Red Clay’s Referendum Meeting At Highlands

First, no referendum PowerPoint, just straight to the talk.  Which was fine with me.  The superintendent, Merv Daugherty, began with opening statements, in which his point was… I’m not sure.  He’s proud of our all schools.  His door is always open.  Everyone has his phone number and we can call him any time.  Okay, standard speech given at all schools.

Note: If you want to skip past the minutes (although you shouldn’t!) and go onto what I really see happening with our city schools scroll down to the end of the post. I’ll mark it in bold.

Let’s move on to the next speaker… Hugh Broomall, Deputy Superintendent/Student Support Services.  If there was ever a man in need of course in how to win friends and influence people, it’s this guy.  He talks at you, with an air of he knows better than anyone in the room.  He doesn’t listen and respond.  He simply rattles off talking points.  The one thing parents and community members agreed on at the end of that meeting was that Mr. Broomall’s approach was off-putting.  I think he came to Highlands with the goal of shutting down concerns with his awesome talking points.  And while Merv Daugherty didn’t say much in regards to city schools (he had to leave early for another scheduled appointment) his friendly tone and receptive demeanor were something Mr. Broomall should study.

Parents and community members started asking questions.  I will group these by theme.

It was asked why only city schools, according to the referendum FAQs, would lose programs.  Answer:  CAPACITY!  If you put together a district member/supporter word cloud from last night the word CAPACITY would be massive.  That answer was countered with, again, why only city schools?  CAPACITY!  It was then asked… If it is true that city schools would lose programs due to an increase in students population, then wouldn’t the schools listed as overcrowded have already lost programs?  Could you tell us what programs Linden Hill, North Star and Brandywine Springs have lost due to overcrowding?  If anyone can tell me what that answer was, I’m all ears, because I have no idea what programs, if any, those schools lost.  And I’m not saying they didn’t lose programs, just that the answer was all over the place with talk about teachers and staff in closets.

It was also asked who authorized and approved the wording in the FAQs concerning city schools.  Here’s what it said for those of you new to this discussion:

1. What happens if it [referendum] doesn’t pass?
Adjust feeder patterns at elementary schools, reconsider BSS K-8, remove programs at city schools (Pre-K, Parent Centers, Boost Up, Small Class Size).

Obviously, that wasn’t grave enough so they changed that answer to this:

We would need to consider a number of options.
• Readjusting feeder patterns in most of our elementary schools to shift the population to our schools in the city. This would be disruptive to all of our schools, and impact important programs in place at our city schools.
• Reconsider the BSS K-8 model.
• Continue to rent trailers, and add additional trailers

[emphasis mine, but really, Red Clay’s SuperPac, Friends of Red Clay, as well!  And we’ll wait and discuss these school district’s SuperPacs in another post)

As of this morning it reads:

The district will be forced to consider other options to address over-crowding at elementary schools, such as adjusting feeder patterns at elementary schools, reconsidering BSS as a K-8 school, removing programs at city schools (Pre-K, Parent Centers, Boost Up, and Small Class Size)

Personally, I think the use of the word forced in this latest version is almost as bad as the second version.  You would think that Red Clay would have considered other options before deciding to build a new school. If they had, then they would probably be standing on firmer ground.  Fiscal responsibility is so 2010.  The people at last night’s meeting were not amused, and by the end of the meeting District was saying that it should have said “remove programs at all schools.”  But it didn’t, and that’s still the point.

(Another point to make is that every one was on good behavior.  There was no screaming and yelling.  The event had a cordial tone.)

TAG was discussed and the point was made that special education needs to work both ways, that it isn’t fair to limit access to academic potential in high poverty schools.  Red Clay will look into this.

We were also told to form a committee.  There were quite a few audible groans.  Another committee?  I have a stack of documents from committees, and none of the recommendations from these various committees ever went anywhere.  A person last night whipped out a copy of the Wilmington Neighborhood Schools Proposal and said, “Let’s begin with this.”  District passed around a sign up sheet for a new committee.

Let me interject here.  The idea that RCCD needs another committee to tell it what is going on in city schools boggles the mind.  If they are so unaware of what’s happened to their city schools – and why – then resignations are in order.  Especially, when every one of them was well versed on the problems North Star, Brandywine Springs and Linden Hill are facing.

Which leads us to re-segregation.  That was a hot topic.  Several people spoke passionately about the negative effects re-segregation has on all students.  They pointed out how segregating elementary students leads to problems when the population is reunited in middle and high schools.  They cited research showing how children in high poverty schools are placed at an educational disadvantage.  They championed diversity as an asset that benefits all children in life.  One parent even suggested that Red Clay look to the Brandywine School District’s success.  Oh my, that had to hurt.

Several parents kept telling district that we need to address the issue of re-segregation, that there must be a dialogue.  The frustration on this point by city parents and community residents was overwhelming.  We need to talk about this.  Why aren’t you discussing this? Listen to us. All roads led back to capacity and the need for the new school which would benefit city residents.  A new school that the parents in that room would never use.  A new school which would supposedly create space at RCCD’s overcrowded schools that city children would never attend.

The District pointed out that the added capacity the new school would create would open up more choice options for city parents to… what?  Choice out of their city schools?  That really wasn’t the answer this group of urbanites was looking for.  Which then led the District to…

But… but… but… The Neighborhood Schools Law!

Um… okay… Let’s look at that law, specifically this part:

§ 220. Purpose

It is the intent and purpose of the General Assembly through this subchapter to establish and implement a plan for neighborhood schools in Northern New Castle County that is fair and equitable to all affected children in New Castle County.

I’m not a lawyer, but when I look at our city schools I don’t see a plan that’s “fair and equitable to all affected children” – and I wonder why School Districts wouldn’t be considered to be in violation of the Neighborhood School’s Law?  Any lawyers out there?

If you skipped ahead… start reading here.

Last night the push for the new school dominated the conversation.  They really, really, really want this school.  But here’s the interesting thing.  When faced with concerns raised, almost all roads led to the possibility of a new city district (which isn’t worth my time to address) and Charters – specifically the new charter school to be located in the donated Bank of America building in the city.  One gentlemen – and I don’t remember his name, but I believe he’s a member of RCCD’s referendum steering committee and was definitely in attendance to represent and explain the referendum – was very excited about this new charter.  He kept calling it a “game-changer.”  In fact, when he spoke about this new charter school I kept wondering if he was on its board or had a vested interest in its success?

I looked around the room as he spoke, and what I saw was confusion.  Two points were made by the audience viewing the “Charter Show” portion of the meeting:

1. No matter how many charters open in the city what does Red Clay intend to do for their Red Clay City Schools?

The District was not speaking with charter parents, it was speaking with a group loyal to their traditional public schools, but, given the emphasis on this charter, anyone would be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

2. It was then asked if this game-changing charter school opened and drew from the city population, wouldn’t that simply create more capacity space in Red Clay?

Good question.  Because if this game-changer charter is as successful as it was being promoted last night… Red Clay wouldn’t need a new suburban school.

At the end, here’s where I end up:  Turning the city into all Charter Schools is, imo, the end game.  Perhaps it can happen before the new committee submits it recommendations.