition. I was also a community lead educator for Americorps and the City Health Department. I worked at Dewey School as a parent liaison in the late nineties. I have served hundreds of hours on the St. Louis School Board since being elected in April 2006.
Please answer the follow questions.
The SLPS is currently governed by an appointed board. The elected board has limited responsibilities. It is unlikely the board of education will be returned to power during the length of the term for which you are running. Why, then, are you running?
I am running for the board because I care about keeping public education free. I have been an active parent in the district for over twenty years. I would certainly like to see the development of a parental advisory board. We have thousands of students who deserve better. Students, teachers and staff are hurting. Despite the odds they continue do their very best with limited resources. I believe parent voices have been totally silenced. I want to continue to be that parent voice on the board. I care about every student regardless to race, creed or color.
What is the role of a board member?
The role of a Board member in most districts would normally be developing district policy.
What do you plan to accomplish as a board member?
In the spirit of democracy and freedom, I will advocate for the return of a locally controlled school board and I want to help our district regain accreditation.
Are you the parent of children who currently attend or graduated from the SLPS? If you are not an SLPS parent, do you have any other connection with the SLPS?
As many of you know I am the mother of seven. Six of my children have graduated from St. Louis Public Schools. Two have graduated from local universities. Four of my children are currently attending area colleges. I still have a child attending one of the district’s middle schools.
Are you an SLPS graduate?
As a child I attended Blewett, Dunbar, Columbia and I graduated from Northwest High School in St. Louis.
What are your thoughts about the SAB which runs the district?
The St. Louis School district is currently controlled by a politically appointed special administrative board. The SAB was given special permission by the Missouri Department Of Elementary And Secondary Education to micro-manage the district. I can relate to the uneasy feelings parents have about the state take over. The SAB has done a terrible job of running the district.
What is your understanding of the district’s financial situation?
We are currently broke and operating on borrowed time.
What is your understanding of the effect of charter schools on the SLPS? Should more charter schools open in the city?
Both St. Louis and Kansas City urban school districts are primarily African American. These are the only districts in the state that are intentionally being dismantled for charter schools. These two cities help drive the state’s economy. Privatizing public education is a very important issue. Privately owned public schools will allow for greater population control.
Charter schools do not have to meet the same educational standards as regular public schools. Charters schools can discriminate against students, teachers, and staff at will. Every new charter school drains money from the district. I would like to see an immediate moratorium on any new charter schools.
What are your thoughts regarding the magnet schools?
Metro High School and McKinley are just two of the award winning magnet school programs. I believe many parents would like to see the district turn many more schools into magnets.
What does the SLPS have to do to regain accreditation?
In order to regain accreditation the district needs leadership that is not politically driven and is transparent. The district needs to make a serious effort on student achievement and to improve reading scores because a lot of our students are reading way below grade level. Classroom sizes are too large.
What ideas do you have to help students learn?
Policies that encourage teachers to be more creative in their classroom instruction. An immediate reduction in classroom size. Adequate staff and resources for our schools. District teachers only serving in positions for which they are certified. All classrooms staffed with certificated teachers. In 2011 the Special Administrative Board is planning to eliminate transportation for our students. We just cannot let that happen. It will lower attendance and hinder learning. Making sure parents receive the No Child Left Behind required notice, when their children are being taught by non-certified teachers so they have the information they need to demand certificated teachers in their children’s classrooms. The zero tolerance discipline policy needs to be re-thought because it is increasing the drop-out rate.
What do you think about the MAP tests?
MAP test scores should not be the only criteria for judging student achievement especially when resources are low.
The Watch has repeatedly asked the candidates for their biographies and survey answers. We regret that only two of the candiates have responded to our offer to publicize their positions given the limited attention being paid to this election by the professional media. With 2 weeks to go before the November 2 election, we don’t know whether we will be able to provide our readers with information on all of them.
Here is a list of candidate endorsements known at this time.
Green Party - Donna Jones Percy Green - Donna Jones and Bill Haas 21st Ward Alderman Antonio French- Donna Jones and Bill Monroe Former School Board Member Bill Purdy - Donna Jones and Bill Haas Retired Teacher Delores Mills - Donna Jones and Bill Haas Calendar Please note, The Schools Watch has a new mailing address, P.O. Box 1983, St. Louis, MO 63118. Our email address continues to be SLS_Watch@yahoo.com Questions for the Watch? Letters to the Editor? Stories to contribute? News tips? Send them to SLS_Watch@yahoo.com
