It’s time for a thank you note
I understand, but it has very little to do with money and a whole lot more with saying thank you.
I’m going to tell you a story as a metaphor to will help get you to where I’m going.
The holiday routine in our house invariably involved Christmas and unwrapping all of the goodies, playing with the goodies (or in my case mixing in the occasional book) for a week, then New Years Day and the arduous task of writing thank you notes. By the end of the first week of the New Year it was pretty much expected in our house that those thank yous be written. If not, well… my mother had a way of being pretty convincing.
One year, Christmas came - and one of my siblings did not receive a Christmas gift from a particular set of grandparents. All of the rest of us got ours, but this particular family member did not get their’s. As we sat around the tree cheerfully tearing paper from our packages the child without a present said to my parents something akin to “What gives?”
Upon which my mother replied, “Grandma and Grandpa said you didn’t send them a thank you note last year. So they figured you weren’t interested in getting any more presents.”
Ouch!
The reason I tell you this story is because this is the real problem with the Cleveland Public Schools. It’s all about saying thank you (metaphorically speaking). When was the last time the students, the parents, the faculty and the administration in the municipal school district showed that they appreciate what we the taxpayers give them?
Improved test scores are the thank you notes we require from the students. Involvement in their children’s education is the the thank you note we ask of the parents. Dedication in the classroom and a flexible contract with shared burdens when it comes to health care, etc. is the thank you note we need from the faculty. Effective management and transparent finances are the thank you note we expect of the administration.
That’s all, a simple thank you note.
Before you start telling me that all of this would be possible if the district just had some more money, stop.
The district effectively has more money from the taxpayers each year to spend per student because the number of students attending Cleveland Public Schools is rapidly declining while our tax burden is not. The math is pretty simple (even if you include the minimal carve-out that comes with vouchers and charter schools) - SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY + FEWER STUDENTS = MORE MONEY SPENT PER PUPIL.- If the district would do a better job of managing its money (both in how it’s spent and how it’s invested) it would have more money to work with
- If a more realistic approach was used in planning the school construction process we wouldn’t be so concerned about closing schools to save money, we would be talking about how the fewer (and thus less expensive) new schools will improve the ability of the district to educate our children
Here’s my message for the Cleveland Public Schools - there’ll be no more gifts for you until you learn how to say thank you.
Wendell,
Good point with your story….
For an example, Bedford Schools has in excess of a $50 million dollar budget. Yet we are continually at the bottom on the test scores.
We, as well as parents in other districts, continually hear from educators that the NCLB is bad or unfair. You can then pile on excuses of “Why they can’t” do better and/or they need more money. Most school districts have been given what they want, more money, from the residents, whil we have gotten no return. Or a “Thank You” as you so accurately pointed out. We get nothing but more excuses.
I have not followed the new school funding by Rev. Ted as I feel it is a joke. Both sides are a joke in this matter as none have the guts to stand strong and fix funding and our schools.
Here would be a question for any elected official who “THINKS” they have the answer to funding -
How can you fix funding if you do not know where the waste is? Why would you give a school district more money when they are wasting money?
Before any funding is truly fixed, we need to have performance audits performed. Obiously this would be a huge task to undertake.
I would propose, any district in Continuous Improvement for 2 years or more and any district in Academic Watch have a performance audit done on the district, to be eligible for ANY funding.
School performance audits are to detailed to explain here. I suggest going to the State Auditor’s web site and searching - “School Performance Audits”. I believe after you regain your wits from reading what you find, you will see the importance of the two above questions.
King
June 7th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Excellent essay. Bush talked so much about an ownership society in his ‘04 nomination acceptance speach, I wish he would have actually made an attempt to implement. Give people something for free and they could care less about it. Make them pay for it and they will guard it with their lives. I think you get to the heart of it Wendell, that there this “free” education costs taxpayers a lot and they expect something for it. How about if a student fails a grade the parent(s) are required to pay tuition for the make up year? All of a sudden getting homework done and studying for tests will become very important in a household.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:42 am
I see my point has been made….
Essay was nice, but no offense, it was as meaningless as the empty promises of politicians to fix school funding and our schools.
Talk of performance audits usually is a thread ender. This proves to me both sides really do not want to fix anything.
If they did, they would start with stopping the waste of millions of dollars by Ohio school districts.
Until we demand financial transparency, which would be provided by a performance audit, in our districts, any attempts to improve our schools or fix the funding will be nothing more than the usual empty talk.
June 9th, 2007 at 10:35 am
In December 2006 I wrote Dr.Sanders “One of your stated goals is to reach shows improvement in the next year. That’s great, but what about the students who have been in the system for 8-12 years? We have let them down. What are they going to do when they graduate? When they attempt to go to college, many of them will have to pay for remedial classes. What are your thoughts on a grade 13 for them? We would be able to finish the job that we started, and get them prepared to succeed. I think we owe it to them. It could be a temporay thing, and strictly voluntary. It could be only for those currently in the system(whom we may have failed) while you continue to strive for excellence in the future.
I received the following reply on 2-2-2007 from Mickey Brown,Executive Assistant to the CEO:”As you may or may not know, Our Cheif Executive Office, Dr. Eugene Sanders, has implemented an assessment of every child in the District. Each child will be assessed three times during the year and we will tailor the corrective action to both catch the sudents up and get them to grade level. Since we are taking a bold step in assessing our children, a grade 13 is probably not going to be necessary.
My reply on 2-2-2007:” My concern that childre currently in grades 8-12, many who we have failed for that amount of years, should attempt to go to college, would need to take and pay for remedial classes. You state that each student will be assessed three times and corrective action taken to catch up the student. I am truly impressed that this”bold step in assessing our children” will be able to take a child in 12th grade, and correct the mistakes that were made in his or her first 11 years.
Mr Brown replies on 2-9-2007:” It appears that you are challenging much of the information I provided to you. Let me assure you that I am only trying to provide you with the information as I know it to be true. We believe that we can identify the weaknesses of our children through assessing them an provide the necessary support to help them succeed.”
I only have a high school education, but even I think that with a 43% failure rate, their assessing and necessary support might not be working.
June 9th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Thanks for your thoughts Bill. As always, keeping the district honest is one of the best ways to demand change.
June 10th, 2007 at 8:02 am
what about all of the improvements that were made as reported by the Plain Dealer in the lead-up to the August 2005 levy vote (issue 3). Do you think that they intentionally attempted to deceive us? maybe someone can dig up barbara byrd-bennett in solon for a comment. funny how she abandoned her tax-abated home just after the levy failed and moved to solon. maybe she did it “for the children.” i remember when asked to comment on the fact that her own home was tax abated and she would not have to pay the proposed increase herself, she said that she was from New York and they don’t know what tax abatement is there. so, i would argue that if she doesn’t know what tax abatement is then she isn’t now, nor was she then, qualified to be the CEO of the schools. Or could it be that she was LYING. hmm. people here are idiots!
June 11th, 2007 at 2:23 am
Dont forget it Was Michael White that sold us that bill of goods(school Bond). He left with $1million in his cmpaign fund and moved out of Cleveland..Started a chairity to rescue horses and gave it $150,000 per year. When they figure out what has happened to 1 1/4 billion dollars(bond money plus state contribution from tobacco money} the airport runway project will look like it was a success and all will be freed from jail. 43% failure rate among seniors may look good to the % buildings built to the orginal plan. What is the current Mayor doing to hold Cleveland Schools Accountable? Isnt his brother in charge of school facilities?
June 11th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Accountability will come through performance audits of the district.
While all the above words are great, they mean nothing without accountability. That starts with a performance audit.
Why is everyone afraid of performance audits? They will give an accurate description of the current state of the schools and their programs. It will tell us which ones are working and which ones are not. We will also find out which districts are top heavy in administration.
With this blue print in place, we can then reassess our priorities in the school. This road map will allow us to cut funding in programs that are not working and invest in ones that are.
A performance audit will tell us exactly what happened to the missing bond maney and a whole lot more!
A performance Audit needs to be requested by the school district which is the biggest hurdle. For obvious reasons, most districts do not want a performance audit.
Some parents and residents in Bedford have been requesting a performance audit for over 6 years, to no avail. Our district has one more chance to have a performance audit done at their own request.
If they fail to do so, we will be starting a ballot initiative forcing them to have one done.
June 16th, 2007 at 6:54 am