By Antonio D. French
Filed Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at 8:40 AM
Education reporter Steve Giegerich might have a future in public relations when his days at the Post-Dispatch are over. Labels: Schools
Giegerich's stories about the state of St. Louis Public Schools helped shape public opinion in suburban St. Louis and across Missouri against the elected board and for the need for a state takeover.
He has even written stories that blatantly disregard the facts as they relate to critics of the takeover. To the Post's credit, after watching PubDef's video of the meeting in question, the editors did issue a correction following Giegerich's last completely false story against Special Administrative Board member Richard Gaines.
But now, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, the paper's editors can correct Giegerich's stories as soon as the facts are made clear to them and before they waste any ink.
Yesterday afternoon, Giegerich wrote a story for STLToday.com with the headline, "City Schools Open Without Glitches".
Even the most optimistic school administrator knows that there's not a school district in the world that has a glitch-free first day. As a matter of fact, as the press release below from the elected school board, illustrates, there were quite a few glitches.
By evening, Giegerich's story had changed. "City Schools Open With Glitches, Optimism," read the new headline and story.
From the school board:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2007
Media Contact: Donna Jones
Phone: 314-568-0149
Unacceptable Problems Plague First Day of School in St. Louis
Transportation and classes without teachers top the list of reported
problems
St. Louis - Thousands of St. Louis children starting school today
encountered more than the usual number of problems.
"While many schools had an excellent start, there were problems with student
transportation all across the district," said Donna Jones, chairwoman of the
School Climate Committee of the St. Louis Board of Education. "Many, many
schools, elementary, middle, and high, reported that there were buses that
were very late in bringing students to school," she said. "Transportation
problems were made worse because the district was very late in sending out
route assignments to parents, and families did not get their notices until
after the deadline for correcting any mistakes. That kind of performance is
unacceptable," she added.
"Many schools also reported that they had oversized classes and teaching
positions still unfilled," Jones said, including magnet schools, regular
elementary schools, and high schools. "Beaumont reportedly did not have a
foreign language teacher, even though foreign language is a state
requirement, and Central was offering only Spanish," she added.
The schools opened under the direction of a state-appointed board that began
operating on June 15, 2007.
William Purdy, former vice president of the elected board of education said,
"There should be no reasons why our schools did not open smoothly on Monday,
August 20. Superintendent Bourisaw and her staff came to the elected board
for support back in May and June – and the board responded by approving all
of the requests made in order to assure that our schools would open on time.
The board approved 143 items in May and June to ensure that schools would
open on time and that students would be provided for."
Board of education member Katherine Wessling expressed frustration that
problems were so widespread on the first day of school in spite of all the
planning into starting the school year that occurred last Spring before the
arrival of the state-appointed board. "Every school I visited or contacted
had transportation problems," she said. "I don't want to hear any more about
special programs when we can't get the basics right," she added.
The St. Louis Board of Education has undisputed authority and responsibility
to monitor the activities of the St. Louis Public School district. This
statement is issued in performance of those monitoring duties.
25 Comments:
Who is Donna Jones and why is she sending a press realing?
Seriously, some of these old school board people are insane.
Why do we need an elected board? Our government structure is just dumb. We have a Mayor, let him appoint a school board, if it fails then we vote his butt out of office.
Successful cities do it this way. Why can't we?
8/21/2007 9:22 AM
If you have to ask who Donna Jones is, you don't know enough to even be commenting on the subject.
8/21/2007 10:57 AM
I would wager that the vast majority of the citizens of St. Louis whose taxes support the SLPS, as well as the vast majority of the parents of SLPS children have no idea that Donna Jones is a member of the elected school board, though some of them may have a vague memory of the school board member who wrote "NO TAKEOVER" on her face during a school board meeting.
Are none of these people entitled to an opinion about how the district should be run?
8/21/2007 12:41 PM
Oh, I heard about this crazy lady. She wrote on her own face, wow. I mean serisously, she was in charge of schools and she draws on her own face!
We need to fix this problem. Appointed board, able to be fired by the Mayor if they stink and if he/she does not fix it then we fire him/her the next election.
Simple solution.
I mean come on...she drew on her own face. My four year old doesn't even do that!
8/21/2007 12:52 PM
Traditionally school boards have been elected separately from local governments because the school district and city government are separate entities--financially, contractually, in every way. While I'm not averse to changing that to allow mayoral(similar to what has been done in NYC) it presents definite problems, particularly instability. We have the potential to elect a new mayor every 4 years, and that's pretty quick turnover in most academic situations. However, maybe the Mayor would be more judicious about tax abatements if he were responsible for balancing the school district's bottom line.
To the original post--Giegerich writes what he's told to write, and uses the quotes that support that story. That's the nature of corporate journalism.
8/21/2007 1:04 PM
if you think giegerich is bad, jake wagman is even worse....his stories are always misleading and full of inaccurate informatioin
8/21/2007 1:38 PM
Antonio---it is the things they do not report that bothers me.
1. Follow up on the murder of Tim Bacon---it has been a year.
2. Article about bad lunches--nothing about the history of going from inhouse to aramark, and the elected board's urging to consider going back to inhouse.
3. Hype about early attendance figures--no digging for yearly figures.
4.No followup on TexasCan being brought in by the state. No reporting of where the takeover board stands regarding Bourisaw's opinion of texascan and bigpicture.
5. No scrutiny of the 8 human beings on the state board deciding what is best for the voters of stl.
6. General disdain for examining the issues regarding the impact of outsourcing educational decision to for profit corporations.
8/21/2007 1:49 PM
by the way---what is the status of confirmation or non-confirmation of Sullivan by the senate---and the several questions it raises.
Do you owe aqn apology for posting a meaningless story---or does the rest of the media owe us wider reporting of it?
8/21/2007 1:51 PM
12:41 anon--sure, people who aren't informed can have opinions, but it doesn't mean those of us who go out and educate ourselves on the facts of the situation have to give any credence to them.
12:52 anon--so if you have a mayor who is doing a great job attracting business conventions and sports teams, but appoints cronies to the school district to give them a resume builder because he knows that most voters in the town send their kids to private school and don't give a fig about the public ones, how is that mayor going to be voted out? It's much simpler and more direct to let the community vote for the school board directly instead of having it be just one issue on which a mayor is evaluated upon. It could go the other way too, of course, you could have a mayor do a great job with the schools and be horrible at everything else. Does he get to stay in office over that one issue? Too many layers involved when things are done this way. Direct election and accountability is the way democracy works best.
8/21/2007 2:11 PM
That damn Gigerich is obviously a pseudo PR person for that damn Slay's agenda in turning SLPS into pseudo catholic charter schools for the well heeled!Why doesn't the Post Dispatch fire Giergerich for incompetence with his many erroneous articles?
8/21/2007 2:31 PM
Nope. If a Mayor really is trying to destroy public schools why would he be trying so hard to bring people and businesses into the City.
OK folks. First, everyone remove heads from asses.
Good, now let's all take a deep breath of common sense.
Now, if a Mayor is trying to save a city he must also improve the schools. He cannot do that when he has no authority over the schools. We cannot have a legislative body rule in an executive fashion. This would be like having Congress in the role of the President. Nothing gets accomplished. The elected school board has proven over the last 20 years that it has failed. I would rather try something new than to repeat the failure.
I am sick of all these conspiracies. Guess what, their is no master plan to get rid of public schools in St. Louis. BUT, there is a master plan to improve the city (Schools, neighborhoods and businesses included) and guess what that means...we ALL need to take better care of the city and our neighborhoods.
I am tired of people peeing in trash cans and writing on their faces. Why can't we (the City Government) for once make the news for taking the lead on an issue? Why can't we ALL work together to create a future for the whole city? No more crying because change is hard. We need to all pitch in.
First, let's get rid of the old board. You guys, go home, wash the marker off you faces and let some one else try for awhile.
8/21/2007 2:45 PM
Antonio, I know you are a respected journalist among school board junkies thus I suspect you know about media law. Having said this, is it not considered plagiarism or copyright infringement for you to copy and paste an article on your "news site" without their approval?
You might want to look into this?
VERONICA O'BRIEN
8/21/2007 7:33 PM
Donna Jones media person. Come the queen of media is Veronica O'Brien with that great body and long legs. Heard when she is around people she likes and respect she is an entirely different babe. When that babe comes on TV everyone looks.
Donna, they cover their face.
8/21/2007 11:35 PM
Months ago there was an editorial in the Post, Riverview Gardens needs a Veronica O'Brien. It went on to say whether or not you agree with her she was not afraid of getting rid of anyone. I think that is because she has been in charge for years.
I think she should get a cable show and be the local female Donald Trump for the show School Board-You're fired. Donna Jones and Peter have essentially been fired by her. She was right about Williams and she was right about Bourisaw. Now it appears she was right about Rick Sullivan.
School board people can love to hate her but the chick has no fear and always has back up.Sometimes you are better off taking her first punch because the second and third ones always seems to be the killer or as she says "three strikes and your out". Send her to New York to work for Ruddy.
8/21/2007 11:58 PM
VERONICA O'BRIEN
Don't you have something better to do than talk about copyright laws to A. French. Isn't it illegal to file fake claims against folks and tell lies to the police just so you can get some attention. You are such a JOKE and I use to laugh at you during the school board meeetings but now I know that you really have a problem so I just shake my had and pray that you will get the help that you need!
8/22/2007 6:37 AM
As a moral person who has spent her entire career in communications, I deeply resent Mr. French's equation of public relations with stories that "blatantly disregard the facts." Sure there are exceptions--the spin doctors among us--but most PR people are strongly ethical and committed to communicating the truth. When you find cover-ups and spin it's nearly always the doing of the boss who ignores the PR person's advice or acts without even consulting with him or her. I've known colleagues to resign over ethical issues.
Taking cheap shots at issues you know nothing about makes your opponent look good and undermines your own credibility--as any competent PR person can tell you.
8/22/2007 7:48 AM
That nutty V. O'Brien needs to quit posting her silly tirades glorifying herself on this site,everyone can easily identify her nutty postings! I think she is very ugly,both physically and in her nutty actions!
8/22/2007 12:48 PM
B.A. MacRobie said...
As a moral person who has spent her entire career in communications, I deeply resent Mr. French's equation of public relations with stories that "blatantly disregard the facts."
I was already leery of a thread that even joked about Giegerich being qualified to do PR.
I think if you had just said "I resent" I would have been a little bit put out with Antonio's audacity.
But when you said "I deeply resent", I was so aghast, I burst into tears.
You are really good at what you do.
8/22/2007 1:58 PM
Giegerich is just an arm of the huge corporate interests that have been ruining this city for the past 50 years
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/BreakingNews.html
8/22/2007 5:28 PM
So now we are supposed to believe PR firms represent the truth? Bullshit. Public Relations firms are hired to put the best face forward to the public for whoever hired them. Nobody becomes involved in PR work because they are dedicated to telling the truth. It used to be those who wanted to tell the truth became journalists, now even that avenue is suspect. Sorry ba macrobie, not buying YOUR PR bullshit either.
8/22/2007 9:59 PM
veronica o'brien said...
Antonio, I know you are a respected journalist among school board junkies thus I suspect you know about media law. Having said this, is it not considered plagiarism or copyright infringement for you to copy and paste an article on your "news site" without their approval?
You might want to look into this
Mrs. O'Brien:
There is a world of difference between "copying & pasting" a copyrighted article, and posting a screen shot from a website, which is precisely what Mr. French has done. If you think that's plagiarism, then quite frankly you don't have a clue what you're talking about--a frequent refrain whenever your name comes into a discussion.
Thanks ever so much for being the Leona Helmsley of St. Louis!
8/23/2007 1:13 PM
I would categorize Veronica O'Brien as the Daffy Duck of St. Louis,Leona Helmsley was too intelligent to be compared to O'Brien!
8/23/2007 4:46 PM
You're right, it isn't plagerism... but it is copyright infringement. But then again self important bloggers all over the world don't think that copyright laws apply to them.
8/24/2007 3:18 PM
Until the SAP or Elected Board steps up to the plate and get rid of Diana Bourisaw and the incompetent administrative team that she embraces, the St. Louis Public Schools will not move forward.
Bourisaw went to the district under false pretenses. No professional worth their salt would have taken a position under the guise of conducting an audit of district processes, meeting with top-level employees, getting their honest answers to questions possed, then turn around and use the statements to terminate them. She is sickening. Everytime I see her I could vomit!
FOLKS she is a thief and a LIAR(ask the folks in Fox). She cannot look you in the eyes when you talk with her. She is pathetic!
Why didn't any of the surround districts hire her? Because they realized that she is a sociopath with likes to surround herself with incompetent adminsitrators.
Wake up STL. Bourisaw is no good for the children of STL!!!! Send her back to IMPERIAL, MO!
P.S. No, Veronica O'Brien did not write nor prompt this comment.
8/25/2007 9:37 AM
It is neither plagiarism nor copyright infringement to use materials in this context. No one is claiming to represent the Post-Dispatch. No one is trying to pass the work off as their own. And, most importantly, no one is altering Post-Dispatch content to make it look like they've written something different.
Others' work can be reproduced (within reasonable limits and with citation) for news or educational purposes.
8/25/2007 11:56 AM
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