This from WLEX:
The president of the Lexington-Fayette NAACP and leaders of other civil rights groups criticized Fayette County Public Schools during a news conference Monday night.
Lexington-Fayette NAACP president William Saunders said test scores for minority students have not improved and suspension rates have not declined over the past five years, and he called into question Fayette County Schools' efforts to address the problems. He accused the school board of "playing lip service" to these issues.
William Saunders
Saunders also expressed concern that the school system does not employ enough racially and ethnically diverse teachers and administrator, and he said surplus money for staffing known as Section 7 funds are not fairly allocated to schools that need it most.
"We demand that the board develop a policy and follow the laws to ensure that Section 7 funds go directly to the staffing and the student needs at the lowest performing schools first," he said.
After the meeting, Fayette County School Board chairman John Price told the Lexington Herald Leader that the board takes the issues addressed very seriously, and said it was trying to figure out how to allocate funds more equitably.
The NAACP, joined by representatives of the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, Human Rights Commission and others, blasted Fayette County Public Schools for inequities between minorities and other students at a news conference before Monday night's school board meeting.
Afterward, more than a dozen people went before the board to voice concerns and ask questions during the portion of the meeting reserved for public comment.
During the news conference, Lexington-Fayette NAACP president William Saunders questioned the district's "commitment to improving the educational culture of schools that serve a large portion of minority students."
He said the NAACP was concerned that a position focused on minority staff recruitment and retention remained vacant for almost two years, that Section 7 money "is not being distributed to the neediest schools" and that "current contracting with minority-owned businesses (is) almost nothing."
Section 7 funding is surplus money related to staffing.
"We must act now to make sure our next superintendent is up to the challenge," Saunders said at the news conference, which was held on the steps of the central office.
Saunders was flanked by supporters holding signs with messages such as "Stop the racial gap," "Where's the transparency?" and "Who exactly is representing our kids?"
Saunders said minority students' test scores and suspension rates have not improved in five years, and he questioned the district's "capabilities in addressing the equity issues outlined in the Equity Scorecard."
"They appear to be providing lip service," he said.
Board chairman John Price said after the meeting that "we take these things very seriously." He pointed out that Fayette County was one of the only districts in the state with an equity scorecard and equity council.
"Obviously, we have not hidden our heads in the sand," Price said. "We are very disappointed that we are not making the progress that we'd like to see. We're trying to figure out how we can allocate funds more equitably."
He said he had tried to arrange a meeting with the NAACP.
Many of the people who addressed the school board during its meeting echoed the concerns voiced by Saunders.
"What is the plan to improve the culture of the schools for students and staff of color?" asked Adrian Wallace.
Michael Winkler told the board that equity issues needed to be the top priority in the superintendent search and that the next superintendent needed experience in improving minority students' test scores in an urban setting.
"Not just someone who comes in with glittering generalities," he said. "We need to parse the backgrounds of these candidates so that any issues are well known."
Price asked that one woman who had addressed the board about equity issues be removed from the auditorium because she continued to speak out and make loud comments during the meeting. The woman left voluntarily.
Later, a small crowd in the foyer took up the chant "Black lives matter" before the doors to the auditorium were closed to block the sound.
Saunders said at the news conference that the NAACP had filed an open records request last week but had not received satisfactory answers.
Several of their questions concerned the associate director of minority recruitment and retention, a position that was vacant until Monday, when the district announced it would be filled by Darryl Thompson, who previously was the district's economic development manager.
Saunders called on the district to develop policies to ensure that Section 7 funding was being allocated as the law requires and to increase contracts with minority businesses, which now account for less than 1 percent of the district's contracts.
"We demand action and, most importantly, visible results," he said.
5 comments:
So why aren't they addressing this with Dr. Helm? Seems like they always enjoyed taking Shelton and Stu to task on this.
Hard to believe the system is devoting a staff position for the purpose of recruiting and staffing minority faculty and administrators. Do we really thing that shifting about 200 position from white folks to minority folks is going to be the answer for addressing student achievement and suspensions? Where are these 200+ minority educators that FCPS is supposed to be recruiting at?
If only it were that simple Mr. Saunders.
As a student of education, I am disappointed in the tactics of the NAACP. I remember how a group of black parents attempted to accuse Robin Fankhouse after she removed two unstable principals Jerome Johnson and Vergil Covington. Black lives certainly matter, but ultimately parents both Black and White must be held responsible for their child's education.
Hello Richard and gentle readers of KSNC,
As a NAACP member allow me to address the first two comments:
Regarding the first commenter’s first question,
We did not address Dr. Helm at the press conference because, as a temporary superintendent, she has little power to change policy. We are focused on Mr. Price, the Chair of the Board, upon whom most responsibility for the last two administrations and our current situation lies. Our first concern is that any new superintendent will be qualified for and committed to mitigating the equity gap.
Regarding their second question,
The severe understaffing of minority teachers is a separate second issue related to employment equity. If you listen to the broadcast of the school board meeting, which is available on the FCPS website, we did not imply that minority teachers where necessary to mitigate the equity gap. We stated rather explicitly that fair distribution of resources (see more on this below) was the key to solving this problem.
To the second commenter (aka “student of education”) I will say,
As many do, you are blaming children for faults you perceive in the parents. Children don't choose their parents. The responsibility of our (purportedly casteless) society is to educate all children appropriately, so that those who are born privileged do not have an unfair advantage as adults.
Sometimes this means that, for children who have for example have only one parent or no parents at home, you provide additional resources. However, in Fayette County, I am informed that the situation is currently the OPPOSITE. The class size is smaller in the schools in the rich neighborhoods and larger in the poor neighborhoods. Compare Cassidy to Breckenridge for example. And at Bryant Station High School, where we should be placing our best teachers, the least qualified and poorest paid teaching staff is situated presently.
Also please understand that the NAACP represents and is comprised of members of many minorities, women's rights advocates, special needs advocates, clergy, and activists concerned with many social justice issues not specific to the African American community. Regardless, the NAACP has nothing yet to do with the anecdote (be it true or not) that you bring up, although we would welcome a chance to hear more about specific details.
What “tactics” specifically are you disappointed it and why? As you seem interested in modulating the tactics of the NAACP, please reach out to us via email at education@lexnaacp.org.
Best,
Michael Winkler, MD, FSCCT, FICA
Thank you for your responses to my first comments. As for my hiring more minority teachers comment, I am simply responding to what was presented in the article. If one wanted to move toward that sort of model where staff proportionately represents student/community then we have an even greater problem in terms of representation - specifically males who only compose 20% of the FCPS instructional staff instead of a target 50 %.
I think you or those who inform you are mixing your comparison data in order to support points that just aren't supported by the data. First, the Cassidy / Breckinridge comparison statement about class size which is simply incorrect. Both schools' report the same number of teachers on their most recent report cards (N=48) but Breckinride has about 50 fewer student and as a result actually has a smaller pupil to teacher ratio (13:1) than Cassidy (14:1). Additionally, even though Breckinridge has fewer students it actually has a higher per pupil expenditure of $9,124 as opposed to Cassidy which spends $8,473 on each student or about $650 less per child. So as you can see the data indicates that the students in Cassidy's "rich neighborhoods" actually have classrooms with more students on average and have less money spent on their students compared to the "poor neighborhood" of Breckenridge.
Next you are accurate that Bryan Station does have a faculty with less experience and by default of a salary schedule which is partly based upon experience, they would logically be paid less. With that said I am not sure we can legitimately say that slightly less experienced staff are necessarily less effective. One must question if the average experience of BSHS faculty at 11.2 years significantly impacts student achievement compared to LHS faculty at 12.3 years of experience, HCHS at 12.4 years of experience or PLDHS at 14.2 years. We are only talking about a 1-2 year difference in average faculty experience.
It would seem that your argument related to Casssidy and Breckinridge staffing and funding would seem just as relevant, if not more so. Student to teacher rations - BSHS 15:1, LHS 17:1, HSHS 18:1, PLDHS 18:1. Per pupil spending - BSHS $7,096, LHS $6,422, HSHS $6,044 and PLDHS $6,094. So as you can see Bryan Station classrooms have fewer students and they spend on average up to $1000 more on each student than FCPS other high schools. Additionally, Bryan Station also has a significantly higher percentage of minority faculty members compared to other FCPS high schools (or any FCPS for that matter).
Some might speculate that those sought after conditions being championed by NAACP might actually already be in place in many instances. Most certainly, there does seem to be a misunderstanding/misrepresentation of data on this matter.
Dear Dr. Winkler,
Thank you for your responses to my first comments. As for my hiring more minority teachers comment, I am simply responding to what was presented in the article. If one wanted to move toward that sort of model where staff proportionately represents student/community then we have an even greater problem in terms of representation - specifically males who only compose 20% of the FCPS instructional staff instead of a target 50 %.
I think you or those who inform you are mixing your comparison data in order to support points that just aren't supported by the data. First, the Cassidy / Breckinridge comparison statement about class size which is simply incorrect. Both schools' report the same number of teachers on their most recent report cards (N=48) but Breckinride has about 50 fewer student and as a result actually has a smaller pupil to teacher ratio (13:1) than Cassidy (14:1). Additionally, even though Breckinridge has fewer students it actually has a higher per pupil expenditure of $9,124 as opposed to Cassidy which spends $8,473 on each student or about $650 less per child. So as you can see the data indicates that the students in Cassidy's "rich neighborhoods" actually have classrooms with more students on average and have less money spent on their students compared to the "poor neighborhood" of Breckenridge.
Next you are accurate that Bryan Station does have a faculty with less experience and by default of a salary schedule which is partly based upon experience, they would logically be paid less. With that said I am not sure we can legitimately say that slightly less experienced staff are necessarily less effective. One must question if the average experience of BSHS faculty at 11.2 years significantly impacts student achievement compared to LHS faculty at 12.3 years of experience, HCHS at 12.4 years of experience or PLDHS at 14.2 years. We are only talking about a 1-2 year difference in average faculty experience.
It would seem that your argument related to Casssidy and Breckinridge staffing and funding would seem just as relevant, if not more so. Student to teacher rations - BSHS 15:1, LHS 17:1, HSHS 18:1, PLDHS 18:1. Per pupil spending - BSHS $7,096, LHS $6,422, HSHS $6,044 and PLDHS $6,094. So as you can see Bryan Station classrooms have fewer students and they spend on average up to $1000 more on each student than FCPS other high schools. Additionally, Bryan Station also has a significantly higher percentage of minority faculty members compared to other FCPS high schools (or any FCPS for that matter).
Some might speculate that those sought after conditions being championed by NAACP might actually already be in place in many instances. Most certainly, there does seem to be a misunderstanding/misrepresentation of data on this matter.
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