By Antonio D. French
Filed Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 7:00 PM
The first regular meeting of the St. Louis City Board of Education since the election of parents Peter Downs and Donna Jones will be tonight in the auditorium of Carr Lane Middle School, 1004 N. Jefferson Ave.
During their campaigns, Downs and Jones promised to bring transparency and meaningful public input to board meeting. According to the latest email update from Downs' St. Louis School Watch newsletter, that will be the case tonight.
Downs said he sent Superintendent Creg Williams a list of questions on 31 of the 48 items on the superintendent's consent agenda. He said that Williams offered to meet with him in private to discuss the consent agenda, but Downs said the answers are not for him alone.
"I'm not asking questions for my own personal edification," he said, "I'm asking questions that I think the public wants answered. I know from experience sitting in the audience at school board meetings that whatever questions I think of, other people think of, too, and they have a right to know the answers. It seems to me that the most efficient way to answer people's questions is to do so in public at the regular school board meeting."
The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m.
15 Comments:
So the badgering of Williams is already starting.
4/18/2006 9:09 AM
Sounds like it will be a long meeting.
4/18/2006 9:41 AM
Peter should know that the most efficient way to ask questions is in private with a stack of bills in his outstretched hand!
4/18/2006 10:58 AM
Downs won his position on the board based on his promise to bring transparancy to the district's operations. Isn't this just him fulfilling his campaign promise?
4/18/2006 12:04 PM
Yep, Downs campaigned as a teachers' pawn guised as an outraged parent. It shouldn't be any surprise then that he's already grilling the super.
4/18/2006 12:30 PM
Yes, he should have run as a subcontractors' pawn disguised as a caring member of the civic elite.
4/18/2006 1:04 PM
Don't worry, you'll get your wish.
With apathetic voters, self-interested teachers, and a soon-departing superintendent, maybe these "caring member(s) of the civic elite" won't waste their time or finances again on the fate of our schools.
4/18/2006 3:10 PM
Funny how people who make under 50k a year are called "self interested" if they organize politically, but people make more than that are said to be "donating" their time and money when they organize politically.
I'd love to see you, Anonymous, get by on 30k a year.
4/18/2006 4:21 PM
Peter Downs did an excellent job at tonights meeting asking clarifing questions that the public wanted answers to. Though I wasn't too surpised that the resolution regarding teacher effectiveness didn't pass, i think it was admirable of Downs to withdraw in order to work with other members on a better wording for his resolution. This was all while Williams was screaming about commiting "academic suicide"!
4/19/2006 12:49 AM
"Academic suicide" is a bit harsh. But what do you care more about, union-leaders and board-groupees getting answers, or students actually improving their academic performance?
4/19/2006 8:47 AM
"what do you care more about, union-leaders and board-groupees getting answers, or students actually improving their academic performance?"
Nice way of rationalizing secrecy.
I never get why you conservatives are afraid of public scrutiny.
4/19/2006 10:13 AM
I think Dr. Williams is right. Changing the curriculum back to what it was is "academic suicide". The teachers were able to teach how they wanted for the last 40 or so years and the system declined. Why not try standardized curriculum, since the test scores have improved while it has been in place?
4/19/2006 11:22 AM
"union-leaders and board-groupees getting answers"?? More like these self-interested parties getting their way, despite academic failures.
Many kids (new majority-backers may remember whom public education is supposed to actually serve) live in transient households in the City. Uniform curriculum helps these transient kids stay on track learning, despite his or her parents moving, and thereby switching schools.
But I guess being an SLPS teacher is all about an easy paycheck.
4/19/2006 11:56 AM
If the SLPS teachers were interested in an easy paycheck, they'd love the Open Court curriculum--a robot could teach that. Whatever curriculum they use, quality teaching staff is the key to whether our kids learn or not. My 1st grader brought home her report today and the teaching assistant had corrected her spelling of pinata to "pinyota." Sigh.
4/19/2006 6:47 PM
"But I guess being an SLPS teacher is all about an easy paycheck."
Ever tried it, Anonymous?
Do you say such things to the face of your kids' (presumably non SLPS) teacher?
By the way, if your goal is to perpetuate the divide in SLPS and turn it into a fracture, you're doing a better job than Lizz Brown and Mary "Class A Opportunist" Armstrong combined. Like Brown and Armstrong, you must have a personal advantage in having SLPS falter.
I supported the majority until it became clear that they were as vicious and ruthess as those they claimed to oppose. It seems that everyone just wants to butter their bread with the SLPS. The only shining star is Dr. Williams.
4/20/2006 2:01 PM
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