Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Pickler Now Wants the TPC to Plan For Multiple School Districts
Posted by Jackson Baker on Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 7:25 AM
- JB
- David Pick;er, SCS, USB, TPC
Concomitant with this week’s surprise move by state Senator Mark Norris and state Representative Curry Todd, both of Collierville, to co-opt Memphis’ agreed-upon annexation reserve on behalf of the suburbs, and the city’s hurry-up response to annex the Gray’s Creek area, was another ticking time-bomb.
This one was courtesy of former longtime Shelby County Schools board chairman David Pickler, a key member now of both the interim Unified School Board and the Transition Planning Commission established to guide city/county school merger.
In a weekend interview with the Flyer, Pickler confided his intent to persuade his fellow TPC members to reconstrue their mission so as to incorporate the concept of multiple school districts.
Said Pickler: “They need to understand that, whereas the opinion heretofore on the committee has been that they believe their charge is only to develop a plan for the entire district, I think that what Senator Norris has put before us and what the municipal communities are moving towards is going to impose a new reality on the Commission and its charge.”
Accordingly, Pickler announced his intention to address this Thursday’s meeting of the TPC by conference call from Washington, where he would be in his role as president-elect of the National School Board Association. He would ask his colleagues to entertain a visit from Jim Mitchell, the former SCS superintendent who now heads Southern Educational Strategies, the consultant group which is advising Memphis’ municipal suburbs on the likely formation of their own school systems.
This constitutes a return to form, of a sort. It was Pickler’s enthusiastic for a special suburban school district in late 2010 that was cited by Memphis City Schools board members Martavius Jones and Tomeka Hart as the reason for their push toward surrender of the MCS charter, a move that forced the now ongoing merger of MCS with SCS.
For the last several months, however, Pickler’s rhetoric has been studiously neutral and generally supportive of the efforts of the unified Board and the Transition Planning Commission to move toward the new era of city/county merger.
No more. Or at least no longer in so single-minded a fashion.
Pickler expressed support for the efforts of suburban leaders (a fair number of whom belong to either the unified Board or the TPC): “I absolutely do believe it’s up to each of the suburban leaders to do exactly what they have done, to do their due diligence, to conduct the feasibility studies, and to determine whether or not an administrative district is both legally, academically, and fiscally feasible.
“They’ve done that work, and, while some may disagree with some aspects of their feasibility study, they’re moving well down the track toward a referendum in May, and doing the things that they regard as appropriate.”
In addition to the six or so potential municipal school districts that could be formed under the rubric of the original Norris-Todd bill, passed a year ago, other components of a “new reality” mentioned by Pickler include the possibility of as many as 65 under-performing Memphis schools coming under the administration of the new state Achievement School District and “anywhere from 27 to 44” new charter schools.
Pickler, who co-chairs the TPC’s administrative governance committee (along with former opposite number Jones), said his committee investigated at least 20 different school districts in the nation, involving urban areas like New Orleans, Chicago, and Denver, and found a multitude of different approaches to administering similar realities.
“I think what we’re going to have to do with the Transition Planning Committee [sic] is understand and embrace these new realities. And I think we need to come up with at least one or more alternatives, because I don’t think we can just go out there and say, ‘We’re going to develop a design for 150,000 schoolchildren’ when, in fact, by august 2013 there may not be that to start with.”
Add the fact, Pickler said, that Norris has vowed to follow through with defining legislation if the city and county cannot agree on the terms, fiscal and otherwise, under which new municipal school districts might acquire school infrastructure which is now the property of the county at large.
“The Transition Planning Committee has to take under consideration this new initiative by Sen. Norris. If we ignore it, Sen. Norris seems to have a plan to implement.”
Resolving these and other issues “is going to be fun,” Pickler said, with perhaps a shade of irony. “We live in interesting times.”
Comments (50)
Showing 1-50 of 50
I think Pickler just got put back in his place by Godfather Norris. My take on it is that Pickler saw a chance to be the leader of one of the largest school districts in the country, which is why his rhetoric mellowed. Apparently Pickler must have been getting too big for his britches, or too cozy with the opposition, or having visions of grandeur, or a combination of all of the above and the new, self-appointed King of Collierville and de facto boss of East Shelby County, Godfather Norris, reminded him just which side he was supposed to be playing for.
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Maybe Norris threatened to have PIckler removed from the list of Preferred Advisors for SCS's retirement plan. That would be a huge dent to his income if he couldn't get all those teacher annuity rollovers.
Here's another take on it. To pretend that municipal school districts can't possibly come about is to engage in a reality distortion of fairly serious proportions. The existence of municipal school districts should at least be considered when planning a county wide school district, to do otherwise would be grossly incompetent.
Mark Norris and I are not close friends but I have known him for over twenty years and he always impressed me as a competent attorney and a nice guy. He is an experienced member of the state senate, and he is doing what legislators do, passing laws that benefit his constituents. I just can't see him making Pickler an offer he can't refuse.
Pickler is no doubt aware as most others are that Bartlett among other areas are already making plans for municipal school districts. They simply do not want to be ran by the same bunch of goons who have ran MCS. Who can blame them?
Dixie, don't chime in on the other thread about grammar, ok?
Drift, it was stated that way to be fun. Yes, the TPC would be remiss if they did not address and have some sort of plan in place for MSDs if/when they take place. It still doesn't change my overall opinion of the fact that Norris is calling the shots. He may not have placed a horse's head in Pickler's bed, but I'm sure there were some other subtle reminders passed along.
Merc-
I admit that was a run on sentence- and I added something in that I had already said in my haste to get my comment posted. That being said, don't make me have to hound you like the grammar police until I point out something that you've said incorrectly.
Sugar.
If you listen to what Mark Norris said last November (the video is at this website), he said said the reason the municipal districts were included in the legislation was to provide an incentive for the unified district to set things up to give the other municipalities in the county a reason to want to participate. Apparently that challenge was not met, and the only way it could have been met would have been to somehow give the municipalities outside of Memphis enough autonomy to be free from the dictates of the unified school board which, in the end, will be dominated by Memphis.
That said, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the new district should be set up with municipal districts in mind, because this isn't a one time proposition. The way I see it, if Millington ends up in the unified district, it could walk away ten years from now. Plus, it has been obvious from the very beginning that all of the cities in the county whose schools were taken over by this loophole in the constitution would leave if they could after Norris/Todd's SB25 bypassed the loophole and gave them an out.
" he said said the reason the municipal districts were included in the legislation was to provide an incentive for the unified district to set things up to give the other municipalities in the county a reason to want to participate. "
I know we disagree about this situation, but do you seriously believe that statement? That is a load of some of the purest BS that you are ever going to hear.
The same question comes to mind that I asked Mike Carpenter one upon a time:
At what point do you put the greater good of the entire community, which will include the greater good for your own local constituents in the long term, ahead of the short term interests of your very local constituency? Norris might be a “nice guy” but that does not mean he has either the vision of the fortitude to act in a way that will be of the greatest benefit to all of Shelby County in say, 30 years especially if it jeopardizes his political career.
Just because the majority wants something does not make it the correct choice.
mad_merc
To make it even more clear, Norris said it was a "carrot and stick" approach. You can watch him say it at his website. Just go to http://www.marknorris.org, and scroll down to the picture of him sitting across the table from Eric Barnes.
I would guess that David Pickler gave the planning commission enough time to do the impossible, and now he is down to talking cold, hard facts.
I have no doubt that he said it, I simply can't believe that any one could take those words at face value. There was no carrot, just a stick... to whack Memphis over the head with.
Barf is right. Norris isn't really a "nice" guy anyway. He's just a politician who is interested in his own political career and power. And yes, I've met him.
Do you think maybe we could, in this county, come to an agreement, maybe even think about compromise and conciliation over some of these issues. Perhaps even consider even in a small way, the greater good for all Shelby Countians, rather than acting as if we are in 2 different counties? Nah, that's too much to ask I know.
I'm biased because I live in Bartlett, but I believe that educational choice and the preservation of the 'burbs is in the best interest of Shelby County and Memphis. Most of the managerial class of Shelby county lives in the suburban cities because they tend to have young families and are looking for stable home values, lower city taxes, low crime and good schools. When they look at the leadership and results of MCS and imagine it transfered to the county system at large they are making a rational choice to pop smoke and get out. They can do that in 2 ways:1) leave Shelby County and tax their tax base with them, and further discourage business investment in the county or 2) form their own districts with local control, staying in Shelby County and contributing to the tax base. Strong Suburbs make for a strong Memphis and a strong Memphis will make for strong Suburbs.
The new consolidated SCS system will be managed over by a Memphis majority-elected board. We've all seen what a Memphis-elected school board will do to a pubic school system - ruin it a la MCS! That is the one thing suburban parents object to when it comes to this merger. Go munis!
Mark Norris is, maybe a competent attorney, however, he is a politician first. He seems not to care about constitutional rights , but the narrow interest of the people he represents. The way that he is going, there will be litigation of some sort for the next 10 years.
David Pickler is his minion. He is being used for a chump. Pickler keeps making statements about what the transition team should do. He speaks as though that TPC has plenary power, the power to make change. Judge Mays made it abundantly clear, the TPC is only advisory and has no authority to force change on anything. The only thing that the state has to approve prior to the merger is how to protect the jobs and pay of the teachers, as spelled out in state law. The most important part is, Judge Mays retain jurisdiction over the merger process until it is completed. That will keep Norris, Pickler, from trying to circumvent his ruling.
Mark Norris, with all of his political and legal knowledge, knows that as long as the new SCS has a need for those suburban schools, the state may try, but cannot make the SCS give the schools to the municipalities that they are located in. If he tries, that will be another 3 to 5 year delay, working its way through the courts.
Carrot and stick? The only carrot and stick that is here is the federal department of education. If President Obama gets re-elected, and I and experts believe that he will, the federal department of education can threaten to deny federal education funds, if it feels that the forming of municipal school districts, will reduce the diversity that it now has. That is an awfully big stick. Mark Norris, David Pickler, et al, cannot top that one.
Memphians are not afraid or intimidated by the threats of Mark Norris. Memphis has its' own legal resources and a friend in the white house. When and if Norris trys to move, we will be ready, able and willing to react.
Packrat, the way I see it, it is a waste of time to body slam someone, then make an offer to make him more comfortable on the floor and expect everything to be O.K. If you want to be friends, you don't do something like that in the first place. Aggressive actions can have consequences, and Memphis tearing up the charter was an aggressive act. The "guy on the floor" here wants to get revenge, run away, or both.
OTP, do you really think President Obama and the Union Army are going to come marching down I-40 whistling Yankee Doodle, overwhelm the other cities in the county, and turn them over to Memphis?
Like Aerosmith said, dream on.
As I see it, the biggest problem with MCS has been the size of its budget. All that money is blood in the water to the sharks and skimmers. Making it even bigger, with a bigger budget, is only going to improve the quality and size of the sharks and skimmers.
The obvious solution is to break the entire thing up into small school districts. Get the money out of the system and you will replace the career school board bloodsuckers with dedicated citizens with an actual stake in the outcomes. Let all of Shelby County pay into a unified school fund managed by accountants, but divide the school districts up into managable sizes based on established historical neighborhood boundaries. Let each district draw upon the school fund based upon its need - say, a minimum amount per school, plus a set amount per student, with an additional grant fund that individual schools can compete for based on their programs, goals, etc..
From the Memphis Daily News:
"A companion bill sponsored by Norris and state Rep. Ron Lollar of Bartlett would allow for a referendum by voters in the area to be annexed before it could be annexed by any city in Shelby County. It also provides for a “deannexation” referendum."
http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2012/…
A deannexation referendum? No details, but hopefully that means Gray's Creek can vote to leave right after it is annexed.
Jeff, what a wonderful socialist idea. I wonder why it was not done for over 400 years when your people were in charge?
Me, I prefer the old-fashioned democratic republic way. The administrators of the school system, that the taxpayers support, be appointed by locally elected officials that are accountable to the people.
What you are suggesting is just a dressed up version of the old JIM CROW System.
It won't happen.
I don't see it that way Carver. The way I see it, it was act or be steamrolled. They were legally entitled under existing state law to drop the charter (just like Knoxville did). We're not going to agree on that, so no point in arguing about it. I've said this before, if the prosperity of this region depends upon somehow keeping Memphis segregated from the rest of the region (which ain't so hot anyway, drive around OUTSIDE of the burbs sometime like maybe around Holly Springs, or Haywood County, etc.) then the entire region is ultimately doomed. Hopefully I'll be living somewhere else by this time next year (keep your fingers crossed for me) and I won't care what happens. But I can guarantee one thing, if Memphis turns into Detroit, nobody will want to live in the burbs either. And the attitude in the burbs that Memphis' problems are only Memphis' problem and that they won't affect them is laughable.
Packrat, I agree that we'll never agree on the motivation behind the charter surrender. But, there is no evidence that David Pickler ever wanted a school district with taxing authority. That is just propaganda from the CA, Martavius Jones, Mulroy's slide show, etc.
If he ever said that he was interested in such a thing, someone would have written it down. Over the past six months, I have challenged others (provocatively at times) to provide a source for this. I am just going to have to conclude it doesn't exist. He did say over and over that virtually everything was on the table except freezing the borders.
BTW, I think you are very lucky to be leaving this all behind. I was planning on leaving next March, but my son's health issues are probably going to delay that.
I worked in downtown Detroit for 5 years in the 90's, read the Free Press every day, and I can say with complete confidence that there is no comparison between Detroit and Memphis. Memphis, which seems to be stuck in Reconstruction, isn't like anywhere else.
from the CA:
"We are absolutely not seeking taxing authority," Pickler said.
Fixing the district's boundaries, Pickler said, would eliminate the possibility of city and county school consolidation. He said setting permanent boundaries would create greater stability in neighborhoods, eliminate migration due to the threat of city annexation and allow both boards to be more effective with long-term planning.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/…
At the risk of being laughed at for citing Wikipedia, here are some demographics of metro Detroit. Since they are quoting census data it's probably not too far off. When you read the demographics paragraph it sounds like Detroit suburbs are doing pretty well in spite of the decline of Detroit proper.
There certainly was a time when the prosperity of Shelby County relied on Memphis. I think one could make a pretty good argument that the opposite is true now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Detroit
MY point about Detroit was that the burbs around here aren't anywhere near as propserous as burbs around other major cities, and since this is a one horse town, when fedex moves its HQ (which will happen) the burbs here will sink like a stone. Actually city and county consolidation under the charter amendment proposal would have made school consolidation almost impossible since it would have required a vote of approval by the county outside of Memphis as well. The "county" would have had veto power over it. Again, Knoxville surrendered its charter and had no interference from the state over it. Memphis gets treated differently.
My people? My people have never been in charge of anything.
And me - I'm for democracy, just at a more local level, for the purpose of getting the people with gigantic salaries out of the system and putting it back in the hands of the locals. All the locals, including your locals, who can elect their own school board. Under my plan, every student will get the same amount of money dedicated to their education, no matter where they live, and some of their mamas and daddies will actually have a fighting chance to be elected to their local school boards (unlike today), which will further improve their chances in life.
What is it you don't like about local empowerment coupled to equal opportunity for all children, white and black? Is it that it doesn't visit the sins of the father upon his children unto the seventh generation? I always knew you were a Pharisee.
Jeff, there you go again. The same arguments used for justifying, separate but equal. Why does, all of a sudden, it has to be broken down, politically, into municipalities and even neighborhoods? Why can't it remain as it was set up to be, county control over the county school system. Doing what you suggest will turn back the clock to the good ole, separate but equal.
Packrat,
I misunderstood your point I thought you said:
"But I can guarantee one thing, if Memphis turns into Detroit, nobody will want to live in the burbs either. And the attitude in the burbs that Memphis' problems are only Memphis' problem and that they won't affect them is laughable."
OTP, perhaps you can explain why the parents that camped out, but couldn't get their kids into White Station, are talking about moving or getting their kids into private schools? It sounds to me like Memphis has its very own "separate but equal" schools.
Jeff, I think you've hit on something. Perhaps another reform that would go a long way would be than these small districts eliminate any salary for School Board Members except for income replacement when missing their regular job for school board business. Very limited expense accounts and strict accounting. This would eliminate most of the power hungry wh*res we have now on the school board.
BVol-
How would no salary eliminate the power hungry wh*res? The same degree of "power" would still accompany the position with or without a salary.
That is what I wrote. I'll expand. The counties surrounding Detroit are MUCH more prosperous than both Detroit, Shelby County and any county surrounding Shelby. This entire region is poor, and if Memphis goes down the tubes, no amount of propaganda about the few suburbs here that are halfway decent is going to save this region from decline. Ever driven around Marshall County? Like stepping back in time 50 years, and not in a good way.
Drift-
Don’t fall for Wikipedia’s babble. Just like the entry for Memphis and almost every other city of any size, it is a combination of civic booster P.R. and apocalyptic naysayers. However, the fact the Detroit metropolitan area’s (MSA) population has declined by something like 3.5% over the last 10 years while its median income fell by15% means that at best, one can say that Detroit’s suburbs are treading water.
Because, OTP, with a giant school system comes giant salaries and giant opportunities for fraud and abuse. With that much money lying around, who is going to miss a thousand here, a thousand there, right? That's what attracts the leeches, and the leeches employed by the leeches.
If the solution is to get the money out of the system, as I suggest it is, then the best way to do that is to break the money down into smaller units so that no single entity has control over it.
As for seperate but equal, we currently enjoy seperate but unequal on so many levels. The first step toward reintegrating and reviving this city is at the school level, since that is where white flight began. In the city of Memphis, where you live determines whether your kids go to a good school or a crap school. You have the choice of sending them to optional schools, but only if you have the financial ability to get them there every morning and pick them up every afternoon. If you go into work early and work long hours, or you're poor or disabled or unemployed and have no transportation, your children go to the local school, and if you're poor, disabled, unemployed, etc, your kids are most likely going to go to a crap school, since you wouldn't be able to afford to live in a good neighborhood school district.
By creating a system of equal schools with local, neighborhood-level school board control, you can begin to address the local issues that have driven people out of this city.
Furthermore, the same arguments were not used to justify seperate but equal anywhere but in your one-note head. But do keep pounding that key, Old Time Pharisee.
barf,
I'm sure you're right. That's why I qualified my citation with "At the risk of being laughed at..."
"... are most likely going to go to a crap school, since you wouldn't be able to afford to live in a good neighborhood school district".
You are stating that income level and quality of the local school are directly correlated. If the amount of local tax money allocated per pupil remains unchanged, I fail to see how the equation changes with school district size.
Unless we start busing again- this time based on economic integration- then the economics will not change. There will still be poor neighborhoods and rich neighborhoods. Smaller districts, presumably based loosely on geographic neighborhoods, would mean that the average neighborhood school in East Memphis would enroll mostly privileged children from the surrounding ‘hood while the average neighborhood school in South Memphis would enroll mostly impoverished children from the surrounding neighborhood. The only thing that would change is the South Memphis school is more likely to be run by the parents of impoverished children and the East Memphis board would be run by parents of privileged children.
Drift- no problem- just throwing it out there. Rotten core eventually results in rotten 'burbs.
Jeff-
You're exactly right that this is the type of system that would work and be fair. There are many people who live in those neighborhoods that get their children into optional schools- who can make the drives. If the schools were neighborhood then the people in the neighborhood that cared about the school where their children had to attend would be helping to run that school. They could be on the board, and up at the school when needed. It's not a case of wanting to keep people down at all- it's a case of being able to give an equal education to everyone and this is the way to ensure this happens. Spend more money to fix the community schools up too in the beginning so each school is nice, clean and fresh. New books in the schools too.
I had to laugh at OTP's comment "our" people being in charge. Just like his comment about how white people got here on the backs of black people. I got here on the back of my grandmother, Albie Dewberry, myself. Who picked cotton because her father was a sharecropper. Just like my kids will get somewhere on my back. Everyone owes something to someone.
Whoever thinks that there are no kids being bused in MCS- think again. Why else would children from Orange Mound be driven by bus to White Station. Not in the district first of all, and if you transfer as an optional student you have to provide all your own transport. I bet those parents who got denied admittance for their children would froth at the mouth to know that kids from OM are being sent over there to school.
I believe that there should be one and only one county wide school system. I you don't like the system that is afforded you by the county then place your children in a private school. It's a choice you can make.
Sorry for all the posts, slow day...
Dixie & Jeff-
I though most of the schools were “neighborhood” now. What, do the kids attending Georgia Ave. Elementary live in Frayser? I can understand how a few more parents might want to be involved if the district was considered more “local”, but not much beyond current PTA involvement. Do enough of these parents both understand the issues and necessities involved in operating a public school system (as well as the ins and outs of running a district) and have the substantial amount of time to give for said office? Same as my comment above. If neighborhood income and quality of education are directly correlated, I’m not really seeing how smaller districts will bring much in the way of change.
Then again I guess it would not hurt either.
I think the pay cut or at least a serious reduction for all the higher ups, including the board members, would be a given unless a tax increase is involved. Otherwise if we If we ended up with say 9 “neighborhood” districts that would be 63 board members (assume 7/district) and 9 superintendent salaries. Think of how much more consultant and legal rep. work there will be! You have to represent local interests for 9 bus contracts, 9 teacher’s unions, 9 food/supply contracts, etc…
Jeff is correct (mostly because it's my idea;-))
Five to eight sub-districts (keeping those sub-districts close to 20 to 25k students) without some mega-dollar superintendent and all of his associated cronies would be the start of something truly great.
That's not the way I envision it barf. I would see one elected school board for the county that oversees the sub-districts. The sub-districts could be administered any number of ways that are only limited by your imagination, and would report to the board. No need for some big dollar Music Man type superintendent to impose his will and rape of us our tax dollars.
The large, single district could handle the various union contracts, buses, coordinating food purchases, and compliance to various regulatory and oversight entities. The large district would also make it easier and more cost effective to provide vo tech, art, and other advanced academic/magnet type programs.
It's like the best of both worlds and a model worth trying I believe.
Barf
Neighborhood schools in Memphis are schools where parents are not able to get their kids to another school. Both optional and most transfers from NCLB require you to transport your kid yourself. Please look at the TN Report Card under MCS and tell me how many non-optional schools are passing AYP? Schools such as JP Freeman are 100% optional, meaning that 90% of the kids are out of the school zone. Best middle school in town. If there is local control those kids and their parents can go back to the neighborhoods and take back their schools. Optional parents can put the pressure on the individual school required to make improvements. Right now optional parents are fleeing bad schools just like suburbanites are fleeing the bad MCS. Their intention are all exactly the same.
There is proven reseach that high caliber children boost the entire system, especially when positive reinforment is used. Schools that have assemblies where student receive honors for good grades have increasing average GPA scores. More kids want that same recognition.
If every school had high standards of curriculum as present in optional schools, there would be very little need for transfers of any kind. Currently, the transfer rates for MCS are more than doubled the transfer rates for SCS.
Contracting is an easy issue. Right now the MSDs are planning for two contracting cities, Bartlett in the North and Gtown in the South. Then the other northern cities will contract with Bartlett for services (bussing, food, copy machinces, ect..)
Local control of funding means that local people can determine where money is best spent. I can promise you that the budgeting for a school like Arlington Elementary has significantly different needs than a school such as Graceland Elementary. Everybody gets money based on the # of kids in your system. You get to decide what you do with that money. IF you apply for grants or special funding, it stay iwth the kids it was intended for. Did you see the article about $29K in funds from MCS that were re-appropriated (problably because they were needed for something with more priority). There is no way the nsw SCS can design a school system that meets the needs of all 150K students. It's worse than a manufacturer than creates one single pair of jeans in size E - for everybody. How many people will that pair of jeans actually fit?
Just for kicks you should attend a PTA meeting for both systems. It's going to go something like this:
I have taught for both systems. I had 100 kids in SCS. Parents night for SCS - I met more than 50% of my students' parents. I had 175 kids. Parent's night for MCS - I met less than 10% of my students' parents (at an optional school with 40% more kids).
What most people fail to realize is that the laws were set up origially so that cities ran the schools while the county funded them. Look at how the TN laws are set up with the first reference to the state , then to county, then to city, wih most laws references the cities.
barf:
Board members only get $5K for the year. I think the TCP may be getting the same. Not a big incentive to serve!
Not only that Homer, but the super is the only employee that the board has. There is no reason for a super of note to take a position where they are expected to have all responsibility but no power.
Carver - You haven't really looked if you found no evidence that Pickler was supporting a special school district with taxing authority. Only when there was the threat of the charter surrender did he become Mr. Let's Negotiate. Even during the single source funding efforts at the County Commission, Pickler was for the plan that gave taxing authority to the city and county school boards.
For evidence, take a look at this presentation:
http://www.scsk12.org/News/The%20Reality%2…
Or this article from when Pickler was running for his current term...at the end it gives a contrast between Hoover and Pickler where Hoover doesn't want taxing authority and Pickler does:http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/apr/14/board-foes-make-cases/
The presentation above also has the misleading cheering of SCS receiving its third year in a row of As from the state report card. It is misleading curved scores such as that which have led people in SCS to think their children are getting a much better education. SCS has been able to get away with providing a moderate education for its students by comparing itself to MCS. SCS parents shouldn't be fighting to keep what they had, they should be outraged that SCS and the state were complicit in making them think the overall education outcomes of SCS were better than they were.
Also, to the people questioning the management of money at MCS...I hope that you saw the recent article that detailed the large number of warnings in the SCS audit versus only a few for MCS despite a much larger budget. I'm not saying there isn't waste, but I'm sure you can find just as much waste with much less oversight at SCS.
cardell,
Thanks for doing the research; it is a good find. Lets take a close look at what was actually written by Sherri Drake or Sherri Drake Silence, I can't really tell which. Here is what Sherri said in her article:
"Pickler also highlighted his long fight for Shelby County Schools to become a special school district, which would freeze the system's boundaries and allow the board to levy its own tax rate."
Notice there is a direct quote from Ken Hoover above in this article, but no direct quote of Pickler asking for taxing authority. So, I would say it is possible that everything after the comma is an addition by the reporter to "clarify" what is possible with an SSD. What she said is true, but it isn't clear Pickler said it. Why no direct quote from Pickler on something so important? Plus, unfortunately, the CA has a bad habit of mixing reporting and editorializing in the same article.
Now, this paragraph from Sherri is more interesting:
"Pickler and Hoover both agreed that special school district status is important to protect the district from any efforts to consolidate Shelby and Memphis City Schools, but Hoover said he thinks the district needs to drop its agenda to gain taxing authority."
Ken Hoover does post at the CA from time to time, and I believe he has posted here, too, although I'm not certain of it. I'll ask him about it the next time I see him post anywhere. Ken, if you are out there, please clarify what you meant by the SCS board's "agenda to gain taxing authority", if you actually said it.
Pickler has been quoted as saying he never asked for taxing authority, but he never said it wasn't discussed at the SCS board meetings. Keep in mind that this was political campaign coverage. A lot of things get said in political campaigns (like Newt's thousand person moon base), but lets see what Mr. Hoover has to say. I bookmarked that article so I can bring it up the next time I see him posting here or at the CA.
cardell,
I forgot about your slide show. Let me just say that the school districts in Tennessee are all graded on the same test. If you put your thumb on top of the SCS scores and push down, it pushes down the MCS scores which are underneath. The harder you push, the lower they go.
yes cardell, I saw the poor article on the school system's audit.
$29K in mis-appropriated funds for MCS. I have no doubt that a school found a better way to spend some of the money allocated to them. There are almost 200 schools and they can't all have the same set of priorities and spending needs. With MCS there is no flexibility.
SCS accused of letting studetns make purchases.
No dollar amounts for SCS. No discriptions of actual activities. No discussion to what level this occured. I would be upset if we were talking elementary kids. But I bet we are talking about HS students ordering prom napkins with the teachers, coach, advisor or sponser sitting right next to them, especially since details were left out.
Have you ever worked in a school? That was an incredibly poor peice of reporting. I was angry then, and I still am because it made no sense other than to amke both systems look bad. My nine year old could have asked better questions. If that all it take to get a journalism degree, I can quit saving for her college education. She can do the job for the CA NOW!
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