12/19/98
The Auburn Bulletin12/19/98
Article: Board stops YRS, starts new calendar
By: ELIOTT C. MCLAUGHLIN Auburn Bulletin
A standing-room-only crowd packed the Auburn High School multimedia center Tuesday to hear the long-awaited superintendent's report on the year-round school issue.
While the calendar is general ly accepted by the YRS protesters, some have a few problems with the calendar, including the means in which it was approved.
Auburn City School Superintendent Mick Martin first allowed Mike Machen of Machen McChesney & Chastain and Gerald Johnson, director of the Capital Survey Research Center, present the results of written and telephone polls.
Machen said his accounting agency collected and counted the written surveys. His results showed that 41.4 percent of those polled approved a calendar change, 51.5 percent did not and 7.1 percent were non-compliant.
Johnson, who directs the center which acts as the polling authority for the Alabama Education Association, said the results of the phone survey differ when broken into demographic categories.
The center completed 667 surveys, of which, 40 percent said they oppose a change, 50 percent supported it and 10 percent said they did not have enough information. However, these results were compiled from three different levels of opposition or approval.
Johnson broke down the results for the board: Those with out children, those of low income and ACS employees showed pluralities supporting a calendar change.
Professionals, Auburn University employees and non ACS employees were generally in opposition. Breaking down the results also showed most of those polled opposed Calendars C and D, but supported A and B.
In addition, the poll showed that AU employees and professionals thought it was important final exams were scheduled before the break and that AU and ACS calendars were compatible.
The room became silent as Martin prepared to make his recommendation to the board.
"If I have prayed through this process, I have prayed for wisdom," he said. "I didn't do some things very well.
"I didn't protect my subordinates. The lightning rod in this should have been me. It's the role of the superintendent.
"I'm not sure I brought honor to the board."
Martin thanked the staff, board, his family, students, the media, the committee, the pollsters and even the YRS naysayers who made their voices heard repeatedly through out the process.
"I'm proud of them. I'm pleased we have a system that does that for children," Martin said.
His final recommendation? "I recommend against extending the school year," he said.
He cited divisiveness among the community, 70 percent of the community being opposed and the proposal not being financially feasible as reasons for his decision.
He then recommended a calendar in which finals are finished before the Christmas break, the spring break is congruent with AU's and advanced students will be able to finish their coursework before national exams.
"I think closure on this issue is paramount tonight," Martin said.
However, some parents were concerned about the lack of community input sought for the new calendar.
Two leaders in the YRS protest who wished to remain anonymous said they were generally pleased with the decision. They just wish they had had a chance to comment on the new calendar.
David Elton, another front-runner in the fight to stop YRS, said it was "a pretty good recommendation," but he felt Martin's calendar mimicked the Calendar A option.
He added that he thought the ACS board merely offered "lip service for seeking community input.
"The parents of Auburn like to be heard, but if they can't be heard, they won't be a benefit to anybody.
"I think he should've stuck with this year's calendar."
Lynda Rainer, ACS public relations director, said, "We probably got more input from the teachers, citizens and parents than ever before.
"The board felt so many things had gotten out of hand, and we needed to have closure.
"You're not going to please everybody, but you don't want a majority of your parents angry," she said.
As for Martin's proposal being close to Calendar A, Rainer said, "Calendar A is strikingly similar to the traditional calendar, too."
She said the surveys showed the majority wanted the breaks changed as they were.
"He did what was best for all the children of Auburn," Rainer said.
ACS held a special session Thursday to address a disciplinary matter of two students caught with marijuana and to amend the approved calendar.
Article: AEA: 'Not so fast'By: William WhiteAuburn Bulletin
In a special session Thursday afternoon, the Auburn School Board elected to review the 1999-2000 school year calendar they approved during Tuesday's meeting.
The board was asked to review the approved calendar because six of the dates on the approved calendar were wrong, and the local major professional association needed a reasonable time to review the policy change.
"I brought (the reasonable time requirement) to their attention," said Pat Jones, District l9 UniServ director for the Alabama Education Association. She said the Auburn Education Association is part of her district.
"I was at the board meeting on Tuesday night when I realized what was happening." Jones said.
The school year's starting date of Aug. 10, 1999, and the last day of May 26, 2000, are still the same.
The dates that were wrong on the approved calendar were Oct. 8, 1999, which should have been Oct. 15; Oct. 12, 1999, which should have been Oct. 19; Nov. 22. 1999, which should have been Nov. 24; and Nov. 23 and 24, 1999, which should have been Nov. 25 and 26.
Auburn City Schools Assistant .Superintendent Suzanne Freeman said because of policy, practice and the law, they needed to allow the Auburn Education Association, teachers, staff and other organizations time to review and comment on the calendar.
The board will consider the changed calendar at its January meeting and could vote on it in a special session or at their February meeting.
Guest Editorial: One remedy for improving all schools
By RICHARD W. RILEY Guest Editorial
From Boston to the Mississippi Delta to Seattle, people across America are focused on education like never before. If you aren't engaging in dinner table conversation yourself about issues affecting students and schools, you have surely seen educational headlines during the recent elections or in your daily news.
But is there really one approach to better education that works in every town in America? Yes--increasing parent and community involvement.
Maybe you live in or know of a community where diverse groups are coming together to look after the well-being of students -- a place where people take the extra time and energy to pull together because they believe the whole community has a stake in education. The key to building partnerships within a community to improve education is to bring together those who have something to provide, and show them how much they have to receive as well.
Opportunities to build creative partnerships are as diverse as America itself. Imagine a business woman inviting students in to her work to learn about careers in a hands-on way, or a grandparent tutoring a young child who needs help to read, or a college student mentoring a middle-schooler in algebra so he could be ready to take college prep courses in high school. Everyone is learning. And think of the related benefits of bringing a community together with a common purpose.
So why, then, isn't every community building these partner ships? Well, if you've ever tried working with others to do some thing in your area that hasn't been done before, you know, the answer is often resources, resources, resources. Well, what if there were funds and support available for such partnerships?
There are. An unprecedented amount of support is now available --almost $600 million. There are many more opportunities from the U. S. Department of Education and through the Partnership for Family Involvement to help strengthen or form partnerships where groups are working together to support better education. For example, through a new program called GEAR UP, community organizations, businesses, non-profits and parent associations can partner with colleges, universities and low-income middle and high I schools to give students the academics, guidance and hope needed consistently and early-on so all students know that they, too, will be able to go on to college.
Colleges and K-12 schools are realizing the value of partnership. Visit many campuses and you will find America Reads tutors--college students who earn federal work-study money by tutoring elementary students in reading. Starting next fall, you will see them tutoring students in math from elementary school through ninth-grade through America Counts. Similarly, there will be new resources available for schools that partner with community organizations, parents, teachers and family literacy service providers to support literacy in early childhood and the early grades through the Reading Excellence Act.
In addition, community organizations and schools, working I together, can apply for funds to provide students with a safe and enriching place to be during after school hours --through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program. Nearly 300 communities have received grants so far.
Now is the time to learn about these and other opportunities, because grant competitions will soon be under way. Contact (800) USA-LEARN or visit www.ed.gov for information on how to receive support and publications for building partnerships to improve your schools and increase parental and community involvement.
I encourage caring people of all ages to form and strengthen partnerships that lift up our students, parents, teachers and schools.
Richard W. Riley is the U.S. Secretary of Education.
Guest Editorial: Let the sunshine in public forums
By MIKE ODOMGuest Editorial
The recent decision of the Alabama Supreme Court to allow secret meetings of city council committees opens a big loophole in the state's Open Meetings law. It could shield public officials who seek more secrecy.
Deals behind closed doors have been more the rule than the exception in Alabama -- even before the recent court decision. Indeed, many of Alabama's problems can be traced to a history of back-room deals that have prevented government accountability on such issues as economic development, educational excellence, environmental protection, transportation equity, campaign finance and lobbyist reform.
A broad group of individuals and organizations have called for the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision including Attorney General Bill Pryor, State Sen. Gerald Dial, State Rep. Johnny Curry, the Alabama Press Association and the Center for Public Trust.
First enacted in 1915l Alabama's sunshine law is one of the oldest in the nation. While not always enforced, Alabama's law did set a national standard for promoting public scrutiny of official actions. It would be ironic if the current court decision should encourage government secrecy at the turn of the 21st century in Alabama.
Most of the controversy in the recent case focused on the lower court's finding that city council committee meetings can be held in secret, because they are not explicitly mentioned in the statute. That ruling contradicts several Supreme Court eases and attorney general opinions holding that the entire process of government must be open to public view.
What has received less attention, and what makes this case even more troubling, is the way the lower court handled the challenge to the secret committee meeting in Selma. The court dismissed the case, finding that there was no evidence to show a violation of the state "sunshine" law. But a brief review of the court file turned up evidence that was available to the court.
A letter from a city council member to another public official noted that, "all council members will be attending this meeting." With this letter, the court should have found that the plaintiff might have been able to prove that the meeting was not only a committee meeting, but a meeting of the entire council, a meeting that the lower court conceded would have been subject to the sunshine law.
In the light of such evidence, should the court have thrown out the case on a motion to dismiss? Since the court ruling, the municipal judge who was the focus of the "committee meeting" has said that the mayor and the entire city council were present at the meeting in question.
Should the Supreme Court allow the lower court decision to stand, local governments will have the perfect recipe for doing the public's business in secret-- simply call any meeting a committee meeting and lock the doors.
Several legislators plan to introduce legislation in the 1999 session requiring that city council committees be covered by the sunshine law. If they are serious about reform, they might strengthen the law by providing that any action taken by government in secret be null and void. This would provide a strong incentive for open and account able government.
Nor should we forget that it is a crime under the sunshine law for government bodies to hold secret meetings. Citizens can swear out criminal com plaints of such violations. The Center for Public Trust welcomes information on secrecy and abuse of power by public officials.
It has seldom been more crucial that the news media, attorneys and citizens challenge government secrecy and lack of accountability which threaten the public's right to know how tax dollars are spent.
The Alabama Supreme Court needs to take another look at a case that might have been incorrectly decided by the lower court -- a case that has such far reaching implications for the democratic process in Alabama.
Mike Odom, is executive director of the Center for Public Trust, a non profit, nonpartisan watchdog group working for open and accountable government in Alabama.