Our regular readers know that we
have been reporting on the Richmond Heights school district since our curiosity
took us to a school board meeting there six months ago. It soon became
apparent that the rogue behavior of the basketball coach was merely the
presenting problem, and that dysfunction in the district was longstanding,
systemic, and deeply rooted.
The selfless, courageous and
united action of the boys basketball team in demanding the immediate removal of
the coach commanded the support of their parents, who then asserted themselves
on behalf of their children, and eventually on behalf of all of the children in
the system.
The parents won the support of
the superintendent quickly enough but were regularly obstructed by a school
board majority whose attitudes and actions, both public and private, began to
come under the community’s persistent pressure.
The number of concerned parents
gradually grew as concerns expanded from the coach’s abuse of his charges to
issues of district mismanagement, instability, malfeasance, finance, and, not
least, substandard delivery of educational excellence.
Two key developments occurred
over the summer. Two of the more active and involved parents — Bobby
Jordan and Frank Barber — had applied in April for a vacancy on the school
board. The board majority selected Barber, who declined, and ultimately Jordan
was awarded the seat.
The first key development was
Barber’s subsequent decision to run for a full term. His victory, coupled with
Jordan’s election earlier this month to serve the balance of the term to which
he was appointed, very likely signals a new day at district headquarters. It is
likely that those two will team with the senior board member, Linda
Pliodzinskas, to form a new majority that will focus on stabilizing the
district, eliminating personality-driven private agendas, and advancing
educational goals.
The second key development was
the formation of PARENTS 4 KIDS as an advocacy group for children and
education. P4K has met several times over the summer and fall. On Monday, in
advance of last night’s regularly scheduled board meeting, the group delivered
a letter to the president of the school board and the interim superintendent. A
copy of the letter was obtained by The Real Deal has obtained a copy of the letter, which runs to three pages of
single-spaced copy.
Styled as an open letter to
“Parents, School Board Members, Administration, Teachers, and Community”, its
stated objective is to “raise awareness among parents and in the Richmond
Heights Community as to the grave conditions which have drastically impacted
our children’s education.” A request is made for a town hall meeting or
community forum with the board “for the purpose of dialogue and interaction
pertaining to strategies to both address and overcome every obstacle that has
been a hindrance to success for our children.” P4K wants this meeting to occur
by December 10 and hopes “to establish mutual purpose, mutual goals, and mutual
solutions.”
The letter expresses P4K concerns
in three broad categories: Diversity Tolerance, Academics, and Finance. Under
Diversity Tolerance, parents express anxiety over the current investigation by
the US Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights, which is widely expected to
find the district and various parties guilty of discrimination, negligence, and
retaliatory conduct. P4K also seeks an update on the Community Building Project
initiated by Linda T. Hardwick before her suspension. And, the parents
also want answers about the removal of at least eight individuals “who have
been non-renewed, forced to leave, fired, or downsized on what appears to be
the basis of race or retaliation and even gender in the past three years.”
P4K’s academic concerns include
the status of credit recovery and tutoring programs, and how the accreditation
process will proceed in the absence of the superintendent who initiated it. A
companion concern has to do with the number of middle school students who are
without textbooks in some classes, and high school students using books
published almost twenty years ago.
The letter also asks “what
mechanisms have been put in place to improve the status of ‘Continuous
Improvement’ at the elementary school” and how the elevation of the school’s
principal to interim superintendent will “impact our struggling elementary
students”.
The third area of P4K concern
deals with financial and policy matters. Five questions are asked, including:
“• Exactly how much has been
spent in legal fees, combating complaints of discrimination, and attempting to
justify poor practice of firing Superintendents, and retaliating against
student, parents, and administration who speak against it?
• Is it true that RH teachers
received a retroactive 2% raise, and will possibly incur an additional raise in
the next year? Why is the teacher’s contract unavailable to the public? Why
were teachers not asked to make concessions or retain their levels, when the
district has said to parents concerning the purchase of books, computers,
extra-curricular activities, elective classes, and transportation, there is no
money?
• Why were Race to the Top dollars
awarded, yet turned down by our school district?”
At Tuesday’s meeting, board
president Josh Kaye promised to get back to the parents by Monday on a date for the
community forum. He also promised to make the teachers contract available soon.
