This week in Just This, Rick and I discuss the San Antonio Independent School District board’s controversial vote to turn over operations of a chronically failing Southeast side school, Stewart Elementary, to Democracy Prep, a New York-based charter school operator.
SAISD trustees said the charter company’s record at rehabilitating beleaguered, low-performing schools provided the last, best hope before they were forced to shut Stewart’s doors for good. But not everyone was happy with the move, especially teachers – who have to reapply for their positions if they want to stay at Stewart – and their union, the San Antonio Alliance for Teachers and Support Personnel. We look at the history of this troubled school, the teachers’ association’s complaints about the board’s process to address Stewart’s problems, and what Democracy Prep faces as it begins its arduous work next fall.
We also examine an “emergency press conference” called by Bexar County Probate Judge Tom Rickhoff, a Republican running on to unseat Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, and offer a couple other must-reads by our journalists.
Join us every Friday for Just This. Listen in, and send us your feedback. Just This will be available here on the Rivard Report and on iTunes and Stitcher at 5 a.m.
I applaud the Board’s just and appropriate decision; the leadership of Pedro Martinez has saved this neighborhood school from closure, or possibly worst.
I hope the incoming charter shows strong academic gains for Steward. In so doing, it will benefit the kids who have known failing instruction for too long, and it will silence the malcontent of Alliance-types. Though, time will tell if that hope was in vain or well placed.
I agree 100% it is MY child MY choice! Too many greedy teachers!
charter school discussion
Lundy, Veronica H
Thu 3/22/2018 3:44 PM
To:
Garza, David L;
If P.F. Stewart has been I.R. for 5 years why didn’t the district do anything different to remedy the situation other than to change out principals and add more administration? If something is tried for 5 yrs. in a row and the same low impact results are occurring then it is obviously NOT working, therefore try something different.
Other solutions could have been:
Implementing the program that is currently being done with Ogden. Why not bring in another type of mentor who can enlighten everyone else on how to better improve student success?
Providing more support, other than to add administration, to P.F. Stewart. Why didn’t they try adding other programs or educational support such as more resource teachers, more counselors to focus on the student’s well being as opposed to counselors also having to be STAAR testing coordinators.
Add tutors (not the current faculty who is already burned out after teaching all day long.) Perhaps finding mentors through USAA or other companies could have been looked at
Co-teaching programs or programs can be formed with universities to have students tutor or establish a mentorship with them.
Use the millions of dollars from the upcoming sale of SAISD property to have a smaller teacher/ student ratio and re-open the currently closed campuses like Brewer, W.W. White,
Hire top notch administration for those particular campuses. If I am not mistaken, they want to use that money to build another main office. A new main office should not be the priority of how to spend the money. The students SHOULD be the districts main priority.
The money from the sale can also be used to hire “Teach for America” students who WANT to teach and who are coming in from different occupations and give them the smaller teacher student ratio so they can not only get their feet wet, but the students would have more attention.
Many of us are curious to find out what other avenues had been discussed or implemented prior to this charter school decision. If any other campuses are in the same predicament in the upcoming future then more possible solutions should be discussed and shared with the community.
The fact that the a majority of what was discussed at the board meeting on the 19th was disregarded by the representative from Democracy Prep should be enough to void the contract.
You tried, YOU failed, time to move along and let someone better take control!
Charter schools are the wave of the future!
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2017-05-08/how-charter-schools-improve-traditional-district-education
Business practices will IMPROVE where the libs have failed!
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/opinion/a-misguided-attack-on-charter-schools.html
Skim through the many scathing reviews about Democracy Prep on Glassdoor.com and Indeed.com from employees who work for the company. They describe a hierarchical, boot camp style school run by incompetent micro-managers. Teacher turnover is alarmingly high and morale low, with faculty working ten-hour days, including Saturdays. Students feel stifled and shackled.
There are many ways to turn around the failing elementary school, many suggested in the comments above. Personally, I favor the remarkable reforms started in the once-failing country of Finland decades ago. To earn a job there, teachers must meet very high standards. They are required to mentor one another constantly. Students are encouraged to play and to explore their environment outside the classroom. There is one test these students take—yes, just one—at the end of the students’ senior year. Guess what? On this test, Finnish students’ scores are among the highest in the world.
An approach that ignores teachers and students alike, one where outside superheroes come in to save the day, just doesn’t (and will not) work.
It’s unfortunate that neither Beth nor Rick appears to have actually listened to teachers’ comments at Board meetings or read comments from our union. By and large, the concerns expressed by teachers have been about the impact on students . . . the fact that there will be no bilingual program in a school with 35-40% bilingual students and the charter’s reputation for using a “compliance” behavior approach with low-income minority students (an approach that would never be tolerated by most middle class parents). The two other big concerns were lack of transparency and lack of parent/community and school staff involvement in this process. One more statement made by the hosts that can be confirmed as inaccurate is the comment that our union plans on “going after” Board members. There was such a comment made at the Board meeting but not by anyone associated with our union. It was made by a community member. The video archive of the Board meeting will verify that.
When so many of the SAISD schools have been either sold or gone charter, why haven’t our SAISD school taxes been reduced or adjusted to reflect the loss of operations and/or facility costs and liability?
Another question is if teacher qualifications, pay and benefits are equal (or more) than those of the school district in which the school is located.
And will the SAISD superintendent salary be reduced accordingly since there are fewer schools and fewer students in the district?