By Susan Turk

May 8, 2010—St. Louis—Central VPA HS staff were told last week that the school will not be converted into a SLPS district sponsored charter school after all.  In order to qualify for federal School Improvement Grants, it was decided to assign Central to the transformation remediation model in stead.  Many components of transformation had already been implemented at Central during this school year. A new principal, Amy Phillips, was put in place and the curriculum was already being reviewed and revised.

Staff were told that they would not have to reapply for their jobs, but that there would be a net loss of 10 teachers for next year and 10 non-teaching positions.  Newly instituted admission requirements, auditions and portfolios, affected the size of the incoming freshman class. It will be considerably smaller and future classes are also expected to be smaller as the school transforms into an exclusive visual and performing arts conservatory.

Dr. Adams reported at the April 7 Parent Assembly meeting that he expected the enrollment to drop from between 700-800 to 400-500 over the next few years because of the tightening of admission requirements.  (Staff were told to expect a school of approximately 550-600 students last week.) At the Parent Asembly meeting, a parent asked Dr. Adams whether he was concerned about competition from the planned Grand Center Arts Academy charter school scheduled to open in the fall.  He indicated that he knew something about the new charter school which relieved him of concern that it would be a threat to Central.

According to SLPS Executive Director of Communications Patrick Wallace  “Central is not going to be a charter because DESE has indicated that schools becoming charters must allow for open enrollment.  In order for Central to be the strongest performing and visual arts school possible, Dr. Adams believes students attending the school must meet entrance requirements, such as auditions, and not be admitted openly.  Thus, Central will not be a charter school.”

That would appear to be the reason Dr. Adams is not worried about competition from the charter school.  It will not be able to restrict enrollment to students serious about studying the arts.

This makes Governor Nixon’s April 26th remarks that the new charter school has, “the potential to be Missouri’s answer to Juilliard,” seem all the more strange.  Julliard is a private college level music conservatory. It does not have open enrollment.  It is highly selective about whom it admits.  There is no way the charter school will be comparable to Julliard.

Nixon’s remarks typify the sales tactics of the real estate speculation industry.  When they want to sell property that is an arid wasteland they might rename it Pleasant Valley rather than Dry Gulch.  Therefore, the former Carter Carburetor Headquarters building on Grand between Grandel Square and Delmar, which will house the charter school, has become the Beaux Arts Building, which will sound more attractive to dreamy eyed parents.

It says a lot about our political leaders that they will devote $21 million to renovate a former office building into a state of the arts school building to compete with a successful SLPS school rather than spending the money for the SLPS.  When BJC healthcare wanted the land that Stix and Michael Schools occupied on Euclid at Forest Park Parkway in the early 1990s, they built a new school for Stix out of their own pocket and handed the keys to the SLPS. The governor, the mayor and Grand Center’s Executive Director Vince Schoemehl could renovate the former Carter Carburetor HQ and give it to the SLPS if they want the city’s premier arts HS to be located in Grand Center.  In stead, Central’s talented students will continue to make do at Arsenal and Kingshighway, while a second rate school occupies the space Nixon, Slay and Schoehmehl are pouring money into. $8 million of that is in stimulus money from Recovery Zone Facility Bonds, approved last year as part of the economic recovery efforts by the administration of President Barack Obama. State legislation allows counties and cities to let the state reallocate their unused bonding authority.

The charter school monomania, which appears to afflict our political leaders, defies understanding. In their apparent unrelenting effort to destroy the SLPS they are not being innovative in their development of charter schools.  They are copying what is best in the SLPS in attempt to draw students away from the district. Once parents discover that they have been sold snake oil, they will flee copycat charters.  That is already happening.  A number of students from Imagine’s K-8 Academy of Math and Environmental Science were seen at Compton Drew Middle School’s new student orientation.  One parent indicated that Imagine’s science charter school was not what she expected.

If any school in the area is poised to become a feeder school for the Julliards of the world, it is Central VPA.  One wonders if the mainstream media, who have the capacity to reach far more people than the Watch, will ensure that area parents are properly informed. The myopic approach to public education adopted by our leaders should not be allowed to undermine the educational aspirations of the St. Louis area’s serious arts students.

NO SLPS Charter Conversions

May 12, 2010—The School Improvement Grant proposal presented to the SAB at their April 15 meeting is being revised. Chief of Staff Alice Roach reported to the Board of Education at their May 11 meeting that new information from DESE has resulted in the changes.  Dr. Adams will present his revised SIG proposal at the May 20 SAB meeting.  The revised proposal will not include the conversion of any district schools to charter schools under the Restart model.  Although the revised proposal is not finalized, Roach was fairly certain that Sumner HS and Walbridge and Ashland elementary schools would not be restarted as charters.  They will probably be assigned to the Transformation model in stead.  It was announced earlier that Central HS would not become a charter school.

One possible reason for the decision to not use the Restart model is that it required an education management organization to be hired to run the schools and the district did not want to do that.

It was also learned that DESE will only provide SIG funding for 11 of the 21 SLPS schools on the lowest performing schools list.  Consequently, funding will not be requested for those schools assigned to the Turnaround model since the state is making other funds available for them.  These funds are supplemental.  They cannot be used to replace GOB money otherwise assigned to the affected schools.

UNITED STATES COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS

PRESS RELEASE

April 22, 2010

MISSOURI STATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO MEET

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI – The Central Regional Office of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has announced a meeting of the Missouri State Advisory Committee on May 22, 2010.

TOPIC: Civil Rights Implications of Educational Opportunities in Urban Public School Settings and Education Reform in the St. Louis Public Schools

WHEN: Saturday, May 22, 2010

9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. CST

WHERE: John Cook School of Business Auditorium

St. Louis University

3674 Lindell

St. Louis, Missouri 63108

The Missouri State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will convene a public briefing meeting and bring together educational leaders, elected officials and community representatives to learn of developments concerning educational reform and the extent of education benefits provided to minority students in the St. Louis Public Schools. The Missouri State Advisory Committee (SAC) assists the Commission with its fact-finding investigative, and information dissemination functions. The SAC receives reports, suggestions, and recommendations from individuals, public and private organizations, and public officials, and forward advice and recommendations to the Commission. Congress has directed the Commission to establish advisory Committees in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and their members serve without compensation. The SACs’ reports to the Commission are wholly independent, and are reviewed by Commission staff only for legal and procedural compliance with Commission policies and procedures. SAC reports are not subject to Commission approval, fact-checking or policy changes.

Members of the Committee are Dr. Michael J. Podgursky of Columbia; Timothy P. Asher of Grain Valley; Dr. Joan E. Bergstrom of Lee Summit; James H. Buford, Jalesia McQueen Gadberry, Esq. and Donayle Whitmore of St. Louis; Shamed Dogan of Ballwin; Eugene E. Dokes of St. Peters; Tyrone J. Flowers, John Grimwade, Sandy Aquirre Mayer, and Beverly Randles of Kansas City; and Steve M. Schieber of Savannah. The work of the Missouri Advisory Committee is coordinated by Farella E. Robinson, Director of the Central Regional Office, 400 State Avenue•Suite 908•Kansas City, KS 66101•Ph: (913) 551-1400•Fx: (913) 551-1413.

###The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency charged with monitoring federal civil rights enforcement. Members include Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds, Vice Chair Abigail Thernstrom, Commissioners Todd Gaziano, Gail Heriot, Peter N. Kirsanow, Arlan D. Melendez, Ashley L. Taylor, Jr., and Michael Yaki. Martin Dannenfelser is the Staff Director. Commission meetings are open to the general public. The Commission’s website is http://www.usccr.gov/.

Somehow Rex Sinquefield has managed to hijack the Missouri Advisory Committee to the US Civil Rights Commission. It’s Missouri Chair, Michael Podgursky, is also a member of the Board of Directors of Sinquefield’s Show Me Institute and a member of the advisory board of the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, the group pushing alternative liscensing for public school teachers. Sinquefield supported the effort that passed ABCTE legislation in Missouri last year. Donalye Whitmore, another committee member, formerly worked for the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice (as in Milton and Rose Friedman) which promotes school vouchers and charter schools. Whitmore was appointed to the state board of education in 2006 by former Governor Blunt.  Her appointment was blocked by her state senator, Jeff Smith, because of her support for vouchers and tuitions tax credits. Another member, Urban League President James Buford was appointed by St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, a $289,000 beneficiary of Sinquefield’s, to serve out Vince Schoemehl’s term on the the St. Louis Board of Education after Schoehmehl resigned.  These Bush administration appointees to the SAC serve terms, which will last until 2011.

The agenda for the meeting includes several panelists who either work for organizations Sinquefield funds or politicians who received campaign contributions from him among them Earl Simms, Bertha Gilkey Bonds, Ted Hoskins and Rodney Hubbard. And Sinquefield sits on the Board of Trustees of St. Louis University where the meeting will take place.

Although Dr. Adams and Local 420 are going to participate, many of the panelists will be proponents of charter schools and tuition tax credits (vouchers).  If these gimmicks are to be portrayed as legitimate means of attaining the civil right of a quality education, the city’s children will not be well served by this event.

The agenda follows.

MISSOURI ADVISORY COMMITTEE

to the

U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS

John Cook School of Business Auditorium

St. Louis University

3674 Lindell

St. Louis, Missouri 63108

“Civil Rights Implications of Educational Opportunities in Urban Public School Settings and Education Reform in Missouri….St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS)”

 

Saturday, May 22, 2010

AGENDA

9:30 a.m. CALL TO ORDER, INTRODUCTIONS AND

OPENING REMARKS

•Dr. Michael J. Podgursky, Chairman

Missouri Advisory Committee to the

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Farella E. Robinson, Regional Director

Central Region, United States Commission on Civil Rights

 

9:45 a.m. PANEL I

“Defining the Needs of Students in the St. Louis Public Schools….A Bridge to Equal Education Opportunity”

•
Dr. Kelvin Adams, Superintendent

St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS)

•
Dr. Chris Nicastro, Commissioner

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MDESE)

•
Dr. William H. Danforth, Chancellor

Emeritus, Washington University

•Allen S. Boston, General Counsel

Special Administrative Board

•
Dr. Craig Larson, Chairperson

Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation

•Mary Armstrong, President

Local 420 Teacher’s Union, SLPS

•
Earl Simms, State Director

Children’s Education Council of Missouri

11:00 a.m. BREAK

11:15 a.m. PANEL II

“Scholarly Overview of Educational Opportunities and

Inequities in the St. Louis Public Schools”

•
Dr. Lynn Beckwith

E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of Urban Education

St. Louis University

12:00 p.m. LUNCH/RECESS

 

1:00 p.m. PANEL III

“Charter School Perspectives….Successes and Challenges”

•Cheri Shannon, Executive Director

Missouri Charter Public School Association

•Gina Washington, Principal

Construction Trade Charter School

PANEL IV

2:15 p.m. “Constituents, Elected Officials and Community

Perspectives”

•Jeff Rainford, Chief of Staff

Mayor Francis Slay Office

•Theodore Hoskins, Missouri State Representative

District 080

•Bertha Gilkey, State Coordinator

Missouri Black Alliance for Educational Options

•Dave Roland, Policy Analyst

Show-Me-Institute

•Richard Patton, Executive Director

Visions for Children at Risk

•Rodney Hubbard, Midwest Regional Director

Democrats for Education Reform

3:30 p.m. BREAK

4:00 p.m. OPEN SESSION FOR PUBLIC

(Comment period for the public and/or persons who wish to make a brief statement. Statements are limited to five minutes. Persons must be interviewed by staff prior to being presented).

5:00 p.m. ADJOURNMENT

Calendar
May 13 , Thursday, regular bi-monthly SAB meeting, 6 p.m., 801 North 11th Street, room 108
 
May 20 , Thursday, regular bi-monthly SAB meeting, 6 p.m., 801 North 11th Street, room 108
 
May 22, Saturday, MISSOURI ADVISORY COMMITTEE to the U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS, John Cook School of Business Auditorium, St. Louis University, 3674 Lindell,St. Louis, Missouri 63108, “Civil Rights Implications of Educational Opportunities in Urban Public School Settings and Education Reform in Missouri….St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS)”, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Please note, The Schools Watch has a new mailing address, P.O. Box 1983, St. Louis, MO 63118. Our email address continues to SLS_Watch@yahoo.com

Questions for the Watch?

Letters to the Editor?

Stories to contribute? News tips?

Send them to SLS_Watch@yahoo.com