Lots of things will happen during this school year, but there are two things you should keep your eyes on.
This is the year that School Turnaround will make the promised marked improvements in 16 underachieving schools. And, the term for the State-appointed Special Administrative Board (SAB) is up in 2011.
The district hasn’t got enough of carpetbagging companies selling snake oil to increase test scores. AllBusiness website carries an article on the infamous Alvarez and Marsal school turnaround company (a.k.a. William Roberti Song ‘n’ Dance Inc.) with the headline that the company “Completes St. Louis Schools Turnaround Effort.”
If Roberti completed it, why is the district paying yet another carpetbagger from New York to do the same thing with 16 schools at a cost of $1.6 million?
School Turnaround touts the slogan “Everyone Achieves. No Exceptions. No Excuses.” Sounds nice.
They also have a money-back guarantee which means taxpayers can start holding our hands out now for our reimbursement. Although Turnaround is getting paid through a State grant, it is still taxpayers’ hard-earned money. With both the City and the State crying broke, we need to be demanding accountability for every buck that gets spent in our names.
Last school year, the St. Louis Public Schools had two turnaround companies on the payroll. In addition to the NY firm mentioned above, the University of Virginia was doing its magic tricks. I doubt if we received a refund from the University of Virginia because the district still ain’t turned around. It looks like the SAB is the ones being turned around – and around – as in a 360 degree circle.
The hope is that the SAB will waltz on out of school business at the end of its term in 2011. The elected board has been on the scene throughout their term, trying to do the people’s business that it was elected to do. It has developed a transition plan entitled “Returning Control of the St. Lous Public Schools to the Citizens of St. Louis.” The board is asking for citizen input and endorsement of the report which can be read or downloaded at www.slpsboe.org.
After presenting the research for why elected boards succeed over appointed ones, the transition report presents a compelling outline for creating the conditions for school success.
Like President Obama, the elected board will have its work cut out for it as it returns to power. Like the president, the board will have to clean up the past mess as it is trying to move the district forward. It will be rough going for awhile, but knowing that the light at the end of tunnel is not a train taking our kids to the prison-industrial complex is an uplifting place.
It’s time to raise the transition issue to the level of public discourse. This is no time to be emotional and subjective. We have been through the trials by fire, the burning sands, the quick-fixes. We have the burned hands and feet to prove it. We have a failing district to prove it.
We have lost over 35 percent of our students in the last decade. We have renovated buildings sitting idle. It’s time to get serious and sober about the future of the St. Louis Public Schools.