Who's been tapped to advise Superintendent Heath Morrison and the school board? We just got the names -- some 350 of them, though it's hard to be precise since some students seem to be serving multiple assignments. (Read the list here.)
Some interesting names pop out on a quick scan. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe, Project LIFT co-chair Stick Williams, Sugar Creek Charter School head Cheryl Turner and West Charlotte High Principal John Wall seem to be among the panelists examining African American males (because CMS didn't list titles or affiliations, it's always possible there's someone else with the same name).
Howard Haworth, a former state Board of Education chair and longtime scrutinizer of CMS data, seems to be on the accountability task force, along with Queens University researcher Cheryl Pulliam.
The group looking at community and faith partnerships -- excuse me, proactive community and faith partnerships -- includes Scott Provancher, president of the Arts & Science Council; Kojo Nantambu, president of the local NAACP branch; and Molly Shaw, executive director of the local Communities in Schools office.
And the folks working on cultural competence include Dorothy Counts Scoggins, a pioneer in integrating CMS back in the day; Ynez Olshausen, principal of Waddell Language Academy; Charlotte-Mecklenburg community relations director Willie Ratchford; and possibly CMS diversity director Jose Hernandez-Paris (CMS either spelled his name wrong or there's an unrelated Jose Hernandez-Perez serving). Also tapped is Elisa Chinn-Gary, whom I recently learned is a point person on court system's Race Matters for Juvenile Justice, which folks have been telling me does some outstanding diversity and anti-racism work.
I'm leaving out a lot of folks I recognize (a quick hat-tip to the hard-working students of Generation Nation/Mecklenburg Youth Voice, who seem to be gung-ho about this work). And I'm especially intrigued by all the names that don't ring a bell -- one always hopes this is a way to get fresh views on the table.
CMS spokeswoman Tahira Stalberte said the lists could still be revised. "All task forces will launch in January excluding the compensation task force which will launch in March, building on the district's work to submit input to the state on compensation," she said in a news release. "The initial organizing meeting for each task force will be open only to members, and all subsequent meetings will be open to the public."
What do y'all think of the rosters? Remember, commentary about the makeup of panels and philosophy of individuals is fair game, but personal attacks will be zapped.
Friday, January 18, 2013
CMS names 350 to task forces
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59 comments:
21 task force groups...wait, there were 22 weren't there?
Where is the Compensation Task Force list?
Ann???
The compensation one has gotten really odd. Chief Operations Officer Millard House said the group of employees already working on a plan is the task force. But now it sounds like they're going to wrap that up, submit a plan to the state and then launch ANOTHER compensation task force. Yeah, I'm confused.
Surely this "new" task force will not include the employees this compensation plan will impact - teachers. Sounds like Re-Pete just wants the teachers to create something, make it look like CMS is playing nice with the teachers, then do whatever he wants.
that stinks.
At the end of this process, 350 people and a buck will get you something off of the Dollar Menu at McDonald's.
Love these late Friday afternoon "press releases" from CMS... especially for information that was promised weeks ago.
Anyway, 350 people?!?!? That's almost as bad as trying to run an efficient school system with 143,000 students and covering over 500 square miles. How on earth are they going to properly capture the work being done with 350 people?
I've "heard" that the Executive Sponsor at one of the meetings (ie the top Staff sponsor from CMS's executive ranks) was the one taking the meeting minutes. Now who is going to trust the meeting minutes coming from Dr. Morrison's executive staff members?
Are any of these meetings being taped, either with video/audio or just with audio?
Why would "we" want the CMS "leads" to be taking the meeting minutes?
Why can't the Community "leads" take the meeting minutes, and post them publicly, so CMS doesn't edit, cleanse and polish up the details prior to publicly posting?
I'm not feeling a collaborative sense of trust coming out of any of this information, and the groups have barely started.
Don't believe me? See ADH's comment above discussing how the "Compensation Task Force" is already being messed with. Ring any bells? Dr. Gorman's back door PfP project into the NC General Assembly?
Finally, please keep in mind that with these groups slated for work into June, NONE of the information discussed in any of the groups will have any effect on the 2013-2014 budget.
This is smart on CMS' part. Now they can blame the task forces for failure of CMS initiatives and programs.
I weep for our children. CMS is nothing more than a factory and is too big to care.
"350 people?!?!? That's almost as bad as trying to run an efficient school system with 143,000 students and covering over 500 square miles."
Christine, you have hit the nail squarely on the head with that comment. If CMS had a reasonable number of students and covered a manageable area there wouldn't be a need for all these task forces. Yet we've all seen what happens to any group that dares suggest CMS is too big and needs to be split up--let the bashing begin.
Ah superb. Another big community study effort meant to defuse the heavy hammer about to hit from Raleigh. The (urban) community (and the CO) will get all up in arms when Raleigh starts telling them things are changing, money is tightening up and you need to treat the suburbs better. Or otherwise, those that choose to leave CMS will take some money with them. Much like the charter school kids take state and local money with them.
Uh oh, looks like CMS is coming down with another case of the Broad Virus...
A BUCK on the Dollar Menue and 8CENTS
Someone has to pay for all this nonsense. Oh, thats me and you.
SHORT SIGHTED? JUST A LITTLE. BUT WHO?
Christine Mast wrote, "Finally, please keep in mind that with these groups slated for work into June, NONE of the information discussed in any of the groups will have any effect on the 2013-2014 budget."
My impression of Dr. Morrison's Way Forward is that it doesn't peter-out on June 30, 2014. More like 2030. I'd sort of like the Task Forces to produce work that requires attention next year and the next year and the next. I've haven't heard the superintendent promising immediate miracles by summer 2014.
What Ms. Mast expresses is at the root of why superintendents keep a stack of mail forwarding cards in their back pockets.
I believe the task forces will produce many long-living ideas that will give the Dr. Morrison a process to remain connected to the community; hopefully for more than five years - this community needs some stable leadership at the head of CMS. This belief was central behind my push for open meetings. He has great ideas and the community needs to be in on them all the time.
There is an old political story about wanting something too quickly.
President Gerald Ford inherited an overheated economy with high inflation. Some publicity guy came-up with a campaign button emblazoned with "WIN." It meant "Whip Inflation Now!"
President Ford, a rather fun guy with great understanding, walked into a meeting with his button upside-down, "NIM." Of course he was waiting for someone to point that out. When it was, he said no, it's correct. NIM means "No Immediate Miracles."
"No immediate miracles!" That's a phrase that sits well in Mecklenburg County.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
good point. When will any of these recomendations be phased in? 2014-15??
2:48, isn't that now 1.09?
TO: ANON 7:15 PM
Subject: When will any of these recommendations be phased-in?
It will be the day Morrison takes his own "NIM" button and turns it up-side-down.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
Continued incompetence by an anachronistic CMS.
Cultural Competency task force?
TO: ANON 12:09AM
CULTURAL COMPETENCY MEANS EXPLORING RELATIONSHIPS FOR BETTER PERFORMANCE.
The superintendent believes that within the community there is disconnect between teachers and some students that is directly linked to the achievement gap. He wants to hire (maybe already has) a diversity consultant who specializes in Cultural Competency.
That person will likely tell teachers what needs to change so their intentional or unintentional racism doesn't interfere with instruction. One consultant was interviewed a month ago.
Here are some names to search:
Tim Wise
Derrick A. Bell, Jr.
Pacific Educational Group
Glenn Singleton
Critical Race Theory
Courageous Conversations (book)
Mecklenburg Ministries
Dr. James Comer
Anti-racism
White privilege
Saint Paul, MN school district
Peanut butter sandwich and Somalia
Google, ”Seattle schools employees reach across cultures"
Cultural Competency isn't just an education movement. It's generally a small portion of larger public and private business Human Relations departments. Cultural Competency is significant in the health industry.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
Bolyn, I can't seem to find any data to show Mr. Singleton's program actually works...
Will the sorority sisters in charge of some of our schools also receive training on how to change their racist views?
I remember when the pupil assignment system last changed that several schools took their teachers on school buses through these neighborhoods. It was not openly talked about what the administrators expected of the teachers after that and teachers talked about not having any idea what their trip was supposed to accomplish. The only conclusion they could draw was that they were not to expect students to be able to do homework, they were not to expect parents to read to their children or be engaged with their children in the evenings, weekends, or summers. Simply, the teachers thought the point being made to them it that these students' parents were not going to be responsible for their children and the teachers were to become the actual parents. We saw a lot of this when some principals at certain schools were reassigned and many students said they had lost someone who had been the closest thing to a father many of them had ever had.
Not sure what else you think teachers should do. They can not hold students responsible for being absent. Usually the teachers are blamed for that. The teachers cannot cull out the nar-do-wells to allow the serious students to succeed.
This is going to be one interesting ring of the 22 ring circus.
I hosted a gay Latino CMS student last year who found himself homeless. He lived with me for almost a year. Doing so didn't require a cultural competency class, a round table discussion about race, a teacher in-service about diversity, an on-line course about cultural awareness, or a seminar entitled "White Like Me".
Provide me some proof that Cultural Competency programs improve academic achievement. Provide me some proof that Cultural Competency programs improve human relations. What are the measurable affects of Cultural Competency task-forces? Are Cultural Competency initiatives more or less effective than regularly attending Sunday school or watching re-runs of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood?
And I repeat;
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Alicia
Since the beginning of man, every culture has developed distinct musical instruments, styles of dance and visual art.
Cultural Competency; What is art?
Alicia
Alicia, this is all just more "show" (actually this is going to be more like a circus) that educrats get with when they can "use" a minority to get the community all hyped up and probably garner a few more high 5's from some of these "faker" organizations. This is all to get more accolades to add to his resume and his historical contribution to public schools. Now do not misinterpret that this means anything for public education. This is an entirely different subject.
This is just a fancier way to keep saying the whole issue with educating a culture that does not view education as a priority is the teachers. This is just a new bend on the old, tired practice of throwing teachers under the bus.
Blame the teacher movement started once busing was shown not to be the silver bullet as promised. Urban children were bused to those magical suburban schools (or those successful suburban kids were brought into the urban schools) yet many urban kids were still not succeeding. There had to be a reason! Voila--it must be the teachers!
We eliminate band and orchestra in elementary school, cut back on art in middle school and refuse to adequately fund choir in high school. My son was denied access to take art at South Charlotte Middle School because the class was overcrowded and full. He wrote his college admissions essay about AP Art History and AP Studio Art - after we transferred him to a private high school that had room for him to take these courses. He's currently taking Economics in conjunction with Persian tile making in college as an international business major because one of the most effective ways to learn, understand, become aware of and appreciate different cultures is studying art. Who knew?
How about a CMS Cultural Competency course that starts with adequately funding and expanding the arts?
Alicia
Where are the teachers?????
I'd be happy to volunteer to serve on a Cultural Competency task-force with a mission to support and expand the arts. Cultural Competency. Lord have mercy.
Alicia
Cultural Competency 101
"May you seek out your own continuing life education and, over your whole lifetime, may you grow in faith and reverence, uprightness in morals, knowledge of language and arts, forgiveness, honesty, commitment, maturity, and your capacity to love".
- Mister Rogers
Cultural Competency
- Alicia
Anything based on Critical Race Theory is basically white bashing.
Nice to see that on the agenda...
Critical Race Theory?
Who is representing the white tax paying parent in this latest boon doggle? THis is a ridiculous massage for parents were voices will not affect change. Heath let them talk , but do nothing will not influence the basis for lost trust. You discredit the entire process by jumping in bed with Kojo and that did not take very long.
4:39
Where are the teachers?
The powers that be deemed teachers unqualified to lead a single task-force. But fear not, the 22 community stakeholders who were deemed qualified to lead will have no problem telling you how to do your job. They're doing you an altruistic favor because you're too stupid, busy and unqualified to know anything.
TO: ANON 10:43
CRITICAL RACE THEORY
Critical Race Theory is closely associated with the late Derrick A. Bell, Jr. Mr. Bell was one of the two original attorneys on the Swann case.
CRT holds that all judicial and legislative efforts to advance African-Americans' status and opportunities have been nothing but ways to slow down rather than speed-up. This includes Brown, Green, all the Civil Rights Acts, Swann, Milliken, and particularly Seattle/Jefferson --- everything.
Two examples: Brown and Swann.
Brown started around 1947, decided in 1954.
Swann, based on community's failure to follow Brown, started in 1964, decided in 1972 and reached conclusion in about 2002.
1947 to 2002. Fifty-five years. CRT would say that is fifty-five years for only a cosmetic effect.
If you consider that it's now 2013 and that CMS, along with most school districts, has resegregated (neighborhood schools), then that’s 66 years to return to a situation that Critical Race Theorist say is essentially the same as the middle 1900's.
To understand CRT better you need to read good arguments from both sides. You'll learn a lot.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
4:39
Did you read the lists? There are teachers on every task force.
10:56
Do you want teachers to take time out of their jobs to do the admin work it will take to lead a task force? You'd complain about that too.
Everyone on the roster with a T after the name is a teacher. There seem to be at least a couple on each task force.
Read the Moynihan Report.
Blacks were growing the ranks of the middle class from Brown (1954) to 1964.
After the great civil rights plans implemented by Democrats and Republicans in 1964, the Black family was shot to hell where it is today. Fatherless Black children and over 70% of Black women are single with children.
Resegregation of schools is the natural order of things, where the school system has continually failed and parents of all races have chosen other options because of that failure.
Anon 8:35 Jan 21 and Alicia...
Yep. Critical Race Theory.
It's the root.
Every white person needs to get familiar with it and what it says.
Because it is being used against you in so many ways.
The leftist politicians and others of their ilk are just lapping that stuff up.
There is no real (i.e., "white man") science behind it, either, just anecdotes and stories.
Exactly the method "Courageous Conversations" uses.
And why there is no scientific evidence behind the value of "Cultural Competency".
Science is white man stuff, you see, and is only used to continue to oppress the non-whites.
Got it?
So the "antidote" to whiteness was designed to be as slippery and subversive as possible.
They don't need no stinkin' science.
Welcome to our future.
Fair question.
Did CMS invite teachers to lead a task-force? And if CMS did, they all declined?
Alicia
The operative word.is LEAD. Did CMS ask teachers to volunteer to lead? You mean to tell me not ONE teacher in CMS offered to lead? I find this preposterous but perhaps I'm wrong.
Alicia
I am tired of hearing the claim that we have "re-segregated" to where we were in the middle 1950's. Nowhere in Charlotte do school populations look the same today as they did in the mid-1900s. Just take a look at the names of teens participating in Youth Voice Leadership Alliance listed in Young Achievers on page 50 of today's paper. In addition, no one is denied entry to any school today because of their race--big difference from the 50's. The only ones who are stuck in the mid 1900's are those "race theorists" who can only see things in black and white.
Cultural Competency
Critical Race Theory
I don't know if my college business major son is studying Persian carpets and Persian hookah lounges along with Persian tile making (as a required "expressive" course needed to graduate), but if CMS could put a stop to all the cultural understanding, courageous conversation and diversity sensitivity madness, I think there are plenty of law abiding citizens in who would be happy to light-up and share a round-table peace pipe. All for one, one for... I give up.
Alicia
10:52
I'd be willing to bet that if anyone took the trouble to profile all 350 task force members, white taxpaying parents would be the largest group. How many of those represent your particular political position is an entirely different question.
Pam , I seriously doubt your analysis is true. This 350 is grouped with insiders and minority activists that marched a few years ago and shut down CMS. Of course CMS shut their schools and drove many white families away. We will let the state have a their feeding frenzy with this group as well. Meetings are open so now Heath knows the law. These task force's are nothing , but smoke your smarter than that. (I think)
Pam, I might take you up on that bet.
Show me!
No, Missouri, I'd like to see you prove me wrong. I'll buy you lunch anywhere in town you choose if you can do it.
3:03, I wonder who you hear that from. You're right that all-white schools and exclusion based on race is gone, but I don't know who would take the other side of that argument. When people talk about resegregation, they're generally talking about the schools that have been abandoned by white and/or middle-class families, where poverty levels may top 90 percent (and CMS has plenty). New issues, new challenges.
3:03 here. Don't quite understand what you mean, Ann. Hear what? ("Don't know who you hear that from") If you are referring to the resegregation comment Bolyn mentioned it in his post. The same comment is thrown around all the time by local activists. ("I don't know who would take the other side of that argument")What does that mean? I agree that there are plenty of new issues and new challenges, but to lump those challenges under "resegregation" and claim things are back to the way they were in the 50's is ridiculous. Were high poverty schools getting the lion's share of the money back in the 50's? Was anyone worrying about their graduation rates?
Ann,
"Abandoned" schools. That's an interesting and perhaps more accurate way of looking at things. Middle-class blacks aren't sending their children to schools with a 90% poverty rate anymore than middle-class whites, middle-class Asians, middle-class Latinos or middle-class anyone else. I attended a high poverty white rural school for three years but I doubt the FRL numbers reached 90%. As far as I'm concerned, poverty is poverty. Poverty isn't a contest between races or ethnicities. However, I what I don't know is if there are more or less effective ways to address poverty based on race, culture and geographic location. When we talk about poverty in Charlotte, we generally mean urban black poverty - rarely is poverty discussed in a more comprehensive way.
Alicia
Do we "differentiate" issues of poverty?
In other words, do we address black poverty and white poverty, rural poverty and urban poverty, differently?
Alicia
Are there any majority white schools in NC with poverty rates pushing 90%?
My children attended a CMS school with a 54% poverty rate. I'll be brutally honest, we didn't stay here once the school became overcrowded. The school was between here and no-man's land. It wasn't poverty stricken enough to receive additional state or federal funding but there was enough poverty to have middle-class families flee the minute the school became overcrowded. CMS eventually tinkered with boundary lines reassigning some public housing projects to other schools in an effort to encourage middle-class families to return.
What is the "tipping-point" or threshold of poverty before middle-class families start to flee? I think it's about 54% but I'm not certain.
Alicia
Ah, which brings us to "The Middle Ring"...
The Middle Ring (a coalition of mostly white and very well-connected parents representing East Meck, South Meck and Myers Park), fought to keep and reassign middle-class neighborhoods to their schools while booting out public housing projects with no objections once court ordered busing was lifted. The moral high-horse this group took managed to alienate a lot of families with options. I sat through a speech (the "Me, My" speech) by a local white judge who basically said anyone who didn't support forced busing was a racist.
And here we are.
At least three people associated with The Middle Ring are leading CMS' latest task-forces.
Alicia
There are areas of town The Middle Ring didn't want that were reassigned (with absolutely no objection) to schools that are now considered "abandoned". I welcome anyone to look at the Myers Park H.S. "home" zone map before speaking out on the topic of who's racist and who isn't.
Alicia
Pam, I'd considered doing just that myself. But then I had a reality check and decided this "circus" was not worth my time. This is just a show for Heath, Broad and several others to make a national name for themselves wringing their hands in front of politicians to try to get more money for these "underprivileged".
Alicia, you have to have been here when these "home school" zones were created. The BOE at that time was most racist, less concerned with government spending, grabbing for all the revenge they could get after losing the trial (building Waddell HS), and on and on. If you go to any other semi-successful city, you would not see a pupil assignment zone drawn anything like these were.
If Year Round Schools are such a great idea, then why not every school ?
Ummmmmmmmmmm
Alicia, I love your "moral high-horse" comment. There certainly has been a lot of that over the years, including a leading banker who told the court we needed to continue busing because diversity was so important (but of course his grandkids were in private schools), a newspaper editor who oversaw the bashing of suburbanites who wanted busing to end but, oh by the way, her child attend Country Day, the Mayor who says he's going to use housing to do something about the schools, but, oh year, his kids go to CD as well, and on and on and on. (There's nothing wrong with sending your child to private school but just don't tell the rest of us what bad people we are for wanting our kids at schools close to home). Then we have the public school parents, East Meck comes to mind, who are happy to snatch the "right" kids away from their assigned schools to help balance out their school. Has happened time after time after time.
To Pamela at 4:00 PM:
What are we going to do about those white tax paying parents who think they should have a say in how CMS is run!
Hi Pamela,
Alicia
"Well from now on, Linus, think for yourself.. Don't take Any advice from anyone!"
- Charlie Brown
"If everybody agreed with ME, they all be right!"
- Lucy
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