
Link to State
Department of Education by clicking above...

NEW
SUPERINTENDENT SELECTED -
Jerome Belair, Assisant Superintendent (at
right, with Dr. Pierson, 2007 "About Town")! Education Sec'y in
the Obama Administration?
EDUCATION:
- Elsewhere...CT asks for money back, too!
- AT WESTON LIBRARY...SCHOOL
START TIMES
ISSUE DISCUSSED: IN
2008
Board holds meetings, hearings, etc. prior to action on bus
routes...partial implementation!
Big crowd for School Start
Times discussion - Acting Superintendent
Dr.John Reed (who has done a really, really fine job) pointed out that
Wilton took a few years to work in the
concept. LWVCT specialist on School Start Times present to
discuss research. A quorum of the Board of Selectmen was
present; Board of Education and Board of Finance members came, as
well. An upcoming meeting in March will present the
issue to the community - come to LWV of Weston's "Speak Up" on February
9, 2008 at 10:30am at Norfield and see if the matter gets
discussed!
- Amy Kalafa (c.), filmmaker and one
of "Two Angry Moms" school lunch critique; FOOD FIXED by
2008-2009 (watch
"About Town" interview with new Superintendent!
- REMEMBER
"Club
Weston"? LWV of Weston got
Town to close School Road (in August 1994 on Sunday afternoons) in just
about the same place (there was no W.I.S. then). Read full 1994 story here.
- FROM NESDEC!
- Click here
to find "About Town's" notes on some Board of Education meetings and
other events related to the schools - some as far back as 1999...school
safety issue in the news here.
- Greenwich school
system in latest exercise
of "racial imbalance" methods.
- "No
Child" background and news; new program at CT DEP - "No Child
Left Inside" - clever and a good idea!
- Old unoffical analysis of
student-staff ratio in Weston's Public Schools;
- PAST IS PROLOGUE
DEPARTMENT: Getting down to the details of "closing out" the
Referendum projects...
- MEETINGS OF BUILDING COMMITTEE.
- Check
out school information...link
directly to Weston School District's results;
- PARENT CORP
Who Will He Choose?
NYTIMES OP-ED
By DAVID BROOKS
December 5, 2008
As in many other areas, the biggest education debates
are happening within the Democratic Party. On the one hand, there are
the reformers like Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee, who support merit pay
for good teachers, charter schools and tough accountability standards.
On the other hand, there are the teachers’ unions and the members of
the Ed School establishment, who emphasize greater funding, smaller
class sizes and superficial reforms.
During the presidential race, Barack Obama straddled the two camps. One
campaign adviser, John Schnur, represented the reform view in the
internal discussions. Another, Linda Darling-Hammond, was more likely
to represent the establishment view. Their disagreements were collegial
(this is Obamaland after all), but substantive.
In public, Obama shifted nimbly from camp to camp while education
experts studied his intonations with the intensity of Kremlinologists.
Sometimes, he flirted with the union positions. At other times, he
practiced dog-whistle politics, sending out reassuring signals that
only the reformers could hear.
Each camp was secretly convinced that at the end of the day, Obama
would come down on their side. The reformers were cheered when Obama
praised a Denver performance pay initiative. The unions could take
succor from the fact that though Obama would occasionally talk about
merit pay, none of his actual proposals contradicted their positions.
Obama never had to pick a side. That is, until now. There is only one
education secretary, and if you hang around these circles, the air is
thick with speculation, anticipation, anxiety, hope and misinformation.
Every day, new rumors are circulated and new front-runners declared.
It’s kind of like being in a Trollope novel as Lord So-and-So figures
out to whom he’s going to propose.
You can measure the anxiety in the reformist camp by the level of
nervous phone chatter each morning. Weeks ago, Obama announced that
Darling-Hammond would lead his transition team and reformist cellphones
around the country lit up. Darling-Hammond, a professor at Stanford, is
a sharp critic of Teach for America and promotes weaker reforms.
Anxieties cooled, but then one morning a few weeks ago, I got a flurry
of phone calls from reform leaders nervous that Obama was about to side
against them. I interviewed people in the president-elect’s inner
circle and was reassured that the reformers had nothing to worry about.
Obama had not gone native.
Obama’s aides point to his long record on merit pay, his sympathy for
charter schools and his tendency to highlight his commitment to serious
education reform.
But the union lobbying efforts are relentless and in the past week
prospects for a reforming education secretary are thought to have
dimmed. The candidates before Obama apparently include: Joel Klein, the
highly successful New York chancellor who has, nonetheless, been
blackballed by the unions; Arne Duncan, the reforming Chicago head who
is less controversial; Darling-Hammond herself; and some former
governor to be named later, with Darling-Hammond as the deputy
secretary.
In some sense, the final option would be the biggest setback for
reform. Education is one of those areas where implementation and the
details are more important than grand pronouncements. If the deputies
and assistants in the secretary’s office are not true reformers,
nothing will get done.
The stakes are huge. For the first time in decades, there is real
momentum for reform. It’s not only Rhee and Klein — the celebrities —
but also superintendents in cities across America who are getting
better teachers into the classrooms and producing measurable results.
There is an unprecedented political coalition building, among liberals
as well as conservatives, for radical reform.
No Child Left Behind is about to be reauthorized. Everyone has
reservations about that law, but it is the glaring spotlight that
reveals and pierces the complacency at mediocre schools. If
accountability standards are watered down, as the establishment wants,
then real reform will fade.
This will be a tough call for Obama, because it will mean offending
people, but he can either galvanize the cause of reform or demoralize
it. It’ll be one of the biggest choices of his presidency.
Many of the reformist hopes now hang on Obama’s friend, Arne Duncan. In
Chicago, he’s a successful reformer who has produced impressive results
in a huge and historically troubled system. He has the political skills
necessary to build a coalition on behalf of No Child Left Behind
reauthorization. Because he is close to both Obamas, he will ensure
that education doesn’t fall, as it usually does, into the ranks of the
second-tier issues.
If Obama picks a reformer like Duncan, Klein or one of the others, he
will be picking a fight with the status quo. But there’s never been a
better time to have that fight than right now.
Sound
familiar?
State looks for $1.7M from city
By Elizabeth Benton, New Haven Register Staff
Friday, November 21,
2008 5:55 AM EST
NEW HAVEN — Thirteen years after High School in the Community opened on
Water Street, the state is now seeking $1.7 million from the city,
primarily due to a disagreement over the purchase price of the property.
New Haven paid $2.2 million for the property, which they then renovated
into an inter-district magnet school. While the state initially
reimbursed the city for that expense, in a 2007 audit of the $6 million
project, the state determined the property to be worth only $700,000,
according to School Construction Coordinator Susan Weisselberg.
The remaining expense was due to charges the state deemed to be not
reimbursable.
Weisselberg and Chief Operating Officer Will Clark appeared before the
Board of Aldermen’s Finance Committee Wednesday night seeking to
include the unexpected $1.7 million in bonds the city plans to issue in
March.
The committee approved the request, which will now appear before the
full board.
According to Weisselberg, the
state has 20 years to audit a project after its completion.
“It makes it really hard,” she said. “The project was done differently
than the way we do things now. People who worked on it are not people
who are here now. We were able to reconstruct a fair amount of it.
Ultimately what it came to was the auditors viewing the acquisition
price one way, we viewed it another way,” she said.
State education spokesman Tom Murphy said such reimbursement request
are “quite normal and quite prevalent.”
“Every school construction project is audited at close out,” he said.
“This is a common outcome in school construction. When you’re talking
about a 40, 60 or $100 million project, $1.5 million or even $5 million
is a real possibility.”
While the city and state differ over expenses for the older project,
the city also is considering $25 million worth of new upgrades to the
building, including window replacements, fa硤e improvements, energy
efficiency upgrades and expansion for a full-size gym and a
multipurpose space. Of that expense, all but $1.5 million would be paid
for by the state. The city plans to submit that project to the state in
2009, dependent on economic conditions.
No
Towns Willing To Take New London
Students; City required to ask under mandate of No Child Left
Behind
DAY
By Jenna Cho
Published on 10/6/2008
New London - To comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, New
London asked 18 school systems in the region last month whether they
would transport and educate New London students - for free.
So far, there are no takers.
New London was required to contact neighboring school districts because
its Harbor Elementary School this year became the fourth and last
elementary school in the district not to make adequate yearly progress
for two or more consecutive years under the law. That put Harbor on the
list of schools that are in need of improvement. Under NCLB,
school districts with an in-need school must offer parents of that
school the option to transfer to a different school within the
district. But all the elementary schools in New London are in need of
improvement, which means New London has no elementary school
alternatives to so-called failing schools.
So on Sept. 2, New London Assistant Superintendent Christine Carver
sent letters to school superintendents asking whether any of them would
be willing to educate some of New London's 1,600 elementary students if
a parent were to exercise his or her right to public school choice
under NCLB. New London Superintendent Christopher Clouet said no parent
has formally requested the school choice option this year.
”It doesn't say much about the quality of the teaching,” said Carver of
sending the letters. “It really is just about the requirement of No
Child Left Behind.”
Accepting New London's request would mean absorbing the cost of
educating and transporting the New London children. Griswold, Ledyard,
Lyme-Old Lyme, Montville, North Stonington, Norwich, Preston, Voluntown
and Waterford have all declined to enter into what Carver, in her
letter, called the “Inter-district School Choice Cooperative Agreement.”
Eight other districts have not replied, and Colchester is awaiting a
board of education discussion on the matter, according to Carver.
Most urban districts in the state are caught in the same predicament as
New London, said Susan Kennedy, chief of the state Department of
Education's Bureau of School and District Improvement.
”It is very difficult to get surrounding districts to participate in
taking kids,” Kennedy said. “Part of it is because there's no
transportation that's guaranteed there. Many of these districts have no
seats available. The timing is bad in terms of the economy; everybody's
struggling. And so to take kids that are not naturally theirs presents
some problems.”
Running out of schools able to serve as alternatives to failing schools
is a symptom of the fact that adequate yearly progress is a moving
target that keeps getting harder and harder to hit, said Kennedy. By
2013-14, 100 percent of students are expected to meet federal
proficiency levels in reading and math standardized tests, which means
most schools by then will be failing to make the yearly progress
standard.
”These schools are improving,” said Kennedy. “The problem, this year,
is that the threshold moved up.”
Kennedy said New London's request to other districts single-handedly
satisfies the NCLB requirement that school districts offer public
school choice, whether or not other districts agree to take on New
London's students. When all its schools are failing, a district can
offer supplemental services, such as tutoring to help struggling
students but isn't obligated to, said Kennedy. Michael Petrilli,
vice president for national programs and policy at the education think
tank Thomas B. Fordham Institute, called NCLB's provision for public
school choice “basically toothless.”
Only about 120,000 students nationwide exercised their right to public
school choice in 2006-07, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
”There's basically no way to force school districts to provide school
choice to parents if they don't want to,” Petrilli said, “and in this
case, if they don't have an ability to do so.”
Too expensive
For at least a couple of districts, cost was the main deciding factor
in declining New London's request. North Stonington's Board of
Education decided it could not foot the $13,747 annual cost of
educating out-of-district students, said the district's superintendent,
Natalie Pukas. Out-of-district tuition in Ledyard is $9,200 a
year for elementary students, and one school bus costs about $75,000 a
year, said Ledyard Superintendent Michael Graner.
”Given the nature of our budget this year and certainly for next year,”
said Graner, “it would've been a really substantial financial burden
for our school district.”
Graner acknowledged the difficulty New London faces in improving
student performance when the standards keep rising. He said New London
offers strong bilingual programs and has been adept at educating
English language learners.
”I have every confidence that New London Public Schools is providing
the programs to meet the needs of the children,” Graner said.
Stage is set for
new Weston
High School auditorium
Weston FORUM
Written by Kimberly Donnelly
Friday, August 08, 2008
The lights are dark and the stage is bare at the Weston High School
auditorium. That’s normal for this time of year; what’s not normal is
the fact that there are also no seats, no curtain, no floor tiles or
carpet, no walls in some places, and lots and lots of dust.
“The demolition part is done,” said Tom Landry, town administrator.
“Now they’re working on putting it back together.”
Renovation of the high school auditorium is the final piece in the
town’s $80-million school and athletic facilities project that voters
approved in 2001 and that broke ground in 2003. That project included
new playing fields at Morehouse Farm Park and Bisceglie-Scribner Park,
the new intermediate school, and renovation and additions at the high
school.
Refurbishing the high school auditorium was not originally a part of
the building project. However, when bids for a planned new auditorium
at Weston Middle School came in millions of dollars more than expected,
the focus shifted to making improvements to the existing high school
performance space instead.
Work on the auditorium includes adding air conditioning, replacing
antiquated rigging, lighting work, and floor replacement.
WestonArts, a nonprofit group, has raised about $300,000 in private
funds to help supplement the costs of the auditorium project,
specifically to replace the seats.
Mr. Landry said figuring out the cost of the project as a whole is
tricky because so many different contracts are involved. Carlson
Construction is the main contractor; Innovative Engineering Services of
North Haven is the main design engineer; William Warfel is the lighting
designer; Ducharme is responsible for the seating; two different fabric
companies, J.B. Martin and Designtex, are involved; and Theatre
Projects Consultancy is another designer.
In addition to the money raised by WestonArts, the money to pay for the
project — which Mr. Landry ultimately pins down at about $2.1 million —
comes from several different sources. Money that was originally bonded
to build the middle school auditorium was “transferred” to pay for the
high school roof replacement and auditorium renovation.
Mr. Landry said after the roof was completed, about $1.2 million was
left to apply toward the auditorium. At a special town meeting June 11
this year, voters approved an additional $586,585 appropriation from
the general fund, and there was money left in a capital account for the
roof replacement that will be applied toward the auditorium.
The auditorium will not be completed by the time school opens at the
end of this month. The building committee is pushing to have it ready
by mid-October, in time for the high school’s Company to stage its fall
performance.
No
surprises here...Weston rank in the state - #9 (math),#2
(science),#5 (reading),#7 (writing).
Sophomores Show Gains In CAPT Scores
By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER | Courant Staff Writer
10:30 AM EDT, July 15, 2008
Connecticut high school sophomores showed gains in math, science and
writing on the state's annual achievement test, while performance in
reading was flat, according to figures released this morning.
Statewide, just over half of high school sophomores reached state goals
in math on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test this year, a 4.9
percentage-point increase from sophomores in 2007.
Writing performance was up 4.8 percentage points, with 57.8 percent of
10th graders reaching state goals.
In science, 46.5 percent of students reached state goals, a 2
percentage-point increase, while 45.5 percent of students achieved
goals in reading, the same as 2007.
State Education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan described the scores as
promising, but noted that many challenges persist, including wide
achievement gaps between minority students and their white peers.
"We still have far to go, but this is a step forward for our state,"
McQuillan said in a written statement.
Overall, 35 school districts and the Connecticut Technical High School
system showed performance gains on all four subjects. Seven districts
recorded drops in performance for all four subjects.
The numbers varied widely by district.
In New Canaan, which topped the state in math and science performance,
more than 90 percent of students reached state goals in math and
writing, and more than 80 percent achieved goal in science and reading.
In Hartford, which posted the state's lowest reading performance, 11
percent of students reached state reading goals.
Still, Hartford, like several other poor and traditionally
low-performing districts, showed some gains. While the percent of
students reaching goals in reading was down in the capital city, math,
science, and writing achievement was up, though the district still
ranked among the bottom 10 districts statewide in reaching goal in each
category.
White, black and Hispanic students all showed gains in math, science
and writing, but wide gaps persist. While 63.1 percent of white
students achieved goal on the math exam, for example, only 14.6 percent
of black students and 18.2 percent of Hispanic students did.
The scores come amid an increased focus on high schools by state
education officials, who have proposed an ambitious plan to reshape
secondary school education. The proposal, a response to concerns that
students are increasingly graduating unprepared for college or the
workforce, calls for added credit and curriculum requirements,
including an independent project for seniors, end-of-course exams that
students would have to pass to graduate, and an increased emphasis on
students' connections with teachers and other school staff.
Fewer
students in years to come?
Study projects 17% enrollment
drop in Conn. schools
DAY
By Jenna Cho
Published on 7/5/2008
In the world of population projections, there are always peaks and
valleys that mark a cycle of population growth and decline.
But according to an analysis by the University of Connecticut's
Connecticut State Data Center, the state is starting to see a
“long-term decline in the school-age population.” The data center
serves as a liaison to the U.S. Census Bureau. The state uses the data
to create public policy and to decide where to spend money.
The study summary, released last month, projects a 17-percent decline
between 2004-05 and 2020-21 in the total number of public-school
students in grades 1 to 12 in the state. Public school enrollment in
those grades peaked at 523,100 in 2004-05 and is expected to drop to
about 432,300 in 2020-21, according to the study.
”Low fertility rates are the root cause of this decline,” the study
release reads. “The boomer generation, now approaching retirement, had
fewer children than their parents. … Each progressive generation is
failing to replace itself.”
The state Department of Education's own projections, through the
2016-17 school year, also reflect a decline in student enrollment in
preschool through 12th grade.
”The UConn study suggests that we may not recover from this decline,
that the students that are graduating from the high schools now … will
move out of state and not return,” said department spokesman Thomas
Murphy. “And in some ways, they may be right. We've seen in recent
years larger and larger percentages of high school graduates go to
college outside of Connecticut and then fail to return.”
But Murphy also cautioned that trends over the past 60 years have shown
recoveries from such declines. The state experienced a low of about
466,000 in public-school enrollment in 1988 but in 2006-07 saw the
numbers climb back up to about 574,000, according to department records.
The 2008 graduating class was, at about 38,400, the largest the state
has seen in the past 10 years, Murphy said. The decline in enrollment
is expected starting this year.
”We should be mindful of the projections of the study and consider it a
strong possibility, but there's nothing certain because these are
projections,” Murphy said.
Orlando Rodriguez, the data center's manager and demographer, said the
latest study was actually a re-emphasis of a study released in May 2007
showing enrollment projections in grades 1 to 12 between the years 2000
and 2030.
”In a sense, it's repackaged information,” Rodriguez said. “But the
reason we brought it out is because we've been waiting for the numbers
to start dropping.”
The data center saw that drop, of about 3,886 students, between 2006-07
and 2007-08. Rodriguez cited several factors as contributing to the
decline, including lower birth rates, more people leaving Connecticut
than staying and a stagnant job market.
The study projects enrollment to increase again somewhat after 2020,
with an estimated 458,900 students in grades 1 to 12 in the year 2030.
The data center and state education department both looked at birth
rates and factors such as migration and job opportunities. But
Rodriguez said the data center and state numbers differ because the two
used different methods of projection. The data center also tracked
enrollment trends for a longer period, starting in 1990, he said.
Rodriguez said school districts should be cautious to spend money on
construction projects when there may not be a need for larger school
facilities in the future. A declining public-school population will
have other social repercussions, he said.
”We're projecting that our elderly population is going to increase
dramatically,” Rodriguez said. “So in terms of social services, we're
going to have fewer children but more elderly.”
New London schools Superintendent Christopher Clouet said the data
center's projections did not affect the school district's plan to
convert two of its elementary schools into magnet schools because the
magnet schools would draw a percentage of its students from outside New
London.
Additionally, New London families already tend to have larger families
than suburban families, he said.
”When they say the state of Connecticut will have a relative decline in
students, I don't doubt that,” Clouet said. “I think the decline will
be experienced differently in different types of communities.”
Magnet
School Referendum Is Cause For
Jitters; NL Lawmakers Fear Negative Vote Could Hamper Future State
Funding
DAY
By Kevin Dale
Published on 4/5/2008
New London — In July, officials from the city, school district and
state gathered in the city's Science and Technology Magnet High School
to celebrate what was portrayed as a legislative triumph. In the
waning days of the summer session, the General Assembly, after
considerable lobbying from New London legislators, passed what has come
to be known as the “magnet plan.”
The legislation designated New London as the state's first
magnet-school district. But the true purpose behind the creative label
was to give the cash-strapped city $58 million — 95 percent of the $61
million estimate — to renovate Winthrop and Nathan Hale schools into
600-student magnet schools. But as the magnet plan heads to a
resident-triggered referendum Tuesday, members of the city's
legislative delegation nervously await the outcome of an election that
they are surprised is even occurring. The rejection of the plan, they
said, could harm their future efforts to secure state funds for the
city.
“I don't think anybody thought this largess wouldn't be accepted,” said
state Rep. Ted Moukawsher, D-Groton. “It's kind of inconceivable, but
here we are.”
Echoing local supporters, Moukawsher noted the plan awards the city $10
million. Under the reimbursement formula for nonmagnet schools,
the city would have to contribute $13 million to renovate the two,
roughly 40-year-old elementary schools; the magnet plan requires $3
million.
“It's astounding to me you want to prevent kids from having new schools
at basically no cost,” said Moukawsher, echoing the “no-brainer”
argument made by the plan's supporters. State Rep. Ernest Hewett,
D-New London, said he has been a little chagrined to have to inform the
heads of the assembly's education committees — who backed the plan —
that residents forced the referendum and could vote the plan down.
“Actually, I'm a little apologetic to them,” Hewett said. “I'm kind of
hoping that it's passed. We would look pretty bad going back up there
and making a pitch for New London.”
New London Superintendent Christopher Clouet has said the magnet plan
came about because school officials needed additional state money to
renovate the schools. He said the district couldn't ask the city to
contribute $13 million, a figure equal to 17 percent of its total
budget.
“There just wouldn't be any appetite for it,” Clouet said.
The city's legislators said the plan's rejection could complicate
future pitches for state money. The assumption underlying those
requests, they said, is that New London, as a tax-poor city
overburdened with needs, should receive extra help from Hartford.
“People are watching,” said state Sen. Andrea Stillman, D-Waterford.
“It has so much support. For the residents to reject what is really a
gift from the state in the form of this grant would be a very difficult
thing for us to explain.”
In addition to the legislators, the plan enjoys the substantial support
of the city's elected officials. The city's Democratic Town Committee
has endorsed the plan, as have the city's three Republican elected
officials: city Councilors Rob Pero and Adam Sprecace and school board
member James Pearce. But the city's Republican Town Committee
appears to be split on the plan. After debating the merits at its
meeting this week, the committee decided not to take a position.
Last week, Sprecace, the council's chief number cruncher, and
Democratic Councilor Mike Buscetto III held a “nonpartisan” forum to
persuade residents of the plan's financial upside. Armed with the
slogan “Pay Less, Vote Yes,” Buscetto has stepped forward as a major
backer of the plan.
Buscetto, a developer, has said he will be “intimately involved” with
the schools' construction. In his appearance Thursday on the
cable-access show “The Renshaw Report,” he pledged that the city's $3
million share would be covered through cost savings and wouldn't
increase taxes.
“Put it on tape,” Buscetto said after host Murray “the Eye” Renshaw
held him to the promise.
With the city's GOP taking a sideline role in the debate, it is
difficult to gauge the extent of the plan's opposition, which appears
to be led by Charles Frink, Bill Cornish and Evelyn and Demetrious
Louziotis. Those residents, who have been vocal critics of the
plan, sponsored the 409-signature petition that challenged the City
Council's Feb. 4 decision to approve the plan.
Cornish, a One New London party member and former city councilor, has
been the magnet plan's most outspoken critic. He objects to a
stipulation in the plan that requires the city's magnet schools,
whether they are district-run or not, to enroll a combined 15 percent
of students from outside New London. The city must meet the
target by June 2012 or facing having to repay the $10 million,
according to the magnet-plan legislation.
The plan's proponents say the goal can be reached, and they point to
the roughly 400 suburban students who already attend the city's magnet
schools, including 300 enrolled at the Regional Multicultural Magnet
School, which is not run by the district.
Cornish and his fellow opponents are skeptical that the elementary
magnet schools will attract the 100 or so suburban students needed to
meet the 2012 target. “Take the penalty off. Take the quota off for
suburban kids,” he said.
During his appearance on “The Renshaw Report” Thursday, Cornish
questioned the widely held belief that the Winthrop and Nathan Hale
schools are in desperate need of repair. “I don't think they're falling
down,” he said.
And Cornish took issue with the $61 million price, which school
officials admit is the best estimate that can be made at this point.
“They can take that 'no-brainer' label and stuff it. It doesn't do
anything for me,” Cornish said.
Supporters of the plan have been harshly critical of the opponents,
characterizing them as a small but noisy group of naysayers.
“There's a few people that are pretty much against everything, or
mostly everything,” Buscetto said. Clouet, in a January interview about
the plan, accused some critics of being “part of an organized,
generalized assault on the young.”
Moukawsher said, “There's an element in New London that seems to be
critical — it's just knee-jerk reaction.”
He suggested the critics' overriding motivation is to deal
school-district leaders what would be a bruising political defeat on a
cardinal policy initiative.
“They're anxious — and desperate almost — to find something negative to
say,” Moukawsher said. “The only way their politics or political
situation can be advanced is through failure.”
Cornish said he remains unfazed. “There's been a lot of name-calling in
this,” he said. “It doesn't bother me at all.”
How
do residency, voting controversy,
beach access policy relate to this issue?
Schools check students' residence
Greenwich TIME
By Andrew Shaw
Published February 2 2008
Reality or not, concerned taxpayers and parents believe there are many
nonresidents attending Greenwich Public Schools taking up tax dollars
and classroom seats.
But school officials hope that a proposed centralized residency
verification system, combined with a recently acquired software program
that tracks address changes with the post office, will help address the
perception that there are scores of New York children attending schools
on the western side of town.
"We're spending some money to address that perception," said John
Curtin, assistant superintendent of research and evaluation. Curtin
heads the residency verification process.
The Board of Education's budget includes $48,500 for a centralized
system that will change the verification process, starting in July.
Instead of a new student bringing in proof of residency to their
neighborhood school, under the new system they will have to go to the
Havemeyer Building to be verified with district staff. As part of the
change, a full-time staff member will be added to help Curtin and his
part-time staff member. The school budget still needs to be approved by
the town.
Board Vice Chairwoman Leslie Moriarty said non-residency isn't the
large issue some believe, but she added that the centralized system
should help the district with a more standardized approach.
"We do want to make sure our tax dollars are being used effectively,"
Moriarty said.
The district's existing verification system has been criticized by some
parents for not being effective, based on their anecdotal evidence of
seeing New York license plates on cars carrying students.
Deanne Biddle, a mother of Western Middle School and Greenwich High
School students, said she's seen the out-of-state plates and thinks the
district can do more to check addresses, just as Greenwich uses strict
guidelines when approving its beach passes for town residents.
"I have to wonder how many of the children really belong there," said
Biddle, 46, of the crowded high school.
But school officials say the out-of-state car often is owned by a
relative, or is registered to a business, or there can be a variety of
other reasons. However, if a school has cause to believe a student
doesn't live in town, an investigation is conducted.
Western principal Stacey Gross said she takes residency verification
seriously and that teachers listen for verbal cues that a child doesn't
live in town. The school also checks for returned mail, chronic
tardiness or an inability to reach parents as warning signs.
The district investigations rarely lead to a student withdrawal, Curtin
said. From 2001 to 2006, 78 nonresident students were forced to
withdraw. Curtin estimated there are about 10 such students this year.
It costs the town about $14,000 a year to educate a student, not
including extracurricular activities, the teachers' time and
opportunities taken away from legitimate Greenwich students.
Tesei
backs early start on GHS art
center
Greenwich TIME
By Andrew Shaw, Staff Writer
Published December 22 2007
First Selectman Peter Tesei broke with his predecessor yesterday and
said he would consider funding construction of a new high school
performing arts center three years earlier than former First Selectman
Jim Lash.
The Board of Education wants $2.1 million in architectural and
engineering money for the project in the 2008-09 budget year, and $23.4
million construction money in the following year.
Before leaving office, Lash proposed that the construction money be
withheld until the 2012-13 budget year. Supporters of the project
feared that plans for the project would be out of date by then, and
that students need new facilities as soon as possible.
Tesei said students would benefit from having the facility built sooner
rather than later, in an interview yesterday.
"One cannot ignore the importance of it," Tesei said of renovating the
space. "It's not just about the auditorium. It's about additional space
for musical instruction and programming that's needed."
But he cautioned that getting funds earlier would depend heavily on the
project clearing zoning hurdles, specifically parking concerns. Lash,
who was the head of the Capital Improvements Committee, which evaluates
and prioritizes projects for the town, had predicted the project will
encounter zoning issues during the architectural and engineering study,
pushing construction back.
"I think it's going to take a full and complete hearing," with the
Planning and Zoning board, Lash said in an interview earlier this
month. "I don't think construction is going to be the thing holding up
the phasing of the project."
Parents strongly opposed Lash's plan, though. PTA co-president Leslie
Cooper said yesterday, "If they move the construction back, that's
another 8,000 to 10,000 kids that won't have use of that new facility."
The performing arts space has been cited for lack of classroom,
rehearsal and storage space and poor acoustics, among other issues. A
study by Glastonbury architect Perkins and Will showed the auditorium
has about half the capacity of those at nearby high schools in other
towns.
Tesei said he's impressed with the work done so far by the architect
and the community advocacy group, the Friends of the High School
Performing Arts, who cleared a hurdle Thursday night when the Board of
Education unanimously approved preliminary designs for the project.
That clears the way for the board to ask the town to create a building
committee to oversee the project.
Day 4 In
Sheff Case Reveals Rift
By RACHEL GOTTLIEB FRANK | Courant Staff Writer
November 10, 2007
Testimony by the state's education commissioner on the fourth day of a
hearing on the Sheff vs. O'Neill desegregation lawsuit revealed a testy
relationship between Hartford's superintendent of schools and the state
Department of Education over state efforts to quicken the pace of
desegregation.
The Sheff lawsuit, filed in 1989, resulted in an order by the state
Supreme Court in 1996 to end the racial, ethnic and economic isolation
of Hartford's minority students. The court left it to the state and the
plaintiffs to decide how to do that. Now the plaintiffs say
desegregation efforts have fallen short, and they are in Superior Court
appealing for help.
State Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan on Friday summarized an
exchange of letters that began last summer between him and
Superintendent Steven Adamowski in which McQuillan asked Hartford to
submit documents showing why several of the city's magnet schools
didn't have enough white students and how the district intended to
remedy the problem.
"This was a repeated plea that went out," McQuillan testified, and the
state was threatening to withhold millions of dollars if those
documents weren't submitted by Oct. 1.
In letters back to McQuillan, the commissioner testified, Adamowski
challenged the state's authority to withhold funding.
"I wrote back to say we really do have the authority to withhold
funds," McQuillan said
In time, he said, Adamowski set conditions for the release of the
documents that the state was seeking. One condition was the reform of
the lottery system used to admit students to magnet schools. In
Adamowski's opinion, the lottery system for admission to interdistrict
magnet schools is illegal in the wake of recent U.S. Supreme Court
rulings on the use of race for the assignment of students to schools,
McQuillan said.
"He continued to come back to me to say it was the state's
responsibility to develop a new lottery system," McQuillan testified.
Finally, he said, Adamowski took the position that until he saw a new
lottery system he would not release enrollment plans sought by the
state.
McQuillan testified that he believes the lottery, which is run by the
Capitol Region Education Council (CREC), is fair.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision released in June forbids schools from
enrolling children strictly on the basis of race and threatened many
voluntary desegregation plans throughout the nation. But at the time of
the ruling,, experts said they believed it would have little effect on
school desegregation efforts in Hartford. The key difference, legal
experts said, is that the magnet schools and school choice plans that
are a central piece of the Sheff efforts do not single out students by
race. Rather, the plans attempt to achieve racial balance by selecting
students based on where they live.
In the dispute between McQuillan and Adamowski, the state ultimately
withheld $4.6 million from Hartford because the city did not submit the
enrollment plans that the state demanded.
Another point of tension between McQuillan and Adamowski is the
development of a joint office between the state, Hartford and the CREC
to implement desegregation programs.
Since he took office last January, McQuillan testified, he has
reorganized his office and created a special division to concentrate
exclusively on Sheff mandates. The joint office between the state,
Hartford and CREC is a separate office he is attempting to create. But
Adamowski made clear to McQuillan that he thought the state should take
the lead role in implementing integration efforts.
Throughout the hearing on the status of the desegregation projects
under the Sheff ruling, Hartford's lawyer has pushed the point that it
is the state - not Hartford - that is the defendant in the case, so the
state should be responsible for all costs and implementation.
Before McQuillan was called as a witness for the state, Robert
Genuario, secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management,
testified about some of the funding dedicated to desegregating
Hartford's schools, including $4.9 million in the state budget this
year and $9.9 million in next year's budget. The money is earmarked for
the development of new charter schools, expanding the Open Choice
program through which city students enroll in suburban schools, funding
interdistrict cooperative programs and operations of the joint office
between Hartford, the state and CREC.
John Rose, Hartford's lawyer, asked Genuario if there was money
dedicated to make up for lost taxes when the city buys private property
for use as a school and whether the state was paying for all the staff
in the magnet schools opened in Hartford as part of the integration
efforts.
Genuario said that the state assists with salaries for staff through
its main grant for education called the Education Cost Sharing Grant,
and he pointed out that schools never pay taxes.
Spotty Sheff Enforcement
By RACHEL GOTTLIEB FRANK | And MAGDALENE PEREZ Courant Staff Writers
November 9, 2007
Over the years the state has helped develop a comprehensive plan to
desegregate Hartford's schools, spent hundreds of millions of dollars
on the efforts, appealed to suburban districts to open their schools to
city students and offered training to suburban districts to help city
students succeed, state witnesses testified Thursday in the Sheff vs.
O'Neill desegregation case.
But cross-examination of those witnesses in Superior Court in Hartford
revealed that shifts in management have resulted in spotty results and
murky accountability since 2003, when the plaintiffs in the Sheff
lawsuit reached a compromise agreement with the state on integration
goals.
During those years, changes in oversight included five state education
commissioners, multiple reorganizations of the state Department of
Education, four Hartford superintendents, a transition from state
control over Hartford schools to local control and the creation and
disbanding of a magnet school office in Hartford.
The lawsuit, filed in 1989, resulted in an order by the state Supreme
Court in 1996 to end the racial, ethnic and economic isolation of
Hartford's minority students. The court left it to the state and the
plaintiffs to decide how to do that, and sent the case back to Superior
Court for monitoring. Now, 11 years later, the plaintiffs say
desegregation efforts have fallen short, and they are in Superior Court
appealing for help.
Marcus Rivera, a consultant for the state education department,
testified that he helped Hartford create a plan for integration that
included developing magnet schools, improving all of Hartford's schools
and sending city students to suburban schools. After Hartford's school
board approved the plan, the state left it to the city to implement it,
he said.
But during his cross-examination of state witnesses Thursday, the
city's lawyer, John Rose, pointed out that Hartford is not a defendant
in the Sheff lawsuit and therefore not responsible for carrying out its
mandate.
After his testimony, Rivera said he isn't sure how much of the plan he
helped create was carried out, though he believes some of it was.
Some of the testimony suggested the state is not entirely to blame for
failure to reach Sheff goals to enroll specific numbers of Hartford
minority students in suburban schools through the Open Choice program.
Rivera said that Hartford hasn't always cooperated.
For example, Rivera said, when there were openings in suburban schools
for kindergartners and first-graders, then-Education Commissioner Betty
Sternberg asked then-Hartford Superintendent Robert Henry to include
information about the vacancies in a letter to Hartford parents that
the district was required to send anyway as part of the federal No
Child Left Behind law.
Henry refused to include information about the vacancies, Rivera said,
telling the state, "We really would not like to have these letters go
out because we want to keep all Hartford students in Hartford."
Under cross-examination by Sheff lawyer Martha Stone, Rivera said the
state did not take it upon itself to send the letter to parents.
"What we were not able to do is get information into the hands of all
parents that this was a choice open to them," Rivera said.
Stone pressed the point that the state had repeatedly made
participation in desegregation efforts voluntary by asking districts to
help, but never setting benchmarks for individual districts to meet.
When the state realized it would fall short of its requirement to place
1,600 Hartford minority students in suburban schools - last year 1,070
students were enrolled in the Open Choice program - Sternberg wrote a
letter to superintendents "strongly encouraging" them to open more
seats, Rivera said.
The July 2006 letter said that 469 new students must be added to the
Open Choice program - a total of 18 in each of the 27 school districts
governed by the Sheff compromise - to reach the state's ordered
obligation of placing 1,600 students in the program by 2007.
Each district has decided to heed or ignore that recommendation on its
own terms, Rivera said. While some districts have renewed seats for
Hartford students, others have not opened a single new seat in years.
Schools:
A Shift Of Views On Sheff;
Case Returns To Court Amid New Skepticism
By RACHEL GOTTLIEB FRANK | Courant Staff Writer
November 5, 2007
A decade after the state Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of
schools across Greater Hartford in the landmark Sheff v. O'Neill case,
the goal of integration remains elusive.
Magnet schools, the cornerstone of the state's plan to bring together
white children and children of color using voluntary incentives, have
fallen short. Hartford's schools still have a population that is
predominantly black, Hispanic and poor.
Now, as the Sheff plaintiffs head back to court Tuesday to demand the
state make good on its assurances, advocates of integration are facing
increasing skepticism on the part of both state lawmakers and city
officials over both the cost - and value - of continuing down the same
path.
Tensions that have long remain hidden are now erupting, opening up a
new and potentially contentious chapter in the effort to desegregate
schools in and around Hartford.
"It's breaking out in the open now," said John Brittain, a former Sheff
lawyer. "The current spat with the Hartford school system exposes the
fragility of the infrastructure of the Sheff v. O'Neill process."
Lawyers for the Sheff plaintiffs declined to say what they will seek in
court. The latest effort at compromise between the state and the
plaintiffs - which failed to win legislative approval - called for the
state to spend $112 million over the next five years to expand the
array of magnet, charter and vocational-technical schools.
But one attorney said now that the issue is heading back to court, the
plaintiffs won't be constrained by the compromises that they have
agreed to in the past.
"There's new thinking we'll be presenting at the trial," said Matthew
Colangelo, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund who is
representing the plaintiffs in the Sheff v. O'Neill lawsuit.
"We're saying it's been 11 years and not enough progress has been made
and we think it's time for the court to get involved."
Forced Integration?
The question of whether the city's schools must be desegregated was
settled by a state Supreme Court order in 1996, though the court left
it to the Sheff plaintiffs and the state to figure out how to do it.
The state and the plaintiffs finally reached an agreement on a plan in
2003, and it was left largely to Hartford to implement its terms by
building magnet schools and sending students to suburban schools
through the state's "Open Choice" program.
The guiding principle of those efforts has been to make desegregation
voluntary - sidestepping the politically explosive prospect of forcibly
moving children from one school to another.
But the effectiveness of this approach is now being questioned.
"The notion that we're going to get a better result by voluntary
programs is ridiculous," said state Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden,
co-chairman of the legislature's education committee. "We need to shift
away from the model of remedy that the state has been pursuing for
years. The district is as racially isolated today as it was 10 years
ago. It suggests you need to do something different."
Gaffey advocates giving the education commissioner more statutory
authority to enforce broad participation by area towns.
The best way to satisfy the court order, he said, probably would be to
expand the Open Choice program, through which Hartford students enroll
in suburban schools. This would give the commissioner power to order
reluctant towns to open their doors to more students from Hartford.
"How open Open Choice is, is really debatable," Gaffey said, conceding
that towns won't like being strong-armed into admitting more Hartford
kids and that getting any major changes through the General Assembly
would be difficult.
Hartford School Superintendent Steven Adamowski bluntly told the State
Board of Education recently that it isn't fair Hartford has borne the
brunt of making integration happen, while suburban participation
remains optional.
As it stands, the state is withholding $4.6 million from the city-run
magnet schools for failing to enroll enough white students, and won't
release that money until the city submits a plan outlining its plan for
a remedy. If the state doesn't release the money, Adamowski said, the
district will have to begin laying off staff at the four magnet schools
that don't meet the quota.
Adamowski told the State Board of Education and
the education commissioner that a regional approach is needed. He
strongly encouraged them to create a system of rewards and punishments
to get the region's many "fiefdoms" to work with Hartford in developing
models for integrated schools that are different from the traditional
magnet school model.
But while there are growing questions about the effectiveness of
voluntary solutions, the state will likely argue in court against
involuntary participation, said Education Commissioner Mark K.
McQuillan. "This state has historically and fervently relied on local
control," he said.
That devotion aside, he said, programs that are entered into
voluntarily are more likely to work.
"People will invest more of their energy and time to carry it out,"
McQuillan said. "Let's try voluntary measures now. If that fails then
we may have to take more drastic measures that people may not want."
McQuillan said he wants to expand the Open Choice program and to press
for the development of magnet schools in the suburbs.
He conceded that the assumption that suburban youngsters would be drawn
to magnet schools run by Hartford was mistaken. By locating schools in
the suburbs, officials said, the state could address the perception of
some parents that Hartford schools are not safe.
"Suburban parents have some trepidation about sending their children
into the inner city. Whether it's perceived or accurate, we are aware
of it," said Tom Murphy, spokesman for the state Department of
Education. "Having several schools in suburban communities as a choice
will give an opportunity to allay those concerns."
McQuillan said he thinks that six or seven magnet schools run by
suburban towns could work, focusing on young children in grades pre-K
through 3. Parents who would otherwise pay to send their preschool-aged
children to day care would find the offer of an all-day public
preschool school program particularly enticing, McQuillan said.
Hartford Pulls Back
Beyond the question of how to make desegregation happen is a broader
problem: Officials are growing more vocal about the burden Sheff
presents - and even questioning the value of its goals.
In a presentation to the State Board of Education on ways Hartford is
working to close the achievement gap between urban and suburban
children, Adamowski questioned the very premise of the Sheff lawsuit.
"There is no research to suggest that minority students will do better
by sitting next to a white student," he said.
The original lawsuit, filed in 1989, asserted that the racial
segregation of Hartford schools violates the state's constitution.
Adamowski's comment resonated with some, including Hartford school
board member Andrea Comer, who believes it is demeaning to assume that
children of color need to share a classroom with white students in
order to learn well.
But it drew a sharp response from some advocates of desegregation.
"We're disappointed that it's 2007 and the superintendent wants to
debate whether it is a bad thing for Hartford's minority children to be
taught in racially segregated schools," Colangelo said.
"As a social science matter, the answer has been clear for decades,"
Colangelo said. As a legal matter, he said, the case was settled years
ago.
In his presentation to the state board, Adamowski outlined a strategy
for improving the city's schools that does not specifically address the
court's order, although the Hartford school board's new policy for
redesigning failing schools directs the superintendent to "give
consideration" to the Sheff goals of reducing racial and economic
isolation.
"This is high stakes for the state," Murphy said. "The superintendent's
reform package has not connected Sheff with the strategies for
improvement. We've got to find some common ground."
In the past, Hartford's superintendents have publicly embraced the lead
position in fulfilling the requirements of the Sheff lawsuit, even if
they grumbled behind the scenes about cost. Adamowski's public
arm's-length posture from both the state and the tenets of the court
order represent a dramatic shift in the landscape.
Lawmakers are also asking questions about the direction of
desegregation efforts.
Legislative leaders this summer didn't put the $112 million plan to
expand magnets up for a vote in part because they questioned the
effectiveness of the approach, and in part because Hartford's mayor and
superintendent urged rejection until the state develops a more
comprehensive plan to integrate schools.
On the eve of the case's return to court, Mayor Eddie A. Perez,
chairman of the school board, lobbed his pitch into the arena, saying
that while the city remains committed to the Sheff goals, the state
shouldn't dump the burden on Hartford.
"The state wants to monitor us and have us implement Sheff. We want
them to implement Sheff and we will assist them," Perez said. "It can't
just be Hartford's burden."
Drug-Resistant Germ Nothing To
Lose Sleep Over, Experts Say
DAY
By Amy Renczkowski
Published on 10/19/2007
Local health officials are urging parents and students not to panic
about the potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant staph infection found
this week in some schools around the state.
“It's out there, but it's not something to be scared of,” said Sue
Congdon, epidemiologist at Ledge Light Health District.
At least three high school students — in Weston, Berlin and Newtown —
have been diagnosed with Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus
infection, or MRSA. Three students at Albertus Magnus College in New
Haven also were confirmed Thursday to have contracted the
infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta, MRSA is a type of bacteria that causes staph
infections and is resistant to treatment with usual antibiotics.
A student from Virginia died from a similar infection earlier this
week.
The state Department of Public Health reported Thursday that about 900
cases of MRSA are reported in Connecticut each year, while hundreds of
other cases never become serious enough to require reporting.
Officials at the local Ledge Light and Uncas health districts said they
aren't aware of any cases of MRSA in the local high schools, so they
are concentrating on educating the community about prevention.
Congdon said Ledge Light sent out information about the infection to
school superintendents in areas the health district covers: East Lyme,
Groton, Ledyard, New London and Waterford. Some schools are taking it
upon themselves to notify parents and students about methods of
prevention.
Robert Bacewicz, principal of Robert E. Fitch High School in Groton,
said the school sent out a letter Thursday reminding students to be
mindful about washing their hands and keeping clean. He said there have
been no cases of the infection at the high school. High schools in
Montville and Stonington also reported no cases of MRSA.
“We're taking precautionary measures all the time,” said Thomas Amanti,
principal at Montville High School.
Amanti said the school nurse keeps administrators well informed about
the latest techniques in disease prevention. Deborah
Buxton-Morris, emergency preparedness coordinator and public health
nurse at Uncas Health District, said MRSA spreads through skin-to-skin
contact. Buxton-Morris said schools should be careful to sanitize
athletic mats and remind students about showering and changing their
clothing.
“We don't need to create a panic. Just focus on good hand washing and
good hygiene,” Buxton-Morris said.
Congdon added, “If you have a wound, clean it and cover it.”
The Centers for Disease Control reported that MRSA caused more than
94,000 life-threatening infections and nearly 19,000 deaths in the
United States in 2005, though these were associated with health-care
settings rather than community outbreaks. Most of the victims
were patients who underwent invasive medical procedures or had weakened
immune systems. MRSA in health-care settings commonly causes
serious and potentially life-threatening conditions, such as
bloodstream infections, surgical site infections or pneumonia.
Buxton-Morris said the infection also affects a lot of children and
those with weakened immune systems.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell said in a press release Thursday that her office is
working with the state Department of Education and the state Department
of Public Health to track cases of infection and to provide information
about MRSA to school districts and the public.
Deadly Germ, But It
Can Be Beaten
By WILLIAM HATHAWAY | Courant
Staff Writer
October 18, 2007
The antibiotic-resistant infection contracted by high school students
in Weston and Newtown is turning up more often in communities across
Connecticut as it sparks fear across the nation.
Doctors across Connecticut have been reporting more cases of
methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infection, or MRSA, that
have been contracted by people outside of hospitals. The number of
serious blood-borne MRSA infections acquired in the community has
increased from 38 in 2001, to 99 in 2006, state officials said.
But infectious disease experts also said that although the strain can
kill the elderly and others with underlying health issues, in otherwise
healthy people it is highly treatable and rarely life-threatening.
Weston High School officials alerted the community to the problem this
week, telling parents in a letter that one student had a confirmed case
of MRSA and that they were waiting for results of tests on a second
student. A similar letter was sent to parents of students at Newtown
High School. Officials also posted the letter on the school's Web site.
Although the Weston students were not seriously ill, the news came amid
widening concern about the growth and severity of such infections.
The letter from the high school began circulating Tuesday - the same
day a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association
documented the high toll of MRSA in hospitals and the day the death of
a Virginia high school student from the infection became national news.
Ashton Bonds, 17, a senior at Staunton River High School in Moneta,
died Monday after being diagnosed with MRSA, his mother said. Protests
after Bonds' death led officials in Virginia to shut down 21 schools.
As news of a similar infection in Weston spread Wednesday, officials
took several steps - including a press conference - to address
community concerns.
There are no protocols that require schools to publicly report MRSA
infections, but Weston school district officials said they wanted to be
proactive in order to ease fears.
"Yesterday's New York Times and CNN raised a lot of concern,"
Westport-Weston Community Health Director Monica Wheeler said. "The
coincidence of that tragedy in Virginia just made everybody say, `What
is going on?'"
Parents' reactions have been mixed, said interim Superintendent of
Schools John Reed in Weston.
"There certainly are parents very comfortable with the steps taken, and
there certainly are parents concerned," he said. "Some have asked if
we're closing the school, and some have said we should close it."
But the state health department has not recommended such steps, Reed
said. The district is following the state's advice. School officials
have taken some actions, including wiping down surfaces and switching
the type of cleaning agents used at the school. Students also are being
encouraged to wash their hands and use antimicrobial hand gel that is
already available in classrooms, Reed said.
The origin of the Weston High School student's infection has not been
confirmed, but school and health officials believe the student was
infected off school grounds. Weston school officials would not say
whether the infected student had returned to class, citing privacy laws.
As documented in the JAMA article, the MRSA strain kills thousands of
people in the nation's hospitals every year, usually elderly and those
with severe underlying health issues. The strain is responsible for
more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths a year
nationwide, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
But experts also say that when acquired by healthy people in the
community - as opposed to those infected at hospitals - the bacterial
infection only rarely causes serious illness and is treatable by other
classes of antibiotics.
As many as 40 percent of people may carry staphylococcus aureus
bacteria at any one time, according to some estimates.
When staph does appear, it is usually as a skin infection,
characterized by reddish skin surrounding a boil topped by a black
scab. The infection is often mistaken for a spider bite. Occasionally,
the bacteria can enter the blood stream, where it can become
life-threatening.
Ever since the introduction of penicillin in the 1940s, staphylococcus
and other bacterial infections have developed resistance to several
forms of antibiotics. As the JAMA study illustrates, these strains
continue to raise havoc in hospitals.
But while rates of hospital-acquired MRSA infections have been
relatively stable in recent years, community acquired infections have
been rising steadily in the state and across the country.
Connecticut reported 952 cases of MRSA infections in 2005, but Hadler
said the actual number could be much higher because many cases are not
particularly serious.
In fact, MRSA infections are so common in the community now that most
doctors who see such infections don't bother treating patients with the
class of antibiotics that include methicillin, said Dr. Kevin
Dieckhaus, chief of infectious diseases at the University of
Connecticut Health Center.
The bacteria often spread through contact with pus-filled boils. In
schools, athletes are often susceptible to infection.
"The infection is usually spread by person-to-person contact, and
sometimes we see outbreaks in sporting teams, such as wrestlers or
football players," said Dr. Robert Lyons, chief of infectious diseases
at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford.
Simple hygiene, such as washing hands, can help stop the spread of the
infection, said Monica Wheeler, community health director at Westport
Weston Heath District.
THE FULL REPORT
Report: Program Underused; Suburban
Schools Could Absorb More Hartford Children, Say Sheff Supporters
By ROBERT A. FRAHM | Courant Staff Writer
September 28, 2007
A long-running program allowing Hartford schoolchildren to enroll in
nearby suburban schools has been underused but could be a crucial means
of promoting school desegregation, says a report being released today.
Fewer than 1,100 black and Latino children from Hartford are enrolled
in predominantly white schools in nearby suburbs under Project Choice,
but those suburban schools appear to have the capacity to enroll
thousands more, the report says. Despite slow growth in recent
years, the program has produced encouraging academic results and has
potential to help meet goals established in the Sheff v. O'Neill school
desegregation legal case, says a report sponsored by a group of Sheff
supporters known as the Sheff Movement Coalition.
The report, called the "Project Choice Campaign," calls on the state to
take a more aggressive role in expanding the program and prodding
suburban schools to enroll more Hartford students.
Efforts to place Hartford children in desegregated schools have fallen
far short of goals established in a 2003 court-approved settlement in
the Sheff case. With the state spending millions of dollars
creating and supporting magnet schools as the centerpiece of its racial
integration efforts, the suburban school choice program has been
largely overshadowed, today's report says.
Unlike magnet schools, which can take years to develop fully, the
city-to-suburb program "is the most efficient means of placing students
in integrated school placements," says the report written by Erica
Frankenberg, a graduate student at Harvard University's Graduate School
of Education.
"The slow growth and low suburban participation rates in Hartford's
Project Choice program stand in sharp contrast to similar programs in
Boston, Minneapolis, and St. Louis," Frankenberg wrote.
If the program were to expand, "I'm sure many parents would benefit,"
said Norma Richards, whose son Cedane, a second-grader, has been part
of the choice program at Noah Wallace School in Farmington since
kindergarten.
"In kindergarten, he was the only black child in the classroom," she
said. "If he had two or three more children from the choice program,
he'd probably feel more comfortable."
Of 27 suburban districts in the program, 10 provide less than one
percent of their seats to Hartford students, and no district provides
more than 3 percent, the report said. A review of state data suggests
"there is significant room available in many suburban districts" for
additional Project Choice students, the report said. However, the
capacity of districts to take Hartford students "is a moving target,"
said Robert M. Villanova, superintendent of schools in Farmington. He
agreed there appears to be room to expand the program throughout the
Hartford region, but said, "Capacity is determined to some extent by
the will and desire of people who live in the community."
In Farmington, there has been strong support for Project Choice, he
said. According to the report, Farmington schools enrolled 95 Hartford
students last year, just over 2 percent of the town's overall
enrollment.
Project Choice is an outgrowth of a student transfer program that began
more than 40 years ago and was then known as Project Concern.
Project Concern survived financial problems in the 1980s and '90s and
nearly closed down after being hailed as one of the nation's first
voluntary school integration programs. The program started with 266
Hartford children bused to schools in Farmington, Manchester, Simsbury,
South Windsor and West Hartford.
Along with magnet schools, the suburban choice program was part of a
court settlement four years ago to comply with a 1996 state Supreme
Court ruling ordering the state to desegregate Hartford's schools.
However, enrollment in the choice program stagnated, and many of the
magnet schools failed to attract enough white students, causing the
settlement to fall far short of its goals. After the settlement
expired earlier this year, the two sides agreed on a new settlement
that calls on the state to speed the pace of integration, but the
legislature has balked at approving the agreement.
Still, lawmakers did approve a budget that includes additional money
for integration programs related to the Sheff case, including Project
Choice.
"What has to happen is Project Choice has to be marketed more
effectively," said state Sen. Thomas Gaffey, D-Meriden, co-chairman of
the legislature's education committee.
Suburban participation in the program is voluntary, but Gaffey said the
state Department of Education should be given authority to require
suburban districts to set aside a specific number of seats for Hartford
children. Today's report calls on the state education department
to "play a lead role as the champion for expansion ... of Project
Choice" and says the department should establish goals for the number
of Hartford children each suburban district is expected to enroll.
Although state financial support for Project Choice has increased, the
report said the extra funding is not enough to provide teacher
training, academic support and other services to assist students, the
report said.
George A. Coleman, deputy commissioner in the state Department of
Education, had not seen the report but agreed that "in many ways
[Project Choice] is underutilized."
He said the state hopes to begin discussions with local districts about
their level of participation in Project Choice, magnet school programs
and other efforts to promote integration.
'Where did kids go?' schools ask -
Numbers down for 10 districts
By Eric Stevick
Everett, WA Herald
November 23, 2007
An enrollment drop in 10 of 14 Snohomish County districts has school
leaders wondering where the students have gone.
Enrollment declined across the county by more than 300 students,
slipping to 107,445, according to head counts taken by the districts
last month.
What's most perplexing is the dip is occurring while hundreds of new
homes across the county are being built and moved into.
"We are all sort of in the same arena of scratching our heads," said
Arlene Hulten, a Lake Stevens School District spokeswoman.
The districts expect enrollment will rebound as families with
school-age children move into the new homes.
For now, it may be that some families are passing up Snohomish County
on their way to cheaper housing in surrounding areas.
"The general trend is that there is small growth in Whatcom and parts
of Skagit counties and there is a reduction in San Juan and Snohomish
counties," said Jerry Jenkins, director of the Northwest Educational
Service District. "I would suppose that the likely cause would be
housing costs and that young people with families can stretch their
dollars further."
Other factors are also suspected, including a slower birth rate in the
county five years ago. Ten of 14 districts had a smaller kindergarten
classes than a year ago.
Statistics kept by the U.S. Census Bureau showed a drop of more than
1,500 school-aged children between the ages of 5 and 9 in Snohomish
County between the years 2000 and 2006.
More students also are choosing online schools instead of the
traditional classroom.
The Edmonds School District surveyed families earlier this year and
found more than 40 students who said they were planning to enroll in an
online school this fall. Edmonds is now considering starting its own
online program.
"That has happened a little bit," said Nathan Olson, a spokesman for
the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. "In terms of
a percentage, it's probably not much, but it is happening."
The state does not have statewide enrollment numbers for fall.
Projecting enrollment accurately is key for each district as more than
70 percent of its budget is based on the number of students in
classrooms. Districts receive more than $5,000 from the state for each
full-time student.
Housing, birth rates, population trends and job losses all figure into
projections.
The Monroe School District was one of two districts to see enrollment
growth in large part because of its new online school for freshmen and
sophomores. The school is called Washington Virtual Academy. October
enrollment was 264 for the virtual school and the plan is to add a
grade each year until it is a ninth- through 12th-grade school.
Students have enrolled from across the state with most from outside of
the county, said Rosemary O'Neil, a school district spokeswoman.
The Monroe district also added 95 more students to its home-school
program this fall, increasing enrollment there to 727.
The district grew from 6,795 in 2006 to 7,174 in 2007, an increase of
379 students.
"The only growth was in the alternative programs," O'Neil said.
Similarly, the Marysville School District saw a slight increase in
enrollment only because of a fast-growing online program that also
attracts most of its students from outside the county.
"It was done out of a concern for recapturing some of the students who
were dropping out," said Larry Nyland, the district's superintendent.
Everett School District, which opened a new elementary school in its
fast-growing south end, saw enrollment increase since 2006.
In most districts, enrollment was flat with slight losses.
In Lakewood, for instance, the October head count was exactly the same
as last year.
The Edmonds School District experienced the most dramatic loss, dipping
from 20,725 to 20,352.
The loss of students can be costly. Edmonds estimates it lost about $1
million in state revenues because of declining enrollment. It won't
fill some vacant positions but won't have to make layoffs either,
according to a district memo.
Charter Schools
without a building?
Virtual schooling growing at K-12
level
By BILL KACZOR, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 7, 8:03 AM ET
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - As a seventh-grader, Kelsey-Anne Hizer was getting
mostly D's and F's and felt the teachers at her Ocala middle school
were not giving her the help she needed. But after switching to a
virtual school for eighth grade, Kelsey-Anne is receiving more
individual attention and making A's and B's. She's also enthusiastic
about learning, even though she has never been in the same room as her
teachers.
Kelsey-Anne became part of a growing national trend when she
transferred to Orlando-based Florida Virtual School. Students get their
lessons online and communicate with their teachers and each other
through chat rooms, e-mail, telephone and instant messaging.
"It's more one-on-one than regular school," Kelsey-Anne said. "It's
more they're there; they're listening."
Virtual learning is becoming ubiquitous at colleges and universities
but remains in its infancy at the elementary and secondary level, where
skeptics have questioned its cost and effect on children's
socialization.
However, virtual schools are growing fast — at an annual rate of about
25 percent. There are 25 statewide or state-led programs and more than
170 virtual charter schools across the nation, according to the North
American Council for Online Learning.
Estimates of elementary and secondary students taking virtual classes
range from 500,000 to 1 million nationally compared to total public
school enrollment of about 50 million.
Online learning is used as an alternative for summer school and for
students who need remedial help, are disabled, being home schooled or
suspended for behavioral problems. It also can help avoid overcrowding
in traditional classrooms and provide courses that local schools, often
rural or inner-city, do not offer.
Advocates say those niche functions are fine, but that virtual learning
has almost unlimited potential. Many envision a blending of virtual and
traditional learning.
"We hope that it becomes just another piece of our public schools' day
rather than still this thing over here that we're all trying to figure
out," said Julie Young, Florida Virtual's president and CEO.
Florida Virtual is one of the nation's oldest and largest online
schools, with more than 55,000 students in Florida and around the
world, most of them part-time. Its motto is "Any Time, Any Place, Any
Path, Any Pace."
Struggling students such as Kelsey-Anne, who suffers from attention
deficit disorder, can take more time to finish courses while those who
are gifted can go at a faster speed.
Casey Hutcheson, 17, finished English and geometry online in the time
it would have taken to complete just one of those courses at his
regular high school in Tallahassee.
"I like working by myself because of no distractions, and I can go at
my own pace rather than going at the teacher's pace," he said.
For all its potential, virtual schooling has its critics and skeptics.
"There is something to be said for having kids in a social situation
learning how to interact in society," said state Rep. Shelley Vana. "I
don't think you get that if you're at home."
But virtual students get a different kind of social experience that is
just as valuable, said Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the North
American Council for Online Learning in Vienna, Va.
"We should socialize them for the world that they live in," she said,
suggesting that people spend much of their time interacting via
computer these days.
Many policymakers approach virtual learning with dollar signs in their
eyes, expecting big savings from schools that do not need buildings,
buses and other traditional infrastructure.
"We should not, as stewards of public money, be automatically paying
the same or even close to the same amount of money for a virtual school
day as we pay for a conventional school day," said Florida Senate
Education Committee Chairman Don Gaetz.
Florida Virtual this year is slated to get $6,682 for every full-time
equivalent student, just slightly less than the average of $7,306 for
all of the state's public schools. Young said her school has expenses
that traditional schools do not.
"Our data infrastructure is our building," she said.
Teacher unions have opposed spending public dollars on some virtual
schools, mainly those that are privately operated or function as
charter schools. Indiana lawmakers this year refused to fund
virtual charter schools. Opponents argued they are unproven and would
have siphoned millions of dollars from traditional public schools.
Florida Virtual's Young said she plans to recommend that her state
follow the example of Michigan, which passed a requirement that
students complete some type of online experience to earn a high school
diploma.
If "we do not give them an opportunity to take an online course, we're
doing them a tremendous disservice," she said. "It's become the way of
the world."
Weston High
may soon switch to solar power
Norwalk HOUR
Jeremy Soulliere
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Weston High School could be going solar in the near future.
The town's Building Committee, together with the Hartford-based law
firm Shipman and Goodwin, is investigating the possible grant funds the
town could receive if it were to place a photovoltaic array, or solar
panels, on the roof of the school, said committee member Don Gary.
"They're experts in writing RFP's (request for proposals) and
evaluating where you can get the grant money," he said about the
newly-hired firm.
The grant money evaluation, along with the creation of an RFP for the
proposed project, were approved by the Board of Selectmen two weeks
ago, Gary said. The board had appropriated up to $5,000 for the
assessment, he said.
"At the end of this $5,000 we'll know what we can design for that
roof," Gary said.
Gary, who approached the selectmen with the solar panel idea, said the
high school's flat roofing could hold anywhere from 800 to 1,000 solar
panels, a photovoltaic array that would likely cut the school's
electricity bills by 50 percent.
"We'd be able to cut the electricity probably in half," said Gary, who
noted the school has no shading.
An 800- to 1,000-panel arrangement could cost the town anywhere from $7
million to $8 million, Gary said, but up to 85 percent of that cost
would likely be covered by grants. The panels, he said, would pay for
themselves in about five years.
"It just makes sense from a financial point of view," Gary said.
Beyond the financial savings, the town would be helping to combat
global warming with the new "clean" energy option, he said, which would
be generating roughly 1.25 million of the 2.6 million kilowatt-hours of
electricity used at the school per year.
"It's the right thing to do because every kilowatt-hour in Connecticut
causes a little less than a pound of carbon dioxide to be put in the
atmosphere," Gary said. "That would save over a million pounds going
into the atmosphere per year."
First Selectman Woody Bliss said the proposed project would need
approvals by the Building Committee, the Board of Education, the Board
of Selectmen and the Board of Finance. But, given the estimated cost
savings and the environmental advantages of going solar, he said, it
"looks very, very promising" that the town boards would give the solar
panels the green light.
"I think we need to be leaders in trying to break the mold in how we
get our energy," Bliss said. "Right now it's all about burning oil."
Bliss said Weston, which has already committed to a campaign calling
for municipalities to acquire 20 percent of their electricity from
clean energy sources by 2010, is looking to assess its energy options
wherever it can.
"We are committed to that," he said.
Healthy discourse: Area parent group
hopes engage others in exploring
school lunch reform
Greenwich TIME
By Christina Hennessy, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 10/28/2008 01:00:00 AM EDT
Given the choice of a snack for their next day's lunch, Emma and Abby
Straight were not opposed to some cucumber slices.
"Can I peel it?" Emma, 7, asked her mother, Nicole, who was spooning
pineapple chunks into reusable containers.
"Just be careful," her mom said, as she helped her other daughter,
Abby, 6, roll up a sandwich wrap around grilled strips of chicken.
It was a typical night in the Straight's Westport home, since the girls
often opt to bring lunch from home, rather than eat the lunch offered
by their school.
Straight and other Westport mothers who are concerned about the kinds
of meals students are eating in school will gather at the Westport
Public Library's McManus Room from 9:30-11:30 a.m. today for a
screening of "Two Angry Moms." The documentary, produced and largely
financed by Weston resident Amy Kalafa and her husband, Alex, examines
the food offered to children in school and the changes being made
around the country to create more nutritious school lunch programs.
Kalafa, 50, who has a daughter in high school and another who is a
college graduate, is expected to attend the screening.
A holistic health and nutrition counselor who has produced films and
television programs for the past 15 years, Kalafa also directed the
film, which was released a year ago. She worked with Susan Rubin, the
founder of Westchester (N.Y.) County-based Better School Food, a
coalition of educators, health professionals and parents. The group has
worked for many years to increase awareness about the link between food
and children's health and learning.
"The whole reason I made the film was because there I was in Weston,
feeling like a freak, wondering if I was the only parent who was
worrying about this," Kalafa says of the food being served in the
schools. "This was all very fringe when I started. I felt very
isolated."
Since then, she and Rubin have been profiled by leading national
publications, as well as featured on television news and radio
programs.
Their hope is to get the schools to replace foods loaded with
artificial ingredients and additives, such as sugary drinks, chicken
nuggets, chips and other snacks, with healthier foods, including fresh
fruit and vegetables. Kalafa says she also hopes communities will push
school officials to work with local and area farms and farmers' markets
to create sustainable agricultural communities.
Straight, 35, who owns Time to Eat, which offers cooking classes to
busy moms, says while she sees positives on the school lunch menu, such
as grilled chicken on a whole wheat bun and tossed salads, she thinks
there can be further improvement.
"We are not the food police," Straight says of Parents for Change, the
group organizing the screening. "When people hear lunch reform, they
think nuts and twigs."
Instead, she says she'd like to see fewer mozzarella sticks and french
fries and more healthful options. Further, she and others are urging
schools to purchase locally grown products and create school gardens,
so children gain a better understanding of food, from seed to table.
"It's not about withholding delicious food," she says, adding that it
is more about making nutritious food delicious and appealing.
The film highlights some school systems that have not only eliminated
junk food and processed snack options, but also have worked to create
these links with area food producers.
Attempts to reach Westport schools' lunch provider, Chartwells, were
unsuccessful, though the districts' Web site lists the elementary,
middle and high school menus nutritional values for such foods - at the
elementary level - as chicken nuggets made with whole-grain flour,
turkey and cheese on whole wheat wrap, French toast sticks, pizza
dippers, and a bologna and cheese sandwich. The Web site also provides
a link to the student wellness policy. That policy calls upon the
district to provide students with nutritious and affordable food
choices in school.
In recent years, the work to improve children's culinary choices has
been linked to growing obesity rates among the youngest U.S. residents.
And before that, health officials were looking to the link between a
high-fat diet and cardiovascular disease.
Fifteen years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began working on
its School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children. Although school
lunches were meeting the recommended dietary allowance, there was
concern that too many calories were coming from saturated fat. As a
result of that initiative, schools had to limit the amounts of fat and
saturated fat in their menus.
The initiative was considered the largest change in the National School
Lunch and School Breakfast programs since their inception in the late
1940s, according to the department.
Straight and Kalafa see this time in history as a moment to push ahead
even further with reform.
Straight says she would love to see some of the items that make it to
her dinner table - couscous, edamame and hearty soups, for example -
reflected in school lunch menus. She says she does not want to "buck
the system," but rather work with school officials to make changes.
"The idea of kid food is a made up concept," she says. "We are assuming
what kids will or will not eat before asking them."
Kalafa sees opportunities to raise better food consumers, students who
understand what is in their food, where it comes from, how it is being
prepared and how their diets affect their ability to learn and play in
school. She also hopes area schools work on coming together to increase
their purchasing power and support the local and area farmers and
businesses attempting to make thriving local food systems.
Rather than being "angry," Kalafa is hopeful that this movement is
spreading across the country, empowering parents to take a better look
at what their children are eating.
"How do you get kids to eat healthier foods?" she asks, "By them not
knowing that the food (they are eating) is actually good for them.
Instead, they see food that is beautiful, tastes great, has texture,
has beauty and it has flavor."
Filmmaker hopes
documentary spurs
action on school lunches
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Lisa Chamoff, Staff Writer
Published August 20 2007
WESTON - In Amy Kalafa's ideal world, the processed pizzas and chicken
nuggets normally found in school cafeterias would be replaced with
meals made from scratch, and fruits and vegetables grown by local
farmers or students.
While working on a documentary, Kalafa, a Weston resident and veteran
independent filmmaker, learned it happens in some parts of the
country. But in most others, bags of chips, cookies and snack
cakes sit tantalizingly in bins at the end of the lunch line, and most
of the meals arrive frozen in the kitchens.
That's why she's angry.
Kalafa's recently completed film, "Two Angry Moms," chronicles how
school lunches became so unhealthy and what some districts are doing to
turn around their food programs. She hopes the film will mobilize
parents to take action this school year.
"We really want people to see the film in community groups, hold
discussions and formulate an action plan," said Kalafa, 48, who has two
daughters, including one who will enter Weston High School at the end
of the month.
The other "angry mom" is Susan Rubin, a nutritionist and mother of
three from Chappaqua, N.Y., who created the Westchester Coalition for
Better School Food, made up of parents, educators and health
professionals.
Kalafa decided to make the film and was introduced to Rubin. She
followed Rubin and the efforts of her coalition for more than a
year. The pair came up with the name "Two Angry Moms" one day
while tossing around ideas. It seemed to fit, especially when they
discovered that a former Texas secretary of agriculture once said it
would take 2 million angry moms to change school food programs
nationwide.
In the film, Kalafa visits five schools that have what she describes as
model food programs.
One of these, the Katonah-Lewisboro School District in New York,
employed a chef from the Culinary Institute of America, who had workers
creating some menu items from scratch. On one of the days that Kalafa
showed up, the cafeteria was serving baked chicken with olive oil and
herbs, cauliflower and roasted sweet potatoes.
"Kids were buying it and they were liking it," Kalafa said. "Surprise,
surprise."
Kalafa filmed at a school in California that began stocking its salad
bar with produce from local farmers. Another served kid-designed meals
with locally grown vegetables. Kalafa said she and Rubin have
heard criticism about the documentary from those in the food-service
industry.
"There's a perception the film is down on food service and that's
totally not true," Kalafa said. The idea is to "help them make it
better."
Holly Betts, the new food service director for Weston Public Schools,
said school food is becoming more nutritious. The district, which
contracts with Whitsons Culinary Group in Islandia, N.Y., is promoting
whole-wheat breads and pasta, and fresh vegetables, Betts said. They
limit most foods that are high in fat and offer fruit each day.
Betts recently attended a convention by the School Nutrition
Association in Alexandria, Va., where vendors showcased new products.
"Booth after booth after booth, it was trans fat-free and fat-free,"
Betts said. "Ultimately, we will see a whole-grain chocolate-chip
cookie."
But some low-fat and fat-free foods are far from nutritious, she said.
In one cafeteria she saw containers of low-fat yogurt sweetened with
high-fructose corn syrup and aspartame.
"I don't want my kid eating that," Kalafa said. "I don't think that's
healthy. Yogurt? Yes. Artificially sweetened yogurt? No."
Kalafa and Rubin are encouraging people to hold screenings of the film
to encourage discussion. They are selling screening kits with 10 DVDs
for $275, and single DVDs will be available for $25.
Rebecca Velasquez, a social worker at Springdale Elementary School in
Stamford, plans to show the film to the district's Wellness Committee,
of which she is a member. Velasquez saw the documentary last
spring and has been bringing up suggestions from it during meetings of
a nutrition subcommittee.
"I really feel the documentary has a lot of value," Velasquez said.
People may sign up to host a screening by visiting www.angrymoms.org.
Kalafa and Rubin are soliciting donations of "lunch money" to help fund
production of the film, which cost about $500,000 to make.
Kalafa said she hopes to get involved with the Weston School District's
Wellness Committee and make changes in her town. But so far the
committee has they have not asked the "angry mom" to join.
"I'm awaiting my invitation," Kalafa said.
A Ruling On Race: Court Rejects
Diversity Plans; Little Effect Seen In Hartford
By ROBERT A. FRAHM | Courant Staff Writer
June 29, 2007
A U.S. Supreme Court decision forbidding schools from enrolling
children strictly on the basis of race threatens many voluntary
desegregation plans throughout the nation, but experts believe that it
will have little effect on school desegregation efforts in Hartford.
That is because Hartford's court-approved desegregation plan in the
Sheff v. O'Neill case differs from the voluntary plans in Louisville
and Seattle that were overturned in Thursday's 5-4 Supreme Court ruling.
The key difference, legal experts said, is that the magnet schools and
school choice plans that are a central piece of the Sheff efforts do
not single out students by race. Rather, the plans attempt to achieve
racial balance by selecting students based on where they live.
That strategy "falls firmly within what is permitted" by the Supreme
Court, said Dennis D. Parker, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer
who is part of the legal team representing the plaintiffs in the
long-running Sheff case.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said that Thursday's ruling
"should have no impact on state programs to reduce racial isolation in
Hartford public schools." Under the Sheff plan, "no student is forced
to attend a particular school based on race."
The Supreme Court rejected voluntary plans in Louisville, Ky., and
Seattle, saying that assigning children to schools by race violates
constitutional guarantees of equal protection.
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop
discriminating on the basis of race," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote
for the majority. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin
Scalia joined the entirety of Roberts' 41-page opinion.
However, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who voted with the majority, left
open the door for schools to pursue racial balance as long as
individual students are not selected on the basis of race. He cited
alternatives such as strategic site selection of new schools or
attendance zones designed to tap into demographic patterns.
"A district may consider it a compelling interest to achieve a diverse
student population," Kennedy said. "Race may be one component of that
diversity."
Some civil rights leaders had feared that a ruling against the Seattle
and Louisville plans would mark the end of an era of school integration
efforts that began with the court's landmark Brown v. Board of
Education ruling in 1954 that outlawed deliberate school segregation.
However, Kennedy's opinion leaves open, with some restrictions,
opportunities for schools to pursue desegregation.
Although the ACLU's Parker called the decision "a significant step
backward," he said, "The bottom line is that five justices [counting
Kennedy] did agree that diversity and reduction of racial isolation is
a legitimate governmental interest."
Theodore M. Shaw, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund, said, "We got rained on today, but there's a silver
lining." He said that Kennedy, who joined only part of Roberts' lead
opinion, didn't go "as far as many people thought he might go."
Kennedy's assertion that racial balance remains a legitimate goal was
seen as pivotal by legal experts.
"What Kennedy essentially is saying was, `I don't have any problem with
race-conscious policies as long as they don't classify individual
students by race,'" said Jack Balkin, a Yale University law professor
and constitutional law expert. Still, the ruling strips school
boards of a tool to offset the impact of racially divided housing
patterns. Both sides say that the practices used in Louisville and
Seattle are common throughout the nation.
Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and
Stephen Breyer dissented. Breyer said that the ruling would "threaten
the promise" of the 1954 Brown decision.
Some, however, hailed Thursday's ruling. "There can't be a dual system
of school assignments based on race or ethnicity," said Edward Blum, a
visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
"Racial quotas and preferences never produce diversity - they produce
animosity, bitterness and perpetuate the belief that minority students
just can't hack it."
The ruling reflects the influence on the high court of Alito and
Roberts, both of whom were appointed by President Bush. Three years
ago, before their appointments, the court ruled that universities could
consider race in making admissions decisions. Thursday's ruling
comes just as Connecticut has tentatively agreed to take aggressive new
measures to speed the pace of integration in Hartford's mostly black
and Hispanic public schools.
Under a proposed extension of a 2003 settlement in the Sheff case, the
state would spend millions of dollars more over the next five years to
subsidize magnet schools, charter schools and other programs designed
to bolster integration. The extension still must be approved by the
legislature. The original four-year settlement, due to expire
this week, fell far short of its goals, including targets to more fully
integrate magnet schools and to increase the number of Hartford
schoolchildren enrolled in predominantly white suburban schools.
Plaintiffs in the Sheff case in 1996 won a state Supreme Court ruling
ordering the state to desegregate Hartford's public schools, in which
more than nine of 10 students are black or Hispanic.
Because some towns have large minority or white populations, magnet
schools have tried to achieve racial balance by setting specific
enrollment quotas for individual towns. That approach has had mixed
success. Many recently established magnet schools in Hartford have had
difficulty attracting enough suburban white students but have been more
popular among minority students from both Hartford and its suburbs.
However, some older regional magnet schools - notably those operated by
the Capitol Region Education Council - have been able to attract
racially mixed student bodies.
"We've never had to use a lottery that was race-based," said Bruce
Douglas, the council's executive director. "We've been able to draw a
large number of suburban students to our schools. ... This court case
is not a significant concern to us."
In Seattle, the school system allows students to choose among high
schools and then relies on tiebreakers - including race - to decide who
gets into schools that have more applicants than openings.
In the Louisville case, a mother claimed that her son was denied
entrance to a neighborhood school because he is white. The metropolitan
district was under a court desegregation order until 2001, but since
then it has continued to use an assignment plan using racial guidelines.
In Connecticut, while most observers said that the ruling would have
little effect on the Sheff case, it was less clear what impact it would
have on schools under orders to comply with the state's long-standing
racial balance law. That law says that the racial makeup of any
public school must be within 25 percentage points of the overall racial
makeup of the local school district.
Since 1980, when the law's regulations took effect, the state has
required several towns to redistrict schools or adjust attendance
policies to comply with the law. Blumenthal, the attorney
general, said that Thursday's ruling raises questions about how the
state law might be applied, but that each case would have to be
evaluated individually.
"We know of no particular racial balance plan in the state that would
be invalid under the Supreme Court's ruling," he said.
Some towns, including Manchester and West Hartford, are under pressure
from the state to improve racial balance at some schools. In
light of Thursday's court ruling, "we will definitely re-examine the
entire racial balance plan we submitted to the state," said Margaret
Hackett, chairwoman of the board of education in Manchester, which was
cited two years ago because one of its 10 elementary schools was out of
compliance.
West Hartford officials said that plans to reduce the racial isolation
at two south end schools are based not on designating enrollment by
race, but by boosting achievement at the schools and drawing families
of all races from throughout West Hartford. The district will continue
to work on improving the schools with an eye on how the court ruling
will affect other integration efforts, said Jack Darcey, chairman of
West Hartford's board of education.
Note: the opinion expressed
below does not represent that of this website
We Keep
Succeeding At Failure
Hartford Courant
Rick Green
June 29, 2007
As we nod off again, give thanks to the Supreme Court for its 5-4
decision telling us not to bother with race when trying to create
equality in education.
No, this inequality isn't about "extreme" issues like race. It's not
about income either, since our cities are repositories of impoverished
minorities. So relax, there's no need to disrupt our antique
education
system, which preserves and enhances divisions based on race and class.
If you believe this hokum, then you probably think more money will
solve our education problems. These divided, inferior schools will be
our downfall, preventing us from having an educated, competitive
workforce.
Back in 1965, a team of Harvard researchers visited Hartford, warning
city officials that they "will have lost the ball game" if the region's
growing racial imbalance wasn't addressed. Now, it's the first-ring
suburbs that are up for grabs.
More recently, Trinity College researchers found that Connecticut's
efforts under the Sheff v. O'Neill decision to create racially mixed
magnet schools in the Hartford area have failed. In West
Hartford,
schools have grown more segregated. Neighboring Bloomfield, at 95
percent, has a higher percentage of minorities than Hartford. Windsor
and East Hartford will be there soon.
I heard Gov. M. Jodi Rell Thursday morning on the radio, touting a
budget that gives an additional $260 million for public schools. Sure,
let's just give Hartford - and what the heck, Greenwich and Avon, too -
more money. That might be useful, if most of it wasn't funding
preservation of the same old divide.
"Segregation is harmful," John C. Brittain said when I called. A lawyer
in the Sheff v. O'Neill lawsuit, Brittain was repeating - for the
zillionth, drowsy time - that racial and economic isolation are
destructive. Business leaders, worried about a nonexistent future
workforce, agree.
The problem is us, the way we run this ant farm of a state with all our
school boards, police departments, planning and zoning commissions and
accompanying political fiefdoms.
"Rather than continuing to try and make these separate schools for rich
and poor work well," Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The
Century Foundation in Washington, D.C., told me, "we might try instead
to give every kid the chance to go to a middle class school."
Dozens of school districts around the country already choose to balance
enrollment based on income. St. Joseph College Professor Carlota
Schecter told me her research proves the point we continue to ignore:
Poor kids do better when they go to school with middle class kids. This
is dangerous, sleep-disruptive thinking.
Schecter looked at the vocabulary of preschoolers in West Hartford,
comparing children from different backgrounds, and found "children in
economically integrated programs made significantly greater gains."
Yawn. We're still building new schools in Hartford and the suburbs,
reinforcing racial and economic divisions, even as we pour additional
millions into special programs, including the governor's new initiative
dramatically expanding preschool.
"Racial segregation, particularly in education, leads to other
segregation and disadvantages in the broader community," Brittain said,
before I drifted off. "Look at Hartford."
No, look at West Hartford, Bloomfield or Windsor: They're Hartford back
in 1965.