Old Does not Mean Dead, Unresponsive, Out of Touch or Unintelligent

For several months now, there have been rumblings about how someone should replace the 4th Ward Councilman here in Englewood.  It has been suggested that he is too old and out of touch. That was a concern, since the upper eschelon of the school officials, namely our almost Superintendent suggested that we retired teachers should keep our opinions to ourselves and leave the schools to the young. Is there now a trend of discarding the veterans, their knowledge, experiences and history?

Last night, I attended my first council meeting. Our main concern was that Englewood officials, for both the city and the schools may be squandering our tax dollars. We have been encouraging others to get involved in the school board and in the town so we took our own advice since the meeting did not conflict with a school board meeting.

We were warned of the dire budgetary circumstances that the City of Englewood faces. Translation, get ready for a property tax increase. This was made even more poignant when a Real Estate Resident pointed out that we at the bottom of the hill were assessed more of a percentage on our property taxes than the well to do folks up on the hill who own houses worth much more than our modest homes.

Ordinances were posted on the overhead that say nothing to the lay person except that the activity will cost X amount of tax dollars. It was calming to realize that others felt the same way. That is, that items should also be written in lay language so anyone may understand. The Mayor reminded us several times that he is Mayor and in control of the planning committee. (that also sounded familiar) Several Council People rambled on about pensions, salaries, and the deficit. Going through this writer's mind was why are we steadily spending and borrowing, spending, borrowing and hiring if we are in such dire circumstances financially.

One resident asked that the plaque at right that is located on the deterioating Lincoln School could be saved. I was concerned about the same thing months ago when I did a walking tour of the school buildings, taking note of how enormous the new additions have made the elementary schools. It makes one wonder why the authors of the "Master Plan" did not think of removing this cornerstone and incorporating it into the structure that is now the Grieco school since this school replaced Lincoln. I agree with the resident that suggested that this cornerstone on the corner of Lincoln school facing Englewood Ave and William Street should be saved and placed someplace where people may see these wise words. More people should take heed to the words engraved there.

It was not until the oldest, most experienced Council person spoke that any sense was brought to the proceedings. It was obvious that the wise old man knew what he was talking about. The body language of the entire Council changed as he spoke revealing what they had failed to address in their ramblimgs. He called himself a fiscal person and made specific comments about budget and hiring that were very easily understood. There was applause when he finished speaking. Not one of the others got the same response from the public.  It  makes one curious as to why so many folks want to see him leave his seat as 4th ward Councilman. He is the voice of reason on this council and a voice that is missing from the school board. That old man has probably forgotten more than those young ramblers will ever know. The 4th ward would be in a horrible mess without his voice. He may have his seat as long as he can speak.

When will the Whistle Blow in Englewood?

So how many Children ARE being left behind in your town...? Is it time for parents to begin asking questions of their children's school districts? Questions like:

• How many different classifications of special education exist in Pre k - and Kindergarten?
• How does Gardner's learning styles apply to such a variety of differences?
• What teacher on the planet is prepared to deal with such a diverse group of learning disabilities and learning styles in the same classroom?
• What is being done for children who do not read and write by first grade?
• What are students missing who take Mandarin in grades pre k - K, grades 1- 3 and grades 4 - 6?
• Was the effectiveness of Mandarin assessed before the plan to go ahead and implement in all grades?
• How many English Language Learning students are reading and writing in English before 2nd grade?
• Why are so many parents avoiding the public schools in the Elementary grades?
• Why is pre-kindergarten not available for ALL Englewood children, especially since we have been designated a school system in need of improvement?
• Why is the board of education (of which not one has experience in public school education) making such critical decisions about curriculum with little or no teacher or principal input?
• Why do Englewood Educators walk on eggshells?

In Atlanta, Georgia:
"Administrators — pressured to maintain high scores under the federal No Child Left Behind law — punished or fired those who reported anything amiss and created a culture of "fear, intimidation and retaliation," according to the report released earlier this month, two years after officials noticed a suspicious spike in some scores."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-schools-cheating-fallout,0,386884.story

Everyone who thinks this only exists in Atlanta, please sit down immediately. You have a lot to learn. It sounds very familiar and close to home to  those of us who have been paying attention. There must be more accountability on the part of the parents, teachers, and principals. How well does your child read and write? Regardless of what anyone says Literacy is the key. Indifference has no place in the field of Education. If one is not helping, then one is hindering. School personnel must begin to join together for the sake of children and not just for the sake of salaries.

Will easing test pressure save kids?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/easing-test-pressure-wont-save-kids/2011/07/15/gIQAWGQSKI_story.html

We do not have Title 1 Reading and Math in our town, yet we are a failing district. Are Mandarin, Dual Language, Avid, AcademyPrep and Small Learning Communities clouds of smoke being pumped up our proverbial butts while our children are failing basic skills tests given in English?

We attended a Public Hearing of Governor Christie's Education Transformation Task Force on Tuesday, July 12 at Seton Hall University. We are not the only ones concerned about the learning taking place in the developmental years of our children. http://www.state.nj.us/education/news/2011/0707hear.htm

There is still time to get  your voices heard. We encourage you all to use this email address and do just that.

regreform@doe.state.nj.us

Or write:

Education Transformation Task Force

c/o Department of Education,

100 Riverview Plaza

PO Box 500, Trenton, NJ 08625

Business is booming.  Grants are rolling in. Facilities are rented on Sundays and whenever empty, but are not available to your children for a basketball game. Folks are smiling, shuffling and keeping time, but how are the children?

Real Estate vs. Education

How is it that The Englewood Board of Education just built one brand new building(Grieco), created a gigantic complex out of another (McCloud), added a new wing to another (Quarles) and still did not build a place to house central office? Where is the intelligence behind that bit of business?

Exactly why is it that we do not have a building available to
house our board of education?
(photo courtesy of Kenneth Walton)

How is it that they have sold 2 school buildings, but still do not have enough space to house itself? The word on the street is that Mr. Hunkin has performed his duties so well that the stadium is being renovated into a complex with a state of the art office to house his many activities. Exactly what activities are those since we outsource custodians? Does this man have a workforce that reports to him? To whom does he report? It seems he reports directly to a board member. How weird is that?

Just how effective will Central office be when it is no longer central and it's pieces are spread all over the City?  Folks, we have enough of a mess already. Are you trying to see just how much stuff you can mess up at once? Is this the real reason you are allowing the Cowboy to move his office into our high school?

Where o' where is the money going that is collected from facilities rental? Seems like enough to fund, lets say, the After School Program. Oh, perish the thought. That might actually help somebody. It will be very interesting to see what is done with the money just allocated by Christie.
We see you.

Business is booming, Grants are rolling in, Facilities are rented on the regular, Folks are smiling, shuffling and keeping time, but how are the children?

The Englewood Way...

                     ENGLEWOOD TODAY                        HAVE YOUR SAY, THAT'S THE ENGLEWOOD WAY

1) Fees for the towns pool memberships have tripled. That increase was decided at the city council meetings. (From NJ.com)

• Individual swim club memberships in Englewood are increasing from $15 to $55.
• Family memberships are jumping from $60 to $220, more than a 250 percent hike.

2) Many of our young people are not working this summer and are walking the streets. At least 80% of our kids should be working, attending summer courses or camps. There's a 9th grade enrichment program going on right now but what happened to classes/workshops for grades 10-12?

 

2) At the last school board meeting, Donald Carlisle (Superintendent - with no signed contract) threatened that he was going to outsource the school districts nursing staff. Carlisle was angry that the school nurses spoke out of turn at a prior board meeting asking for summer jobs in front of the general public. Basically, he was trying to scare them for speaking out in public. So what was the district saying about bullying? It starts at the top and trickles down.

 

3) Peter Elbert, former middle school principal who was removed from Janis E. Dismus Middle School for failing test scores for 5 consecutive years has been chosen by the new superintendent of schools, Donald Carlisle, to become the principal for the same children he failed now at Dwight Morrow High School. He seems like a nice man and the kids like him but what does that have to do with their education? They're failing on the statewide tests. Which means that they can not compete successfully for jobs, college scholarships, internships, etc. Does anyone even care that this means their children will have been screwed over twice? Militeer is being kicked to the curb to make room for Elbert. The same way that Joe Bell was almost kicked to the curb to make room for Elbert when NJ state mandated that he be moved out of the middle school. Joe was saved because the parents came out and spoke against it. Why does our superintendent and board think Elbert is more impressive than Militeer or Bell?

 

4) Our district has a Mandarin language program (yes, spoken in China). We received a grant for the program. Three members of the board, Shirley Smith, Glenn Garrison and Stephen Brown are going to China. Only a small portion of the cost will come from Englewood's budget, about $1K per person. That's not much money really, except that it should be spent to send three children in the Mandarin program and one parent per child to China. Isn't that what immersion is about? Why aren't the children in the program going on the trip instead of the Board Members getting a free trip on our dollar. Seriously? Who does that?

 

5) The Eagle Academy, the alternative school in Englewood is where kids that disrupt learning in some way, shape or form are sent indefinitely. It seems that it's also where our teachers and principals are sent when they anger someone on the Board of Education or Administration. But that's not such a bad thing, because that means that there is good leadership and educators like Joe Bell, Jamila Scott, Malva Wise-White. They're a blessing to our kids at the Alternative School. I've heard that one of our best and brightest, Wayne Stackhouse (excellent math teacher from Dismus), has been exiled to the Alternative program for this coming fall. What do all of those people have in common. Brains, backbone, balanced? What else? And by the way, the ages for inductees of the Alternative School have been lowered to allow 7th and 8th graders to be placed there. Low self esteem can land your child there. That's one of the criteria for admittance. Wow.

 

Keep an eye on the hiring that's going on in your town and school district. Have your say and make your suggestions. Attend the city council and school board meetings. We can make sure that our schools do better, that our town does better. Go to www.espd.org, www.cityofenglewood.org and http://plumwalk2-justsaywhen.blogspot.com, for more information on Englewood, meeting schedules and what's going on in town.

 

Read - Learn about Englewood and what's going on in your town

'Worst economic recession' says Englewood mayor about city's financial situation

http://www.northjersey.com/news/125265574__Worst_economic_recession__says_Englewood_mayor_about_city_s_financial_situation_.html

Englewood finance report make dire prediction

http://www.northjersey.com/news/125328713_Englewood_gets_warning.html

Passow: Hall of fame basketball coach, Gerald Akridge, deserves better

http://www.northjersey.com/community/124758544_Akridge_deserves_better.html

Englewood Schools May Expand Chinese Language Studies

http://www.northjersey.com/news/125124103_Schools_may_expand_Chinese_language_studies.html

Englewood To Hike Swim Membership Fees

www.northjersey.com/recreation/124148068_Englewood_s_pool_fees_rising_sharply.html

Taking economics out of standardized http://www.northjersey.com/news/125123593_Taking_economics_out_of_standardized_testing.html

To have your say, email me your suggestions, comments, questions and news. Please feel free to forward this email to all of your neighbors and friends in Englewood. We can make Englewood a better place to live.

 

Donna Sumler

thedenofalioness@hotmail.com

Are Our Schools In Crisis?: Do we have a Chief School Administrator or not?

...And what did we have to give up in order to hire him? Does our Board of Education understand what the process is when hiring persons with a Certificate of Eligibility? (Carlisle has a CE) Rumors are that the state has told our board that if we want to pay him more than CAP that we must give up some State Aid that generally goes for pupil services. In this town, that is not so unthinkable. We are a failing district that accepts Title I funds, but we do  not provide much needed title I Reading and Math classes to students that obviously need them. That is the main reason we are a failing district. So what else is new?

Our almost Chief School
Administrator called me an
Arm Chair Quarterback,
because I maintain
this blog and I speak up for all
of the children.  If exposing
corruption and indifference in
a sick, and festering educational
system makes me that,
then so be it. And my chair
is also pink.

Pardon me, but I agree with our Governor on the point that Superintendents make far too much money. They are grossly overrated and overpaid. Unless they are terrible micromanagers they have a workforce of some pretty powerful and well educated people who really keep the ship afloat. They take 10 minutes to access who will not oppose anything they have in mind. Those folks who do a lot of kissing up for whatever reason have job security. Those who dare to have an opposing opinion or an original thought that was NOT given to them by the person in power suffers. An insecure Superintendent quickly emasculates anyone who has the credentials to do the job that he has landed. It has just happened in this town. Decisons were made that had absolutely nothing to do with children or education.

I noticed on the last Board Agenda that only 1 person was listed as highly qualified. I am hoping against hope that this was a joke of some sort. This one person was nearly fired outright. Teachers and students showed up at board meetings to support him, but he was still moved out of a building that desperately needs not only him, but more men like him. In my old district, I was one of the people assigned to make sure the people in my department were highly qualified. It was not a hard job. Those who were not were quickly moved to jobs they were qualified to do and others went back to school to earn the needed credits. The District complied. What is Englewood doing? Do we have the largest number of unqualified teachers on the planet or is someone blowing smoke in our eyes?

Don't be confused by the term higly qualified. All it means is that the teacher is certified to teach in the area in which they are employed. Points are given to those who have worked successfully in an area for so many years, points are given for workshops, classes etc. People, that is not a difficult concept. No Child Left Behind was created to HELP parents. Don't get it twisted. EVERY teacher should be HIGHLY QUALIFIED. If they are not NCLB gives you the right as parents to protest that person teaching your children. That is as it should be. So how many teachers in Englewood are NOT highly qualified? I want an answer to that question.

Lately, I am getting the impression that there is a movement to dumb down NCLB. Dumb down to what? Districts like Englewood have ignored the tenets of NCLB anyway. They give lip service to it. They lead parents to think it is a bad thing only because they don't want them to examine what it really is. Take care Arne Duncan and others who are looking to make things more comfortable for school districts who complain about NCLB. They were probably NOT going to abide by its tenets anyway.

Sometimes Superintendents arrive in town with an entirely different workforce than the one already in place. What do you do with the people who are already working hard to keep the schools afloat? Some people are so full of themselves that they make unrealistic demands on Boards of Education having to do with deals under the table. They bargain for complete control of hiring and decision making. They take the Board on Retreats with the express objective of training them to be a more amicable body of policy makers. "Just let  me do what I want." They make announcements in public that suggest that the public should stay out of the business of the school board. They suggest that the New Jersey School Board Association training is not needed. Rest assured, it is needed. If for no other reason than to let Board Members know for sure when they are breaking the rules and deceiving the public whom they have sworn to serve.

Since I have become more involved, I have read a lot about the relationship of Boards of Education and Superintendents. It is very interesting that the board is expected to give the Superintendent objectives that he/she is expected to accomplish. Okay, so who gives the objectives to the Board? What if the Board is so involved in it's own agenda that they have no idea what an objective is? What if the Board of Education as a whole has no clue as to what makes a good school system? What if they have no idea and do not even look for examples of best practices in the surrounding towns that have been more successful in producing high achieving students? What if the Board has demonstrated that they only care about a small percentage of students (their children and the children of their friends and neighbors) that have been separated out from the herd? Are we really proposing to lift the rules that make these people pretend to care?

Business is booming, Grants are rolling in, Facilities are rented on Sundays, Folks are smiling, shuffling and keeping time, but how are the children?