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When the state Board of Education meets next week, they will have the opportunity to accept evidence from the beleaguered St. Louis Public Schools that would put off any effort to turn over control of the district to appointees of the governor and the mayor.
Deputy Superintendent John Martin told a group of nearly 100 SLPS parents and stakeholders gathered last night at Carr Lane Middle School that the district has evidence that it has met the sixth standard needed for provisional state accreditation.
In order for a school district to be fully accredited, it must meet nine of 14 standards set by the state Board of Education. To be provisionally accredited, as SLPS has been for several years, it must meet six of those standards. The state announced a few weeks ago, that SLPS had so far met only five.
The recent recommendation of a takeover of SLPS is based on the district losing its accreditation.
Dr. Martin said that SLPS has evidence that the district has met the sixth standard, a measure of the percentage of high school graduates that go on to college.
Martin said the district contracted with a private firm, for a fee of just $450 per high school, which tracked down recent graduates and confirmed their enrollment in institutes of higher learning.
It is now up to the state board to accept this new data, or instead ignore it and move on with stripping the district of its provisional accreditation.
That "makes all the difference in the world," said Martin.
A group of nearly 100 SLPS parents and other stakeholders last night at Carr Lane Middle School to begin organizing against any state takeover of St. Louis Public Schools.
Parent and school board member Donna Jones addressed the group and repeated her earlier assertion that the current instability and controversy on the school board is a "manufactured one" meant to set the district up for some kind of privatization effort.
The two candidates (so far; filing closes Friday) for President of the Board of Aldermen, incumbent Jim Shrewsbury and challenger Lewis Reed**, both appeared at a forum last night hosted by the Gate District Neighborhood Association in Reed's 6th Ward.
In her weekly e-newsletter, St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Diana Bourisaw announced this week that 76 of the district's 96 schools have reached attendance goals she set shortly after assuming the post in July.
"Earlier this year, I established attendance rate targets for all schools, including 95% for elementary, 92% for middle/junior high, and 90% for high," said Bourisaw.
"At the end of the first month of school, I highlighted those schools that met or exceeded those targets. I'm pleased to again share with you that nine more schools have been added to the list for the first half of the 2006-2007 school year."
Bourisaw indicated that eight out of 17 high schools, 15 out of 18 middle schools, 51 out of 57 elementary schools, and 2 out of 4 alternative schools have reached those targets.
The Arch City Chronicle and Post reporter Jo Mannies report that State Sen. Jeff Smith will be supporting Gov. Matt Blunt's expected appointment of Republican Carol Wilson as the next head of the St. Louis City Board of Elections.
SLAY KNEW? -- Curiously absent from last night's failed, sad attempt to destabilize the school district by forcing the resignation of Dr. Diana Bourisaw was anyone from the mayor's office.
At just about every board meeting and at the special meeting that ended with the resignation of Dr. Creg Williams, one can usually spot the mayor's education liaison, Robin Wahby. But not last night.
Every reporter in town knew what was going on last night, but no representative from the mayor's office was there to take questions or relay info back to Mayor Slay? Makes some believe that "Hizzoner" knew exactly what was about to go down, did nothing to stop it, and wanted to be nowhere around when the crime went down.
EARLY CALL TO DUTY -- Governor Matt Blunt has asked State Auditor-elect Susan Montee to finish the remainder Claire McCaskill's term as state auditor.
"I have asked Susan Montee to begin her service to the state a little early," Blunt said. "I look forward to working with Susan to improve the efficiency of state government."
McCaskill becomes Missouri's newest U.S. Senator beginning noon Eastern Time, Thursday, creating a vacancy in the auditor’s office. Blunt will appoint Montee to finish the four remaining days of McCaskill's term until Montee’s four year term officially begins on Monday.
S.O.S. for SLPS -- A "Save Our Schools" Public Forum and organizing event has been set for 6:00 p.m., Thursday, at Carr Lane Middle School, 1004 North Jefferson Ave.
Save our Schools is organizing with the expressed purpose of seeking input from the community, parents, teachers and voters in the decision making process.
"We welcome advocates of the St. Louis Public Schools to take part in this organizing meeting and public forum. Save Our Schools invites all stakeholders, especially parents, to voice their concerns," said Claudia Blackmon, a St. Louis Public School parent. Ms. Blackmon, a Gateway High School parent, will moderate the forum.
TINY BRIEF -- Congratulations to the new legislators being sworn in today in Jefferson City.
Purdy Says 3 "Out of Control" Members Attempting to Sabotage District
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Tuesday, January 02, 2007 at 8:27 PM
The vice-president of the St. Louis City school board tonight said three members of the board supported by Mayor Francis Slay are actively trying to sabotage the school district.
Bill Purdy said tonight's grilling of Superintendent Diana Bourisaw in a closed-door special meeting was an attempt to force her resignation at a time when the district most needs stability.
"If we were talking about this on the school yard, we would call it bullying," said Purdy.
"It is my opinion that these board members want so desperately the state to takeover the district that they want to send the signal out to the state and to everyone in this community that the board is out of control. And it is not the board out of control, it is those three people that are out of control," said Purdy.
By a close vote of 4-3 the school board voted tonight to keep Dr. Diana Bourisaw as the head of St. Louis Public Schools.
Board member Bill Purdy, who called the question, credited Flint Fowler for joining him, Peter Downs and Donna Jones to fight off the attempt to force out Bourisaw.
Four members of the St. Louis school board are grilling Superintendent Diana Bourisaw in a closed-door meeting. Board members Peter Downs, Bill Purdy and Donna Jones came out to briefly speak to the media while the other members of the board, led by Pres. Veronica O'Brien, grilled Bourisaw.
Downs and Purdy said they believe the others are purposely seeking to destabalize the district, possibly going so far as to fire the superintendent in hopes of fueling a state takeover effort.
The St. Louis City school board is holding a special meeting tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the Foundation Room at the Administrative Building, 801 N. 11th Street. The Special Meeting will begin in open session and move into closed session to discuss personnel matters.
In the newspaper business -- and even here in the blogosphere -- publishers and editors share the same repeating nightmare: to print a mistake so embarassing that you'd want to change your name and move to Alaska. Well publisher Mike Williams from the St. Louis Metro Sentinel Journal might be pricing tickets as you read this.
On the cover of the current issue of the Sentinel (above the fold no less), Mr. Darryl Piggee, aide to Congressman Lacy Lacy, is identified as "Thief of staff" for the Congressman. Click the image to the right to enlarge.
Williams could not be reached for comment, but Piggee said he was aware of the typo and has not yet received a call of apology.
Former school board president Marlene Davis filed this morning to fill the 19th Ward vacancy created by now-former Ald. Mike McMillan's swearing in today as License Collector.
An abridged version of a public letter from renowned activist Percy Green on the Special Advisory Committee on St. Louis Public Schools appeared in today's Post-Dispatch as a letter to the editor. It reads:
Commissioner of Education Kent King's Special Advisory Committee is a fraud. Mr. King appointed to the committee people who supported St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay's failed policies. Such policies led to the accreditation drop from 64 to 39 points, three years of mismanagement, outsourcing, turmoil and five superintendents. Two fair election processes have begun to repair the problems that the Slay board majority created for our St. Louis Board of Education.
The final two Slay members of the board (Ronald Jackson and William Archibald) are up for election in 2007 and must be replaced for the sake of our children and stability on the board. Because the community rejected Mr. Slay's failed experimental programs for public education, he now calls for a state takeover of public education, implying that St. Louisans are too stupid to vote correctly.
Board president Veronica O'Brien's behavior is a distraction from moving the new board majority's agenda forward. Ms. O'Brien launched a series of attacks on Superintendent Diana Bourisaw. After Ms. Bourisaw refused to be intimidated, Ms. O'Brien supported state control.
The committee recommended that the current elected school board members should not have full authority over the St. Louis Public School District. The excuse was a survey that everyone knows was not representative or credible.
If Mr. King should accept the Danforth-Freeman committee's recommendation, lawsuits and protest demonstrations should emerge targeting those throughout the state who are responsible.
For years, Green has been a vocal critic of Mayor Slay and policies of SLPS under the Slay-backed majority. In August he lost a lawsuit against the city in which he claimed Slay fired him as director of the Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise Certification program because he was openly critical of what he called a "broken" certification system.
At Friday's press conference on the need for public hearings before any state action, Green called out Post education reporter Steve Giegerich for what many see as biased reporting.
It would help "if the newspaper would print the news fairly," said Green after a question by Giegerich.
"I know you don't like me saying that, but it's the truth, Steve," he said.
