Coal-centric St. Louis votes to get all electricity from solar, wind

Coal-centric St. Louis votes to get all electricity from solar, wind

Transition to an elected SLPS board should begin now

Transition to an elected SLPS board should begin now

Susan Turk/St Louis Schools Watch: Update on the SAB and the highly managed 'return' to local control

Updated 10/26 at 5 PM:

The SAB has changed the meeting date for its first meeting on alternative forms of governance. The meeting focused on elected boards is now scheduled for Monday, November 6th, 6:30pm at Vashon HS, 3035 Cass Ave, St. Louis, MO 63106, which is a bout three blocks east of Grand. There is ample parking in the school lot right in front.

Subsequent meetings on appointed boards and hybrid boards will be on Thursday, November 9th, 6:30 pm at Central VPA HS 

3125 S. Kingshighway located at the corner of Kingshighway and Arsenal. But the school parking lot is entered off Kemper Avenue, the street one block south of Arsenal and Monday, November 13th, 6:30 pm at Northwest HS, at 5140 Riverview Blvd, St. Louis, 63120.

There will be a fourth meeting where the SAB task force on alternative forms of governance will deliberate in public on the report and recommendation they will make to the SAB. That meeting will be held Monday, November 20th, 6:30pm at a location yet to be determined.

Susan Turk 

St. Louis Schools Watch

Things Are Speeding Up

Susan Turk, Editor

Meeting Mon., Oct.30, 6:30 pm on SLPS Elected Board Governance

October 25, 2017, St. Louis-- The SAB is holding the first of 4 meetings by a special task force it is rushing into being to study alternative forms of governance for the SLPS. Each meeting will be on a different form of governance, elected boards, appointed boards and hybrid boards which are part appointed and part elected. The first meeting will be on elected boards and will be held this coming Monday at 6:30 pm at Vashon HS, 3035 Cass Ave, St. Louis, 63106.

This meeting has not been posted on SLPS.org yet. SAB member Richard Gaines mentioned it tonight at the Board of Education's meeting for the first time. It is part of an expedited process the SAB has cooked up to study alternative forms of governance for the SLPS. It will result in the SAB sending a recommendation to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on the future of governance for the SLPS that will be made before the end of December so that if any legislation has to be submitted to the Missouri General Assembly, DESE will have the time to do so for the 2018 session.

Experts from the Missouri School Boards Association will present information about elected boards to a special task force that the SAB is forming this Friday to evaluate the information provided and ask questions of the experts. SAB Member Gaines said the public will also be able to ask questions.

There will be opportunities for the public to make their opinions known via the SLPS website and other means.

PLEASE participate.and spread the word. Please attend Monday.

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The SAB’s Plan

The October 10th St. Louis City Board of Education meeting was unusual. All three members of the Special Administrative Board attended. The Board of Education had invited them. After the Missouri State Board of Education decided on August 15th to remove themselves from involvement in the transition planning process, the SAB sent the BOE a letter on August 30th which restated the content of their June 26th letter. The SAB again invited the BOE to send 2 members to SAB meetings to sit with them, provide input and ask questions but not to vote on matters before the SAB starting with the SAB’s September 28th meeting. The letter also invited the BOE to participate in public forums which would be held to study alternative forms of governance for the SLPS but have no role in their planning.

The BOE replied by declining to send only 2 members to the SAB meeting on the 28th because it would look as if they were participating in a hybrid board. The BOE also determined that they had no interest in studying alternative forms of governance for the SLPS. The BOE was only interested in planning for their transition back to governance of the SLPS, so they invited the SAB to discuss transition planning October 10th.

The SAB did not inform the BOE that they had accepted the invitation to appear at their monthly public board meeting until the day before, October 9th. The three SAB members did not, however, intend to discuss transitioning governance with the BOE, nor did they think it necessary to inform the BOE of this prior to the meeting. Rather they attended to present the BOE with copies of a letter which they had sent to DESE Commissioner Margie Vandeven earlier in the day. The SAB blindsided the BOE. They refused to sit at the three seats set up for them at the front of the room next to the BOE. Rick Sullivan and Richard Gaines addressed the BOE from the podium used for public comments while Darnetta Clinkscale sat in the audience. It was spectacularly disrespectful.

The letter to Commissioner Vandeven the SAB presented to the BOE stated that the SAB “is obligated by law to explore alternative governance structures for the St. Louis Public Schools. That duty was clearly established by the Missouri General Assembly in 1998 through the passage of Senate Bill 781, which was codified at Mo. Rev. Stat.S162.1100.4(2)…. The SAB takes this obligation seriously and realizes it is one of the last major responsibilities that must be accomplished in completing its service to the children, families and community of the SLPS. To that end, the SAB will soon consider a formal resolution establishing a “Special Committee” under Mo Rev. Stat. S162.621.1(3) that will lead a research and outreach effort to explore alternative governance structures for the school district. This Special Committee will include a diverse group of stakeholders to ensure full consideration of the issues and opportunities associated with this important matter. In fact, the SAB has asked a member of the Elected Board to serve as Vice Chair of the Committee, and it will solicit recommendations from the Elected Board for qualified individuals willing to serve on the Committee. Thereafter the SAB will populate the Committee with community leaders that place the best interest of the SLPS at the forefront of the deliberations.”

"While the Special Committee will certainly consider the opinions of all interested parties—including the Elected Board—in performing its research and investigation, its ultimate responsibility will be to develop an informed comprehensive report and governance recommendation to the SAB by year-end or early 2018. Hearings to receive advice from noted experts on the subject will be held over the coming weeks, and respectful public comment will always be welcomed and valued. We recognize that many individuals and groups may possess a sincere and honest desire to advance transitional and future governance structures for the district, but the SAB is sincerely duty-bound under Missouri law to do so. Accordingly the SAB is prepared to discharge that duty with the help of the Special Committee and the continued support of the State Board.”

So that is the SAB’s plan. SAB Member Richard Gaines explained that before the end of the year there would be three public hearings. There will be one each dedicated the elected boards, appointed boards and hybrid boards. The hearings will be held at different locations around the city. The SAB will contact the Council of Great City Schools for the names of experts to invite and the Special Committee and the public will be able to ask questions of the experts at the hearings. The public will also be able to leave comments on SLPS.org.

Having participated in good faith in many of what were advertised as public processes regarding the SLPS for twenty years only to discover that the outcome was predetermined and the public was included only to create the appearance of a legitimate consideration their input, it is difficult for this writer not to be cynical about this one process. The SAB was instated after all, despite the overwhelming objections of SLPS parents and city residents. However, and as usual, we have no choice but to participate. And try, once again to impress the powers that be that while democracy may be the worst form of governance, it is so with the exception of all the others.

Where to begin with explaining that there is so much wrong with their plan?

By implying the need to explore alternative forms of governance for the district, they are explicitly undermining the elected board of education which has patiently been waiting in the wings for ten years expecting to be returned to governance once the district regained accreditation. Although Gaines denied that was the SAB’s intent and stated that the SAB could decide to recommend returning the BOE to governance, they could do so without wasting time and resources studying alternative board structure. The Danforth Freeman Special Advisory committee studied alternative forms of governance in 2010 and concluded that there was no evidence that any form of governance was more successful than any other. Ignoring that report’s conclusion and retracing those steps is very suspicious and worthy of distrust. It is widely known in the education world that there is ample research on district governance which demonstrates that appointed boards and hybrid boards are not more successful at governing districts than democratically elected boards. There is no need to do this unless the SAB wants cover for a recommendation that will not be returning governance to the elected BOE.

But this is St. Louis and the heavy hand of systemic, institutionalized oppression will not easily relinquish power over our public schools. Our business leaders want to ensure their continued domination over our public schools and their more than $200 million per year general operating budget. Losing control of the voters after the 2003 slate fiasco spooked them. They do not want to risk that happening in the future. This is a town where if you are not a member of the St. Louis Regional Chamber , the Regional Business Council or the Black Leadership Roundtable, you are not considered to be worthy of sitting on the Board of Education by our self-selected community leaders. The business community wants to ensure that only members of those exclusive organizations run things.

From their paternalistic point of view, no one else need apply. Nor would they consider working with anyone who is not a member of their class and caste. Richard Gaines insisted that the SAB members want to cede power and leave governance. He said he would not serve beyond their current term which ends in June 2019. But that does not mean that the SAB would be willing to see the district governed by people not of their caste and class. It may not be about them individually. But it is definitely about people of their caliber and they reserve judgment about whom people of their caliber are. 

It should be noted that they are offering the BOE a position as vice chair, not co-chair. That makes the BOE member subordinate. It is also notable that while they will entertain recommendation from the BOE about committee members, they will reserve to themselves the ultimate decision about who will constitute the committee meaning the BOE’s recommendations might now make it on. If the SAB truly wanted to partner with the BOE on this they could offer to split decisions about the composition of the committee by giving the BOE say so about half of the members and reserve half of the choices to themselves. But they have no intention of partnering with the BOE. They have always treated the elected board as subordinates and continue to treat them as such. That’s how power is exerted in St. Louis by our ruling class. It has always been about them and their exercise of power and what little they are willing to trickle down has to satisfy the mere underlings who are the rest of us. We must accept what little we are allotted. Systemic institutionalized oppression of the general population must be maintained at all costs after all.

The problem with this form of governance should be apparent. As was pointed out by Board Member Bill Haas has last night, achievement scores are essentially flat. The SAB has had no success improving district achievement over their ten years and for good reason. You can render authority to one’s small group but you cannot force the group you are oppressing to excel for you. You cannot force children to learn. You cannot force parents to believe in your good intentions and encourage their children to excel. When you are oppressing aspirations you cannot expect excellence as a result. Oppression begets mediocrity, people simply struggling to barely comply with conditions. The excellent leaders of our fair city do not respect and cannot connect with the parents of the students in our schools. As successful accomplished people themselves, they do not understand people who have not succeeded, nor can they truly empathize with them, nor do they respect them or their elected representatives. They think themselves superior and entitled to make decisions for their inferiors. And so achievement has been flat.

Ten years have been wasted by the appointed board. They congratulate themselves for improving business practices for the district. But the district is not a business. It is a school district. It took the SAB nine years to figure out that they could not cut contracts enough to eke out enough extra money to pay the teachers adequately. Nine years! 

And after ten years they still refuse to treat the elected board as equal partners. As they plan their egress they do the only thing they know how to do, subordinate and oppress.

Gaines insisted there is a chance they SAB will recommend that governance be returned to the elected board. Their actions thus far make that very difficult to believe.

Update from the October 24, Elected Board Work Session Meeting

The Special Committee being set up to study alternative forms of governance will consist of seven to nine members all selected by the SAB. It is now being called a Task Force. The members will be chosen by Friday. October 27 and their first meeting will be Monday, October 30 at 6:30 pm at Vashon HS to hear from experts on elected boards. Five days from now. The SAB is in a hurry. This is not yet posted on the slps.org website. They apparently do not want there to be much of a turn out for the meeting regarding elected boards which makes things look all the more like a set up.

The meetings on appointed boards and hybrid boards will occur on the following subsequent Mondays. Locations have not yet been finalized. When they are, the Watch will publish them.

The elected board has decided not to send a member to serve as vice chair of the special committee. Vice chairs usually have some say in the planning and execution of meeting agendas and committee activities. The SAB is not allowing the EB to have any input on planning. The EB does not want to give the mis-impression that they have any responsibility for what is being done. But they do think they need to be represented on the committee so they selected Charli Cooksey to participate as one of the 7-9 members of the committee.

In addition to bringing in out of town experts from the Council of Great City Schools, Richard Gaines reported that the experts on elected boards would come from the Missouri School Boards Assn. and that other experts would also come from Chicago University (?) perhaps he meant the University of Chicago. The SAB has approved spending between $75,000 to $80,000 of SLPS funds for this endeavor. The funds were not approved publicly on a consent agenda at one of their public meetings. They have been discussing these plans in closed sessions under legislative matters. They are doing that because changing SLPS governance will require changing state law. 

The SAB is also going to mail surveys to over 10,000 households in the city to solicit opinions on alternative governance. They will be using a data collection consultant, Vector Communications in this effort. 

Richard Gaines expressed pride that this will be the largest data gathering effort ever attempted by the district. But it looks like they will be mining low information folks who have largely been influenced by all of the negative reports about the SLPS and the elected board that have been fed repeatedly and consistently to the public over the past 11 years by all of the major media outlets in town to validate their decision about governance, whatever it may be. 

This will have the appearance of being a democratic process without the fair and balanced presentation of information needed for people to make informed decisions which is just the way our leaders like things to be done in St. Louis.

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What MRS 162.1100 Actually Says

4. The special administrative board's powers and duties shall include:

(1) Creating an academic accountability plan, taking corrective action in under performing schools, and seeking relief from state-mandated programs;

(2) Exploration of alternative forms of governance for the district;

(3) Authority to contract with nonprofit corporations to provide for the operation of schools;

(4) Oversight of facility planning, construction, improvement, repair, maintenance and rehabilitation;

(5) Authority to establish school site councils to facilitate site-based school management and to improve the responsiveness of the schools to the needs of the local geographic attendance region of the school;

(6) Authority to submit a proposal to district voters pursuant to section 162.666 regarding establishment of neighborhood schools.

The SAB has not exercised its authority under provisions (3) or (6).

The SAB and other governmental entities mentioned in MRS 162.1100 such as the state board of education have chosen not to exercise other provisions of the statute. 

For instance, 162.1100.2(2) says that the chief executive officer, who is Rick Sullivan, “shall be paid in whole or in part with funds from the district, and shall have all other powers and duties of any other general superintendent of schools,” and “His salary shall be set by the state board of education.”

When the SAB was instated Sullivan decided not to accept a salary and the SAB chose to keep the superintendent at that time, Dr. Diana Bourisaw and to eventually hire Dr. Kelvin Adams to serve as superintendent. 

So they have been selective about following 162.1100. Insisting that they are obligated to study alternative forms of governance stipulated in 162.110.4(2) because it says, "4. The special administrative board's powers and duties shall include: (2) Exploration of alternative forms of governance for the district;" When they have ignored another “shalls” in its provisions that reeks of hypocrisy.

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The Skinny on the Council of Great City Schools

The SLPS has relied on the advice of the Council of Great City Schools before, especially during the three years when SAB Member Darnetta Clinkscale served as president of the elected Board of Education. That board, which along with Clinkscale included Ronald Jackson, Vincent Schoehmehl and Robert Archibald who voted in unison, were intent on outsourcing as many district services as possible. They consulted with The Council about outsourcing, which resulted in contracts with corporations like Aramark and Sodexho whose service was judged to be wanting by the SAB when they took over in 2007.

The Council largely fronts for corporate interests who want to develop profitable relationships with public school districts. It is notable that Darnetta Clinkscale is currently the St. Louis Board Representative on the Council of Great City Schools Board of Directors.

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The editor encourages readers to forward The Watch to anyone you think would be interested. Our city and our schools need as much public awareness and public engagement as we can muster at this time.

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Questions for the Watch? Letters to the Editor? Stories to contribute? News tips? Send them to SLS_Watch@yahoo.com

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Calendar

October 30, 2017, Monday, Special Task Force on Alternative Governance for SLPS Meeting, 6:30 pm, Vashon HS, 3035 Cass Ave., St. Louis, 63106

November 14, 2017, Tuesday, Board of Education regular monthly meeting, 6:30 p.m., Mann Elementary School, 4047 Juniata St., St. Louis, 63116

November, 21, 2017, Tuesday, Special Administrative Board meeting, 6:00 p.m., 801 N. 11th Street, room 108

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