This, sadly, is far too common a story.
I was telling a newspaper reporter today that Central has gotten worse since I my first visit there in Spring 2001.
And I was kind of taken aback as I heard myself say that.
It sounded perposterous.
When I first visited, the school had been recently deemed academically deficient, and its principal had been demoted. Yet the difference between that school and the one today is like the difference between Yale and Penn Valley Community College.
Sad.
That said, there is a lot of buzz on the school district wire of late. I heard that seven top administrators were axed yesterday, and that the new superintendent has vowed to fire anyone who has presided for more than five years over a program that has not performed well or improved. Hopefully that includes principals (and, more importantly, assistant principals) at schools like Central.
Worse (and this might be total conspiracy theory), word has it that the district has lost its Title 1 status. For those who don't know, Title 1 is a federal program that brings extra money into the district to help poor, at-risk and special ed kids. According to the current chatter, the district has misspent that money so many times that the feds have finally said enough is enough.
If this is true, the district is in a major bind.
Honestly, sounds a little far-fetched, like a tidbit of truth that's been distorted on the rumor mill. You've gotta practically kill people to get the feds to completely cut you off.
But still, a tidbit of truth is tidbit of truth.
I have no doubt that the district cronies have been mishandling the money.
It'd be a surprise if they weren't.
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so much to report, so little time.
maybe we should all just close every school and give each parent pod the chunk of cash that is their portion and let them hire the tutor of their choice.
not that many parents would pay attention; ok, so give the kids their money and let them take the kauffman fast trac business program and set up a moneymaker or hire their own teacher and learn what they think they need to "succeed."
a bit like charter schools, which around here are the only little things that give me hope. high school, though, it all falls apart.
bureaucracy isn't working. the industrial model of education is outdated, to say the least. it could care less about students who are non-academically-oriented, the kind who don't learn from reading or sitting inside a bank of classrooms day in and day out being spoonfed "how to pass the test we need to have you pass so that we can say we're meeting standards."
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