Church sponsored school to be housed at Jefferson

Has anyone else noticed the incredibly patronizing names given to the small schools created from the broken pieces of our poorest high schools?

How about Roosevelt's POWER Academy? What in the heck is "Pursuit of Wellness Education?" Gym?

Transcription of exchange between Director Sonja Henning and Superintendent Vicki Philips at the March 1, 2006, School Board Meeting. The School Board was just presented a discussion of the Jefferson Implementation Team’s progress thus far by Barbara Adams and it was time for questions from the Board. The exchange began at approximately 9:35 pm and lasted until approximately 9:45 pm.

Director Henning: Thinking about the conversations with respect to the proposals and the recommendations and why these vertical schools work and what these vertical schools are talking about and the substance behind them, everything I can follow and was doing fine with until a few weeks ago, just then learning, and we had already voted on passing this proposal, and then a few weeks ago learning that the Academy of character and Ethics is still not only on the table for the district, but is being developed for the same cluster. As a member of the Ed Ops committee I had the opportunity to see what their ideas for a proposal of a school in many ways mirrors for the Men’s Academy, so to NOT have that discussion two months ago was certainly a mistake. And to now have it only by chance because Director Ryan happened to see something in a paper about it which is also disheartening. So I am asking you and the Superintendent to give us some idea why would we support duplication in the same cluster under the same guise of an all boys school focusing on leadership, focusing on character, on education?

Vicki Philips: First the, um, Academy work did not, was not part of the Jefferson redesign, as you know. It was in fact a directive of the Ed Ops Committee to me when we were doing the 4 charter schools. And your direction in a meeting, an Ed Ops, ah, Committee meeting, was that I, was to look at whether it was possible, with all 4 of those charters, in fact, to look at alternative, um, schools, as a result. So that is exactly what we did. We took the character and ethics, um, we offered all 4 of them the opportunity. The one group that took us up on it was Character and Ethics and Carol Smith began the work with them and worked with them for the process they would need to go through in order to fully realize that and they have. And the conversation about co-locating at Jefferson had to do with the assets we both believe we can bring to the other. One of the concerns of the District, er, the Ed Ops Committee was the curriculum of the school and the fact they now can help, ah, we can help them actually deliver on a more robust core curriculum. The fact that we can have, um, come, tutoring services and other kinds of things in combination. That can be really healthy. So, while the processes were parallel, and are now really beginning to merge, but we don’t believe that they are necessarily duplicative. It is something we will look at as we, as we continue to go. We’re confident that we can sustain the four small schools at Jefferson. We’ll know this year and next year about the boy’s school, um, and we believe that some alternative schools of the kind, again, that you guys directed us to pursue, um, is an important, an important thing for us to, you know, manage and look at, and be more in partnership and collaboration with, than disparate. And they did. They came in in very different ways. So I, I understand that.

Director Henning: Just, a point of clarification for the record. We, as the Ed Ops asked you to do that early on, so, maybe, October, November. And, I specifically remember ACE saying they weren’t interested in that and that was part of the reason why we evaluated them as a charter school application. We went through that entire process and denied that application And, so, if there were later discussions that you had with them, as far as turning them into alternative ed, then that’s fine. I’m not denying that that probably took place. But my point is that the discussion of the Jefferson Cluster and what schools will fit in that cluster, and the vertical, and why the boy’s school focusing on Character and Ethics, is a great thing, and Leadership. Blah, blah, blah. All of that, the missing piece was this on-going discussion that we may have a similar school as alternative ed in the exact same cluster doing many of the exact same things. So that’s where I’m disheartened. Yeah, it wasn’t that we asked you to do something and you did it. It was that we asked you to go a certain way, we got a response back from them that said, “No,” they want to go this way. We evaluated them in that terms and then there was a turn, or a curve, as a member of the Ed Ops, I was not privy to. And, as a member of the Board, voting on something for the Cluster, we weren’t at all privy to.

Vicki Philips: Actually, they, they chose not to go through the second round of charter because they chose to pursue this. So, if there’s a miscommunication there, I, I’m not sure how it happened, but I understood that, as they, um, were mak…, or as we were making the decision to potentially deny them, and some of the other schools, that we thought that all of those had merit and we wanted to pursue alternatives. That was the directive I thought I was given. That was the directive I pursued. They chose not to come back and appeal their charter status because of this conversation that was going on and because they were working their way through the alternative school status. If we slipped in communication, you know, we will, we will, take, um, the accountability for that. But we don’t believe that this is so duplicative that this is an issue. And we know that we will monitor both as we go and be accountable for it and see.

Director Wynde: You are raising a valid question, but when it comes to alternative programs, that the process that is gone through, in terms of alternative education contracting with people for alternative programs and alternative schools, that, as a general matter, is not something that comes to the Board for approval. So I
Director Henning: All I’m saying, I still don’t know how it’s different. But, you’re saying it’s different and I’d like to hear how. Even as if today, you’ve identified the differences between the two. If we’re talking about starting a new school, and we don’t have on the table the fact that we are discussing at another, in another arena, that there is an alternative education school that may be similar. That information, I would like, as a Board member, to know before I vote on the Board supporting this new school being developed. The idea of a new school is it is something we don’t have. So, if we are going to have it as alternative ed, and suddenly it’s a different conversation. I’m not saying we don’t decide on it as well. But at least we know there, well, there will be something very similar in the alternative education form. And that discussion did not take place because we did not have the other piece of the information.

Director Wynde: Right.

Vicki Philips: I think it is a fair enough critique and one of the things we are trying to do as a District, and don’t have right yet in every instance, is to bring together disparate processes. And this is one great example because they were very different processes and they were moving along on parallel tracks. And you’re absolutely right. We probably should have done a better job at making that communication loop. And, you know, those are the kinds of things the District, we are trying to get better at. But I think we still would have, ‘cause we did have knowledge about it, when we knew it was working through the track, we still would have made the recommendation we made for the reasons we made it and wanted it to be supported. But I understand your need to have had that, um, and clearly this is one of the ways we missed.

Director Henning: Do you understand my confusion on the differences between …What are the differences between, other than one is alternative ed and one will be considered co-locating in Jefferson High School? So, presumably, it could be two all-boys academies focusing on Character, Ethics, and Leadership. What am I missing? Why is that not duplicative?
Vicki Philips: Well, the Boys School certainly will have some leadership as its focus, but remember, the core there is also to pick a theme and support base like with Girls where we have Science and Technology. We don’t see them as being the same. The Boy’s School is certainly organized around some things will be that are very particular to adolescent boys, but the curriculum focus may be very different. And not go to the Character and Ethics focus. So I think one of the things we will need to take responsibility for, and you are right to ask, is to come back and show, um, how we believe they are similar or different and grapple with that issue.

Director Regan: Two years ago when Director Williams and I were on the Ed Ops Committee together, one of the things that we did was we visited every alternative school in the District. And certainly the alternative programs, and I don’t know enough specifically about ACE, but the alternative programs are certainly not neighborhood schools. And they are really there to catch kids, who for whatever reason don’t make it in a neighborhood school program. So, I think they are pretty different from that context as well.

Superintendent Philips: Population

Superintendent Regan: It is a very different population, so, but I understand where you are coming from.

Director Henning: This is my last point on this. In the School Initiation Report for the Men’s Academy, it says, “Students will be immersed in Character Education as a common thread toward Leadership and personal development.” I mean, there is a strong emphasis, there has always been a strong emphasis, because I remember, and one of the reasons why I supported it, there was a very strong emphasis on Leadership and Character. And yes, I understand it’s different and potentially different audience between the two schools. But looking at this Cluster and thinking how we are trying to get the Capture Rate back up, then it would be more advantageous to have different schools as options for them versus same schools with different leaders.
Vicki Philips: Right, but the way you go about that might be very different. And again, the student population is very different. And, again, I think it is a fair ask and something we will need to clearly differentiate for you as we go.

Questions continued with the remainder of the Board.

Julie

Thanks to Julie for transcribing Director Henning's great comments and questions from the 3/1/06 Board meeting. Here are some additional important questions from Director Dilafruz Williams.

Williams: "I have a question along the similar lines about some consistency in terms of what we are calling these schools. I read here 'Jefferson High School Campus,' and then we have the four academies, and then we have the Tubman Young Women's Academy being called 'Jefferson High School at Tubman'. "

"And if it's a high school, then can it be 7-12? And, there's just a lot of confusion in terms of, what is it? And if we can just really be clear about: is this a high school, is this a campus? Are we looking at one campus for Tubman and the present Jefferson school? So that the public gets that clear, consistent understanding and message about WHAT IT IS would be really helpful. So that's one thing."

"And then the other one is, and this was actually pointed out by one of our parents from the Jefferson cluster who has attended several meetings. We talk about NE Portland and NE community, and Jefferson is really North / Northeast, so we need to just clean that up. And she actually pointed that out, which I really appreciated. So that's another." "I want to make sure that it's on record that that's what we're going to do."