In the news: teacher forced out, files suit
December 24, 2009 by Steve Rawley
Madison High School teacher Val Gogoleski has filed a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, claiming Portland Public Schools failed to provide accommodations for her disability and forced her to retire three years early.
In a story in today's Portland Tribune, Jennifer Anderson reports that Gogoleski also filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and will file a lawsuit against the district.
Gogoleski, who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, says the district was slow to provide two out of three accommodations she requested (a phone and elevator access) and refused a third: a schedule with two prep periods.
Gogoleski was outspoken about district decisions she disagreed with, including during a recent controversy on hiring a new principal at Madison. "Speaking up as an employee means paying a price," wrote Gogoleski on this blog last May.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
PPS buys headsets for administrators, so they can keep talking and driving
Citing a new Oregon law that goes into effect January 1, Portland Public Schools IT administrators have sent an e-mail to staff reminding all "PPS Blackberry users" that they must use hands-free devices when talking on the phone while driving. Users who have lost the headset that came with their Blackberry may get a new one from the district.
Peer-reviewed studies published in both the New England Journal of Medicine and the British Medical Journal show a four-fold increase in the risk of collision when drivers are engaged in phone conversations, and that hands-free phones are no safer than hand-held. Another study, published in the journal Sage, shows that "the impairments associated with using a cell phone while driving can be as profound as those associated with driving while drunk."
In the news: HS principals weigh in; one resigns
Joseph Malone and Carla Randall, principals of Grant and Madison High Schools respectively, penned an op-ed in today's Oregonian in support of the principle behind the high school redesign: equal educational opportunity.
Echoing Deputy Superintendent Charles Hopson's speech to the City Club last month, Malone and Randall argue that opportunity should not be determined by race, income or ZIP code as it currently is.
Malone and Randall blame the current state largely on the district's open transfer enrollment, an issue explored extensively on this site.
Malone and Randall ask:
What drives these inequities? Enrollment. In Portland's open-choice system, it's easy to flee some schools for others. Declined enrollment overall multiplies the effect. Schools that lose students, lose teaching staff, which means skimpier choices for kids. The risk? High-flyers leave, courses are diminished, parent involvement declines and students struggle.
It's refreshing to hear district administrators openly repudiating the "school choice" policies the previous administration defended until the end, but troubling that so far these reform efforts are only aimed at the top four grades of a thirteen-grade system. School choice continues to drive dramatic inequities in the K-8 grades, too.
Also troubling in the high school plan, besides a nagging lack of details of analysis done to support planning (or, perhaps, the lack of analysis altogether), is the thinking around special focus options. At one point, planners were talking about having a third of high school students in special focus schools, meaning lower enrollment (or fewer in number) community high schools. Because of the lack of detail on how schools will be targeted for closure or conversion to focus options, rumors have consistently swirled in advance of every community meeting, with the latest, at Franklin, drawing upwards of 2000 concerned community members.
In perhaps unrelated news, Malone announced his resignation, effective at the end of the current school year, in e-mail to Grant parents yesterday. This has added fuel to the rumor mill, with parents wondering if he knows something the rest of us don't.
On the blogs: HS closure poll
Lili Taylor has posted a poll on her blog: "Do you think the PPS administration has already decided which high schools to close?" So far, 100% of respondents have answered "Yes."
A big PPS Equity welcome to Lili Taylor and her new blog Cheating in class: the shit they're not telling you about the public education system.
Lili started posting last month, and has so far covered facilities concerns, financial waste at BESC, and the high school redesign in Portland Public Schools.
Breaking: Oregonian notices contract dispute after 531 days, sends reporter to rally
The Oregonian, after missing a major teacher rally last month, sent a reporter to tonight's rally, where teachers called for a contract to replace the one that expired 531 days ago. Kim Melton reports that teachers disrupted the school board meeting, with superintendent Carole Smith and board members filing out of the auditorium in the face of chanting teachers.
The Oregonian's coverage includes no quotes from the district or teachers and does no critical analysis of the causes of stuck negotiations, instead proffering that "[t]he economy is partly to blame for the slow pace." Melton also fails to mention that teachers included concessions in their settlement offer Friday, and were met with district demands for more concessions. With this dearth of information, the usual teacher- and union-bashing ensued in reader comments on OregonLive.com.
High School closure rumors continue
Rumors of Franklin High School's possible closure have begun in advance of a community meeting on high school redesign there, with legitimacy conferred by a neighborhood newspaper which does not cite any district sources, and then picked up, also without confirmation, by the Mercury.
Similar rumors made there way around e-mail lists and blogs in advance of meetings at Grant, Cleveland and Jefferson High Schools. Portland Public Schools administrators have consistently denied that any schools have already been slated for closure.
Contract talks remained stalled; teachers to rally Monday
In negotiations Friday, the teachers' union offered a settlement package including concessions the district has been demanding. Portland Public Schools negotiators accepted the concessions, and demanded more.
Frustrated by this lack of progress, teachers will once again take to the streets and march on the school board Monday to press for a settlement. The rally begins at 6:15 p.m., Monday, December 15 14, at the Rose Quarter Parking lot on N. Broadway and Benton.
Foundation Fallacies
Discussion on the recent article PPS and the philanthro-capitalists touched on the inequities engendered by local school foundations. That discussion raised a couple common misconceptions about direct funding of schools, which I'd like to dispel.
1. "…my guess is that the [Title 1 funds] lower income schools receive equal, if not exceed, the amounts raised by foundations."
If you browse through the school profiles published by the district, it's easy to see where one could come up with this idea. In general, rich schools have positions funded by local school foundations (LSFs) and poor schools have Title 1 money. There are two problems with this assumption. First, it's false. Second, even if it were true, it still wouldn't be equitable.
Looking at dollars-per-student added to school budgets last school year from Title 1, Local school foundations (LSFs) and PTAs, eight of the top 10 schools in per-student additions are non-Title 1 schools: Abernathy, Chapman, Ainsworth, Forest Park, Irvington, Duniway, West Sylvan, Rieke and Stephenson. These schools raised between $273.60 (Stephenson) and $570.03 (Abernathy) per student.
Madison High, with over 65 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals got no Title 1 money. Benson High, with over 58 percent free and reduced, also got no Title 1 money.
One more example: Ockley Green K-8, with nearly 3 out of 4 students in poverty and 8 out of 10 non-white, got $189.84 per student in Title 1 money, while Ainsworth K-5, with less than six percent on free and reduced lunch and 80 percent white, added over $400 per student. Ainsworth's teaching staff was increased nearly 33 percent through direct funding by parents.
More importantly, the idea that foundation money would simply supplant Title 1 money is misguided. Title 1 money is provided by the federal government to help ameliorate the problems associated with poverty, and there are very specific guidelines for its use. While foundation dollars reduce class sizes and preserve "enrichments" like certified art and music teachers and advanced college placement programs, Title 1 money is almost entirely spent on academic support (resource rooms, reading teachers, etc.) to help bring disadvantaged students up to grade level .
Even if Title 1 provided the exact same amount of money per student at poor schools as LSF money provides at rich schools, it still wouldn't be nearly enough to overcome the disadvantages students affected by poverty must overcome, much less be equitable in terms of the kinds of programs schools can afford to provide their students.
2. "…one third of all funds raised goes directly to the Portland Schools Foundation, an umbrella organization that provides grants to close achievement gaps between students throughout the school district. One third to employ educators, a third to enrich our kids and a third to help others. Sounds fair to me."
When you put it that way, it almost does sound fair. Almost. But there's a problem with the assumption, and with the math.
First, until this school year, no money from the Portland Schools Foundation's "Equity Fund" ever paid for a single teaching position at any school. This year, under the leadership of Dan Ryan, schools were finally allowed to spend this money on teaching positions; eight schools were awarded between $20,000 and $55,000. That's a handful of full-time-equivalent teaching positions for the entire district.
For comparison, in one school year the LSFs at Lincoln High, West Sylvan Middle, Ainsworth Elementary, Forest Park Elementary, Duniway Elementary and Bridlemile Elementary raised $224,680, $198,878, $193,766, $156,684, $113,187 and $110,005 respectively.
The problem with the math of thirds cited here is that only money used to pay for certified teachers is subject to the Equity Fund contributions, and the first $10,000 is exempt. So, for example, let's say a school raises $150,000 at their auction, and decides to put $50,000 toward a teaching position. They'll spend the rest on classroom aides, computers, books for the library, classroom supplies, and an after-school arts program, all of which is fully exempt from Equity Fund contributions.
For the teacher they hire, after the $10,000 exemption, they would tithe 30 percent of $40,000, or $12,000, to the Equity Fund. That's eight percent of their total funds raised, not a third.
To be clear, nobody should be discouraged from supporting their kids' school. But the system we have today is grossly unfair. Local school foundations have allowed wealthy neighborhoods to preserve pretty decent "public" schools while the rest of the district fights over crumbs. Dan Ryan is doing what he can to make the system more fair; allowing Equity Fund dollars to pay for teachers was an important first step in that direction.
While I appreciate Ryan's good work and intentions, I advocate for the abolition of LSFs. Wealthy donors should be encouraged to donate to the district's general fund and advocate for real, progressive tax reform, so that we can eliminate our two-tiered school system and all students can have access to a comprehensive education.
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