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An abridged version of a public letter from renowned activist Percy Green on the Special Advisory Committee on St. Louis Public Schools appeared in today's Post-Dispatch as a letter to the editor. It reads:
Commissioner of Education Kent King's Special Advisory Committee is a fraud. Mr. King appointed to the committee people who supported St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay's failed policies. Such policies led to the accreditation drop from 64 to 39 points, three years of mismanagement, outsourcing, turmoil and five superintendents. Two fair election processes have begun to repair the problems that the Slay board majority created for our St. Louis Board of Education.
The final two Slay members of the board (Ronald Jackson and William Archibald) are up for election in 2007 and must be replaced for the sake of our children and stability on the board. Because the community rejected Mr. Slay's failed experimental programs for public education, he now calls for a state takeover of public education, implying that St. Louisans are too stupid to vote correctly.
Board president Veronica O'Brien's behavior is a distraction from moving the new board majority's agenda forward. Ms. O'Brien launched a series of attacks on Superintendent Diana Bourisaw. After Ms. Bourisaw refused to be intimidated, Ms. O'Brien supported state control.
The committee recommended that the current elected school board members should not have full authority over the St. Louis Public School District. The excuse was a survey that everyone knows was not representative or credible.
If Mr. King should accept the Danforth-Freeman committee's recommendation, lawsuits and protest demonstrations should emerge targeting those throughout the state who are responsible.
For years, Green has been a vocal critic of Mayor Slay and policies of SLPS under the Slay-backed majority. In August he lost a lawsuit against the city in which he claimed Slay fired him as director of the Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise Certification program because he was openly critical of what he called a "broken" certification system.
At Friday's press conference on the need for public hearings before any state action, Green called out Post education reporter Steve Giegerich for what many see as biased reporting.
It would help "if the newspaper would print the news fairly," said Green after a question by Giegerich.
"I know you don't like me saying that, but it's the truth, Steve," he said.
An article in Friday's Post-Dispatch gives props to Pub Def for our political coverage throughout 2006. Thanks to political reporter Jo Mannies for the love.
French, who operates Pubdef, said political activists at all levels had better get used to the relentless characteristic of these blog sites.
As he sees it: "The Internet has introduced the 24-hour news cycle to local politics."
Two members of the city's school board stood by other community leaders today to defend their embattled school district from state takeover.
Board members Bill Purdy and Donna Jones said that now that the district has changed course, after three years of de facto rule from the mayor's office, it is once again focused on gaining full accreditation -- which Purdy noted it is closer to attaining than many other districts around the state.
"The confusion you see on the board is a manufactured confusion," said Jones.
State Reps. Robin Wright Jones and Jeanette Mott Oxford, Teachers Union President Mary Armstrong, and Rev. James T. Morris, a parent of children in SLPS, were among the speakers at this morning's event.
Check back later for videos of two school board members defending the district from takeover.
More elected officials are joining calling on state education officials to conduct public hearings before any action on St. Louis Public Schools is taken.
State Representatives Jamilah Nasheed, Jeanette Mott Oxford, Robin Wright Jones, school board members Bill Purdy and Donna Jones, Committeemen Jesse Todd and Jay Ozier, Rev. James T. Morris, activists Percy Green and Jamala Rogers, school board and aldermanic candidate Bill Haas, and representatives of the unions representing teachers and admin istrators joined with parents this morning for a press conference outside the downtown headquarters of SLPS.
Nasheed, who was the first to call for public hearings, said there should be no takeover of the school district at this time.
"We're demanding that the Missouri Department of Education hold public hearings here in the City of St. Louis before they make any decision to take over the public schools and take away the people's right to vote," said Nasheed.
Also this morning, Comptroller Darlene Green and state senators Maida Coleman and Jeff Smith issued statements in support of public hearings.
"Public input will be essential to forming a consensus about the direction of our schools in the important weeks and months ahead," said the joint statement from Coleman and Smith.
"Ultimately, we all want the same thing, which is for our children to have a safe environment to gain a quality education. To help achieve this goal, the public should feel it has been involved in the process."
Comptroller Darlene Green has joined in the call for public hearings before any state action on St. Louis Public Schools.
"I support the community's call for the State Department of Education to conduct a public hearing on the St. Louis public schools report," said Green in a statement released today.
"With the School Board election just three months away, the state and the committee should consider that a change in board members may be all it takes to end the turmoil. A state takeover, on the other hand, could result in a continuation of the political controversy instead of focusing efforts on what’s best for the children"
"Any of the committee’s recommendations, short of a takeover, need broad public support to be successful. A public hearing on the issue here in St. Louis would go a long way towards doing just that," said Green.
Last week State Rep-elect Jamilah Nasheedsent a letter to the president of the State Board of Education requesting such a public hearing.
In April, parents Peter Downs and Donna Jones pulled off a huge political upset by defeating two incumbent school board members that were backed by Mayor Francis Slay and were well financed by some of the city's business interests. But the support of the city's elite nor spending more than $50 per vote could make up for the incumbents' lack of parental and teacher support.
"There are a lot of angry people out there," James Buford told the St. Louis American. Indeed there were, and still are -- maybe even more today.
Pub Def asked has Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan become the Che Guevara of southside liberalism? Don't ask us. Ask The Bill McClellan Motherfuckers!
In his state of the city address, Mayor Slay announced plans to seek voter approval for a sales tax that would pay to hire 50 new officers and fund a "Career Criminal Unit" in the city prosecutor’s office.
Post-Dispatch publisher Terrance C.Z. Eggerresigned. "Even in a job you love, sometimes 10 years is enough," he said.
The five-way race to replace the term-limited State Sen. Pat Dougherty began to heat up with the candidates attending forums around the city. Pub Def's camera was there at many.
Maxine Johnson, a homeowner in the 3rd Ward, picketed on Easter Sunday in front of Bethlehem Lutheran Church to call attention to a plan supported by Ald. Freeman Bosley, Sr. to use eminent domain to take her home as part of a planned redevelopment project.
On April 21, Vince Schoemehl and his supporters celebrated the 25th anniversary of his swearing-in as mayor of the City of St. Louis.
Pub Def's camera was there as Air Force One landed in Columbia carrying President George W. Bush (Click here to see our exclusive photos). Anti-abortion activists parked two large trucks in front of the State Capitol displaying graphic photos of aborted fetuses. They were meant to send a loud message to President Bush and others during his visit.
Continuing to hold State Senator-elect Jeff Smith as the elected official all black officials should strive to be like, the St. Louis American today labeled State Rep-elect Jamilah Nasheed the "un-Jeff" for requesting public hearings on the issue of state takeover of St. Louis Public Schools.
The still anonymous authors of the "Political Eye" said that Nasheed's suggestion "overlooks the fact that the Special Advisory Committee has been doing its business in public, as required by the Sunshine Law. Also, if the powers in play wanted the fate of the pubic schools decided by the folks who show up at school board meetings, then it would never have appointed this committee in the first place."
Of course the "Eye" fails to mention that Donald Suggs, publisher of the American and former campaign treasurer for the original 2003 slate of school board candidates backed by Mayor Francis Slay, was one of the members of that Special Advisory Committee.
And they also fail to mention that while most of the committee's meetings took place in public, those meetings never allowed time for public comment.
Nasheed's suggestion is a good one and, quite frankly, is the least the state should do before acting to disenfranchise 300,000 people.
BTW, cops hated CRB. "Where do they get the idea that some shitbag should have the right to investigate a police officer?," wrote one person on the St. Louis CopTalk electronic bulletin board.
Committeeman Francis Slay, Sr. jumped on the Jeff Smith bandwagon.
RFT editor Tom Finkelapologized after his reporter, Chad Garrison, lifted quotes from one of our exclusive videos without giving us credit.
State Rep. Sherman Parker, the lone black Republican in the state house, bucked his party and filed to run against a fellow Republican, Congressman Todd Akin.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Riceaccepted the apology of Dave Lenihan, of St. Louis' own KTRS 550AM. Lenihan was fired after he used the racial slur "coon" when discussing the Secretary. He quickly said it was an unfortunate slip of the tongue and just as quickly (and inexplicably) had Harold Crumpton of the local NAACP jumping to his defense.
Pub Def was the first to report the selection of Julie Szymula Feier to replace Frank Ollendorff as city manager of University City.
We also presented the first-of-its-kind video voter guide for the U-City's mayor's race.
The St. Louis Americanresponded to observations we made about the relationship between political advertising and newspaper endorsements in that paper and others.
The Missouri Republican Party sent out a press release this afternoon attacking State Senator-elect Jeff Smith, a Democrat, on his decision to oppose Gov. Matt Blunt's appointment of Donayle Whitmore-Smith to the State Board of Education.
"Smith today showed that he is more interested in bowing to Democrat Party bosses than doing what’s right for Missouri students," said the Republicans.
"Smith contradicts himself by praising Whitmore-Smith's efforts on behalf of urban education in the St. Louis area then in the same breath rejects her nomination because of a lack of experience," said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party.
"Jeff Smith’s politically-motivated rejection of Donayle Whitmore-Smith is a slap in the face to the African American community and to our urban schools. Jeff Smith is turning his back on his constituents in order to garner favor with Democrat leaders who have opposed Whitmore-Smith’s nomination," said Sloca.
"It is this kind of dismissive attitude toward our urban schools that have led to problems like those currently surrounding the St. Louis Public School District. It’s a disgrace."
Meanwhile, Gov. Blunt is also voicing his displeasure with Smith's decision.
"I am deeply disappointed that one of the Senator-elect's first actions is obstructing the appointment of a well-qualified African-American woman who would have done a magnificent job on the State's School Board," said Blunt.
"Donayle Whitmore-Smith was one of two African-American leaders I appointed to the State Board of Education. I am pleased that Reverend Stanley Archie of Kansas City will at least be given the courtesy of a hearing even though the same courtesy was not extended to Donayle."
Senator-Elect Jeff Smith's Statement on Gubernatorial Appointee Donayle Whitmore-Smith:
Donayle Whitmore-Smith is a leader of courage and action. She has dedicated the last decade of her life to improving urban education by founding the Ptah Academy in St. Louis and attempting to provide additional educational options to children across the state. As an educator, an activist, and a parent, she has much to be proud of.
That said, she is not an appropriate candidate for the State Board of Education.
The State Board is the steward for Missouri's public schools. As such, its members should possess a breadth and depth of experience in public education and/or a background as strong advocates for public schools. Given Ms. Whitmore-Smith's lack of experience as a public school teacher, administrator, or advocate – and the fact that she has spent much of her adult life promoting private educational options – I am concerned about her ability to focus on improving our public schools. At a time when the St. Louis Public Schools are on the verge of losing accreditation and falling under the purview of the State, all members of the State Board must concentrate on the task at hand.
Equally troubling was Ms. Whitmore-Smith's noncommittal response to my question about the relative merits of teaching creation vs. evolution in public school science classes. In order to train a workforce that will help Missouri become a biotechnology hub, our schools must teach modern science and ensure that religious doctrine remains in appropriate venues.
It should be noted, as the co-founder of a group of public charter schools, I have advocated some of the very alternative educational options that Ms. Whitmore-Smith has supported. I neither retract my advocacy nor disparage hers. In fact, I appreciate her energy and her work. While I have not always agreed with Ms. Whitmore-Smith's policy prescriptions, she has been a passionate advocate for her cause and fresh voices like hers should be welcomed.
I have truly appreciated the input of thousands of Missourians while evaluating this nominee. Lamentably, however, some on both sides have succumbed to histrionics and demagoguery. Ms. Whitmore-Smith is not out to eviscerate public education; conversely, voucher opponents are not out to trap poor children in failing schools. And the abysmal outcomes of St. Louis public schools are not solely the result of bureaucratic dysfunction but, more broadly, the consequence of decades of segregation, benign neglect, and middle-class flight.
For the sake of our children and our state's economic future, we must move past petty political bickering to come together and find practical solutions to these problems. That means considering open enrollment policies so that children can choose any public school in a district, lateral certification opportunities for trained scientists, mathematicians, and linguists to ease the shortages of qualified teachers in their subject areas, continuation of St. Louis's voluntary transfer program, and expansion of innovative charter schools [such as the Knowledge is Power (KIPP) model] that provide increased choice within the public school framework while remaining accountable to the State Board.
Finally, I wish Ms. Whitmore-Smith the very best in her future endeavors. I hope we have opportunities to find common ground and work together on some of the above initiatives. And I hope that, in keeping with tradition and the historical mission of the State Board, Governor Blunt's future nominees have more extensive experience in public education.
U.S. Senator Kit Bond today issued the following statement on the passing of former President Gerald Ford:
"Gerald was a kind and decent man who led this nation in a difficult and divisive time. A respected leader in the House, he brought a conciliatory, frank, and open attitude to the White House which gave him the respect of people on both sides of the aisle. He was a wonderful person to know and will always have a warm spot in our hearts. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Betty Ford and his family."
Gov. Matt Blunt today announced that all flags at state facilities in Missouri will be flown at half-staff to honor the memory of President Ford.
"President Gerald Ford was a man of solid character," Blunt said. "He led our country with integrity during a difficult time and for that we should all be grateful."
The governor's order to lower flags follows a presidential order to lower flags at all federal facilities. Flags will remain at half-staff for a period of 30 days in accordance with the presidential order.
State Senator Maida Coleman announced that she was not running for state auditor.
Fallout from the videotaped beating of Edmon Burns by Maplewood and St. Louis City police officers continued in February. The Coalition Against Police Crime and Repression held a press conference outside of Maplewood's city hall calling for the firing of all of the officers involved.
The incident helped add to the calls for the creation of a civilian review board. But Mayor Francis Slay said he was "hard pressed to explain" why the media focused on the push to get a civilian review board in the City, but not in other municipalities.
"Does the taped beating suffered by a fleeing suspect at the hands of several pursuing Maplewood police officers and a single City officer support the conclusion that the City of St. Louis – but not Maplewood nor any other local police jurisdiction – needs a civilian review board for its police department?" wrote Slay on his blog.
On February 2, Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt lost his bid to become the new Republican majority leader in the House. Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) beat out the pop of Gov. Matt Blunt.
Northside Aldermen Bennice Jones-King and Freeman Bosley, Sr. said citizens should be "outraged" by the decision to move the Annie Malone parade out of north St. Louis.
A decision by the State Tax Commission to side with Nestle Purina in its case against Tax Assessor Ed Bushmeyer and the City of St. Louis meant that the company would pay taxes on its property valued at $19 million and not the $47 million that the city had assessed. That openned the door for other St. Louis companies to seek re-evaluations of their property taxes, costing the city and our public schools millions of dollars.
At a meeting of the Public Safety Committee. Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe (D-1) called upon the City's Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) to improve the way they maintain and sell their property.
The LRA maintains, markets, and sells acquired properties and performs land assemblage for future development. Land assemblage (or "land banking") can take decades. In the meantime, critics argue, buildings sit in unsafe and undesirable conditions. This is a very large problem in north St. Louis, where many blocks look more like war zones than part of a city experiencing a comeback.
Gov. Blunt appointed former journalist and anchorman Julius Hunter to the St. Louis Police Board.
Angeletta McCormick Frank resigned as a Republican commissioner with the St. Louis Board of Elections to become Community Liason for Senator Talent.
In his St. Louis Schools Watch newsletter, school board candidate Peter Downs reported that food vendor Aramark served moldy apples and wormy oranges to SLPS students.
Responding to comments by Comptroller Darlene Green saying that perhaps it was time to cut back from 100% TIFs to maybe 50% so that developers and new residents would start to help pay for schools and police, developer Kevin McGowan told the Post-Dispatch that was "a terrible idea... I think the timing is not right." He said the time will be right when he and his colleagues can sell $300,000 to $500,000 lofts in 30 days. Right now, he says it takes him six to 12 months. Boo frickin' hoo. Could it be because of the schools and the crime?
Alderman Greg Carter (D-27) later introduced a bill that would have required future TIF projects to pay a minimum of 50% of taxes on any residential component of the redevelopment.
PUB DEF called attention to the continuing conflict of interest that is Barb Geisman, Mayor Slay's deputy mayor of development, and her live-in boyfriend, Richard Callow, lobbyist for several companies doing big business with the city and reaping millions in city tax dollars.
Concerned that the St. Louis school board's willingness to sharply raise its superintendent's salary will have an inflationary affect on smaller school districts around the state, State Rep. Terry Young (R-49), of Independence, MO, introduced the bill which sought to limit a school superintendent's salary to 1.5 times the highest teacher's salary.
Rev. Nathaniel Colewas killed as a car being chased by police collided with the car carrying Cole and his wife.
Congressman Lacy Claysigned onto House Resolution #635 calling for an investigation of possible grounds for impeachment of President George W. Bush.
Scott Leiendecker, the Republican elections director for St. Louis City, testified in favor of Senate Bill 1014, which required a photo ID be shown at the time of voting.
On Feb. 15, the school board approved a plan by Superintendent Creg Williams to make some big changes in the City's public schools. The plan, which was kept secret until the night of the vote, included no public input, and was never funded, included mandatory school uniforms at some schools, separate 9th grade academies, year-round school for 9th graders, some all-boy and all-girl schools, and smaller "learning academies". PUB DEF exclusively reported that Capitol Police were called after Luther Boykins, Jr., the brother of State Rep. Amber Boykins, confronted State Rep. Rodney Hubbard about his support of one of Boykins' state senate opponents. According to police reports, Boykins said he would "not let anyone fuck with his sister."
Also in February, Dorrie Wise, owner of DKW Construction, found the body of a dead raccoon hanging from a rope on her construction site on the I-64 project in St. Clair County. After seeing the "lynched coon", Wise said she immediately called her union and advocates of the black contracting community. "It's 2006 and we've still got to deal with this," Wise told reporters, shaking her head.
Aldermen Craig Schmid and Jennifer Florida butted heads after Schmid ignored the tradition of "aldermanic courtesy" and spoke against a proposed McDonald's development in Florida's ward. Florida said she felt like she was "slapped" or "beat up" and was "completely blindsided". "I question his ethics," Florida told the Post-Dispatch. "I would not do that to an enemy. Let alone a colleague."
With the school board race shifting into high gear, PUB DEF began to beef up our video offerings and stalked the candidates from forum to forum. In this video, the candidates were asked at a 1st Ward forum, What is the biggest problem with the school board?
An unidentified man walked in front of City Grocers protesting the fact that downtown's only grocery store does not accept EBT cards (food stamps), something we reported back in October 2005.
Washington University renamed its the Hilltop Campus after William H. Danforth, life trustee and chancellor emeritus.
State Rep. Sherman Parker, the Missouri House's lone black Republican, went to Washington to be a panelist in a debate on the impact of the Bush Administration's policies on African Americans.
Wrapping up the month, we ventured south for the annual celebration of beer, boobs and beads known as the Soulard Mardi Gras. Click here to see our photos (viewer discretion is advised).
In January, the local chapter of the ACLU announced a plan to arm northside residents with video cameras to protect themselves from police attacks.
A few weeks later, the beating of 33 year-old Edmon Burns by Maplewood and St. Louis City police officers was caught on tape by local television helicopter cameras and became national news.
Alderman Phyllis Young (D-7) took a page from the Bush Administration's playbook and counted on ignorance as the best defense of stupidity in defending why the city picked Nov. 3 to send a local Muslim group a letter notifying them that they had to shut down the house of prayer. That date just happens to be the day of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.
"No one is familiar enough with their religious holidays to purposely send a letter at that time," said Young.
Shortly before Mardi Gras, Alderman Ken Ortmann (D-9) introduced a bill to lessen the penalties for public urination. The bill was co-sponsored by Alderman I.P. Freely.
At the beginning of the year, State Sen. Maida Coleman was looking for a new job -- any job! After forming a committee to run for state auditor, Coleman said she was then thinking about about running against Mike McMillan for license collector. Neither panned out and she was happy to be re-elected later in the year as the Democratic leader in the senate.
On Jan. 18, former Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrichspoke before the full body of the Missouri Senate during regular session in the Senate chamber.
With Mayor Francis Slay, President Jim Shrewsbury, and senior Alderman Phillis Young out of town, Alderman Fred Wessels was briefly acting mayor of the City of St. Louis.
The campaign for school board quickly got nasty with the circulation of a flier which depicted then-school board president Darnetta Clinkscale as "Aunt Jemima" and recently-appointed board member James Buford as "Uncle Tom". The leaflet claimed to be paid for by an organization called "St. Louis for Kids Too!", but there was no such committee registered with the Missouri Ethics Commission.
The bill to create a civilian review board moved closer to a vote by the full Board of Aldermen. Here's our video (Can you appreciate how much better these videos have gotten?).
On Jan. 24, a phone call from PUB DEF to Kay Gabbert, VP of The Roberts Companies, was the first that Mike and Steve Roberts had heard of the news that they had just lost their UPN network. "I'm in the middle of everybody that owns TV stations," Mike Roberts said on his cell phone at a TV convention in Las Vegas. "Nobody knew."
Statistics released in January by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department showed violent crime in the city increased nearly 20% -- Coincidently, that nearly matched the proposed raise in pay for the city's top cop, Chief Joe Mokwa. Hmmmmmm.
Also in January, PUB DEF published letters from Sister Mary Ann McGivern written from the Middle East, where she observed firsthand Hamas' victory in that region's historic elections.
Alderman Craig Schmid sponsored a bill that sought to make it illegal to own large speakers -- not just play loud music, but simply owning the equipment! To add injury to insult, the law allows the police to take a citizen's car (before being found guilty) and force them to pay a fine of $250 to $500.
And Resurrection Lutheran Church, on the corner of West Florissant and Fair Avenues in north St. Louis, was destroyed by fire last night. Click here to see Channel 2's report.
When the balance of power shifted on the St. Louis City School Board back in April, the Post-Dispatch and its education reporter, Steve Giegerich, suddenly began to watch the district with a critical eye.
Before, when the board members were going through superintendents like Kleenex, thumbing their noses and the state's Sunshine laws, and talking fiscal responsibility while voting in favor of budgets that actually added to the financial crisis, Giegerich and his paper barely printed a critical word.
But suddenly, after the new board took over, around the same time Pub Def first reported that Mayor Francis Slay and board members Bob Archibald and Ron Jackson began secret communications with state officials about taking over SLPS, the Post began its series of attacks on the district and members of the new board majority.
As a matter of fact, the "good reporting being done by P-D education writer Steve Giegerich" (as Mayor Slay notes on his blog) is actually used as evidence in the Special Committee on SLPS' report calling for a state takeover.
Just today, Giegerich writes under the headline "Bourisaw slapped over wage issue at school board meeting", that one board member attacked the superintendent last night for him not knowing what he was doing when he voted against her recommended budget amendment last week.
Nowhere do Giegerich or his editors inform their readers that this particular board member, Robert Archibald, was the first public official to call for a state takeover of the district, a complete abdication of his own responsibilities, and therefore has an invested interest in attacking the superintendent.
And nowhere does the Post note in today's article that the majority of other board members did not blame the superintendent. They either voted for her request in the first place or acknowledged that maybe they just weren't paying close attention at the last meeting.
The fact is that many (if not most) of the reporters and editors at the Post-Dispatch do not live in St. Louis City -- and neither do their readers. Maybe that is why they seem to have no problem actively destroying the image of our public schools -- especially now that the mayor is leading the charge.
In fact, our crisis seems entertaining to their suburban readers who have their urban neighbors' education and crime problems to discuss until the new season of "American Idol" starts.
But for those of us that do care about this city, and deeply resent the constant attempts of outsiders to take away our power in the name of fixing our problems for us, I have to say that the Post is indeed disgraceful in its cheerleading for our disenfranchisement.
Paychecks for all employees of the St. Louis Public Schools will be released on Wednesday, Dec. 27, as a result of an agreement between the Board of Education and Teacher's Local 420.
Employees who are not enrolled in direct deposit may pick up their paper checks on Wednesday between 2:00 and 4:00 pm at the District’s central office, 801 N. 11th Street. A second individual paper check distribution will be held on Thursday, Dec. 28, between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. at the central office. Proper identification will be required.
Direct deposits for all employees will be available in their bank accounts on Wednesday.
A special school board meeting is tonight at 5:00 p.m. in the Foundation Room at the Administrative Building, 801 N. 11th Street. Click here for the agenda.
And the Central Democratic Committees of both St. Louis City and St. Louis County are hosting their Second Annual Holiday Party tonight at the Electrical Workers Hall, 5800 Elizabeth, from 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
In New Book, Newly Re-Elected Judge Attacks the "Tyranny of Tolerance"
By Antonio D. French
PUB DEF EXCLUSIVE
A new book by Circuit Judge Robert H. Dierker Jr. is sure to make some waves in the new year.
In "The Tyranny of Tolerance", which goes on sale December 26, Judge Dierker examines why a Christian is fired when he voices opposition to his employer's favoring homosexuals? Why are white and Asian students denied admission to colleges and universities in the name of "diversity"? And why does a judge who defends a monument to the Ten Commandments in a courthouse lose his job?
According to his publisher's website, "Even those outraged by America’s courts will be shocked by Judge Dierker’s story of activist judges, deep-pocketed special interest groups, pandering politicians, and others who claim to stand for tolerance, equal rights, and social justice, but actually stand for something quite different—something closer to totalitarianism."
"Judge Dierker shows how we can defeat the radical liberals’ tyranny of tolerance. By wresting back control of the courts and restoring the legal, moral, and religious principles embedded in the Constitution, we can ultimately reclaim the republic the Founders bequeathed to us."
Funny how this book wasn't released before Dierker was re-elected last month by nearly 70% of the vote in this "liberal", Democrat-leaning city.
Here is a joint statement from 6th Ward aldermanic candidates Kacie Starr Triplett and Patrick Cacchione:
There has been a compromise reached between Kacie Starr Triplett and Patrick Cacchione regarding the 6th Ward endorsement meeting. In order to ensure inclusiveness and attempt to strengthen our Democratic Party, the deadline to join the organization has been extended until December 28th at 6pm. All members who have joined the organization at that point and are registered to vote in the 6th ward will be allowed to participate in the ward election. We encourage all interested Democrats to participate. Both Mr. Cacchione and Ms. Triplett would like to thank Alderman Lewis Reed for his role in reaching this compromise.
Click here to read our earlier report on this story.
Also... Starr today received the endorsement of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
UPDATE: Cacchione has launched his campaign website, www.patcacchione.com (thanks to the ACC for the link).
State Rep-elect Jamilah Nasheed has sent the following letter to Peter Herschend, President of the State Board of Education, requesting a public hearing on the recent recommendations calling for a takeover of St. Louis Public Schools.
Dear President Herschend:
As a newly elected official, I am writing to you and the other members of the State Board of Education concerning the recent report and recommendations of the Special Advisory Committee established to assess the condition of the St. Louis Public Schools. Specifically, I am requesting that your Board take no action on the Report until a public hearing on its contents and impact is held in the City of St. Louis.
Although the esteemed members of the Advisory Committee may be well intended, this process is now like déjà vu. For whatever chaos the school district may presently be experiencing, it began when and because the prior school board ignored public input. Instead they sought to ramrod policies and recommendations of their hired consulting firm. The public responded by ousting them in the most recent school board election.
That election sounded a clear mandate that the public expects and demands to be involved in the major decisions affecting the city’s school system – such as those being recommended by the Advisory Committee. In my humble judgment, it would not only be a serious mistake to not permit or seek public input about the Committee’s Report, it would be both a grave disservice to the St. Louis community and a dereliction by the Department of Education.
I strongly urge your Board to not take any action without first giving the citizens of the city a fair opportunity to voice their feelings about the Committee’s Report. Your consideration is greatly appreciated.
In the same week that President George W. Bush finally realized that America is not winning the war in Iraq, Police Chief Jow Mokwa has apparently realized that he is losing the war against crime in St. Louis and he says he has a plan to address it -- but he isn't saying what it is. Not yet.
The Post-Dispatch's Tim O'Neil reports Mokwa told the Police Board yesterday that he is preparing a "major reorganization" of the department to fight an increase in crime that was outlined in a new FBI report.
"Mokwa did not provide details, but said after the meeting the reorganization would include new assignments for some ranking officers and some changes in unit structures. He said he will announce some of it before Jan. 1," reports O'Neil.
"Everything we are figuring on will be about combating crime ... and reducing crime," Mokwa said. "Throughout the nation, crime is going up, and we are never immune from that trend. Nobody wants St. Louis to become the crime epicenter."
At this point we can only hope that Mokwa's plan involves shuffling cops to put more of a police presence in those areas of the city where most of the violent crime is occuring.
UPDATE: Mayor Slay says the city will pay for the police departement to hire 40 new police officers. Again, no word on how (or where) these cops will be used differently.
DONE FOR A WHILE -- Outgoing Senator Jim Talent said Monday he doesn't intend to seek political office again in the near future, but wasn't ruling out a later campaign farther down the road.
"I don't foreclose anything, but I don't have any plans to run for anything for a while anyway," Talent told the Neosho Daily News.
The Daily News ponders that Talent "could try in 2008 for the Republican nomination for election to his former western St. Louis county 2nd Congressional seat or for Missouri's other Senate delegation in the same year if incumbent Sen. Kit Bond decides not to run again. A stab at the Republican nomination for governor in 2008 is also an option but not likely unless Gov. Matt Blunt unpredictably makes a go for national office."
BLUNT BETS AGAINST BEAVERS -- Gov. Blunt and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski have made a gentleman's wager as the University of Missouri Tigers and Oregon State Beavers prepare to meet in the 73rd Annual Brut Sun Bowl on Friday, Dec. 29, at Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso.
"With Missouri poised to win back-to-back bowls and our second Sun Bowl, a sampling of Oregon products to help us celebrate will be most appreciated," Blunt said.
Should the Tigers defeat the Beavers, Kulongoski has agreed to give Blunt a bounty of Oregon goodies including a large selection of premium Oregon craft microbrews from the Oregon Brewer's Guild, three full wheels of globally-recognized Rogue Creamery bleu cheese, and a sampling of fresh Oregon seafood.
Should the Beavers win, Blunt has offered Kulongoski a selection of Missouri branded beef, Missouri award-winning wines and an AgriMissouri basket containing Show Me BBQ, Fitz’s Root Beer, blueberry amaretto syrup from Persimmon Hill Gourmet Foods and apple butter from Bekemeier's Fruit Butters.
YOU'RE INVITED -- U.S. Senator-Elect Claire McCaskill is inviting her supporters to her swearing-in in Washington D.C.
McCaskill will host a cocktail reception on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007 from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at The Willard Hotel, 1401-09 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.
Then on Thursday, Jan. 4, McCaskill will actually be sworn-in at noon. A swearing-in reception will be from 11:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at 538 Dirksen Senate Office Building SD 538, Washington, DC 20540. There will be a closed circuit viewing of the swearing-in for all to enjoy. Senator-elect McCaskill will join the reception immediately following her swearing-in re-enactment which occurs at 1:50pm.
A special meeting of the St. Louis school board has been called for tomorrow in order to get hundreds of district employees pay checks they are due.
We reported last week that the decision at their last meeting by three board members to deny a budget request from Superintendent Diana Bourisaw meant that without a special meeting hundreds of district employees may not get checks promised them until January.
Board member Ron Jackson, who along with Bob Archibald and Veronica O'Brien voted against the request, said he didn't know his vote would mean those workers wouldn't get paid. He blamed Bourisaw for not telling him.
Board members Peter Downs, Donna Jones and Bill Purdy voted in favor of Bourisaw's budget amendment, but since Flint Fowler was absent, the 3-3 vote meant it couldn't get passed.
The special board meeting will be at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 21, in the Foundation Room at the Administrative Building, 801 N. 11th Street. Here is the agenda:
1. Call To Order
2. Roll Call
3. Motion to Waive Notice
4. Authorization to transfer funds to pay settlement of union grievances
Governor Matt Blunt's office today sent a file of letters supporting the appointment of Donayle E. Whitmore-Smith to Senator-elect Jeff Smith's office. The Governor's office says he has received dozens of letters supporting Whitmore-Smith's appointment to the State Board of Education. But many public education advocates have gone on record opposing her because of her strong pro-charter, pro-school choice positions.
"Donayle Whitmore-Smith has the qualifications and background to serve in this post and help our children get the education they need to be successful," Blunt said.
"She will also bring a diversity of opinion to the state's school board. Many others agree that she is the right choice for the State Board of Education. I know Donayle would appreciate the support of her incoming State Senator and we hope that he will consider the many letters we have received endorsing her appointment."
As the nominee's state senator, Smith's support is required, according to nominating custom, for Whitmore-Smith's appointment to go through. Recently pressure has mounted from both sides on Smith, who himself is an advocate of charter schools.
The Governor's office noted in a press release that if the Senate approves Whitmore-Smith, she would be the only African-American parent of school age children serving on the board. Last week, Blunt appointed another African-American to the State Board of Education, Reverend Stanley Archie of Kansas City.
According to Blunt, the letters of support for Whitmore-Smith range from parents who sent their children to the school that Whitmore-Smith founded; to James Buford, the President/CEO of the Urban League of St. Louis and a former member of the St. Louis City School Board, to a Governor Carnahan appointee to the Coordinating Board of Higher Education, to a university administrator, to a member from the Coalition of Hispanic Organizations’ Educational Committee, to Missouri citizens who strongly support the governor’s position regarding a need for a diversity of opinions on the state’s school board.
A student at a St. Louis City high school is one of four Missouri students selected for recognition in the prestigious U.S. Senate Youth Program.
Rui Bao, a senior at Metro Academic and Classical High School, was today announced as a recepient of a $5,000 scholarship and a week-long, expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C.
As a delegate, Bao will meet March 3-10, with 102 other outstanding students from across the country to learn about the functions of the federal government. During their week-long stay, the delegates will visit the Senate, House of Representatives, Supreme Court and the Pentagon.
The annual program was established by the U.S. Senate in 1962. The William Randolph Hearst Foundation provides financial and administrative support for the program.
State Treasurer Sarah Steelman appeared yesterday on CNBC's "Kudlow & Company" to discuss Missouri's terror-free investment strategies, which attempts to avoid investing taxpayer dollars in companies that do business with countries that are believed to sponsor terrorism around the world.
Steelman is considered a likely candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor in 2008.
KWMU's Matt Sepic reports that Webster University is handing control of the St. Louis Journalism Review back to its founder, Charles Klotzer.
Editor Ed Bishop said Klotzer will continue printing the magazine, although Bishop said he favors doing just an online version. Bishop said he will step down after a new editor is hired, but he will remain involved with the Review.
The 26-minute discussion covered St. Louis Public Schools, the TIF for St. Louis Centre, the shake-up on Cherokee, and the 6th Ward executive committee flap.
Here's the behind-the-scenes video... Please excuse some of the more interesting camera angles. You trying being a guest on a show and acting as cameraman at the same time. Not easy, let me tell ya.
Mayor Francis Slay's statement on recently released statistics showing violent crime on the increase in the city...
Totals and trends are two things to look at in the annual crime reports. Neither dynamic has much good news for City residents in 2006. There were too many crimes reported in 2006 – and the trend in reports for some violent crimes in the first half of the year was upward.
Chief Joe Mokwa doesn’t make a lot of excuses about that. He notes that bad schools, a sluggish economy, and some practices in other parts of the criminal justice system are among the causes of some sorts of crime. And he notes, correctly, that most City neighborhoods are safe places and that St. Louis’s crime numbers are generally in line with other cities our size. But, the chief knows that, whatever the causes of crime or the City’s relative ranking in the surveys, his department’s most important job is to arrest the bad guys wherever they are.
Thanks to City voters, there will be more police officers out on our streets next year. And the chief has already announced plans to concentrate his forces in the six most dangerous City neighborhoods and against the most dangerous repeat offenders. That should mean fewer bad guys on the streets of fewer neighborhoods next year – and better totals and trends.
Learn more about Shrewsbury's opponent, Lewis Reed, at www.lewisreed.net. Saller's opponents are Kacie Starr Triplett (at www.kaciestarrtriplett.com) and Patrick Cacchione (whose website doesn't seem to be up yet).
According to crime statistics released by the FBI yesterday, the City of St. Louis -- already known as the "Most Dangerous City in America" -- is even more violent in 2006 than in 2005.
Comparing the first six months of the year:
Violent Crime: 2005 - 3,736 2006 - 4,119
Murders: 2005 - 60 2006 - 56
Forcible Rape: 2005 - 108 2006 - 179
Robbery: 2005 - 1,269 2006 - 1,416
Aggravated Assault: 2005 - 2,299 2006 - 2,468
Property Crime: 2005 - 19,055 2006 - 18,761
Burglary: 2005 - 3,327 2006 - 3,863
Larceny-Theft: 2005 - 11,664 2006 - 11,263
Motor Vehicle Theft: 2005 - 4,064 2006 - 3,635
Arson: 2005 - 245 2006 - 201
And now some commentary...
Since the State of Missouri, which through a governor-appointed police board runs St. Louis City's police department, is doing such a stellar job protecting our citizens, maybe now would be a good time to carry that model over to the public schools.
Or perhaps Mayor Francis Slay should fight as hard to bring control of our police force back to the local level, just like 99% of the police departments in America, so that we might hold our police chief accountable.
On a personal note, there was a period a few weeks ago when there was a shooting every day in my neighborhood for over a week. What elected official can I or my neighbors call to get recourse? None.
As a matter of fact, my alderman, 21st Ward Ald. Bennice Jones King, and the alderman of my neighboring ward, 27th Ward Ald. Greg Carter, both recently wrote letters to Police Chief Joe Mokwa pleading for him to do more to address the rampant drug-related crime in north St. Louis -- but to no obvious avail.
A drug dealer can operate freely on too many northside street corners. Next to zero police presence make too many neighborhoods the playgrounds of thugs and leave most of the residents as victims of urban terrorism, prisoners in their own homes.
But recent comments from the mayor's office and the police department seem to suggest we're on our own, that it's all our problem because "most" neighborhoods in the city are safe.
The mayor and the chief seem more concerned about defending our city's honor than its citizens.
A construction worker is dead after falling four stories through an opening in the floor while working on the Syndicate Trust building last night.
Reports say that the man, an employee of subcontractor Environmental Operations, Inc., was cutting a steel beam in an elevator shaft when he fell. The victim's name has not been released, but he is believed to be around 45 years-old.
The history of the controversial Syndicate Trust project, which involved to the demolition of the historic Century building, can be read by clicking here.
You can also click here to read the 2002 PUB DEF (formerly Public Defender) story, "Wrecking Bell" by Elizabeth Vega.
UPDATE: The victim has been identifed as 49-year-old Sidney Taylor.
The police give the following account: Officer responded to 920 Locust for an injury. Upon arrival, he met with the witness who stated that he and the victim were working on the 6th floor of a building that was being rehabbed. They were cutting an opening in the concrete floor and the victim had removed his safety harness while they were working. After cutting the hole, the victim stepped on a part that was still attached. As he stepped on the attached concrete, it gave way and he fell four floors (about 40 feet) and landed on a pile of broke concrete. The victim was taken to SLU Hospital were he was pronounced at 19:22.
Homeless advocates at the St. Patrick Center will receive a nice Christmas gift today in the form of a $3 million check and an award from the U.S. Government.
U.S. Sen. Kit Bond and Congressman Lacy Clay are scheduled to be on hand as Sandy Baruah, U.S. Asst. Sec. of Commerce for Economic Development, presents the non-profit with an Economic Development Administration (EDA) investment check and the 2006 EDA Excellence in Economic Development Award for Community and Faith-Based Social Entrepreneurship.
Jay Hein, deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, will also be at the ceremony today at noon in the lobby of St. Patrick Center, 800 N. Tucker Blvd.
VIDEO: Sunshine Forces "Private" 6th Ward Meeting to Be Rescheduled
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Monday, December 18, 2006 at 10:20 PM
Tensions were high at tonight's meeting of the executive committee of the 6th Ward Democratic Organization. The group gathered to discuss a complaint by Committeeman and Aldermanic candidate Patrick Cacchione about a large group of new members his opponent and fellow committee member, Kacie Starr Triplett, brought into the organization last month.
The importance of the meeting was its possible affect on who is allowed to vote in the January ward endorsement meeting. Triplett said she recently registered more than a hundred new members in the organization ahead of the deadline to do so, but Cacchione is seeking to have many of those new members removed, citing procedural problems. But the problem is, as far as anyone can tell, the organization has no rules or by-laws, making it difficult to argue than any have been broken.
"This is an attempt by the current committeman, Mr. Cacchione, to change the rules at the last minute and guarantee the endorsement for himself," Triplett wrote on her website (1) yesterday.
Triplett arrived at tonight's meeting, at Pestalozzi Place restaurant in south St. Louis, with several supporters, including State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed and Darryl Piggee, chief of staff for Congressman Lacy Clay. Reporters from PUB DEF, the Arch City Chronicle and Urban Review STL were also in attendance.
A visibly angry ward president Mary Entrup, wife of Alderman Lewis Reed, and Committeewoman Bev Buchheit admonished Triplett for inviting people to the "private" meeting. Entrup and Cacchione even snapped at Nasheed for listening in on the conversation.
About an hour into the meeting, Reed entered the restaurant with campaign manager Bob Rice. Reed also had words with Nasheed before sitting down at the meeting table just long enough to criticize Triplett for raising the issue of race in her defense of her supporters' memberships.
In a statement published on her campaign's blog over the weekend, Triplett said "It appears there is an attempt underway to remove over 100 members from our organization. Unfortunately, it is no coincidence that a vast majority of these members are African-American."
Reed could be heard telling both Triplett and Nasheed that race had nothing to do with the committee's actions. He defended the other members, all of whom besides he and Triplett are white, as being fair-minded and far from racist. He left shortly after.
In the end, due to the unexpected audience of onlookers, the committee voted to table the discussion and pick it up later this week at a private meeting at the home of Reed and Entrup.
"I have been instructed to not bring any members who would be affected by this action," Triplett wrote on her blog tonight.
"I want [6th Ward residents] to know that at I am committed to keeping our organization fair, open, and inclusive. I will always stand up for what I believe is right."
(1) Editor's Note: Triplett's website was built and is hosted by me, Antonio D. French.
I'm scheduled to be a guest on "Collateral Damage" tonight with hosts D.J. Wilson and Fred Hessel and Steve Patterson of Urban Review STL. The show starts at 7:00 and can be heard on KDHX 88.1 FM or online at www.kdhx.org.
Among the topics we'll be discussing is the 6th Ward controversy over new ward organization members and missing by-laws and how it may relate to the campaign for Aldermanic President. Other likely topics will be the immediate future of the St. Louis Public Schools and recent changes on Cherokee Street. If you have suggestions for other topics for us to discuss use the comments section below.
Last week, school board member Peter Downs sent the following letter to the Special Advisory Committee on St. Louis Public Schools...
December 13, 2006
Members of the Special Advisory Committee c/o Mr. William Danforth Washington University
To the Esteemed Members of the Special Advisory Committee on St. Louis Public Schools,
Eight months ago, when I took a seat on the St. Louis Board of Education, I found a district on the verge of collapse. After three years of mayoral intervention, the St. Louis public school district was in financial disarray, performance had tumbled, school buildings were crumbling, teachers were disheartened and discouraged, and, after five superintendents in three years, the administration was adrift and out-of-touch with the realities of our schools and classrooms. To top it all off, the school board sat back doing nothing, having abdicated its responsibility to provide policy guidance to the superintendent and administration.
It was not a pretty picture. Since then, despite differences in philosophy and the entertaining antics of one or two board members, the board as a whole has taken important, but oft overlooked steps to stabilize the district administratively and financially, and it has begun to provide direction to reinvigorate teaching and restore our facilities.
Finances
When Donna Jones and I took seats on the school board in April 2006, St. Louis Public Schools were headed towards another operating deficit. Chief Financial Officer Cedric Lewis reported to the school board on April 17, 2006 that he anticipated a $2.7 million shortfall for the year (Board of Education, City of St. Louis, Regular Board Meeting, April 17, 2006, Minutes). We later learned that Mr. Lewis had not included all the bills in his budget, including a bill for contributions to the pension fund. As Mr. Robert Virgil reported to you on December 4, the actual shortfall was approximately $11 million.
By now, your research has uncovered for you that the school board's financial plan for St. Louis Public Schools was to spend more money than it took in.
The five-year financial plan put in place by the self-styled "turnaround" firm of Alvarez & Marsal called for ever larger operating deficits in FY 05-06, 06-07, 07-08, and 08-09 resulting in a negative net fund balance of $34 million in 06-07 that would increase to $40 million in 07-08 and $48 million in 08-09. ("St. Louis Public Schools, A Year Of Change And Progress, Final Report, June 30, 2004" from William V. Roberti, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal, Appendix B)
Mr. Virgil, in his financial report to you, correctly labeled such planning by then superintendent William Roberti and the then school board, and their successors, as a "lack of trusteeship." Mr. Virgil added that the accumulating deficits that the school board and its superintendents planned for would eventually "bankrupt" the school district.
What may perhaps surprise you, is that Mr. Roberti's proposal for planned deficit spending contained some unrealistically rosy assumptions, specifically that St. Louis Public Schools would not only stop losing students, but would grow enrollment by 1,000 more students ("St. Louis Public Schools, A Year Of Change And Progress, Final Report, June 30, 2004," Appendix B).
As you know, St. Louis Public Schools did not gain students, it continued to lose students, a trend that, as Mr. Virgil pointed out, was very predictable. The result was that the net loss each year was even larger than the school board and Mr. Roberti had planned on, $11 million in 04-05 and $14 million in 05-06, according to Mr. Virgil's verbal report to you on December 4.
According to plan, the 06-07 budget presented to us by then superintendent Creg Williams called for the district to again spend more money than it took in.
This time, however, the school board said "stop." Waking up to its responsibility of trusteeship, the school board insisted that the superintendent present it with a balanced operating budget. Yes, there were some board members, such as Mr. Robert Archibald, who vociferously opposed every board action to require a balanced operating budget as an infringement on the authority of the superintendent (Board of Education Regular Meeting Minutes, May 9, 2006 and June 13, 2006), but what is important is the action of the board as a whole.
The school board as a whole set a new policy that the district's spending would not exceed its revenues, and it repeatedly rejected Mr. Williams' budget proposals that called for spending more than the district was expected to take in.
While the planned deficits show that the board previously had a wrong-headed fiscal policy, which has been corrected, they do not give even the sketchiest sense of the true extent of financial chaos that dogged the school district. Senior staff said the former administration commonly budgeted numbers without regard to costs, and arbitrarily cut budgets and eliminated positions without regard to function. In the last months of the former administration, for example, the administration eliminated the district's core data specialist and the positions that oversaw the implementation of state and federal grants, while beefing up the superintendent's own staff.
The financial systems got so tangled up that in early June 2006, the district could not even pay employees properly. Not only did the district fail to deposit salaries into employees' bank accounts, but then it failed to follow through and distribute the make-up checks it promised, and then it failed to have everything ready for employees when it asked them to come down to the headquarters building to pick up their checks. As a result, many employees stood in line for up to seven hours after the end of their work day, waiting for their checks.
Making up numbers for things might be fun, but the real world has a way of intruding on even the strongest imaginations. The real world began intruding on the district's imaginary 05-06 budget in a big way in May 2006, when the pension fund office demanded payment of $2.1 million due it, money that had not been included in the budget.
After the school board's insistence on a balanced operating budget, the new superintendent, Diana Bourisaw, cut several positions from the superintendent's office, and more from elsewhere in the headquarters administration, in order to save $8 million, which was used to cover unbudgeted debts from the previous administration and to balance the operating budget.
Once Ms. Bourisaw and the new chief financial officer, Enos Moss, implemented stronger fiscal oversight and controls, the school board learned that staff's stories about made up numbers were true. We discovered that the budget did not include many expenditures mandated by state and federal regulations or court orders. The district was not in compliance with spending rules on transportation to and from school, on transportation of homeless students, on asbestos management, building maintenance, lead abatement, magnet schools, professional development, Parents as Teachers, assets inventory. The shortfalls amounted to more than $24 million (preliminary reports from interim Chief Financial Officer Moss to the school board in Regular Meeting October 10, 2006 and November 21, 2006. Draft Report "Various Federal/State/Local Requirements And The Related Budget, 11/7/2006). That required the administration and the school board to make some hard decisions in reallocating funds in order to comply with regulatory mandates while maintaining a balanced operating budget, and they did so.
Upon learning of the compliance issues, the school board asked the administration to include compliance requirements in future budget planning documents so board members and the public can see what expenditures are mandated to the board and where the school board has discretion to make cuts or reallocations. This is the first year that the school board has asked for such information, which is crucial to its fiscal governance.
Ms. Bourisaw and Mr. Moss conducted a payroll audit to verify that there were no phantom employees on the payroll, and to confirm that everyone was getting paid the proper amount. They have instituted new processes and procedures to avoid a repetition of the paycheck fiasco that occurred under the previous superintendent and to cut down on payroll errors. Although there have been some errors on paychecks since then, they have affected a relative handful of people and they were quickly corrected.
Such processes were crucial to regain the trust of employees and reassure them of the stability of their incomes.
Stabilization
As I have mentioned, instability at the top had become a chronic feature of St. Louis Public Schools during the three years of mayoral interference in the school system before April 2006. The school district saw five superintendents in those three years. And the instability was spreading, undercutting the lives and plans of teachers, parents, and students in the district.
It is heart-wrenching to see the effects of such instability on schools and students, above and beyond the effects of suddenly closing schools without public discussion and with very little warning.
Constant churning among the instructional leaders in schools undermined the schools' mission of teaching.The turnover rate amongst principals in those three years was nearly 75%. Instructional coordinators were eliminated from all schools to be replaced with literacy coaches, who were then eliminated and replaced with curriculum coaches, who were themselves then eliminated.
The instability reached the lowest ranks of school employees, who nonetheless often are in direct contact with students: the custodian and food service workers. With the outsourcing of custodial and food service functions to private contractors, the school district lost control of assignments. Corporate policies to move people around to cover employee departures and rearranging work schedules, coupled with a high turnover due to lower compensation and deteriorating work conditions, led to more instability in the faces children and teachers see in schools cleaning and serving meals.
Many teachers, of course, had been forced to change jobs when schools were closed in 2003. They had barely gotten used to their new surroundings when the ground shook under their feet again.
On May 23 and 24, 2006, the administration of then Superintendent Williams sent over one-third of the district's teachers notices stating: "We regret to inform you that on May 26, 2006, your assignment at your current location will end. . . . However, many vacant positions will exist throughout the St. Louis Public School District, and we strongly encourage you to apply for one of them."
The letters surprised everyone, including school board members. In April, when the school board approved a plan to restructure some schools under No Child Left Behind and reconfigure grade configurations at others, Mr. Williams had said that the internal reorganization he was proposing was an alternative to replacing teachers in the reconstituted schools (Board of Eduation Regular Board Meeting Minutes, April 17, 2006).
Weeks went by without getting teachers placed in new positions. The former administration's failure to have any plan or process in place for distinguishing between good teachers and bad teachers, and its failure to put the resources in place to efficiently interview and rehire the 1,000 teachers affected by the notice, reinforced the sense of instability and capriciousness in the district.
Teachers did not know where, or if, they would have a job, and principals did not know who would be teaching in their schools.
St. Louis Public Schools have many dedicated and high qualified, and very capable teachers and principals, who do their absolute best for the children entrusted to them for education, but it takes more than individual dedication and qualification to successfully educate large numbers of children.
Decades of research have shown that children learn best when they establish a long-term relationship with some adult in the school, who encourages learning. It does not have to be their own teacher, as long as an adult they feel an important connection to is encouraging them to learn. Schools work best when the staff, teachers and non-teachers alike, work together as a team to encourage learning and good behavior.
The constant churning of school administrators, teachers, and other staff destroyed the relationships that are so important for student learning and effective schools, and prevented new relationships from forming. This was the instability that most profoundly affected students and their families, and it was felt most strongly this year, when families saw so many new faces in their schools after the chaos spawned by the former administration.
The effects of such churning rippled far beyond the teachers, principals, and staff that were moved from school to school. All those moves sparked rumor after rumor that other teachers would be moved, further interfering with the development of constructive relationships. They fanned feelings of frustration and helplessness among teachers and parents, and taught them to mistrust announcements made even at school board meetings.
In May 2006, for example, the school board asked then Superintendent Williams to summarize for it the changes planned for the districts magnet schools. When that item came up on the agenda, Mr. Williams walked out of the meeting. When he came back, he said there were no changes planned. A week later, the recruitment and counseling office sent notices to parents of students at one magnet school, the Pruitt Military Academy, that the military academy would be dissolved at the end of the school year and parents had to apply for other schools for their children for the following year. The principal at another magnet school, Madison Individually Guided Education, announced to her teachers that the program at Madison was being terminated and teachers would have to apply for jobs at other schools. Mr. Williams brought that decision to the school board for its ratification the following month, but he never formally told the parents about it. A host of other schools were changed as well.
Just as participants in the recent focus groups on St. Louis Public Schools, pulled together for the special advisory committee, realized that sometimes change is necessary to bring stability, so too did the board of education. In July 2006, Mr. Williams decided to resign rather than change the way he managed St. Louis Public Schools. The school board immediately brought Diana Bourisaw in to takeover the superintendent's job.
Ms. Bourisaw immediately set to work to stabilize staff. In five weeks she placed the 1,000+ teachers waiting for assignments into jobs, and her staff began revamping the human resources staff so that next year teachers would know in April where they would work the following year instead waiting until August to find out. Principals, too, were confirmed in their assignments and given coaching to help them succeed. And she reaffirmed the missions of magnet schools, and began working to bolster them.
While Ms. Bourisaw worked to bring stability to schools and staff, the school board, as body, acted to bring more stability to the superintendents. Yes, there were one or two dissidents, but the board as a whole adopted a performance-based superintendent evaluation process that was developed by the Missouri School Boards Association, which gives superintendents a minimum of two years to meet their goals before they can be terminated (Board of Education, Regular Meeting Minutes, November 21, 2006). This is the first time in several years, and maybe ever, that the school board has a formal, performance-based superintendent evaluation process.
Instruction
In February 2004, the St. Louis Board of Education adopted a literacy plan prepared by education adviser Rudy Crew and St. Louis Public School staff that called for training literacy coaches and teachers in differentiated instruction (St. Louis Public Schools Literacy Initiative, February 5, 2004).
Differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching that is widely endorsed by education associations in the United States, including the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the International Reading Association, and the Missouri School Boards Association. In addition, DESE looks for differentiated instruction during it Missouri School Improvement Plan (MSIP) 4th cycle review.
Differentiated instruction grew out of a large body of research that shows that different children learn at different paces and by different methods, and that students generally learn best when they know about 80 percent of what they are being taught. The methodologies of differentiated instruction were pioneered by special education teachers working to find ways to effectively teach both special education and mainstream children in the same classroom.
Despite the St. Louis school board's 2004 call for differentiated instruction, no training in differentiated instruction was given to teachers until August 2006.
Instead, in November 2004, the then chief academic officer, Lynn Spampinato, insisted on a strict, cookie cutter approach to education. Starting in the elementary schools, she said that on any particular day, every teacher in a particular grade should be on the same page at the same time everywhere in the school district. She sent enforcement teams through every elementary classroom with orders to throw away any reading books, charts, or lessons they found that were not part the new reading series, even if they belonged personally to teachers. Teachers received schedules telling them what to teach at 9, 9:15, 9:30, and so on. The same SWAT teams later came back to make sure that every teacher posted the same placards and posters on their walls, and in the same order. Regular education, special ed, or gifted did not matter: they all were supposed to teach from the same page.
Not surprisingly, such heavy-handed tactics added to the demoralization and frustrations felt by large number of teachers. Ms. Spampinato said in October 2005 that teachers should like the new system, because they don't have to worry about what new students know or don't know, they just turn to the page they are supposed to teach from and read. Many teachers, however, felt that ignoring students was not teaching. Principals at the early childhood centers complained as a group that the new system was too rigid for them to give help to those students who were falling behind, or push forward those children who were learning at a faster pace than was scheduled.
Mr. Williams likened differentiated instruction to "academic suicide." (Board of Education Regular Meeting Minutes, April 17, 2006).
Although Ms. Spampinato told the school board in September 2004 that her rigid approach to teaching would lead to sharply higher levels of student performance in its second year she suggested that the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on the MAP test would double or more the opposite happened. In the second year of her rigid teaching system, the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced on the elementary MAP in communication arts in St. Louis Public Schools actually fell. That is the only year-to-year decline in elementary MAP communication arts scores for St. Louis in the history of the MAP, and it happened in the year that MAP scoring was revamped to fall into four grades instead of five, which was expected to increase communication arts scores.
This year, that is changing. In August, teachers and principals received their first professional development in differentiated instruction. Principals were given the authority to guide their own teachers, in conjunction with districtwide benchmark tests given every 5-6 weeks. Differentiated instruction is now firmly embedded in the professional development plan that is part of the curriculum-instruction-assessment cycle.
Under the former administration, the district had lacked a professional development plan, and it was out of compliance with grant requirements for spending on professional development. That, too, is changing. This autumn, every site received instructions to develop a professional development plan specific to its needs and forward it to headquarters to become part of a districtwide professional development plan that will be presented to the school board.
The school board and the administration also have established an instruction subcommittee to continually look at instructional programs and how well they are aligned with the comprehensive school improvement plan.
Facilities
After years of neglect, the St. Louis school board this year began the process of taking a serious look at the facility needs of St. Louis Public Schools. In September, the board empowered the administration to begin developing a facility master plan. Since then, the board and the administration have established a facilities subcommittee to evaluating the district's facility needs.
Mr. Virgil reported to you that the district has to take a serious look at the number of its facilities. We also have to consider the age and appropriateness of our facilities. Several of Mr. Williams' directives for individuals schools had to be undone in August, because the directives conflicted with the actual space in the schools. He severely overcrowded Metro High, for example, and ordered additional grades put into Jefferson and Mann Schools, even though those schools were already overcrowded. On the other extreme, buildings were opened for programs that occupy only a fraction of the available space.
In addition to determining the right number and mix of facilities for our projected student population, the school board also has begun discussing how best to maintain them. In July 2003, Mr. Roberti asserted that the district had a $60 million maintenance backlog. Three years later, in May 2006, Mr. Williams said the maintenance backlog had risen to $300 million (Board of Education Special Meeting Minutes, May 2, 2006). The last three administrators in charge of buildings, Mr. William Fisher, Mr. Gary Hughey, and Ms. Deanna Anderson, have all said that for the last several years the budgets for maintenance have been too small to keep building conditions level. In tandem with determining the right number and mix of school buildings the district needs, the school board and district administrators also are discussing how to most effectively maintain them.
School Board Governance
The St. Louis Board of Education like the board of alderman([search]), the General Assembly, and the U.S. Congress has a history of colorful members, whose behavior makes for more entertaining stories in the press than does the actual work of the board. Individuals aside, the board also has difficulty settling on what exactly is its proper role. There are at least three schools of thought on the board: always defer to the superintendent, set policy and hold the superintendent accountable, or get directly involved in hiring, firing, and running programs.
In my opinion, the board, as a body, in the last six months has tended to hew closely to the set policy and hold the superintendent accountable option.
In any event, the school board voted unanimously to ask the Missouri School Boards Association to bring the DESE-backed Intensive Assistance to Districts program to St. Louis to help us better settle on the proper roles and functioning of the school board and the superintendent (Board of Education Regular Meeting Minutes, November 21, 2006). Our first session in the Intensive Assistance to Districts program is to be in January.
In addition, in order to both ensure that the board monitors district operations to see that they are moving forward in accordance with the district's comprehensive improvement plan, and to encourage public participation in district planning and policy making, the school board has asked the superintendent to recommend an annual calendar of CSIP-related discussion topics for board meetings for the year. One board member has complained that in his nearly four years on the board, the board has spent very little time discussing education. This is the first time, however, that the board and the administration have set plans to set aside time for such discussions at every board meeting during the year.
Summary
Eight months ago, the situation facing St. Louis Public Schools was very dire. Since then, the school board has taken numerous steps to rescue the district and put it on a path towards financial and academic improvement.
We had no magic wand. It will take time to see the fruits of our efforts, which include reforms in every area from finances to board operations. Those reforms include:
balancing the operating budget and requiring that the district spend no more money than it takes in
incorporating compliance reporting into the budgeting process
payroll audit
bringing in new superintendent to stabilize district and move it forward
stabilizing teacher and principal assignments
reform of human resources department
restore magnet schools
adoption of performance-based evaluation process for superintendents
restoration of instructional responsibility within curricular framework to principals and teachers
professional development in differentiated instruction
development of professional development plan
establishment of instruction subcommittee
initiation of facility master planning
establishment of facility subcommittee
evaluation of effectiveness of facility maintenance program and procedures
initiation of Intensive Assistance program from DESE and the MSBA
development of discussion calendar to encourage better oversight and public participation.
Perhaps, with different school board dynamics, we could have done more. Surely, we all are aware of the irony of certain board members, who have consistently opposed every resolution for balancing the budget, and believing there are sympathetic ears on your committee, coming to you and pointing to their own behavior as evidence that the board can't balance the budget. I urge you not to classify their failure as a shortcoming endemic to elected boards.
Despite of the differences that exist on the school board in St. Louis, I submit to you that in the last eight months the St. Louis school board has done more than the board had done for the previous four years to correct problems bedeviling the district and set it on the path of future improvement.
Commissioner of Education Kent King's Special Advisory Committee is a fraud. Mr. King appointed to the committee people who supported St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay's failed policies. Such policies led to the accreditation drop from 64 to 39 points, three years of mismanagement, outsourcing, turmoil and five superintendents. Two fair election processes have begun to repair the problems that the Slay board majority created for our St. Louis Board of Education. 
