At last night's BOE meeting, President of the Illinois NAACP, Donald Jackson, made it crystal clear that the NAACP was not pleased with Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Grenita Lathan. Here is what the NAACP thinks about the Lathan Administration's handling of Manual High School:
"We are not satisfied with what has been happening with Manual High School, Manual Academy. Given what I know, there is a perception in the community that Manual and the model is being systematically stripped of critical parts with the intent to destroy the model itself.Manual has made great strides in education and we are not inclined to let you do that without a fight. I just want to put you on notice, that the community is aware of what is happening and we will not stand on the sidelines and watch you change the model and/or destroy Manual High School; the reputation of a good school.I am just as proud of Manual as a graduate of Manual, as those people are of Central, Richwoods and Woodruff as well, so I am especially concerned about what appears to be a trend to attack the good will and reputation of the people who volunteer at Manual I know there has been some attempts to, how should I say, to pressure some of the advisory council to either give up the ship, to give up the fight but they don’t intend to so and we don’t intend to stand by while lawyers and other people attempt to attack their credibility. so you are on notice now that if this trend continues the fight is on with the NAACP."
Letter from the Manual Restructering Team to Dr. Lathan, dated last June, in support of Manual and Dr. Kherat. Click image to enlarge.
13 comments:
...more to come. Mr. Jackson didn't stop there, he also had a few choice words about the firing of African Americans by Dr. Latham and redistricting...
What support - with people or $$$- has the NAACP dirctly shown to Manual? Where are they with an Army full of mentors to help all of the Manual communities fragile families? Rhetoric doesn't help reality.
While I am no fan of the Johns Hopkins model, Don Jackson is right in that as long as Manual is a Johns Hopkins school, the model should be followed with intergrity--I would think Johns Hopkins would demand it.
I assume Don Jackson knows that the Johns Hopkins program is for "at-risk" students--that's how the program is explained online. I have two major objections to the JH program being at Manual. No. 1 not all students at Manual are at risk and they should be given the same opportunities as the not at-risk students at PHS and RHS.
No. 2 - All District 150 academic courses (English, math, science, etc.) are taught in one semester instead of one year. Much is left out of the official 150 curriculum in order to accommodate this schedule. Obviously, students at the other high schools cover more material than do MHS students--very important for college-bound students.
Yes, Don told the board last night that the NAACP had spent years encouraging the district to hire African-American teachers and leadership. And then he stated that now we have an African-American superintendent who is chasing away those people who had been more likely to stay--unlike Lathan and her group, who, according to Don, will be gone as soon as a better opportunity presents itself.
To bad Jackson's outrage can't be channeled to the shootings that plaque this city by black on black youths who really might need a mentor. Maybe if the NAACP looked for once to clean up it's own backyard they wouldn't have to write letters complaining, once again, that it's somebody else s fault for the lack of success at Manual or any school. Again, spend others money and then complain when nothing happens to their liking.
Emtronics, Jackson only quarreled about the administration's not following the JH model. He didn't blame anybody for MHS's lack of success. In fact, he claimed it was a success under Kherat's leadership. I would quarrel with the success part, but he's been told it was a success and he believes it. Don and Earnestine, like you and your wife, raised their own children and they are doing fine. That's the extent of his responsibility--anything else is volunteer. Yes, I realize that because he is a lawyer and the president of the NAACP you believe he often defends kids who shoot others--I'm don't know that for a fact, do you? I do agree that kids in a any family and/or community need to know that they are responsible for their own actions and that no one is going to defend their wrongdoing.
Many of us have tried to stop the violence.
Last weekend, I believe for the first time for me, both the person killed and the person who turned himself in were former students--kids for whom I cared and tried my best--but it wasn't good enough to overcome all the other influences in their lives.
Sharon sez: " Yes, I realize that because he is a lawyer and the president of the NAACP you believe he often defends kids who shoot others--I'm don't know that for a fact, do you?"
I never said anything like that and YES, he is blaming somebody for Manual. Whether or not what he is saying about Manual is true or not, I think the NAACP could funnel some of it's energy into getting young men off the street corners and hopefully reduce the shootings we have in Peoria. What I read about Manual, which is mostly from you Sharon, is that over the years they have cheated on tests, fixed scores, lied about discipline problems, and lied in their reports of success in the first place. So? What's Jackson's beef? That they are finally telling the truth at Manual?
Now that Lathan's friend from North Carolina, Gearldine Cox (Chief Turnaround Officer) is in town she probably wants to run Manual her own way without Ali, Jackson and the Team.
Those that wonder why the NAACP is not doing more to get kids off the streets: go ask that question yourself at the next NAACP meeting, Sept. 15 @ 7 pm at the NAACP office on MacArthur Highway.
While you are there, you wiil find out that the NAACP does have a Youth & College Division; a youth council; plus, one of the committee chairs does training for middle to high school youth on various Saturdays in the field of CAD, both in drawing on paper and learning CAD modeling software on computers at ICC.
There are many other programs ongoing to turn youth around; I am sure the NAACP supports these efforts in their own way.
P.S., I forgot to give you their
website; Doesn't look like it's been updated for awhile, but the basic info is still the same:
http://www.illinoisnaacp.org/peoria/index.html
Can we really blame Dr. Lathan for having people/friends around her that she knows and trust? With a job like hers, don’t you need to insulate yourself, to some degree?
At least with her NC friends, there is less of a chance of her developing friends who have agendas and/or who may be a part of special interest groups.
And who can blame any of them for not having a real interest in Peoria or our kids? They can swoop in, tear it up, and all head back to North Carolina on our dime while we are left to clean up yet another mess.
No, I don't blame her at all. That's what you get when you bring in outsiders. They bring their friends. We have done it before and it's failed and we will do it again and again and again.
Dennis: All that info is house drapes or window dressing.
Oh, so you've been to some of the NAACP events and meetings, Em?
How long have you known Don Jackson personally?
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