St. Louis Schools Blog

A User-Created Website About St. Louis Schools

So many issues.. where to begin?

Do you start with the voiceless, powerless elected school board?

How about the 30 million dollar deficit…

Overpaid consultants for everything conceivable…

A man with no educational expertise running a major urban school district, who is a mere puppet of the mayor…

An insanely long school day… Transportation issues… Six superintendents in the past 4 years…

How about massive school closures with more rumored to occur the end of this year… Buildings falling apart — literally…

A completely voiceless, powerless public… a powerless union, who currently has the teacher’s working without a contract… principals that are usually not in their buildings…

Most schools not making AYP…

Power hungry education officers who meddle with teacher’s and principals for the past 5 years supposedly to make academic gains, yet no progress has been made from any of these individuals despite their exorbitant 6 figure salaries, and more time on the job than any superintendent we’ve had since Cleveland Hammonds…

UGH!!!

What a disaster.

I feel sorry for the kids, the parents, the staff, and teachers.

How do you convince a reporter to report an education story?

I have a bad history regarding this. It follows the same pattern: I spot something I believe to be significant, and knowing that I do not have the credentials to investigate or write anything which will be widely read, or taken seriously, I try to communicate with a reporter who is in a better position to do something.  The responses, if there are any, are polite and non-responsive,  I get increasingly frustrated, and my attempts grow more and more desperate and counter-productive.

Last year, I became suspicious from day one about the decision of the SAB to become involved with a firm in Texas called TexasCan. Month after month, I wrote to 11 different reporters, giving them background on the outfit, and asking them to take a look at what was going on, furnishing them with the street address of the Charter school in question.

The story (which exceeded anything I imagined) was finally reported by David Hunn—on the same day the state board voted to add three more years of power for the SAB. It seemed to me and others to be intentionally delayed for publicity considerations. I thought, well, at least Mr. Hunn will be rewarded with a greater role in education reporting for the Post-Dispatch. Maybe not, is what I think now.

I read some of the things which Jay Nixon said about the idea of people not being allowed to elect their own school board members, and assumed it would be followed up on, as it was clearly in conflict with Mayor Slay, and Governor Blunt, and his appointed members of the state board of education. I started writing reporters begging them to ask questions of Hulsoff and Nixon regarding appointments to the state board, and opinions of legislation regarding state takeovers in St. Louis and elsewhere. No answers, even when I followed up on columns they had written. Jo Mannies and Sylvester Brown were among the reporters I e-mailed and I posted this offer after the story Gingrich wrote about the appointment of the new superintendent:

If any Post Dispatch reporter (Jo Mannies comes to mind) who reports on education and/or politics has a favorite charity, I pledge a fifty-dollar donation if that reporter publishes a report regarding Jay Nixon’s attitude regarding future state board appointments, and the future status of the SAB, and the future of charter and voucher schools in St. Louis.

Silly of me.

I believe there are definite conflicts between Jay Nixon and Mayor Slay on school issues. Surely the presence of Peter Herschend and other ultra conservative people on the state Board of Education would be legitimate issues to explore. As happened with the story about TexasCan. I think these things will eventually be written about. But not before the election, when citizens could react and make some judgements.

I blame myself. I must rub reporters the wrong way.

PubDef presents a new Education blog

If you’re a close watcher of public education in St. Louis, this blog is for you and BY YOU.

Click the “register” link in the right-side sidebar to become a member of this blog. Once you’re a member, you can post comments on this blog. But you can also POST YOUR OWN STORIES for others to comment on. 

So start posting today!

In the meantime, we’ve imported some of our old education stories so that the shelves don’t look so bare around here. But it’s up to you to start posting new content. Get started now.

O’Brien Aside, Bonner Makes $75,000

Despite repeated assertions by the school board president, St. Louis Public Schools maintains that Vashon’s new basketball coach does not make a $125,000 per year salary.

As late as yesterday in a “You Paid for It” segment on KTVI Channel 2, Board Pres. Veronica O’Brien repeated her claims that Anthony Bonner, the former NBA star who was recently hired to replace legendary and controversial coach Floyd Irons at Vashon High School, is receiving a salary that dwarfs that of many principals and teachers in the district.

“Anthony Bonner makes $125,000 and the man is doing three and four jobs. That will not change. So that is your answer for the public,” O’Brien told investigative reporter Elliot Davis. But according to SLPS officials, that’s not what district records show.

According to SLPS Communications Director Tony Sanders, Bonner, who officially started with the district on Oct. 17, earns an annual salary of $72,000 plus standard employee benefits in his position as Executive Director of Community Outreach, a position that did not previously exist and some believe was created just for Bonner.

Bonner also receives an annual stipend of $4,084 for coaching varsity basketball at Vashon, the same stipend paid to every boys basketball coach in the district.

Click here to watch Elliot Davis’ report featuring a revealing ambush interview of O’Brien.

O’Brien’s Channel 5 Interview

KSDK Channel 5 reporter Leisa Zigman interviewed St. Louis School Board President Veronica O’Brien.

Slay and O’Brien Opt to Pass the Buck

While other urban mayors are fighting to take the reigns of their city’s failing school districts, Mayor Francis Slay continues to push instead for the state’s Republican governor to take over St. Louis Public Schools. And he’s finding an ally in the woman he first appointed to the school board.

After denials four months ago by his aides, Robin Wahby and Ed Rhode, of secret conversations first reported by PUB DEF in July in which the mayor’s office called on the state to intervene following the defeat of his hand-picked school board candidates, Mayor Slay, a Democrat, has grown more and more vocal about his desire for Gov. Matt Blunt to take control over St. Louis’ beleaguered schools.

“A State takeover of the district is a needed first step,” the mayor wrote on his website Saturday.

“If legislation is needed to make the law clear and to protect a takeover from legal challenge, the Missouri General Assembly should pass a bill the first month it is in session — and the Governor should sign it.”

The current school board president, who Slay appointed to the board in 2004 after former member Rochelle Moore was removed because of her erratic behavior, has joined Slay in calling for state intervention.

Veronica O’Brien said that while she doesn’t yet support an all-out “takeover,” she does think the state should do away with the superintendent’s office.

“A state takeover in the truest sense would be disastrous and it would not help the children,” O’Brien told KSDK this week. But she said she wants to see the position of superintendent completely eliminated and replaced by two positions; a chief operating officer and a chief academic officer.

O’Brien also has begun to undermine the credibility of the very woman she abruptly introduced as superintendent just four months ago.

“Dr. [Diana] Bourisaw does not have the experience to handle some things in this district,” O’Brien told Channel 5. She said she once believed Bourisaw had the “potential to grow,” but no longer.

O’Brien said she doesn’t believe she personally deserves any of the blame for the current state of the district. “I don’t think I bear the burden of many years of the district falling apart,” she said.

In that regard, she and the mayor are again on the same page.

For three years, between April 2003 and April 2006, Mayor Slay enjoyed unprecedented influence over St. Louis Public Schools. Under the direction of his original slate of candidates — Vince Schoemehl, Bob Archibald, Ronald Jackson and Darnetta Clinkscale, who later became the heavy-handed board majority — the district embarked on an expensive experiment, overseen and co-directed from the mayor’s own office, that turned control of the district over to a New York City-based corporate turnaround firm and a superintendent that had absolutely no prior experience in education.

When the dust settled, the district was left in debt, the community was even more divided, and the New Yorkers where back in New York preparing for their next adventure in New Orleans.

But Slay, like O’Brien, accepts no blame for his role in today’s mess.

“It would be controversial to give up local control of the St. Louis Public Schools, but it would be plain wrong to allow the district to continue to betray the futures of thousands of students,” Slay wrote today on his website. “It’s past time for a state takeover. Why not just say that?”

If Slay and O’Brien get their way, it would put St. Louis City residents in the very unique position of being perhaps the only city population in America with no control over either its own police force or its own public schools.

Now the commentary:

It is not leadership to jump to the front of a steady march and join in the chorus. Indeed, it is cowardice for elected leaders to abandon their mission and turn over the power voters invested in them to outsiders — whether they be from New York City or Jefferson City.

If Mayor Slay wants to be a good leader and if he truly wants someone to have the authority to “put the district in the hands of a strong administrator with a mandate to stabilize the district and start it on the long road to recovery,” as he says, then he should ask for that power, not pass the buck to a governor who has repeatedly voiced his own insensitivity to this state’s urban people.

Instead of giving our power over to the state, the mayor should ask for control over his city’s schools — as mayors have done in Chicago, Cleveland and Los Angeles, and as is currently being considered in Seattle and Washington D.C.

It would be controversial, but no more so than if a governor who is not directly accountable to St. Louisans was given control.

And at least there would finally be one person the voters of this city could hold accountable for the future of our public schools.

SUPPORT STLSCHOOLS.ORG

Two ways to support this website:

1) Advertise your business, service, real estate, law firm, organization, website, book, event, cause, etc.

2) Make a donation

Click here for more info. Or email editor@pubdef.net.

School Board "Not Good Role Models"

Jeanne Weber, president of the Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) at Metro High School, told the members of the St. Louis School Board that they are not being very good role models for SLPS students.

She also said they should support Superintendent Diana Bourisaw’s efforts, as she and her family does.

Union President Demands Board Members Defend the District from State Takeover

Parents to O’Brien: Grow Up!

Powered by Wordpress | WP Premium theme by WP Remix
Copyright 2007. St. Louis Schools Blog. All rights reserved

• Home
• About