Heartbreaking (Still)

Incredible job by June Cross.

Full video available.

More to say later.

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I'm not one for assigning homework but seriously if you don't watch June Cross' report for Frontline, well then I don't see how I can pass you.

There are a number of amazing things about it, whether we're talking about the Gettridge family on which the story is centered or the report's high production value, much enhanced online by all sorts of interesting interactive options to learn additional information.

Most remarkable is that it tells an incredible human story without sacrificing political or cultural context.

It's called the trifecta and this might be the only time I've seen it pulled off. A lot of journalists can get 2 of 3 but I've never really seen it all come together.

On the cultural front, Cross is able to describe the Gettredige Clan as part of a richer tribal fabric that weaves together generation after generation of New Orleanian not just as natives of a particular city but as a unique people. You even get the historic context, a description of how the Gettridge patriarch fought to integrate an elite tradesman guild reserved for creoles.

I just can't say enough about it. It's essential.

There are a couple of things I've really been chewing over in particular on the political front.

One is that I don't consider often enough the implications and injustice of Bush's waiver of the Stafford Act. There are books about this and I need to read one. (And please do recall that Helena Moreno the somehow the best New Orleans democrats could muster against Bill Jefferson.)

The second thing I don't consider often enough when I'm figurin' about local politics is the lingering implications of the decision to pink slip 50% of the municipal civil service. This devastated the African American middle class of course. And in spite of all the waste and inefficiency built into that system, the halving of the city's work capacity certainly hasn't done much to streamline the provision of services. There's an awful lot of resentment there. And it reinforces explanations as to why the Nagin administration's divisive communications strategy remained so powerful for so long.

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Lastly, there's the untold story of Lawless High School. Cross uses powerful images of the inundated and unsecured Lawless High in the Lower 9th Ward as a device with which to contrast the resilience of individuals like Mr. Gettridge and the generosity of volunteers to the indifference and inefficiency of federal and local governmental rebuilding. She goes back to Lawless again and again to demonstrate the irrevocable nature of the changes Katrina wrought on New Orleans communities. The frustratingly slow process of home reconstruction was still nonetheless inspiring. But then Cross would go back to Lawless to demonstrate government's failure or refusal to restore neighborhood services or rebuild basic community institutions.

It was very powerful.

It struck me particularly hard because I know what happened to Lawless High School when the Orleans Parish School Board signed the Recovery School District's school facilities master plan into law.

I argued for months and months that this master plan was being formulated under the immoral premise of community "viability" under which only communities able to pass an artificial threshold of 'already-rebuilt' would be extended the privilege of public education. The worst damaged neighborhoods were not populated enough for schools and would thus not get schools. The worst-damaged neighborhoods were and are most in need of institutional reconstruction as catalysts for neighborhood revival but governmental reconstruction ideology was and is predisposed to starving the most desperate neighborhoods of services and institutions. This amounts to de facto shrinking the footprint and de facto racism. See this post:

Moments ago, I attended the media presentation of the master plan at the Contemporary Arts Center. I asked State Superintendent Paul Pastorek to what extent he believed the locations of schools facilities might impact future population patterns. He answered that he believed it would have a positive effect. I then quickly followed up by inquiring whether it then followed that the population of a community might be negatively impacted because it was not selected to receive a school. He had no satisfactory reply, stumbling toward an insistence that the master plan was not in the business of influencing re-population.

If the presence of governmental facilities, assets, and services contributes to an individual or family's decision to return and rebuild, to what extent does the absence of such basic maintenance discourage population renewal?

I was most upset because the Upper 9th Ward was not going to get a single high school. Both Carver and Frederick Douglass were slated for closure, with no school being rebuilt in Phase 1, the only portion of the plan with funding.

But what's remarkable is that Lawless HS was a Phase 1 project.

The money was ready and there was going to be a new Lawless High School in the Lower 9th Ward by 2012-2013 ish.

I was there as other communities deprived of schools organized to demand public education in their respective neighborhoods. It was something of a PR nightmare for the Recovery School District. The RSD team had to run away hard from the term (their term) "landbanking," which is what they planned to do to school properties that were not going to be rebuilt. When the Bureau for Governmental Research weighed in negatively about the financing outlook beyond Phase 1, communities scrambled hard to try to get their school on top of the first wave of construction.

Carver and Douglass High Schools made noise and won concessions. Douglass will not be landbanked as quickly as originally planned, opening the door for possible renovation of that building, which is still in decent shape. Carver HS got moved from Phase 2 to Phase 1.

These changes were previewed in the Times-Picayune on Saturday, released to the public Monday, and approved by the Orleans Parish School Board on a Thursday. So it wasn't as if there was a whole lot of time to review the modifications.

And guess who got screwed?

Lawless High School was removed from Phase 1 and Lower 9th Ward residents, who had assumed for months and months that Lawless would be there, were given all of four days to organize against the last minute changes.

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Last week, I wrote about Louisiana officials' unambitious play for a piece of the upcoming infrastructure stimulus package. The school facilities master plan is not amongst the projects for which the state is requesting federal funds. Why not?

Those projects are as close to shovel-ready as any we have in this city. We could bump damn near every school construction project into Phase 1, including Lawless in the Lower 9th Ward.

Pastorek promised aggrieved Lower 9th Ward residents that the school facilities master plan was just a blueprint, that they would work with the community to resolve some of their issues.

Well now's the time. There is a going to be a bill in Congress that spends damn near a trillion bucks on infrastructure. We have Congresspeople, call 'em up. Get some extra money for the SFMPOP and break ground on new schools this year, including one called Lawless in the Lower 9th Ward.

OPSB Votes Down Collective Bargaining

Yesterday, the lame-duck OPSB voted to reject a new contract with the teacher's union.

Fahrenholtz, who had said all along that he would vote no, said, "It really needed to be addressed by the incoming board."

Really?

No similar crisis of conscience when it came to approving the school facilities master plan as a lame duck, however.

I wanted the board to pass the contract. The teacher was often seen as an impediment to progress but it's not like this new agreement is some stone-aged relic:

The contract proposal sought to give teachers a say in curriculum and professional development through an existing joint task force; to give teachers the right to expunge certain unflattering material from their personnel files after three years; and to allow union representatives time during the school day to allow them to handle school issues without interfering with instruction.

That seems pretty reasonable to me.

But I actually do agree with Jimmy Fahrenholtz that it's a matter that should be taken up by the new democratically elected school board. I just wish he felt the same way about his vote on the school facilities master plan.

And I also wish we'd picked a better incoming school board. It is highly unlikely that the issue of collective bargaining for teachers will be revisited by the new board. I believe that the current board would have voted to approve the contract had we not selected a new board that campaigned so openly against the teacher's union.

OPSB Approves Master Plan Over Strident Objections

Heidi Daniels was the lone nay vote.

Turnout was strong and public comment was well-informed.

Darran Simon's writeup in the T-P is provides a fair recap.

I'd add that BGR's Janet Howard testified pretty forcefully that the funding discrepancies had yet to be addressed and continue to threaten the promise of equitable school facilities should it not materialize to sufficiently fund phases 2-5 of the master plan.

School Facilities Master Plan Vote Tonight!!!

Go to McDonogh 35 High School at 1331 Kerelec St. at 5:00 PM sharp!

Here's a map!


View Larger Map


As briefly as I can, here's what's happening:

After the original master plan document released by the RSD encountered a diverse opposition from expected and unexpected quarters, they modified it in order to quell some of the more organized opposition groups. Some of the compromises they made are extremely important to me and I can't pretend not to be pretty happy about them:

- Carver High School is now getting a new building on site during phase 1
- Frederick Douglass, Samuel Green, O.P. Walker, and Walter Cohen High Schools will not close until 2016, giving those schools some breathing room to institute classroom stability and to coalesce an active academic community.
-Eleanor McMain, housed in my favorite building in the city, have effectively organized a renovation.

Yet, I'm still convinced that this plan falls short of our city's needs. The Cowen Institute and the Bureau for Governmental Research explained their criticisms of the master plan as resulting from the lack of funding secured beyond phase 1 of the effort. Without a concrete path to funding the rest of the plan, New Orleans could be left with extremely unequal educational facilities. Given the financial crisis and the threat of recession, there is good reason to be cautious about our prospects for funding future phases of the plan.

And here's what is meant when we talk about unequal facilities:

This is from the OPSB's own release touting the modified plan, which I've made available here.

...Phase One building program will now include 32 schools and will make it possible for nearly 60% of public school students to be in newly built or completely renovated school buildings by 2014.

That means that just over 40% of public school students will remain in inadequate dilapidated buildings or modular FEMA units a decade after Katrina.

For me, that is unacceptable.

I'd like to have a deadline for all of our public school students to be in permanent facilities and concrete funds to get there.

That might mean scaling back the district's plan for Barbie Dream Schools and instead more prudently allocating funds on targeted renovations for places like Douglass, Cohen, Rabouin, and O.P. Walker - getting our kids into stable, adequate, permanent buildings and investing our time and energy into what really matters: the classroom itself.

I think Phase 1 should accomplish those basics. Future unfunded phases should outline our greatest dreams for modern expansions, state of the art dream technology, and so on. If the RSD can rework their master plan to do this, I'll be happy to support it.

Tonight unfortunately, I expect an unanimous and unimaginative OPSB vote in favor of the master plan. We'll see.

Docs 4 U

A reader passed along a file from a lawsuit during the early '90s in which Concordia, the architect behind the pending New Orleans school facilities master plan, was sued by the DeSoto Parish School Board for various alleged failures involving a high school project there.

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Of note, if relevant:

"Failed to design all project parts for a construction cost within the adjusted fixed limit of $12,154,212.60 including the failure to provide statements of probable construction costs in a generally accepted format while providing unreasonably low estimates of probable construction costs..."

"Failed to provide and coordinate the mechanical and electrical design in compliance with good practice and with generally applicable codes and standards for a public school in the Parish of Desoto..."

"Provided confusing, uncoordinated, and difficult to read construction documents including the architectural drawings and references in the electrical and mechanical specifications to codes for the State of Washington, together with nonrelevant plan information , for example items pertaining to hospitals, garages, and elevators..."

RSD Caving?

The RSD modified the school facilities master plan, attempting to allay the public relations nightmare sparked by the poorly conceived document and fumbled process.

The amended master plan will go before the Orleans Parish School Board later this week for a binding vote with little or no time for review by either the public or the members of the OPSB themselves.

The modifications, delaying closure of keystone high school buildings like Frederick Douglass and Eleanor McMain, awarding an immediate new building on G.W. Carver campus, and moving a few other projects from phase II to phase I, tend to allay the more vocal concerns of organized school groups and alumni associations.

Whether or not the financial concerns of the Cowen Institute or the Bureau of Governmental Research have been addressed is not clear. The RSD has certainly not secured any additional funding beyond phase I of the master plan. It is appropriate to wonder whether or not the modified plan does enough to ensure equitable school facilities if funding does indeed prove difficult to secure beyond the first phase, even when accounting for the offered changes.

My take:

The modifications signal both the strength of organized New Orleans communities and the desperation of the RSD to quickly reverse public opinion.

The process is corrupted by a quick turnaround that gives educational advocates and OPSB officials just three days to review all the changes before a binding vote. There is no public comment period for the new plan and given the reluctance of sitting OPSB members to even read the original document, it would be appropriate to give citizens the time to summarize the changes on their behalf.

Correct Me If I'm Wrong

Late last week, Paul Vallas wrote a letter to the editor of the Times-Picayune defending the Recovery School District's controversial school facilities master plan. In it, Mr. Vallas pushes back on recent reports by the Cowen Institute and the Bureau of Governmental Research that criticize the master plan's financial underpinning.

In short, because funding is concrete for only phase 1 of the facilities master plan, the independent groups argue that shortfalls made more likely by the financial crisis could lead to vast discrepancies in the quality of educational facilities in New Orleans with polar haves and have-nots.

In his letter to the T-P, Vallas addressed the uncertain funding structure after Phase 1 ends in 2013:

Phase 1 is funded by federal disaster recovery dollars that must be spent on building schools. While we're sure that we will be able to fund much of Phase 2, we know that in the years to come, the city and state will have to step up to the plate to raise capital funds to fully implement the plan. That is not surprising, or unusual.

In a sense, Paul Vallas is correct. Local and state governments do often have to share the costs of major projects such as the one the RSD is currently proposing. What I'm not sure of, is how usual it is for a project to begin without a plan to win funding. For instance, when a baseball team wants to hold taxpayers ransom for a new publicly-financed stadium, what they do is draw up a blueprint for their new digs and negotiate with the state and city for a plan to share the cost of stadium construction, land acquisitions, and related infrastructure improvements. That sounds similar to what the RSD is proposing but it really isn't. In this example, the team secures whatever legislation they need from the state and from the local city council and then begins construction. What they certainly do not do, is start digging holes into the ground with only enough money to build a third of the stadium. Here, the RSD wants to start construction without any concrete mechanisms to bankroll the later phases of the plan. Phase 1 alone insufficiently meets the needs of our district by concentrating precious dollars into just a few buildings without having evaluated the efficacy of spreading those dollars more prudently into targeted renovations.

The other thing I'd point out in this case is Paul Vallas' record from his time in Philadelphia. I wrote a three part series about this last year. Recall that Mr. Vallas was fired by Philadelphia's School Reform Commission after running unpredicted budget deficits running over $100 million. He seemed to have established a pattern. Mr. Vallas would spend furiously to implement certain aspects of his academic program and when he was forced to go to the state capital or to city council to defend a "surprise" deficit, it Vallas that would apply the pressure, goading lawmakers to "step up to the plate" to make up for his lack of fiscal restraint. To a certain extent, this is admirable because urban school districts are so badly underfunded. In practice, however, it provides for very short-term incremental progress. Vallas was successful once or twice in squeezing out a little bit extra to make up for the over-spending but it is never too long before lawmakers get tired of the act. Of course, in Philadelphia, contributing to Vallas' budget woes were huge increases in the number and value of no-bid contracts and unethical benefits paid out to Vallas consultants.

Here, Mr. Vallas has followed the Philadelphia pattern in an exaggerated sense, having already been raked by BESE for poorly formulated budgets and busted by the T-P and I for inappropriately large consultant contracts - including one to a woman forced to resign after unethical reimbursements paid by the Philly school district.

Also, let us consider Vallas' record in terms of spending on facilities from his time in Philadelphia. This passage is from something I wrote as part of the three part series:

In an op-ed to the Philadelphia Inquirer after Vallas had come to New Orleans, City Controller Alan Butkovitz wrote: (it has become archived, sorry I can't give a real link)

Right from the start we encountered resistance from the former CEO Paul Vallas when we questioned the insufficient progress and costs related to his $1.5 billion capital building program. It had a balance of $469 million - but little to show for it in the way of school construction. Vallas' original plan called for at least 20 schools to be built. At this time, we can only identify seven new schools that have been completed.

Ground broke on some construction way back in 2004. That there wouldn't be a clear accounting of what was built and when and for how much is shocking to me and should raise immediate red flags for everyone here in New Orleans given that the RSD is promising such a massive rebuilding program.

I called Harvey Rice, the First Deputy City Controller of the City of Philadelphia, to get more information about the capital improvement program. This is some of what he told me:

"There were two criticisms. One, we wanted to know what he did with the money. What did he build? No one has gotten that. We haven't gotten it. I don't even know if they have it in a document where they can succinctly sit down with you or anyone and say 'this is what we did'." - "We tried to do it on our own, spent a lot of hours going through newspaper articles, press statements, other statements that he made and trying to piece it all together... it's just been a difficult task." - "The other criticism was... that the school district wasn't spending it. They still have about half a billion dollars left... If you're not spending it, each year, material and labor costs increase, especially in Philadelphia, which is a union town. We thought if you're not spending it now, that sometime later you're not going to get the bang for your buck."
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I called the Philadelphia School District directly and asked for information related to the capital improvement program. Nobody got back to me. (I'm a nobody though)

Mr. Vallas has been adamant about the need to move quickly to begin schools construction on the master plan, threatening that federal funding could be lost if more time is taken to review the proposed spending. This is an interesting argument given his failure to spend money he was granted in Philadelphia.

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Lastly

This is the issue I wanted to raise when I titled the post.

My understanding throughout this entire process was that Mr. Vallas was not particularly involved in the master plan. Rather, the sense I've always gotten was that this was the other Paul's brainchild. Pastorek hired Parsons-Concordia to create the master plan before Paul Vallas was brought to New Orleans. It was Paul Pastorek and RSD Director of Facilities Planning Constance Caruso who worked with the hired firm to craft the document. It was Paul Pastorek who rejected a draft of the document in May that forced the delay of the release of the plan until late August.

From what I've gathered, Mr. Vallas's role in crafting the master plan had been limited to academic programming - the negotiation of different curricular themes for different schools. His job with the RSD is as an administrator of the schools themselves and it is my belief that this is what his responsibility was vis-a-vis the master plan.

So to me, it is very interesting to see Mr. Vallas being put up front to defend the plan. Where is Paul Pastorek? Where is Constance Caruso?

I hadn't planned on refreshing myself on Vallas' record in Philly as it pertained to the master plan because my understanding had long been that Vallas had very little to do with the SFMPOP.

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Here is this post's musical accompaniment.

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Expect news of a contract extension for Paul Vallas to percolate soon.

Independent Groups' Concerns Over Master Plan Increase as Vallas and RSD Play the Fear Card

....This just in from the Times Picayune:

Two independent groups raised red flags about the long-term financing behind the city's ambitious and unprecedented school construction plan, and probed school officials for more details about the costs of individual projects at a meeting of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Wednesday.

Representatives of Tulane University's Cowen Institute and the Bureau of Governmental Research argued that if money can not be found for later phases of the plan - which they agreed is a likely scenario -- it would exacerbate existing inequities in a city where children have long had unequal access to quality school programs and buildings.

Specifically, they said it would lead to a situation where some students attend school in state-of-the-art buildings while others remain in decrepit, outdated buildings.

There seems to be a developing consensus that this school facilities master plan is unacceptable. Wanna know why?

It's because people are using their skills of observation and logic to inform a factual reality.

And the reality is that this master plan is seriously deficient.

We close more schools than we build. The financing beyond phase 1 is nonexistent and increasingly unlikely to ever materialize. We concentrate limited resources into masturbatory wonders for the architectural class instead when the times call for a prudent allocation of resources that will get our kids into sustainable facilities as soon as possible.

But I want to discuss Paul Vallas' current talking point to the media. The company line is that we need to improve this plan as soon as possible and that any problems in the document can be fixed after the fact. Why can't the changes be made BEFORE we have to vote on the thing?

Vallas says it's because delays could result in our already-pledged funds being pulled.

"At some point we have got to start building," said RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas.

Unfortunately, I can't find a direct quote in a mainstream source but Mr. Vallas has explicitly explained that master plan approval delays could result in the loss of already-pledged monies. He made this point at the master plan public hearing at City Council.

A few points about this argument.

First, it is a typical post-K line we've all heard before about why we need to approve poorly contrived pet projects without question or debate. "WE'LL LOSE THE MONEY/REIMBURSEMENT COMPLETELY WE HAVE BUILD NOW WE HAVE TO KNOCK IT DOWN NOW SPEND NOW NOW NOW."

Second, if indeed there's a risk we might lose funding, guess who's fault it is?

The community has had this plan for less than sixty days. The RSD has been working on it since June of 2007. It was supposed to have been released last spring, then early last summer. It was finally presented to the public the week Gustav hit.

So don't feed us this BS about the delays caused by community concerns. How about the RSD planning team? How about the fact that when Pastorek saw his preliminary draft last May, he had to send the team back to the drawing board? How about the fact that even after that, Concordia-Parsons ultimately produced a document that is being widely criticized for a broad swath of structural and ideological flaws?

It ain't us that have been holding up this process - it's been them!

Third, and I think this is the real reason Paul Vallas is in such a hurry - not this empty lost funding threat - is that the deeper we get into this inevitable economic recession, the less realistic the master plan becomes. If we don't approve this thing right now, the master plan will go from being perceived as misguided, flawed, and unrealistic to being perceived as a parody of a fantasy.

This to me all seems like a bunch of 'let's move money around' horse crap. It's like how Vallas spends millions of dollars on high-tech Promethean boards for RSD classrooms when children aren't being provided with the basics, you know, like TEXTBOOKS TO TAKE HOME.

When Paul Vallas runs for governor of Illinois in 2010, as rumored, he'll get to say sexy little things in his commercials and pamphlets like:

"Spent x million dollars on state of the art classroom technology for New Orleans."
"Spent x million dollars on brand new school facilities."

Because he won't ever have to actually describe what we didn't get for expenditures that were, in reality, wasteful, premature, mis-prioritized, or worse.

Never mind that the economic crisis ensures incredible disparities in our public school system should we adopt a master plan crafted in an imagined economic vacuum. Never mind what happens when New Orleans is stuck in 2013 with what I compelled them approve in 2008.

JUST SPEND THE MONEY SPEND SPEND SPEND NOW NOW NOW NOW. YOU'LL LOSE IT IF YOU DON'T APPROVE. DON'T RISK IT. NOW OR NEVER! YOUR CONCERNS ARE UNWARRANTED. WE'LL FIX 'EM. I KNOW HOW TO FIX 'EM. JUST TRUST US. APPROVE NOW NOW NOW.

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The Carver High School alumni association has issued a statement condemning the master plan.

Just Moving Money Around?

I don't know if anyone else noticed this small blurb in Monday's very thin Times-Pic metro section in the regular "Higher Education Notes" segment that begs.

Apparently, ExxonMobil has awarded a grant to the Cowen Institute to develop college prep courses at four New Orleans public schools.

Let me start out by applauding the stated commitment to high level college preparatory classes at our schools. I gleaned some more info from the Tulane press release about the program. They'll be starting AP courses, which is fabulous. Not only did AP level courses prepare me for collegiate academia, but the university credits I received for succeeding in those courses allowed me finish my senior year at Tulane as a part time student, saving my family and I thousands of dollars in tuition costs.

But wait just a minute, y'all.

Before we go ahead and canonize ExxonMobil and the Cowen Institute, there might be some lines to read between. I know, I know. Very unexpected.

From the T-P blurb:

John McDonogh High School, L.E. Rabouin Career Magnet School and O. Perry Walker Senior High School already have been selected to participate. A fourth school is expected to be picked this month.

The grant, announced Thursday, will set up an advanced-placement training and incentive program at each school to help students prepare for higher education.

This is a pilot program, which is expected to develop during the next five years.

One minor detail I noticed was that not one of these three high schools survive past Phase II of the school facilities master plan. The buildings are scheduled to be shuttered and "landbanked," with no replacement construction. O.P. Walker is listed in the master plan as closing in 2016 and John McDonough will be 86'd in 2014.

L. E. Rabouin is a Phase I closure. It will be shelved, according to the school facilities master plan, in 2012.

Thus, ExxonMobil and the Cowen Institute will spend over a million bucks implementing pilot programs that won't be given a chance to become permanent since the host schools are being written out of existence. Not only that but even if we were to be most charitable and start the five year implementation timeline at this very moment, Rabouin will be closed in year four of the grant.

What is up with that? Why are we pulling the rug out from under these critical academic efforts by shutting down these schools regardless of the success of the programs hosted within?

My calls to the Tulane PR people and to the Cowen Institute for comment and/or clarification were not returned.

P.S. This petition effort helped result in a short extension of the public comment period. We have ten more days in which to lobby OPSB and BESE. Write your school board member.

Transparent Bias by Times-Picayune Editors [Updated]

I was looking forward to see how Darran Simon's recap of yesterday's contentious hearing at City Hall in today's paper.

I found it, eventually.

Hidden all the way at the bottom of page B-1.

School-closing plan fuels council anxiety

I don't think I'm just too close to the story when I say that the upcoming vote on the facilities master plan represents the most important event involving public schools since Katrina, or at least since the decision to create the Recovery School District itself. The plan will determine the capacity of New Orleans' public school system for decades. Nobody disputes that. Nobody disputes that funding does not exist for anything beyond the first phase ending in 2013. Nobody disputes that 'landbanked' schools will likely mean demolition and/or resale. Nobody disputes that 'landbanking' is certainly synonymous with closure, even if planners allude to maybe possibly some of the closed schools one day perhaps being considered to be brought back as schools through third party operators.

Those are facts, those are the stakes. Read the article and see for yourself.

Yet, the Times-Picayune determined that this was not a top story today. In fact, the Times-Picayune made the decision that this wasn't even the top education story today. On the front cover of this morning's paper was another story about the RSD, this one about the possibility that four more schools may be turned over to charter operators. Now I'm not arguing that this doesn't merit coverage, as there are certainly people critical of the operator selection process and the ubiquitous involvement of Steven Bingler's sister-in-law's New Schools New Orleans in anything involving charter schools. But is this story nearly as important as the poorly-conceived master plan for school closure?

ABSOLUTELY NOT. It's not even close.

But let's argue for a moment that both stories are important and deserve front cover attention. The T-P could have included both stories, the one about charterization and the other about school closures, but then they would have had to bounce this life-changer that was included amongst the day's top stories instead:

Groom gets feds to snap to attention

That breaking news headline is in regard to some asshole who wore a Navy uniform to his wedding even though he'd never served. Something to note in the third hour of your midday talk radio program? MAYBE. Something for the front page of a major metropolitan newspaper on a day where the city's public school system teeters on the brink of catastrophic planning? HELL NO.

Really bad, Times-Picayune. Really bad.

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I'd also like to challenge an assertion by Paul Vallas included at the bottom of the closure article:

Vallas pointed out that only one existing occupied building -- Audubon extension -- is scheduled to be closed in phase one.

That's simply false. Even if Mr. Vallas is trying to make the point that all of the currently-occupied schools to be lanbanked under Phase 1 won't close until the end of the phase, he's still making a false claim. Phase I of the master plan runs from 2008-2013.

Let me count them all for you.

(AND REMEMBER, THESE SCHOOLS ARE CURRENTLY OCCUPIED)

Elementary Schools - from page 90 of the official master plan.

McDonogh 07 - 2012
NO Free School - 2012
Arthur Ashe - 2012
Audobon Extension - 2012
McDonogh 28 - 2012
Dibert - 2012

High Schools - from page 94

Rabouin - 2012
McMain - 2012
Douglass- 2011

Vallas is right if he really meant that Audubon extension will be the first to be closed within phase 1 in 2010, but the currently operating Frederick Douglass High School will close soon after, in 2011. The reality is, however, that FDHS could close after this school year if doing so strikes the fancy of the school district. They are under no legal obligation to keep the school in operation and in fact, had not decided to keep the building open for this year until last May or June.


UPDATE:

But perhaps nothing reflects the editorial bias of the Times-Picayune better than their absolutely ridiculous endorsements for this Saturday's Orleans Parish School Board Race. They pick the conservative establishment choice in every instance such a choice is available. Woody Koppel over Percy Marchand? You've got to be kidding me. Brett Bonin over either Amy LaFont or Davin Boldissar? A bad joke. Seth Bloom over Avis Brock? Totally ill-informed.

The Times-Picayune pretty much endorses the most conservative Board possible, the whitest Board possible, the most anti-union Board possible, the most pro-master plan Board possible.

Percy Marchand in District 6 and Amy Lafont or Davin Boldissar in District 3 are the only OPSB candidates that have taken the time to inform themselves about the consequences of this master plan document and have been brave enough to speak out forcefully with their concerns. Woody Koppel and Brett Bonin are opportunistic insiders looking to climb the ladder. It is imperative that they be defeated.

Times-Picayune editorial board: You're hurting the recovery of this city.

Absolutely infuriating!

Schools Master Plan Hearing at City Council

According to Councilwoman Hedge-Morrell, today's crowd was likely the largest to have ever attended an council education committee hearing. There was indeed pretty substantial turnout, considering the relative lack of attention called to the event and the fact that it was called at 10 AM on a Wednesday.

Comment was 100% in opposition of the master plan and came from groups representing schools from all over the city. Councilwomen Head and Hedge-Morrell each expressed pointed criticisms of their own.

State Senator Cheryl Gray came to speak out against the closure of schools in her district. Our BESE representative Louella Givens came to speak out as well, and introduced her BESE colleague who was also in attendance. This other person mostly stood awkwardly on the side of the room. His name is James Garvey and he recently refused to condemn LaBruzzo's eugenics bill to the Times-Picayune. (Just so you know)

Unfortunately, the public was grouped by school affiliation so educational advocates wishing to express concerns with the very structure of the master plan, including OPSB candidates Percy Marchand and Amy LaFont had to wait until the end of the hearing, by which point the room was largely empty.

The deadline for the public comment period remains midnight tonight. OPSB President Torin Sanders went on the record pledging to introduce a motion at tomorrow's OPSB meeting that would allow for more public comment, but he is under no legal or political obligation to do so, as he is not running for reelection.

Paul Vallas was there today and repeatedly made the ridiculous claim that Congress would pull funding for New Orleans schools if this were not approved quickly. But remember that the master plan was delayed for months by the consultant planners themselves.

(Also, I'd always thought that Vallas was not really involved in the master planning process, that this was Pastorek's thing. Pastorek was not present. Steven Bingler, the man hired to put together the master plan did not speak.)

Ultimately, there was no resolution of any particular grievance - either with the master plan or with the voting timeline.

So it appears as though the rubber stamp freight train remains on schedule.

That's sad. This is a bad document.

Independent Group Calls School Facilities Master Plan "Troubling"

So all the regular readers of this blog know very well where I stand on the school facilities master plan. I've been pushing this petition to extend the deadline for public comment on the master plan because the OPSB appears ready to rubber stamp the document when we know that some of them have not even read it. If you haven't, you should go sign that petition.

But maybe you're reluctant. Maybe you're saying to yourself,"That Eli is so smart and good looking. The analysis at his blog is so wise and interesting to read. But I still don't know if I should sign that petition or weigh in on the schools master plan. I don't know enough about it to know if he knows enough about it."

Maybe you'd be more convinced if my criticisms were buttressed by something a little bit more independent think tank-y. If that's the case, I urge you to see what is said in a brief from the non-profit and non-partisan Bureau of Governmental Research.

First, they agree that the consequences of accepting the document are wide-ranging and far-reaching:

If adopted, it will set the course for the development of New Orleans public schools for decades to come. It will guide decisions as to which schools are closed, which are built or renovated, and when and where.

Then, they break it down, emphasis mine:

The catch is that implementation depends on funding, and there are solid prospects only for Phase I, which has a price tag of $675 million. School officials estimate that they can cobble together between $100 million and $200 million for Phase II. But that leaves a gap of $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion for the remainder of the plan.

The Plan makes no assessment of whether this gap can realistically be funded. The section on finances merely provides a brief discussion of possible funding mechanisms. These include general obligation bonds, local property taxes, local sales taxes, sharing of facilities, state funds, federal funds, lease-purchase arrangements, sales of assets and public-private partnerships. The Plan does not provide revenue estimates for these sources, nor does it discuss the likelihood that they will materialize. School officials and planners confirmed that the planning process did not attempt to address these issues. An assessment of the financing for Phases II through VI was outside the scope of the Plan.

This is troubling. Facilities planning without a realistic assessment of financial resources for these phases is at best an exercise in visioning. At worst, it projects the illusion that all students will have access to world class schools. But, according to school officials, only half of the projected student population would have such facilities if Phase I alone were funded. The other half would not.

How does that sound for your school system? One half has while other half does not? Sounds exactly like the type of new New Orleans we all envisioned doesn't it?

So it's very serious. This is why you and all your friends should come down to City Hall tomorrow morning at 10 AM to hear testimony on the school facilities master plan. It is the public's last opportunity to provide comment on the document - which is why this petition needs to get much thicker over the next 12-18 hours. SIGN IT!

Petition Update

The petition to delay the closure of public comments on the school facilities master plan has met 25% of its target. Wednesday's City Council meeting may be the last opportunity for stakeholders to voice their concerns before the plan is put to a vote, possibly later this month. Because it is clear that some Orleans Parish School Board members are not engaged enough in the basic duties of their office to so much as READ the master plan, it is imperative to support the petition effort. Delaying the close of the public comment period to the New Year has the effect of ensuring that lame duck school board members will be out of office when the plan comes to a vote.

If you have not already done so, please sign the petition.

SIGN THE PETITION: EXTEND THE FACILITIES MASTER PLAN PUBLIC COMMENT DEADLINE

A petition is now online to extend the public comments period on the school facilities master plan to January. I can't tell you how critical this is.

Go here to sign it.

The school facilities master plan will guide the capacity of this city's public education institutions for decades to come. It was poorly conceived to begin with and is structurally flawed now that it has been 'completed.'

Go here to sign it.

As of this moment, the Orleans Parish School Board and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education are scheduled to vote on the master plan within days though the plan was released in the midst of Gustav panic and is close to 2000 pages. The case for extension of the public comment deadline based on the insufficient amount of time the public has had to review and provide comment would be plenty compelling by itself. Yet, disturbingly, we've learned that some members of the Orleans Parish School Board, who are, and I can't stress this enough, directly responsible for the approval or rejection of an absolutely critical guiding master plan, HAVE NOT READ IT THEMSELVES.

Go here to sign it.

Over half of the members of the current school board are lame ducks, some of whom may have already checked out: they are disengaged from what is going on but are still prepared to vote on a 1.8 billion dollar blueprint that they may not even have read.

Go here to sign it.

Orleans Parish voters will elect a new school board on October 4th and it is they who should be making any decisions on the master plan.

Go here to sign it.

Thus, it is of urgent importance for anyone and everyone that cares about either education, democratic processes, or both go HERE to sign the petition to extend the public comments deadline. Currently there is a target of 1000 signatures. I know that we can meet the target and I think we can do it quickly.

Go here to sign it.

OPSB Candidate Forum

Last night, I attended the Urban League and League of Women Voters forum for candidates running for Orleans Parish School Board.

Briefly, it was SHOCKING how few of the candidates had taken the time to consider the school facilities master plan. In fact, it was embarrassing. I wish I hadn't forgotten my recorder.

At one point, a seemingly perpetual candidate for District 02, Dr. Dwight McKenna volunteered something like "I'm not familiar with that particular plan."

To which I had to cover my mouth from screaming, "in what respect, Charlie?"

I'll have much more on this later, or maybe tomorrow. I've been a negligent blogger this week - I've been busy not cramming for the GREs, which I'm hoping to do poorly on tomorrow.

With grammar and redundant word choice like that, what could go wrong?

Anyway, please continue consider this post the feature of the week. Please add thoughts on the master plan or on the linguistics of opposition. Help develop talking points or something.

Round Up

- The only televised forum for the District 02 Congressional race will be put forth by the NBC affiliate, WDSU, which was candidate Helena Moreno's employer only months ago.

I wonder if they'll ask her anything substantive. She is totally unqualified for this seat. I hope people get a chance to see that firsthand.

It's ridiculous for WDSU to host this forum. Does no one understand 'conflict of interest?'

- Orleans Parish School Board member Jimmy Fahrenholtz, the lame duck from district 3, no-showed last Thursday's OPSB master plan hearing. He is not engaged enough to vote on the master plan and should recuse himself and assist in efforts to postpone a vote on any binding resolution until after he is replaced. A lot of people say that Jimmy is a good guy. If he's reasonable and you know him, give him a call and tell him he's wrong on the master plan and shirking the most basic responsibilities of his office.

It is especially frustrating because Mid City, which is in Fahrenholtz's OPSB district, is really getting the short end of the stick with the master plan. That Jimmy won't even go through the motions of attending hearings and asking questions is an insult.

- Please, please, please contribute to the comments section here. Help develop cogent criticisms of the facilities master plan. An opposition consensus must coalesce now, please lend your support.

Master Plan Truths

NOW IS THE TIME TO DIG IN


The School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish is a document designed by the private planning partnership between Concordia and Parsons. It, if adopted by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), will represent the blueprint guiding the future capacity of public schools as an institution for learning in New Orleans.

- Though misleadingly billed as a "building boom" on occasion, the facilities master plan, in the word of planners, "landbanks" over 60 schools, which means that the schools will be demolished or shuttered indefinitely. Though the master plan has a rough view of schools that may be eligible for phase two construction, because there is no funding for anything beyond phase one, there is no timeline for reopening of any schools that do not receive the phase one designation.

- Some of the schools slated to be landbanked are not amongst those currently too badly damaged to be occupied by students. In fact, according to Francine Stock's incredibly useful map of the schools slated for landbanking, there are ten high school facilities currently open and serving children slated for closure by 2013. Just one of the ten academic programs functioning within those buildings is being promised relocation to another neighborhood. Those schools include such storied cultural intuitions as Carver, Douglass, O.P. Walker, Karr, Schwartz, McMain, Abramson, Rabouin, Cohen, and John McDonogh.

- Though these institutions have had their share of academic challenges, perhaps none has been more difficult to confront than those related to the traumas related to Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent displacements and relocation. These community anchors and the human beings serving inside represent a stabilizing force for recovering areas of the city. Rather than promoting stability and continuity within these already-open bridges to healing, the master plan pulls the rug out from under the talented administrators striving to institute "school reform" in the here and now. What now is the incentive for principals and teachers to implement a long term academic culture when the district is sending the message that their school programs are being written out of existence? After all that work to eliminate the baby-sitter service mentality that had set in at many schools, principals and teachers are essentially being informed that the programs they're working so hard to implement are actually themselves nothing more than placeholders for yet another academic sweep in 2013.

- Rather than embracing the urbanity of our community, the acreage requirements that inform the closure of many schools located in dense neighborhoods impose an arbitrary suburban-style benchmark that actually has no real correlation with academic performance. This design preference of Concordia-Parsons forces the school district to waste precious time and money negotiating land acquisitions and swap transactions when there are buildings open right now that could be renovated at prices cheaper than building new. Further, the suburbanized campus vision and the neighborhood school closures that the policy necessitates flies in the face of national trends predicting a re-migration to cities and the best academic research on long term environmental benefits of 're-densification' of urban cores spread thin during white flight's asphalt boom.

-Far from "agnostic in respect to operator," the facilities master plan provides no path to funding for any construction beyond phase one and explicitly raises the specter that future school capacity expansion could be left to private operators.


Readers, please treat this as a living blog post to be modified in a collaborative fashion. This is meant to represent a starting point for criticism of the facilities master plan. Please tack on additional concerns or edit those that I've opened with to be more cogent frames. By boiling down the repercussions of this master plan, we will be equipped with a helpful starting point from which to engage uninformed neighbors and confront misinformed adversaries.

So How Many Master Plan Phases Do We Have Funding For?

Please, please, please read Sarah Carr's piece that profiles the proud history of Frederick Douglass High School on St. Claude Avenue. Douglass faces certain closure under the school facilities master plan.

How many snake oil salesmen have to come storming into town before we recognize the pattern?

Installed about eight years ago, the pipes might have brought cool air to the once-magnificent, now-decayed auditorium, but the school system never found the money to complete the second phase of the project.

The unfinished effort is emblematic of scores of well-meaning attempts to breathe life into the struggling academic program in recent years. Officials have repeatedly launched reform efforts, only to abandon them before they effect lasting change.

And there are scores of other unfinished projects, even if we're limiting our discussion to the facility itself. I'm lucky enough to have gone on a tour of the building and despite the appearance of decay, it is actually quite beautiful - not so far behind most other urban schools I've ever seen. The problem has been that on countless projects both before and after the storm, crews sent out to install things like light fixtures, intercoms, air conditioning systems, and ceiling tiles don't finish the jobs. They'll do things like only connect intercoms to some parts of the building or install outdoor light fixtures but not supply replacement light bulbs. Or as Ms. Carr reports, they'll install AC pipes but no AC unit.

Teachers, principals, students, parents, and community stakeholders operated under this neglect for years and years believing that - if they could just be allowed the stability and continuity to implement a strong academic program, if they could get the confidence and support of the school board, if they could just get basic facility maintenance - they'd be able to help our children succeed.

School communities like Frederick Douglass never quit on the kids. Instead, the city quit on the school communities. How else could a nationally acclaimed writing program like Students at the Center be discouraged from returning to Douglass? Instead, Paul Vallas and the RSD are implementing an experimental "theme" school at Douglass, a police academy, for the next year before the facility will likely be shuttered.

That's not change, it's more of the same failed slash and burn policy.

When you hire visionary principles who are well qualified and highly motivated and provide them a core of career teachers committed to the program, you can slowly but surely implement a healthy learning environment, a school culture - but only if you allow that community the stability, continuity, and basic resources necessary for parents and students to buy in.

When the district threatens schools with closure, castrates maintenance budgets, and constantly shuffles principals in and out, it is only natural for a school's academic and cultural fabric to unravel.

The RSD is sitting on $1.8 billion with the promise of a few "21st century schools" to replace the scores upon scores we'll be "landbanking" for other purposes.

Amongst other things, it's installing the pipes without the units. To play with Sarah Carr's characterization of the history of Douglass, it's yet another "launched reform effort" scheduled to be "abandoned before it effects lasting change."

'Scheduled' in the sentence above is my word and I choose it for a few reasons. First, in the case of Douglass, the brand new experimental police academy program is literally already being threatened with extinction after this school year (not that I care for that experiment anyway) AND the Douglass building is slated to be closed. Second, in more general terms, there is NO MONEY for any new facilities construction projects after the completion of the first phase of the master plan in 2013.

It is very easy to anticipate that this city may need facilities expansion after 2013. First, it is almost impossible to forecast the local and national trends that may contribute to population growth accurately enough to inform binding policy. Second, Concordia-Parsons has drawn up phases 2 through 5 in the master plan, admitting that phase 1 will drain every last cent but not finish the job. Spending every last penny to do half the job? Sounds sadly familiar, no?

BESE and the OPSB are seriously considering approval for the school facilities master plan. At a time when a traumatized community of children badly needs continuity and stability from their schools, we may be about to witness the blind rubber stamping of another poorly constructed, half funded, and experimental upheaval. The master plan abandons the neighborhood school model at the high school level in favor of a system that forces kids into the unfortunately sometimes hostile territory of a neighboring ward. Ask any teacher working in the RSD about the prevalence of geographic conflict but I'm sure you don't have to.

I don't have the stomach to continue this same pattern of half-assed and poorly-informed revolution followed by yet another yawning retreat in which nobody is held accountable.

Are people as mad about this as I am?

--

RELATED:

In May, I looked at a small piece of the Parsons Corp. preliminary site assessment of Frederick Douglass High School and compared it to the school as it stood.

Liprap Leigh recaps Thursday's community testimony in front of the OPSB.

Did you know that OPSB member Jimmy Fahrenholtz, who expressed his "100% approval" for the master plan without having even read it, didn't bother to show up? He's not credible to vote on this. A lot of people tell me he's a good guy at heart but he's got no business making such a critical decision for this community if he's going to be so close minded as to not even read the document and not even pay lip service to divergent opinion. It violates public trust. We know that he is close to Steven Bingler's sister-in-law via social network and campaign contribution.

How pathetic is it that none, NOT ONE, of the OPSB members that did bother to attend was engaged enough to ask a question of the planners?

Here is the current schedule for regional master plan comment opportunities as hosted by individual OPSB members in their home districts. Two of them were today. The big event is the hearing at City Council on October 1st.

I'm still looking into how to support SOSNola's petition to extend the public comment period to January, lemme get back witcha on that.

Widespread Discontent at OPSB Hearing, Are They Paying Attention?

Because I was unable to attend this particular OPSB-sponsored public hearing on the school facilities master plan, I am relying on second-hand accounts until I can get a hold of the video.

One thing I'm trying to pin down is who did and did not bother to show up from amongst the sitting members of the OPSB. As of right now, I have reason to believe that there were one or two no-shows. Landrieu, Anderson, Sanders, Moran, and Cade appear to have been there for sure.

Additionally, I'm trying to find out who did and did not show up from amongst the many candidates vying to replace the current board and who came prepared with questions and comments.

Listen, I don't care if what you think about the master plan but it is utterly inappropriate for OPSB members to lock us into a 30-50 year master plan without listening to the concerns of citizens and independent experts. There was perfect attendance when Concordia-Parsons presented the master plan. Wouldn't it make sense to hear something other than the talking points of the hired firms?

Ideally, you'd have OPSB members avidly engaged in the hearing: asking their own questions of Concordia-Parsions, following up on concerns raised by community stakeholders, demanding clarification on waffling statements. This, regardless of attendance, did not happen.

According to witness accounts, not one sitting member of the OPSB asked a question. I'll confirm this personally upon viewing the instant replay.

And it's not as if there were no concerns voiced by the community. In fact, the crowd was very vocal about their reservations. The Times-Pic confirms this.

The Times-Picayune also relayed that SOSNola, an education advocacy group, is beginning to circulate a petition that would extend the public comment period until the new year. This would not only ensure that citizens would have the proper time necessary to review the document but might also ensure that the disengaged lame ducks of the sitting OPSB would not have the opportunity to vote on anything binding. I twice tried to contact Save Our Schools New Orleans to inquire as to how to sign the petition and to suggest they put it online. When they get back to me, I'll get back to you.

Did you make it to the meeting last night?

Tell me what you saw.

UPDATING AS WE GO:

1. G Bitch caught a brief view from local access and live blogged it:

Sandra Reed: RE the accelerated timeline for public comment, as a resident of Central City and representative of community groups, the comment period—it takes time to understand the plan and offer a informed comments, a document of this size with this kind of technical info, regular folks need time to look at it; there was a 90-day extension for the plan, “and that was no hurricane.” Will ask, “beg if I have to” to give an extra 30 days for folks to read and decipher the–

And then I believe local access cut away to something called "Traffic Time."

School Facilities Master Plan Public Hearing

TONIGHT: 5:30 PM Orleans Parish School Board Meeting

McDonough 35 at 1331 Kerelec St.


The public comment period has been extended due to Gustav until October 1st.

BESE and OPSB have planned votes on the master plan a few weeks after that.


Sadly, I will not be attending tonight's meeting because of work. I will, however, soon have an official comment for the record completed shortly.

But everyone that can make it should go. The BESE board is likely to rubber stamp the master plan. The best chance we have to turn back this document or have it drastically modified is to exercise influence over the Orleans Parish School Board.

If you do go, please try to keep a detailed account of what is said by each OPSB member.

Here is my initial post after the release of the master plan.

Here is one on operator bias and the master plan.

Here is my most recent piece from right before evacuation.


UPDATE: My bad guys, I ta-ta-totally forgot to mention that everyone can go 'on the record' with their thoughts on the master plan by emailing them to masterplan@rsdla.net

When you do, might as well make sure to cc some witnesses.