SO… Here it is, after much prompting from others, and admittedly, some procrastination on my part. A blog. From your local school board member. 🙂
Why? Let’s suffice it to say that if I felt that you were getting the whole truth and nothing but – well, then…this blog wouldn’t be neccesary, would it?
My grandmother used to say that sunshine is the best disinfectant. To me, that means: Transparency. People are empowered by knowledge. When there are not multiple layers (like an onion) that have to be peeled away before you get to the core, people are provided with true rationales and can make their own judgements. The public school system of Indianapolis is just that: public, in every sense of the word. It is free and open to all, and it is funded by public dollars. Therefore, all of the doings of the governance team are public information and can be found on Board Docs by following this link: http://www.boarddocs.com/in/indps/Board.nsf/Public
During my tenure, I have come to the realization that not many are informed, even myself at times. My hope is that this blog is informative, and the information provided here is EMPOWERING.
I need you to feel empowered. I need you to speak up, show out, stand up. Our kids need you to be empowered to do all of these things and more.
Let’s go.
The first topic I want you to be informed about is timely… just recently it was announced that school 103 will be operated next year by Phalen Leadership Academy. Y’all really need to know how this deal evolved:
Last year, The Mind Trust was successful in establishing the Innovation School Network. The board reluctantly agreed to it because the purpose of it was to take applications from individuals who had a school idea and give them a year to incubate their idea before launching a school.
The board vice president (myself) and president were a member of the selection committee. Which meant that we were able to look at four candidates ( after the ~80 initial applications were screened) and choose three out of the four. Yes, you heard that right, we got to see about 5% of the applicant pool.
One of the four applications we saw didn’t fit the mold. It was an already established charter school organization – not an individual with an idea. It was Phalen Leadership Academy.
We expressed our concerns about the intent of the Innovation School Network program.
We said we would not support it.
Phalen Leadership Academy is new to Indianapolis and does not have accountability grades from the state yet, because they did not have any students in ISTEP grades (3-8). THE PURPOSE of the Innovation Network is to raise the school’s state accountability grade. How can we expect to raise our state grade by putting a charter school operator in charge WHO HAS NEVER BEEN GIVEN A STATE ACCOUNTABILITY GRADE?
We voiced our concerns about the lack of available data to suggest that Phalen Leadership Academy would be capable of turning around a failing school. We said we would not support it.
Phalen was chosen by The Mind Trust anyway (not the selection committee that the IPS Prez & VP sat on, but the corporation) and the principal awarded $100,000 salary plus benefits. He was given a year incubation period to grow a school model which was already in existence. Everything proceeded as if the school board had no say in the matter.
When it came time to vote in December 2014, we did exactly what we said we were going to do all along. WE DID NOT SUPPORT IT. The motion for the partnership failed for lack of a majority, with myself, Annie Roof, and Samantha Adair White voting no. Mike Brown was absent. The other three voted yes.
Then a board election resulted in a change of three board members effective January 2015. Mike Brown, Samantha Adair White and Annie Roof lost re-election campaigns. The three who supported it stayed.
No time was wasted before the Phalen partnership was put back on the agenda for a second time and subsequently approved.
Even more disappointing than the chain of events I just described is the process by which school 103 was chosen to be the recipient of this trojan horse bestowed upon the district.
PL 1321 allows for these type of charter partnerships to take place within any failing IPS school…so there are several to choose from. When the board was informed that school 103 was the choice, I immediately questioned the selection process.
Was any work done to determine best fit? Were students, parents, staff, or the community at large asked to weigh in on this decision?
No, no, no. They were not, and will not.
How’s that for autonomy?
EMPOWER, people. Please share, and stay tuned for more enlightening tales from your local school board, at work.
I couldn’t make this stuff up.
Comments, questions, ideas? Email me at gayle_cosby@yahoo.com