By Antonio D. French
Filed Thursday, December 21, 2006 at 12:15 PM
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. Labels: 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.
Sincerely yours,
Jamilah Nasheed
9 Comments:
Thank you Jamilah!
12/21/2006 12:46 PM
Whether and how they respond to his letter could be very revealing.
12/21/2006 3:30 PM
Poor Jeff. All politics being local, Russ won the easy way out of bigger controversies.
12/21/2006 4:18 PM
As dysfunctional as the current school board is, the outrage that will probably erupt when three white men [Blunt, Slay,....] appoint the 6 year board will make the reaction to the Schoemehl, Archibald,... board seem insignificant.
Yes, thank you Jamilah. That poll that the committee used was a push poll, not a real poll.
In fact, to help fund this site, Antonio, why not run a mini lottery on the time of the filing of the first lawsuit against the state's attempt to do this? Or have a 50-50 raffle on how many lawsuits will be filed?
12/21/2006 5:04 PM
Jamilah is right. But, I would add that there should be more than one hearing or meeting. Let's have 5 or six at different times on different days so folks have a change to attend. Moreover, lets have the meetings run NOT by the school board and MODESE. Invite them to attend, but have it run by an independent person, maybe the media, and put it on TV! Level the playing field a little and maybe people would participate. Parents need to sit at a round table with leaders and talk, not testify.
12/21/2006 6:30 PM
I'm with you until you got to hte part about the media being independent......
12/21/2006 6:58 PM
My whoever wrote the last posting mustmust not get it. People can't you find something to do other than stir up trouble.
12/21/2006 7:00 PM
The media is independent on some things. When it comes to busting unions......they seem uniformly enthusiastic.
12/21/2006 8:06 PM
The media is being manipulated by the "big" story. It is in their interest (financially) to stir up controversy.
12/21/2006 8:12 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home