ATTENTION! ATTENTION!: Beware of the Grant Junkies

Across the country states are deciding to tie pupil progress on standardized tests and overall achievement to teacher tenure and salary. In New Jersey a Task Force was created to research how this might be done in the NJ schools. This Task Force was discussed in an earlier post where I questioned the efficacy of the idea. Governor Christie has established a program that will award 1.1 million dollars to 9 school districts selected to pilot the program. That is roughly $100,000.00 per district selected. If you are anything like this author you are wondering how this will affect the school district that is poorly run and failing miserably. You are also wondering how an administration that has been documented demonstrating terrible bullying attitudes may be trusted with such an important assignment.

We fight for everyone's grandchildren.

Oh no, not another program that uses our children as guinea pigs! What ever happened to schools being a safe, welcoming place for children? This town does not need less State mandates. Several Doctoral theses have been written on how this town's Board has demonstrated a history of deceiving and ignoring state recommendations without repraisal from the state department. It would be a fearsome thing to give this Board and this almost Superintendent more unsupervised power. The state hopes that Educators from pilot districts will be fully engaged in the program and will receive ample training. Englewood has a way of perverting programs that have proven successful in other towns into a poor, ineffective replica of the real thing. The AVID program is a fine example. A program designed to lift underachievers is actually being used to segregate students that have been tracked since they entered school. When parents complain, their children are removed. Who will watch the watchers? Who will evaluate the evaluators?

The up side of this initiative is that the State Department wants to know what you and I think about the idea. The Governor’s Education Transformation Task Force will hold two public hearings next week to solicit input for its review of the state’s education regulations. All members of the public are welcome to attend. Before attending, please follow the links below to increase your knowlege of the idea prior to attending.

Monday, July 11, 3:30pm, Pittsgrove Municipal Building, 989 Centerton Road, Pittsgrove, NJ
Tuesday, July 12, 3:30pm, Seton Hall University, McNulty Hall, Amphitheater SC101, 400 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ.

Description: Excellent Educators for New Jersey (EE4NJ) is an initiative to pilot a new teacher evaluation system in several LEAs in the 2011-2012 school year. Governor Christie established the Education Effectiveness Task Force through a September 28, 2010 Executive Order. Nine members, with experience in and knowledge of education policy, administration, and teaching, were selected on October 28, 2010.

http://www.state.nj.us/education/EE4NJ/

Link to the New Jersey Educator Effectiveness Task Force Interim Report

Read this report carefully.   Something like it  may be coming to your school district.

http://www.state.nj.us/education/educators/effectiveness.pdf

Link to Grant announcement of the Pilot program. Christie Administration Announces $1.1 Million Competitive Grant Encouraging School Districts to Participate in Teacher Evaluation Pilot Program. Pilot System Drives Districts and Educators to Innovate and Improve
http://www.state.nj.us/education/news/2011/0621eval.htm

Link to the announcement and invitation. The Task Force also welcomes input on a next-generation accountability system for districts and schools that demands results while encouraging innovative approaches to improving student learning
http://www.state.nj.us/education/news/2011/0707hear.htm

After examining the above information, use the email address below to express your opinions and or attend the public hearings listed above.

regreform@doe.state.nj.us

"We know that business is booming, facilities are beautiful, and profits are high, but how are the children?"

Are Our Schools In Crisis?: What is Your 2011 Graduate Prepared to Do Now?

Parents! Where do you stand? How do you rate your child's readiness for dealing with college, a trade school, employment or other post high school experience?

The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, is a study conducted by Harris Interactive, each year since 1984. It explores teacher’s opinions and brings them to the attention of educators, policy makers and the public. The Survey findings also inform MetLife Foundation’s support for education.

The study shares the views of public, middle and high school teachers, students,  parents, and Fortune 1000 business executives about the priority that all students graduate from high school prepared for college and careers. It offers opinions on what being college- and career-ready entails, and the implications of this goal for teaching. Compare reports from the past to those of today.

The study contains some very interesting, though not surprising insights into student preparedness at high school graduation.

Are Our Schools In Crisis?: Summer Board Meetings are Important!

It was decided at the June 28th board meeting that the meetings scheduled for July would be held at Grieco Elementary School

Just because it is summer time doesn't mean that the fight has ended. There is no vacation when your child's future is on the line.  Show you care. Attend the summer board meetings. Let this Board of Ed. and this Superintendent know that you care and that you are watching.

Wednesday, July 13
Board of Education Special Meeting
7:00 PM
Executive Session, to discuss items permitted under the Open Public Meetings Act

Thursday, July 21

Board of Education Meeting

Closed session: 6:30 PM

Open session: 8:00

Grieco Elementary School

Thursday, August 18

Board of Education Meeting

Closed session: 6:30 PM

Open session: 8:00 PM

Grieco Elementary School
Durie Ave. across the street from the stadium

Are Our Schools In Crisis?: Not Another Pilot Program!

Some opportunities ARE really PIE in the sky ideas for many reasons. School districts should beware of stretching too hard at the seams. If teachers are rationing paper and the children do not have textbooks, you don't put up a $14 thousand or $19 thousand dollar tent and let it stand from Monday to Sunday. Unless you really need the money, why would you jump at every pilot program or grant that surfaces? It is time to take care of home. Straighten out home and students from other towns will want to attend your school choice without bribes of special treatment and separation from the general school population.

Parents also get really sick of being told that their children are being used as guinea pigs again. We take programs and never evaluate the effectiveness of them. The last thing we need is another program. Englewood jumps on every single grant that is offered. Our Board of Education Members are grant junkies. We watched the board jump on an offer today that is clearly not for us, because of the distressed  state of the district. They knew that $100,000 was not a lot of money for the participating program. This did not stop them from working out the amount they would have to add to it in order for it to work. $140,000 more. Now do we need money? Something fishy here much? They saw another way to stick it to principals, teachers and parents that they have labeled unruly. They didn't care that our district has just had a major shake up. The middle school is being reorganized. Principal from the Middle school shuffled, Principal from the high school shuffled, assistant principals shuffled from high school, middle school and elementary schools. Two major program changes in curriculum and instruction and a new Superintendent once he figures out how to get the money he wants.

Hello Board of Education. All is NOT well. We should get ourselves together. The last thing we need right now is to subject our students to another Pilot program.

No one expects you to jump on every single grant that is offered. That is fickle, not to mention just plain greedy.

Business is booming. Facilities are beautiful. Profits are high. Scores are down. Academies are NOT numder one in the State. Academies were slated to be evaluated after two years. Did it happen? It was evaluated as part of Dwight Morrow High School. So why does the Board President continue to claim they are the best in the state. I know for a fact that the criteria for admission in Englewood is less rigorous than of the Bergen County Academies. Smoke and mirrors. I am choking right now. Avid has not been evaluated. Ivy has not been evaluated. Small Learning Communities have not been evaluated. Average children with the capacity to achieve are being neglected and some are even being segregated to a place that resembles a reform school in nature. More of them are slated to move into this same environment, because public silence signifies agreement.

Are Our Schools In Crisis?: Sometimes Silence Signifies Agreement

I arrived at the DMHS Alumni Educational Alliance picnic late and did not get to see many of the people that I wanted to meet. I had my two little grandkids with me. One moves significantly slower when in that situation. I was only in Dwight Morrow High School for 2 years. I was also on work study leaving school before 1pm each day. Consequently, I spent very little time even in the cafeteria where I would have mingled. I had to support myself during high school. I even worked as a maid and nanny for a family in Tenafly in order to contribute to my Grandma's household expenses. When I got my yearbook, I put it down and did not open it again until I joined Facebook and started looking for former classmates. My memories of DMHS are quite different from people who grew up in Englewood.

I do however understand how people may attack a tradition and use the demolition of that tradition as a way to emasculate a people. This is a tactic that has been used world wide throughout the existence of mankind. I am a strong history buff. Dr. Segall and Mr. Garrison knew exactly what they were doing when they removed the plaques and banners that represent the strong sports history of DMHS graduates. They have been putting the plan in action to change the colors and the name of the school since early 2000. ( "We must segregate in order to integrate." These were the late Dr. Grieco's words.) We have the segregation he spoke of, but when will the integration begin? They have also been monitoring the attendance at the picnic and other Alumni functions. As long as the Alumni Organizations are only involved in fundraising to benefit its members and to give scholarships, they are participating in their own erasure.

After reading the agenda for June 16th again, it has become quite clear that the Board has no respect for Alumni. They only want the Scholarship money to keep coming. They also want to make sure that the Alumni Association knows who is boss. They thought Curtis and I were part of the Association. They know that their wrongdoings have been uncovered. Dr. Segall and board members have put through changes that needed a board resolution to make official. Regardless, of what you think of me, this is being done without formal objection from anyone. If all of the Alumni Associations of DMHS continue in their own division there will be nothing left of our Alma Mater that we recognize. 

I am not against the Academy. What I am against is that the Academy is an honors program that separates the students physically. Any student that takes an honors class in the Academy is recorded as an Academy student. NOT SO. This is causing an unreal number of children to be counted as Academy. Those students do not get all of the special consideration of the Elite children. Also the process of getting into honors period is too restrictive for the average student who does not have the right parentage or address.

When students leave Quarles School they are already slated into the Ivy program which becomes Academy Prep in Janis Dismus. I am speculating now. If a student is already reading in first grade they are placed in IVY based on his/her address and reading ability. (Meanwhile, a very high number of special education students have been included in classes at Quarles with children without disabilities. For the teachers among us, we know that the children w/o disabilites have a slim chance of learning to read and write while the autistic, down syndrome and numerous other classifications get all of the attention.)

In pre-K the odds have already been stacked against the students w/o disabilities. Now I have a question. How many Blacks and Latinos have their children classified at 3 years old and younger? Give a PIE AWARD to anyone who says, slim to none. These children never move into the public school from Quarles. They are only in the public schools long enough to pick up the classification and the money that will pay for their education all the way through high school.

While we are trying hard to keep our kids out of special ed. they are fighting to get theirs in so the money will follow them right out of the district to all of the special schools. Some of these schools are out of state and we the taxpaying public are paying for the tuition and the transportation. They have now removed all of the old agendas from the District website, because we ignorant Blacks and Latinos were reading too much for our own good and we uncovered this situation. It should be noted here that I am NOT against parents fighting for their children with disabilities. I am against the way the System has not dealt with the children who do not have disabilities at the Pre - K and Kindergarten level. I have been told by board members on several occasions that things will only change when parents come out to object. That very statement lets us know that they cannot be trusted to uphold the oath taken to make sure ALL children get a thorough and efficient education. It means that if a large enough group makes enough noise, then perhaps that group will be considered. They cannot be trusted. It hurts my heart to admit, because of all the young ones, but it is nonetheless true. My mission is to inform parents of the situation so they may make informed decisions from there. The district is nurturing oppositional attitudes in children from the time they enter school. Is there any wonder why so many people have decided that they would prefer their kids in charter school buildings that cannot hold a candle to our beautiful public facilities?

Meanwhile, little Sally or Enrique over there who had no disabilities and has a great capacity to learn has been neglected. It is a miracle if any of them are able to read by the time they enter 1st grade. The Ivys go from Grieco Elementary to McCloud. At Janis E. Dismus Middle School the Ivys become Academy Prep. (Oh and our children have become disagreeable and angry without knowing why by this time. They are now proposing another school that would remove these disagreeble children that they have created by neglect to an Alternative School.)

The special and privileged IVY/Academy Prep children are then tracked into the Academy. These children are already labeled as Academy from 1st grade. Now you tell me. What is going on here? Oh and, the children of the board members and folks affiliated with that click ALL end up in the Academies. That is the reason they pretend to object to the DMHS Alumni Educational Alliance giving a Scholarship to DMHS students.

Academy students are only referred to as DMHS students 2 times. They are DMHS students when they want the Scholarships. They are Dwight Morrow High School Students on their diplomas. The state of New Jersey does not recognize the Academy as a school. This is the reason DMHS must be erased. The Academy will arise out of the ashes like the historical and mythical phoenix.

In case folks were not aware of the fact. Mr. Garrison made his presence known during the picnic. He drove slowly by. He also sicked his daughter on me at the June 28th board meeting when I objected to them changing the colors. I openly asked for a truce and to have the plaques returned and the gym floor repainted to maroon and white. I have never seen a white girl head wiggle so much in my life. I was shocked into silence when the man trained his daughter onto me. She was  yelling and head wiggling like a crazed teenager. Mind you, I was not even talking to her. I was talking to the Board President who had been instructed to show us the proposed brick sign they plan to erect on Knickerbocker road that gives an honors program top billing over the sports teams. I was suggesting that it was improper and inconsistent to list a program there when no other program is listed there. If a sign is erected, it should read, Dwight Morrow High School, home of the Raiders.

As you see from the video, the Board of Education have opened a dialogue suggesting that the Alliance is discriminating against children. As far as I am concerned, the Alliance needs to answer them, because they have been publicly challenged.

Every teacher that has been hired with the exception of one or 2 since Dr. Carlisle came into the picture has been female. I will also suggest that the Board of Education has not done "due diligence" in researching this man's past employment. Beginning September 2011, the teaching staff of the EPSD will be close to 74% whte female. At first glance this seems whiter than it was when I graduated in 1969. Are we going backwards. When will the integration that Dr. Grieco spoke of when he started the Academies begin? We are waiting.

Business is booming, facilities are beautiful, profits are high, programs are flailing, and students are failing.

How did we say the children were doing?