RSD says it’s ready to engage community
9th March 2015 · 0 Comments
By Kari Dequine Harden
Contributing Writer
In the past, engaging the community in the decision regarding which charter operator would move into which New Orleans neighborhood was not an official part of the selection process.
Now, Recovery School District (RSD) Superintendent Patrick Dobard says that he and his team are working to change that.
The missing “community engagement” piece has been one of the loudest criticisms regarding the past decade of sweeping education reform in the city, during which the majority of public schools were turned into businesses and the nation’s first entirely privatized urban school district was created.
It is a valid criticism, Dobard said. The decisions were made in private conversations between state officials and charter school operators – a practice started by his predecessors, he noted. Dobard took on the role of superintendent in 2012.
He said that he feels that good decisions were made for the most part, but that “We are continuously improving as an organization.”
At a Feb. 25 Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) meeting held in New Orleans on all matters RSD, the results of Dobard’s new efforts were mixed.
Following the announcement of several new school facility assignments, the meeting brought out numerous community members, parents and teachers. Some read glowing statements about the success of Dobard’s latest choices, while others made it clear that they were still displeased, and that any improvements are too little, too late.
“We often did things to the community with school siting assignments, not with the community,” Dobard said.
But Dobard also emphasized that ultimately the decision to assign an operator to a building remains with him, and that that it was a responsibility he would not abdicate.
Dobard described how he and his team are working to increase transparency and solicit and incorporate more input from community groups into the official facility assignment process.
The RSD has also opened up the Request for Application (RFA) process to encourage increased numbers and diversity in applicants, with the stipulations that the school operator “provide equitable access to all students through open enrollment, participation in OneApp, and provide access to free transportation.”
From the Sarah T. Reed High School community, the feedback at the BESE meeting was that they were very pleased with the recent selection of the Einstein Group to operate the eastern New Orleans high school.
VALYA director Minh Nguyen said the process had been fair and transparent. Nguyen said that things such as “fostering whole child development” and serving English-language learners were acknowledged as priorities.
Dobard noted that VAYLA had previously been a vocal critic of RSD decisions regarding the disinvestment and closure of Reed.
Parents from KIPP Believe Primary School were very unhappy with their temporary assignment at Benjamin Banneker (describing it as “unsafe” and citing bats in the building) and expressed frustration with the school moving numerous times as it awaits its permanent home. A parent described seven different locations that have either housed or been promised to KIPP Believe over the past four years.
“It’s very disappointing,” said KIPP parent Edrin Brumfield. “The children need stability.”
Shortly following the BESE meeting, it was announced that because of the bats, the students have been moved out of the building for extermination. Last week they attended class at Holy Rosary Academy on Esplanade.
Dobard said that when charter operators are initially approved, they know that does not guarantee a building. At the meeting he assured the parents that their permanent assignment still awaits them.
People representing Collegiate Academies, including two students, were ecstatic about being given the brand new Livingston building in eastern New Orleans, which had been assigned to Miller-McCoy but was reassigned when Miller-McCoy’s contract was not renewed.
Collegiate runs Sci Academy, Carver Preparatory Academy, and Carver Collegiate Academy. Carver Prep will move into the Livingston building temporarily until construction on the Carver campus is complete. Collegiate will then launch a new high school at Livingston beginning with a 9th-grade class in the 2016-2017 school year.
After the meeting, Dobard said that last year’s student protests at Carver and resulting civil rights complaint did not factor into the decision to allow Collegiate to expand. He praised Collegiate for their use of restorative justice practices in their discipline policies, and their proven ability to accelerate students who enter far below grade level. The charter operator came under fire last year for obscenely high out-of-school suspension rates and hyper-strict discipline policies. Students complained about being punished harshly for things like not “tracking” the teacher with their eyes, wearing the wrong color belt or not raising their hand with a locked elbow.
The John McDonogh High School community has been one of the most vocal and longstanding groups in their disapproval of the RSD’s notion of community engagement.
The BESE meeting was no different, with numerous speakers expressing a strong disdain for the RSD’s treatment of the high school, which is still awaiting renovation and a decision on who will run it.
The John McDonogh High School Steering Committee has backed a recently filed lawsuit regarding an open meetings law violation and a judge issued a restraining order against the RSD in order to prevent them from retaining control of the school or selecting a new operator.
The last charter operator, Future is Now Schools (FINS), was hand-selected by state superintendent John White and along with abysmal academic failure, left amid highly questionable finances and the exploitation of the children on a reality television show.
At the meeting John Mac community member Sandra Ewell described FINS as “greedy scavengers from out of town.”
The OPSB has also filed a lawsuit against the RSD in an attempt to bar them from opening new schools in OPSB-owned buildings.
The decision to assign an operator to John Mac has been postponed pending a hearing on March 20.
The John Mac Committee’s spokeswoman Brenda Square released the following statement: “This delay will not only keep the restraining order in place, it will give our Committee time to reach out to the Orleans Parish School Board and ask them to continue their fight to get John Mac back and other public schools that have recovered academically. It has been reported that only four RSD schools are performing above the state average. The RSD failed the students, parents and employees at John McDonogh when they appointed a charter school operator from California called Future is Now. Now is the time for a new future without the RSD.”
Andrew H. Wilson parents attended the meeting to both describe successfully working with the RSD to find a new operator, but also how they had to fight tooth and nail just to be heard.
After the Wilson charter contract was not renewed, the building was reassigned to InspireNOLA, an operator under the OPSB that also runs Alice Harte Elementary and Edna Karr High School. Six additional groups applied for the assignment.
Wilson parents at the meeting told a story of considerable time spent researching and visiting different charter operators before making their preference for InspireNola known to the RSD.
Ultimately happy with the choice, the parents described a frustrating ordeal of being intimidated, given misinformation, and illegally shut out of the decision-making process by their charter board.
BESE member Kira Orange Jones, who represents New Orleans, asked the parents what lessons they learned.
Parent LaToya Douglas answered that to be heard, you must stand your ground, speak up, and be aggressive. “You are the voice for your kids, and no one else is,” Douglas said.
Dobard said he gives “kudos” to the Wilson parents for their activism. He said that parents can and should be empowered to hold their school leadership accountable.
Things are getting better in how these decisions are made, but there is still much room for improvement, Dobard acknowledged.
Following a hurried changing of laws after Hurricane Katrina, the RSD occupied the city’s struggling schools in a capacity that was sold as temporary. Almost ten years later, many residents are wondering when they will leave, why Dobard’s team is so well-compensated amid drastic budget cuts, and why the RSD is so intent on entrenching themselves in facility management.
Square, of the John Mac Committee, emphasized that the constant shuffling of children from one building to another and between charter operators “creates a chaotic environment,” and does not give them much-needed stability.
But Square also lamented the “destruction of cultural heritage” tied to the buildings and neighborhoods. There’s been no effort to reach out to the community to ensure the preservation of the most historically significant schools, she said.
And as Dobard listed various community-based organizations that the RSD has involved in the decision-making process, Square noted that many of those same groups receive funding and grants from the RSD. The process is “tainted,” Square said. “They come to the table with allegiance to the RSD.” Square also pointed to Orange Jones’ position as the Executive Director of Teach for America – Greater New Orleans as a blatant conflict of interests. “You’re taking jobs from the community,” she told Orange Jones. “There’s too much distrust in this process.”
On the notion of the increased “choice” in the landscape, former educator Walter Goodwin told Dobard and the BESE members, “The only choice we have is a charter school. I reject that.”
Education activist Karran Harper Royal detailed the “choice” that existed before Katrina, and said that the choice that exists currently is only choice within parameters set by the RSD. “If the community says ‘I don’t want to choose a CMO – I want a traditional school governed by an elected board,’ you should honor that,” she said.
Attorney Willie Zanders questioned the RSD’s persistently low ACT scores, and challenged the board that the children were not receiving the high-quality education as promised.
As has come to be expected at BESE meetings in New Orleans, a shouting match ensued between board members and the audience.
Dobard said that ACT scores were higher now than pre-Katrina, disputed Orange Jones’ conflict of interests, and told the audience that education is hard work and change does not happen overnight.
The emotional meeting ended with a lengthy statement from activist Dyan French Cole, “Mama D,” who focused on the young victims and perpetrators of too many recent homicides – kids who she said were young when Katrina hit and never received the trauma counseling and support they needed. “The price is too high,” she said. “We are tired of being the object of all these experiments.”
For now, there are still two very different realities depicted in determining whether the state’s unprecedented experiment in privatizing the city’s public education has found success.
This article originally published in the March 9, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
