SCHOOL CLOSINGS & TAKEOVERS CORNER:

Welcome to Citizens for Better Schools WHAT'S NEW: Ala Ed Budget Crisis - State Takes Fed Stimulus Funds Then Cuts State Funding SCHOOL TAKEOVER CORNER: BIRMINGHAM * DETROIT * SAINT LOUIS School Size and Grade Structure Brown Past 50 Symposium and Education Workshops Contact Citizens for Better Schools Education Statistics & Thumbnail Facts: School size not saving Detroit schools form chopping blocks - Economies of scale B'ham Superintendent Search: Edgecombe County - Birmingham City Schools NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND REAUTHORIZATION UPDATE PAGE - NOW OPEN BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL CLOSING WATCH: MORE SECRET MEETINGS 2007-2008 BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL CLOSINGS (HERE WE GO AGAIN - "DOWN SIZING, RIGHT SIZING, or CAPSIZING" ) Alabama School Districts Without One Month Reserve Fund More Busing in Birmingham With School Consolidations ALA'S #1 PROBLEM: TEACHER SEXUAL MISCONDUCT Blog Ala's Biggest Problem - Teacher Sexual Misconduct BIG SPENDERS - MOST COSTLY SCHOOLS NOT SMALL SCHOOLS The late Henry Sparks made Birmingham the financial envy of the state's education system Education Finance, Economics, & Budget Monitoring Despite Free Space in SomeSchools, Many Packed Classrooms(How are Birmingham Classrooms?) Class Size Comparison Changes For Parents - The Classroom Effects of Closing & Consolidating Schools COMING SOON: ** THE CHOICE: SCHOOL ZONING, BIG SCHOOLS - SMALL SCHOOLS (WHICH EDUCATES THE POOR BEST?) CLASS SIZE REDUCTION Education Research on School Size: School Climate and Academic Achievement Evidence Based Consequences of Increased School Size Curriculum and Instruction  BIRMINGHAM CITY SCHOOLS DECLINE: THEFT IN SCHOLS - INTERNAL CONTROLS LACKING Worhtless BOE Guidelines and Frame Work For Superintendent Stan Mims, Lay Citizen Advisory Task Force (BOE Policy 6170) Sabotaged In Education: Big Is Not Better - Research Finds Small Schools Better for Poor and Black Students Links About Birmingham City Schools The Good Common School Journal Thumbnail Facts: Birmingham Enrollment/ Teacher Loss Not Cause of $22 Million Bham BOE Losses Anniston Citizens for Better Schools FAIRFIELD CITIZENS FOR BETTER SCHOOLS Jefferson County (Alabama) School System: Sylacauga Citizens for Better Schools Citizens For Better Schools: Education Management and Leadership Special, Exceptional, and Gifted and Talented Education GOLD FACULTY - BROWN PAST 50 WORKSHOP: BEYOND NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND - FULFILLING THE PROMISE OF BROWN Contact Your School, State, and Federal Representation Here! Favorite Links: Legal Resources - College Funding Opportunity ALL SPORTS Birmingham - ALL THE TIME GENDER EQUITY: Public Schools, Segregated Schools? Phillips Academy - Crisis in Student School Bus Transportation WE ARE "HOKIES" TOO! Topic Index: BREAKING SCHOOL CLOSING NEWS ** Citizens for Better Schools

The "Standards" and "Accountability" era is producing record closings, state school and district "takeovers," mostly of urban (i.e., black) school districts

This page, starting today, will monitor and track state takeovers of schools and school districts.  The public has the right to know how these state takeovers affect education of public school students.  Who will hold states accountable for fiscal responsibility and academic achievement once the state takes over a school or school district? 

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March 10, 2009, Kansas City, Missouri

In High Stakes Vote, Kansas City School Board Split on Closing Schools 5-4 http://www.fox4kc.com/wdaf-story-kcmo-schools-closure-vote-031010,0,2968848.story

 - The Kansas City school board is closing nearly half the district's schools in a desperate bid to stay afloat - KCMO School Board Closes 28 Public Schools http://www.nbcactionnews.com/news/local/story/School-Board-Approves-Plan-to-Close-Schools/bym0gWJcNkGKqvSDfhx2Yg.cspx

AP REPORT http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/mass-school-closures-approved-360183.html

New New York Times Report http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/11kansascity.html?ref=education

March 9, 2010
Kansas City to “amputate” half its schools to avoid bankruptcy –Spent $2 billion on capital projects, lost over 40,000 students as academic performance dropped to bottom in state“Once hailed as a promising model for ”urban” education enrollment, the district has fallen from a high of about 75,000 students in the 1960s to 17,000 today. About 40 schools have been closed in the last four decades as more people have abandoned the urban core for the suburbs.The district needs to cut $40 million to $50 million from its 2010-2011 budget. The school closings would save $50 million. The district employee census would drop by more than 700 from about 3,000 now. That would include the elimination of about 285 teaching positions.” http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/08/1799137/kc-schools-on-brink-of-major-change.html Video: KC Superintendent John Coveington http://videos.kansascity.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=11369135 Commentary and Posts http://voices.kansascity.com/node/7596
Read more: http://voices.kansascity.com/node/7596#ixzz0hidwsJKK
KC's Birmingham Financial and Administrative Links:  KC's Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer Dr. Rebecca Lee-Gwin and Jeff McDaniel, Chief of Staff to KC's school superintendent are not unaccustomed to budget deficits, closing schools, and firing teachers and support staff.  They both recently worked in the troubled Birmingham, Alabama school system.  Lee-Gwen was the Alabama State Department of Education's de facto "financial advisor"  as the state sought to "gain fiscal soundness" in Birmingham City Schools.  Known as "Becky Lee" in Birmingham, Lee-Gwin urged the Birmingham district to close a dozen schools to gain fiscal soundness  and crafted a"Fiscal Recovery Plan" that failed, The Birmingham school system now faces an $18 million deficit after having closed schools and fired hundreds of teachers and support staff. . 
McDaniel once worked for the local NEA affiliate in Birmingham. He left the Birmingham school district last year amidst controversy as the school system's Human resource director,  having hired a dozen Filipino math teachers to fill vacant post in Birmingham. 

 

Oakalona, City, February 20, 2010

State to Take Over Okolona. Mississippi Schools:  Academic and Financial Woes Cited

http://nems360.com/view/full_story/6366654/article-Takeover-of-Okolona-schools-imminent?instance=home_news_2nd_left 

DETROIT Detroit, Feb. 11, 2010

EMERGENCY FINANCE MANGER ANNOUNCES MORE SCHOOL CLOSINGS, "MERGERS AND CONSOLIDATIONS" (ACADEMIC & FINANCE PROBLEMS CONTINUE)

 

Detroit City Schools continue historic school closings as roughly 40 more Detroit public schools will close, and the district will impose layoffs, furloughs and other concessions upon its staff this year to help close a $200-million budget deficit, emergency financial manager Robert Bobb said last week. Read Detroit Free Press story: http://www.freep.com/article/20100211/NEWS01/2110555/1003/NEWS01/More-Detroit-schools-to-close   Hit hard by years of decline, mismanagement, corruption, and near national depression, education of Detroit schoolchildren, stated conservatively, is taking a mugging. 
How Detroit's “restructuring”, or “downsizing,” or “rightsizing” will link funding and academic achievement is seriously in question. The Michigan legislature has given Detroit’s Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb both financial and academic control over the troubled school system.  Now, Bobb, the Emergency Financial Manager, is asking newly elected Detroit Mayor Dave Bing be given “control” over the school system.  Detroit’s elected Board of Education is now only titular .What does such mayoral “control” over a public school system really mean for academic achievement?  Over the next several months, from this site, we will monitor, track and discuss school restructuring under state and municipal control of public school systems.  How will these “interventions” provide (or fail to provide) enhanced academic achievement for students, the real purpose of any public school system.
Read about the execuitve staff's Alabama conneciton: http://www2.kcmsd.net/Pages/Superintendent.aspx

  

MAYOR WANTS CONTROL OF MILLWAUAKIE SCHOOLS – FEDERAL STIMULSU DOLLARS MOTIVATION http://www.cbs58.com/index.php?aid=8787&

Closings Schools Not Helping Detroit.  Deficits Continue to Mount; Enrollment falls (Charters Pull students Out of Detroit Public Schools)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/us/28detroit.html?ref=education

Newark School Take Over:  Union Part of the Team

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/nyregion/04school.html?ref=education 

Clayton County, Ga public schools face accreditation problems

Clayton County public schools are in trouble. In February, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools recommended the district's accreditation be revoked. On Aug. 28, 2008, the school system lost its accreditationafter failing to meet stringent guidelines. The lost accreditation affects about 50,000 students registered in the school system. The school system is appealing the decision. The Atlanta Journal has the story. http://projects.ajc.com/topics/metro/clayton-county-schools/

 

 

 

DERTOIT ACITIVIST SUE TO HALT SCHOOL CLOSINGS -

HEARING DELAYED:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070702/NEWS01/70702015/1003/NEWS01

 

 

 

St. Louis School District Loses Its Appeal to Halt School District Takeover:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/06/12/41apstlouis_web.h26.html

 
 VIDEO
Click on links to watch team coverage from St Louis’ News Channel 5 at 6 School News tracing St Louis’s State School Take Over (Cleveland Hammonds once was Superintendent in St Louis.  Upon his departure St Louis discovered its schools were in a multimillion dollar deficit.  Hammonds also served as superintendent in Birmingham city Schools.
RAW VIDEO: Thursday's announcement in Jefferson City
RAW VIDEO: Missouri Commissioner of Education D. Kent King
RAW VIDEO: St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Diana Bourisaw
RAW VIDEO: Teachers Union Local 420 President Mary Armstrong
RAW VIDEO: St. Louis Public School Board president Veronica O'Brien
RAW VIDEO: St. Louis Public School Board member William Purdy and attorney Greg Mitchell of Brydon, Swearengen & England, P.C.
RAW VIDEO: St. Louis Public School board member Ron Jackson
RAW VIDEO: St. Louis Public School District parent Claudia Blackmon
A look at the community impact of a state intervention (Cordell Whitlock reports)

After Voting to Not Close Schools, Detroit Reverses CAM POSIRMINGHourse - Board Votes to Close 34 Schools (More Next Year)

- Read the full story here:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/NEWS01/704050441

 CloseAnother Urban School

District Bites the Dust:

Preliminary OK for mayoral takeover of Washington D.C. schools - City Council Approves Plan -

Read the full story from the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/03/AR2007040301116.html  

D.C. School Takeover

Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Who would hire and fire the schools superintendent?

School System Power Change

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has proposed shifting oversight of the D.C. schools superintendent and control of most D.C. schools functions from the Board of Education to his administration. How Fenty¿s plan would alter the governance structure for key areas:

Last week, Birmingham neighborhood schools learned their fate. Birmingham's school system, faced with state financial takeover for the second time in four years, adopted a state drafted "correction plan." In 2003 the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) put Birmingham under the gun with a state crafted "Fiscal Recovery Plan" which failed to stop student exodus from the struggling school system and failed to trim central office administrative fat, where 80 percent of the system's students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch and the racial academic gap grows Birmingham's ACT average has been stuck on 17.8% for the past 10 years, below state and national norms).

 

State takes over St. Louis Schools - Violence and Student Unrest Ensues

State Revokes St Louis Accreditation: Will take over schools (Once lead by Cleveland Hammonds, past superintendent of Birmingham City Schools)

Transition panel to lead the district, which has been beset by financial and academic problems. 

The district met only four of the 14 performance standards set by the state, failing in such areas as middle and high school math scores, graduation rates and college placement. To remain provisionally accredited, it would need to meet six of the 14 standards. Full accreditation requires meeting nine of the standards.

The president of the St. Louis district's current school board, Veronica O'Brien, had supported the state takeover.

"I think it's important for them to bring in some new leadership, some new administration, and someone who can really turn the district around," she said. She left the meeting Thursday under police protection.

Read the full story:

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/16956521.htm

Detroit Schools plan could change http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=NEWS01


A close vote by Detroit school board members to reject a plan to close more than two dozen schools could be reversed as early as the next board meeting April 4. That's when board member Jonathan Kinloch said he could change his "no" vote. |

Failed school boards, frustrated citizens, angry voters: Who will hold states accountable post state takeover?

Above, passionate protesters pack St. Louis school board meeting expressing their disapproval, and anger, over state's takeover of troubled St. Louis public schools.  In the photo below, student protestor is arrested during anti-takeover demonstration in St. Louis, Missouri (Photos by St. Louis Post Dispatch)