District 150 Board moving forward with principal shuffle

From the BOE Agenda:

14. ISSUANCE OF NOTICE OF PROPOSED RECLASSIFICATION OF KEVIN CURTIN
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education adopt the resolution of Proposed Reclassification of Kevin Curtin to another position in the district.

15. ISSUANCE OF NOTICE OF PROPOSED RECLASSIFICATION OF ANNETTE COLEMAN
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education adopt the resolution of Proposed Reclassification of Annette Coleman to another position in the district.

16. ISSUANCE OF NOTICE OF PROPOSED RECLASSIFICATION OF GLORIA COX
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education adopt the resolution of Proposed Reclassification of Gloria Cox to another position in the district.

17. ISSUANCE OF NOTICE OF PROPOSED RECLASSIFICATION OF MICHAEL SMITH
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education adopt the resolution of Proposed Reclassification of Michael Smith to another position in the district.

"Monolith" divided...

"Don Jackson, president of the Peoria chapter of the NAACP questioned Lathan’s reliance on hiring administrative staff from North Carolina. It sends the message that no one from the Peoria community is qualified." 3/13/12 pjstar
"We will not move forward with personnel at the helm who have so many personal ties to the community that radical change would be rendered virtually impossible. The ... team necessary to turn a failing district around should be her call. Does it matter how many team members come from places outside the district if they are the right ones for the task?"Joyce Banks, Exec. Dir., Community Builder's Foundation  3/24/12 pjstar.

 

I can't get mad about Trewyn getting much needed attention.

For generations now, Peoria District 150 has underserved the children of Peoria. The disservice to the black community has been and/or is vast. From what I can see, the NAACP and/or the ACLU could have instituted a class action lawsuit against the District for the violations against student civil rights and the inequality in the schools. They did not/they have not.

Today, to hear people complain about what they call “special treatment” that the students at Trewyn are getting saddens me. These children and their families are the very people who have been done a disservice by this District and this City for generations. Sure, they appear to be getting a little extra, but it’s still a drop in the bucket when you consider how long the education of black children in this City has been neglected.

While the complaints about the arrogance of the Superintendent may be well founded, the big stick that the Superintendent is welding is directly related to power that was given to her when our District violated student’s civil rights with an unequal education.

Many may not like it, but the Superintendent is doing a great job of CYA for District 150, which is exactly what the BOE wants/needs for her to do. Sorry folks, but as long as she is protecting the civil rights of the children who have obviously consistently received the least in this City, her power will remain intact.

For some reason the blog gets a huge response when I post a photo of Hello Kitty. Anyhow...

Word is that Monday nights BOE meeting may be a barn burner, with many feeling that the Superintendent and the BOE may have finally pushed people to their limit. People are expected to picket and protest out in front of Administration and the meeting is expected to be packed. 

What's on the Agenda that has people so riled up this time? The decision to move principals Annette Coleman (Glen Oak) and Kevin Curtin (Irving) back into the classroom, along with the decision not to renew assistant principal Paul Monrad's (Glen Oak) contract.

Last week, NAACP President, Donald Jackson said that they would be reviewing some of the Administrations recent decisions. You may recall that previously the NAACP had expressed concern about what the District was doing to qualify long term staff that they had previously been successful in attracting.

"It's not just one or two people in the community who are concerned," said Don Jackson, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He said members of the chapter are meeting Thursday to discuss a response. pjstar

It's said that folks feel it is time for BOE President, Linda Butler and company to have their feet held to the fire. To date, only BOE members Rick Cloyd and Martha Ross have spoken out here and there about decisions that Administration have made, with the rest of the BOE appearing to have remained silent. However, it is believed that there may be other BOE members who have lost confidence in the Superintendent but have not yet voiced their opinions publicly.

We shall see.

NAACP and League of Women Voters chides the District 150 Board of Education for lack of transparency in redistricting

At last night's meeting of the Board of Education,  Irene Pritzker, the President of the Greater Peoria League of Women Voters, spoke to the Board about the lack of transparency in redistricting the board voting boundaries. Donald Jackson, President of the Illinois NAACP, also chided the Board and Superientendent for not offering an opportunity for public input. Donald Jackson:

"I cannot believe that you would even consider a vote [on redistricting] without first presenting it to the community. You know that the NAACP is one of the authors of the consent decree back in 1987. We were one of the organizations that represented the plaintiff in that lawsuit and I do not believe in fact, I think the state law requires that you have public input on this before you change boundaries.

I know you are worried about the elections coming up in March, but if that was a concern, that should have been taken into consideration long ago. Please don’t tell me that well, the information is on the Internet, some of us don’t have the time to go and check everybody’s  Internet."

Thanks to Peoria Story for the recording of comments at the Board of Education meeting. Click on image to enlarge.

NAACP vs. Charter Schools

The N.A.A.C.P. on Friday defended its involvement in a lawsuit to block 20 charter schools from opening in public school buildings this fall, saying it was trying to halt city plans to create what it considered a two-tiered education system. About 50 people, including many Harlem political leaders, staged a rally on Lenox Avenue outside the offices of the Success Charter Network, one of the city’s largest charter school networks.

The rally was meant to counter a rally in front of the State Office Building in Harlem last week. That gathering drew about 2,500 parents and students, who came from charter schools around the city to demand that the N.A.A.C.P. withdraw its support from the lawsuit.

The suit, filed by the city’s teachers’ union, would prevent 20 charter schools from opening and expanding in September inside of traditional public school buildings. The process, known as co-location, allows charter schools to move into public school buildings and share their facilities.

Critics of the N.A.A.C.P. have contended that it was betraying charter school parents — most of whom are black or Hispanic — in order to stand by United Federation of Teachers, a longtime ally.

Read entire article here...

School resegregation

I don't think it is a stretch to assume that the vast majority of parents feel that their children should be allowed to attend close, safe, healthy, successful, neighborhood schools. They don't think about any federally-imposed busing or desegregation orders.

Even if parents don't think about issues of desegregation, school districts must. In most cities, inner city growth patterns and NCLB are forcing school districts to take a careful look at what it will take to bring equality to education.

NAACP Says North Carolina School District Shows Return To Jim Crow
Post by Associated Press in Nation on Dec 3, 2010 at 5:58 pm
RALEIGH, N.C. – The country’s most prominent civil rights group has come to Raleigh to draw attention to what it calls a growing erosion of the gains made since a 1954 Supreme Court decision made segregated schools illegal.

Using Wake County’s ongoing debate over school diversity as a backdrop, the NAACP is holding a national conference on education in Raleigh to argue that schools around the country are, in essence, returning to Jim Crow-era patterns of segregation.

“Resegregation is on the rise,” said the Rev. William Barber, chairman of the state NAACP chapter. “The rates now are worse than in the 1970s.”

Wake County has been the scene of acrimonious dispute since the school board voted to scrap a decade-old policy that used busing to achieve socio-economic balance in public schools. The NAACP and other groups have staged protests and marches and filed a federal civil rights complaint. Barber is among several who have been arrested in demonstrations against the end of the policy.

“School boards across this country are rolling back the clock to the time before Brown vs. Board of Education,” NAACP national president Benjamin Todd Jealous said in a statement. Jealous was scheduled to address to the conference Friday.

But that sentiment is out of touch with both the reality of public education and recent Supreme Court rulings, according to Roger Clegg, president of the Falls Church, Va.-based Center for Equal Opportunity.

A 2007 decision by the court found that school districts can’t pursue integration policies by using students’ race as a basis, which Clegg argues is what busing for diversity amounts to.

“Even if you think there’s something desirable about having a politically correct racial and ethnic mix, it doesn’t justify the enormous costs of engaging in racial discrimination,” he said.

Clegg also challenges the claim that schools are becoming more segregated, arguing that falling percentages of white students matches the declining number of whites in the population overall.

The term “segregation” doesn’t refer to demographic change, but to legal policies explicitly designed to keep people of different races separated from each other, Clegg said.

“If you use that definition, not only is there no resegregation in the United States, there is not a single segregated school in the United States,” he said. Source

Related articles:
Racial Tensions Roil NC School Board; 19 Arrests
New School Board Has N.C. Worried About “Resegregation”

Low key mediation, yields results

For the past 18 months, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (“DOJ”) has been meeting with Police Chief Settingsgaard, NAACP President Donald Jackson, unnamed community representatives and city officials. The group has under gone DOJ mediation, which was originally borne out of NAACP complaints alleging police brutality and racial profiling.

The result of the mediation, was the recent approval given by the NAACP to the Peoria Police to do racial profiling in "hot spots" and the rebirth of the Police-Community Relations Commission.

The Commission’s newly appointed members are:
Steve Settingsgaard, Peoria Police Chief
Don Jackson, NAACP
Savino Sierra, first district
Sharon Draper, second district
Douglas Lindstrom, third district
Erica Baird, fourth district
Howard Williamson, fifth district
Larry Ivory, at-large representative
Agbara James Bryson, at-large representative
Whitney Lawson, under-25 age group representative
George Azouri, under-25 age group representative
Scott Moore, City Manager
Eric Turner, at-large council member
Sgt. Greg Collins, District 150 representative
Bill Ordaz

In January of this year, the City of Peoria donated property located at 101 N. MacArthur Highway, to the NAACP, Peoria Branch, which has helped the NAACP establish a much needed presence in the community. Prior to that, NAACP work was handled out of NAACP, President, Donald Jackson's law office, which is located at 456 Fulton Street.

Beginning in January, 2011, the DOJ will conduct workshops on racial profiling and cultural competency, specifically designed for the Peoria Police. The workshops will be led by the Civil Rights Division, which is the same division that mediated the talks that led to re-establishing the Police-Community Relations Commission.

An open letter to the President of the NAACP

In order for the organization to survive, it will be necessary to attract younger members... you are failing miserably.

Dear Mr. NAACP President:

As a 23 year-old black male living in America, I suppose I am part of the key demographic that you and the NAACP wish to bring into the fold and breed as the next generation of civil rights activists. In order for the organization to survive, it will be necessary to attract younger members. I’d like to tell you this now: you are failing miserably.

You have to understand, even to those of us who are students of history and are familiar with the role the NAACP has played in dismantling the system of racism that is part of the foundation of this country, you’re still sort of a joke. I’m a part of generation that grew up using the NAACP as a punchline. There have been many instances where I and my peers, at the slightest hint of anything racial, have exclaimed “I’m calling the NAACP!” in jest. The humor derived from the idea that the NAACP never actually did anything and our minor skirmish was just the type of inane melodrama the NAACP could handle. We were kidding; [with the mishandling of Shirley Sherrod] you all have taken the “truth in humor” anecdote to new levels.

I’d like to offer a bit of advice, from the perspective of someone you want to attract as a dues paying member: shut it down. The NAACP needs to stay away from the media for a while. Take a vacation. Say it’s for personal reasons. Let a few months go by then reappear like Kanye West with a brand new attitude and mammoth-sized theme music declaring the NAACP is back and ready to do right.

While you're away, evaluate what you believe racism is and adopt an official stance on what issues the organization will and will not choose to address. Hopefully, you will include on the “don’t” list things that, well, aren’t racist [and on the "do" list things that are].

You have some soul-searching to do and you need a little time away from the intense lights of the news cameras and scathing ink of the newspapers (not to mention new media, where you guys are getting crushed). Take a year. Maybe longer. We won’t forget you; in fact, we may start to miss you. We may long for the days where you made our jokes that much easier, and hope that you’ll be around the next time a Mel Gibson rant has us up in arms.

But when you reappear, those things won’t matter to you. You’ll be more prudent in your activism. You’ll earn our respect. Source

Just a suggestion.
Best regards,
Mychal Denzel Smith

Peoria's Stop-and-Frisk Neighborhoods

I am not sure what to think.

I know I want the shooting and killing to stop. But if I truly want them to stop, do I still have the right to speculate that the new crime initiative put forth by local law enforcement may violate the rights of a certain segment of our community - my community?

Is this really the only way...

I sit here not knowing, but hopeful, that somebody is making sure that the rights of black folks in this City will not be violated. But by the same token, I realize that our rights are already being violated by gangs. I am conflicted.

Are we going to give the PPD slack? Perhaps a comment from the local NAACP, or the African American Leadership Alliance as to what they think about the new initiative could put my mind to rest. Do they support it; are they concerned about the abuse of it; do they have any advice that they will offer publicly so that we have an idea how to deal with the issues surrounding random stops; or are we to just stay off the street, in an effort to avoid them?

In the current climate of black-on-black crime, do I dare ask for clarity on exactly why the police now have the power to randomly stop me, my husband, brothers, nephews and cousins? Many of us live in the impacted areas of crime. AND aren't black folks in this city already being stopped at disproportantely high rates?

First District Councilman Gulley is now calling for a full curfew after 10:00 p.m. Again, I am looking for clarity, will this just be for black folks and the neighborhoods that majority black folks live in, or will this be for all of Peoria?

Is it really fair that because I am black and there is a problem with black-on-black crime, that I am expected to go happily, without question and forfeit my rights to move about this community - my community freely?

President Obama addresses the NAACP

"It is a simple dream, and yet one that has been denied – one still being denied – to so many Americans. It’s a painful thing, seeing that dream denied. I remember visiting a Chicago school in a rough neighborhood as a community organizer, and thinking how remarkable it was that all of these children seemed so full of hope, despite being born into poverty, despite being delivered into addiction, despite all the obstacles they were already facing.

And I remember the principal of the school telling me that soon all of that would begin to change; that soon, the laughter in their eyes would begin to fade; that soon, something would shut off inside, as it sunk in that their hopes would not come to pass – not because they weren’t smart enough, not because they weren’t talented enough, but because, by accident of birth, they didn’t have a fair chance in life."

President Barack Obama

Don't let the MSM tell you what this speech means in crude little snippits - I would encourage one to view it for yourself. Here is the flip side of Obama's speech; just one illustration of why the NAACP remains relevant in this "post-racial America" - I give you Pat Buchanan:

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Again, not all young black children are thugs

Over at Peoria Story, Elaine Hopkins has an entry about children being discriminated against at March Madness and as a result, black leaders are up in arms. I know I’m not alone in feeling really bad for the teens who were turned away. After all, it’s not their fault if gangs run Peoria.

The NAACP and other black leaders are right, this is an injustice… (here comes the but), But didn’t reasonable people know that if children in Peoria were allowed to continue to run rampant and terrorize the community, that eventually people would begin to look at all youngsters who fit a certain criterion as thugs and trouble makers? Stereotyping? Of course, but any reasonable adult who has seen Crime View Community knows that if you live and/or do business in a certain part of Peoria, you have to make judgment calls about your safety. These days, even a simple, white t-shirt could be a sign of a gangbanger.

Don Jackson, NAACP President believes that “Black children were singled out in ...” I agree with Mr. Jackson, I don’t doubt that they were singled out. Although it‘s unfortunate that it happened and it is hurtful to the children, is this really the fight the NAACP needs to have at this time?

I think we can all agree, that the behavior displayed by the young people who are terrorizing this community is a symptom of a greater problem. The NAACP and black leaders need to address the root cause of why so many young black folks in this town feel like nobody gives a damn about them, therefore, they don’t give a damn about nobody. It's a vicious cycle and we have to break it.

In the meantime, our children, law abiding citizens, are being turned away at the door of the Civic Center and make no bones about it – it’s WRONG. However, (... and I'm totally playing the devil's advocate on this) is it really discrimination when reasonable folks would consider taking similar precautions because of the crime in Peoria and the subsequent information on Crime View Community? I mean, come on, businesses are locking the door and making people ring the doorbell before getting in.

The black population of Peoria, Illinois is upwards of 25,000. The vast majority of the crime is in the black community. The majority of the crimes are being committed by black youth. The majority of us live in the neighborhoods where people are getting shot everyday. Black children live in a town where when they are shot dead, the police just can’t seem to solve the crime, but they will put up a map to warn citizens of the areas to avoid.

People can’t go to a street carnival without possibly getting beat-up, cussed out or shot at. Women and elderly are getting mugged regularly. There are complaints of discrimination in city services. The schools are failing our children and there are reports of lunch rooms being terorrized by thugs. What I and other law abiding citizens of Peoria want to know is can the NAACP and black leaders please, please, please talk to somebody about these issues?