New Haven Independent

Posted by: Teach Our Children | April 28, 2008 9:13 AM

Below is the complete list of requests that Dr. Mayo agreed to at Saturday's public meeting:

1. Ensure that that any child who is suspended has immediate access to his or her homework and convey this priority at the next principal's meeting.

2. Ensure that the new district code of conduct articulates that suspension is always documented, consistently implemented, and includes a distinction between major and minor insubordination (for example, rolling eyes, slamming a door) and only use suspension for major offenses, implemented during the next school year.

3. Make sure that bullying is immediately addressed, in keeping with district policy and federal guidelines, and convey this priority at the next principal's meeting.

4. Ensure that the PPT process is appropriately conducted and that all parties fully utilize the IEP or behavior plan, and address this in writing and face-to-face to the appropriate parties within the next two weeks.

5. Meet with parent leaders of Teach Our Children in 2 weeks to report progress on these items ---> For this request, Dr. Mayo offered a monthly meeting with the group and we agreed to that.

You can reach Teach Our Children at teachourchildren@hotmail.com. Thank you to all the parents, educators, and supporters who came out on Saturday and helped make the event a success!

Posted by: True New Havener | April 28, 2008 10:14 AM

AWESOME!!!

Posted by: IN THE HOOD | April 28, 2008 10:53 AM

This sounds bogus. It makes one wonder how do you have a meeting of over one hundred parents and only 15 are willing to admit they are parents of students in New Haven public Schools.

Why all the grand standing for gullible press? If Mayo say 95% or most of the requests of these folks(whoever they really are) are already on the books..Go get the policies.

Clearly one can always find the occasional extreme case of policy violations in ALL schools.

But there is something about this story that lacks credibility and seems a little fishy.

Posted by: What? | April 28, 2008 1:08 PM

In the Hood, I am not a member of TOC, but let me attest to some personal facts.

1. My son was bullied in the 6th grade for several months. My wife and I visited the school at least four times. On the fifth visit I wrote a letter, with an attorney's contact information, along with a threat to sue (as you may know, the BOE has a very good anti-bully policy, if they would enforce it), my wife also threatened the bullies (not a good idea). Well, they finally got on it and stopped the bullying, but it embarrasing for my son, who was now taunted with the comments that his mom had to fight his battles.

2. My neiphew, in the third grade, was once suspended by a principal who said that he reportedly was throwing eggs at someone more than four block from the school. My sister doesn't have a lot of resources, and I doubt very much that this kid took food out of the house to waste.

These things do happen, and more frequently than you would like to admit.

Posted by: IN THE HOOD | April 28, 2008 2:45 PM

I wish we could put an end to all bullying everywhere...at all times in all schools. Certainly principals should respond quickly and decisively to these problems.

But in this seemingly bogus meeting, it was reported by NHI that a parent complains that her son was suspended for throwing paper. This parent (and child) gets sympathy.

What if that kid was throwing paper at our child with other kids laughing as the paper bounces off the back our child's head. (not to mention the problem of littering in our community)NHI didn't report the details behind the paper throwing.

Then when a local principal tried to stop back hallway wheeling and dealing of candy and other stuff. The media laughed at her and called it "Skittlegate"

But when these "harmless" deals go bad, money gets stolen, kids get in fights, paper gets thrown and our children are effected..There'll be another meeting.

Again, the purpose and objectives of this TOC meeting remain questionable.And more detailed reporting is necessary to make this story appropriately balanced and thus and credible.

Posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS | April 28, 2008 4:29 PM

To TOC,

When is Teach Our Children going to demand that Mayo and his system teach our children? Your group focuses on bullying, IEPs, and recess? Is that all you want? Mayo must be laughing right now.

How about getting our kids on the road to college? Has anyone asked him about his 2008 goals that were plastered all over the walls at Gateway for 5 years? Remember "95% of NHPS kids at goal"? Has anyone asked him how that plan has worked out?

Safe schools and proper process is a prerequisite for a good education. But it shouldn't be the complete basis of your advocacy.

So TOC, you want Mayo and the BOE to listen to you?
Well whenever your group is ready to get serious about demanding real education improvement, check out Black Alliance for Education Options(www.baeo.org). Call up Howard Fuller and talk things over with him. If we're lucky, maybe he'll even come to town for a visit. And believe me, Howard is one guy that they don't EVER want to see come to New Haven.

FIX THE SCHOOLS

Posted by: What? | April 28, 2008 5:43 PM

In the Hood. I'm not sure about whether or not this meeting was real, or "bogus", but a kid getting suspended for throwing paper? Sure, the kid needs to be disciplined, and the parent doesn't need to make excuses for the child, but isn't there a better way. It seems to me that suspending the child is the easy way out, and counterproductive, especially if the parent is not getting the point. Why give them a vacation? Why not instead make them serve there suspension in school, where they are continuing to learn? Why not make them serve some sort of community service?

Fix the Schools. Right On. They should be talking about the overpaid administrators and patronage jobs (i.e. members of the Board of Aldermen on payroll), raising test scores, lowering drop out rates.

Posted by: Sally Tamarkin | April 28, 2008 5:49 PM

In the Hood,
I was at the meeting. I can tell you that it was neither "bogus" nor "grandstanding." It was a coming together of parents and community members concerned about the way NHPS educates its students. What do you think is fishy and lacks credibility? I saw many parents, not just the ones who testified publicly at the meeting, talking about the way the schools were treating them and their kids. And, no, it's not one or two schools that's the problem. What does TOC have to gain by claiming that problems are more widespread than they are? TOC's parent leaders are addressing the lack of good/appropriate policy and/or lack of enforcement of existing policy. They have the research and fact sheets to back up everything they are working on.


Fix the schools,
If you think you can change our entire education system overnight, have at it. However, you should recognize that while that might be an impossible task, you can be successful at changing things if you start by addressing some of the more manageable but important issues such as IEPs, recess, etc., which are important and DO impact kids' educational outcomes. Not only that, but I doubt that TOC parent leaders just arbitrarily chose a bunch of items to work on. My guess is that they spoke with other parents to find out what their concerns regarding their kids' schools and ended up with the agenda they raised on Saturday.


I am not a parent but I don't buy Mayo's insinuations that your voice doesn't matter unless you have kids in NHPS. That's just his way of trying to disempower people who are calling him on the job he's doing. I am a alumna of the system (K-12 grade) and a concerned community member. As such I am grateful that a group like TOC, made up of parents of students in NHPS, is paying attention to what is going on in our kids' schools and is holding the BOE accountable for it. No one else is really doing it in a systematic, organized way.

Posted by: mary | April 28, 2008 6:04 PM

I hope all those people at this meeting are serious about getting involved in the system to help their kids out.We need to be concerned that some of our kids are not reading at high levels,not finishing school at all.These are the issues we should be concerned about and we need to be looking at ways we can help them succeed.Lets have workshops for parents to help them go into the schools to learn how to help all kids like we used to have many years ago when I came into the school system.We need to come together people this way is not helping our children working together will.

Posted by: teacher | April 29, 2008 8:05 AM

TOC's complaints about bullying and suspensions ring true with me. However, I wish that they would try to work more with the schools to develop effective programs of parental involvement, rather than demanding that they can drop in at any time to see their students and talk to their teachers.

Bullying is a horrible insidious problem. It lurks throughout the schools, in classrooms, cellphones, lockerrooms, and rarely shows itself. Kids don't want to report it, for fear of retaliation, as well as because of the "no snitches" movement.

Is TOC claiming that suspensions are unfounded, or undocumented? Is the mother of the paper-thrower upset because the documentation said that he/she was suspended for paper-throwing (a "minor" offense), or because there was not enough documentation? These are two different complaints, and TOC would do well to differentiate their greivances. Otherwise, the reporting of their meetings just sounds like a great big bitch-fest.

I think that everyone will benefit by reading this great description of what happens in our classrooms. Will Okun does a great job putting the everyday inner-city classroom into words:

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/the-mire/?ex=1210132800&en=779462f887a0562c&ei=5070

Posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS | April 29, 2008 8:38 AM

Sally Tamarkin,

Who said "overnight"? How about 10 years? Even if we started today and implemented an extremely ambitious plan to radically improve academic outcomes for students while at the same time preserving the concept of "public" schools, it would probably take a decade before we would begin to see a dramatic rise in 4 year college attendance.

Contrast this time line to Mayo's "30 year" calendar. Sally, if you believe that Connecticut has the ability and resources to close the achievement gap in 10 years, can there be any good justification for waiting for another generation to be condemned to poverty?

There are people who would choose to start with a less ambitious agenda, apparently like TOC. And like all powerful social movements, change comes due to both friendly and hostile pressure. Patient voices often in the end represent the real tipping point. During the civil rights movement it was the millions of regular Americans who discovered the violence in the deep south on their tv screens and who made it politically possible to pass the civil rights act of 1964. Abolition happened because the great masses of northern voters were awoken to the fact that slave states had begun to aggressively attempt to grow their numbers, and were not content to remain contained to the south.

The truth is that we need both kinds of voices. But today in New Haven without a vision for radical change and complete reform, the incrementalists (Mayo)will run out the clock. And their victory will come at the expense of tens of thousands of children and their families.

Posted by: Sally Tamarkin | April 29, 2008 2:14 PM

Fix the schools,
I think that we more or less agree that our schools need radical overhaul. But there are a couple things to keep in mind.

1. Teach Our Children is an organization of parent leaders. As such, I'm guessing that they choose their priorities by talking to other parents of children in New Haven Public Schools to determine what they are concerned with and create their agenda from there. If parents are concerned about bullying, suspensions, etc., then that is what gets dealt with. And by the way, these things do impact kids' educational outcomes. If there are other issues that you feel are more pressing and would result in more substantial change for the schools, then you and likeminded folks should head up that effort. Heck, I'd support you. But Teach Our Children is taking on the issues that they feel will improve their kids' experiences in schools. I just can't see a reason to denigrate that effort, particularly if you're in favor of our schools improving.

2. I think that calling TOC's effort "less ambitious" is not only counterproductive, it's inaccurate. What we have with TOC is parents of kids in NHPS getting together to challenge a system that has run roughshod over parents' and kids' rights for YEARS. Parents standing up to Dr. Mayo and his yes-men principals and administrators in a context in which they've not been held accountable for so long is the very definition of ambitious.

I agree with you that many different voices are needed in any social change effort. Teach Our Children is one of those voices.

Posted by: In The Hood | April 29, 2008 9:08 PM

Sally T.

I truly question your sincere interest in improving student performance in New Haven or any urban school district. This is just not convincing.

Yea, it's fascinating how you go on about a system that runs roughshod over parents and you bring less than a dozen parents to prove it.

I agree that the community indeed has the right to hold Mayo's feet the fire about student performance.

But if your group had any glimmer of credibility you would engaging parents to read to their children. Teach them to do it, help them to do it, show them how to do it.

The more I read your comments I sense you are clueless about how to support parents in helping them to effectively support their children.

Instead you pander to bad behavior by children, you show no example to these same children by you calling their administrators "names."

And sadly you're mistaken if you think that TOC is the only or first group who is holding the BOE accountable.

Clearly few of you work or live in this city or any urban community for that matter.

Posted by: fair haven | April 30, 2008 11:25 AM

This is a group of parents (5 or 50) that are coming together to speak on behalf of their children. We are loosing the focus... the fact is that there's a lot to be done in order for our children to have the education they deserve. It's possible, but "It takes a village to raise a child" (parents, children, educators and community). Let's stop focusing on what this group should be doing, and let's focus on what WE can do to help improve our children's future.

Posted by: Tricia | April 30, 2008 12:24 PM

Hooray for Sally. She hit the nail on the head. It's great to see some parents come out in support of their kids. But the support needs to come from home. Teach your kids; discipline your kids, teach right from wrong. Go back to the basics of the old days. Somewhere along the lines, priorities got lost. When your child learns how to behave in school, they wouldn't get suspended. When your child learns how to respect their surroundings, their teachers, their administrators, they wouldn't get suspended. Less time and money on suspensions might mean more money left over for recesses. GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT. Teach your children from the beginning how to grow up to be a nice person. That in itself leads to learning what is being taught in the schools, which leads to better grades, better test scores. Stop blaming others for poor school results. EVERYTHING STARTS AT HOME. (I know, I'm a mother too) Went to NHPS, my daughter went to NHPS, she did very well, graduated college, graduated with a Masters, and it all stemmed from our home!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: WilburCrossGrad | April 30, 2008 5:55 PM

In the Hood:

The assumptions and judgements you are making about Sally and TOC are a sad combination of exaggerated and false.

Is any one organization, whether it be TOC or another, capable of fixing the problem by itself? No. But TOC is doing good work with a strategy behind it that addresses things in its own way.

Normally I would write off such stupid internet slander as irrelevant, but as someone who is passionate and involved in these issues, it pains me to see people who actually seem to be true proponents of reform, like yourself, completely discredit other who are on the same side of the fight in such a self-destructive way.

Posted by: In the hood | April 30, 2008 9:54 PM

Normally,I too would indeed "write this off as stupid internet slander" if the comments in the article and subsequent comments did not in themselves seek to "discredit" others who are are also engaged in reform. Those who are worried about being discredited should take a close look at THEIR OWN WORDS written on this page which directly slanders and attempts to personally discredit others.

If you're serious about reform. Get in the ring, deal with the true complexities of urban education and get your hands dirty; rather than just shout from the grandstands with simplistic ideas. It comes off bogus and unimpressive.

Posted by: Sally Tamarkin | April 30, 2008 11:19 PM

In the Hood,
Just to be clear, I am not a member of or affiliated with Teach Our Children. I admire their work and support them when/where I can.

As for this comment:
Clearly few of you work or live in this city or any urban community for that matter.

That's just not true. I was born, raised, attended 13 years of school, and currently live in New Haven. If you want my work experience, let me know that, too.

I'm sure you'll find something wrong with the above because you've resorted to ad hominem attacks to make your point. But since you wanted seemed to want to know credentials, there you go.

I appreciate your point of view and how passionate you are about the need for sweeping change. However, declaring how right you are and how wrong the rest of us are does nothing to support, reinforce or prove your point. In fact, it sort of throws all potential for dialog out the window.

Thank you to WilburCrossGrad for pointing out the divisiveness in this thread.

Posted by: Wiseman45 | May 1, 2008 9:08 PM

In the Hood,

If the administrators of this district was serious about making meaningful change, they would:

1: Eschew the constant steam of public relation opportunities by firing their public relations expert an funneling that money into addressing parents real concerns about discipline problems among the students of the district.

The youth of this district do not have a consistent and concrete set of rules and guidelines and boundries to observe. They assault each other, the assault teacher, (this year some have sexually assaulted a retarded classmate), the rob, they carry weapons, and bully. Administrators treat these things as internal matters and fudge the desciption of these offenses whenever they can, so as to be able to report a lesser offense. The State and the Feds try to keep track of these stats but depend on the full disclosure of the districts data office. This full disclosure is usually not forthcoming.

With out boundaries, offenses grow in in severity. Simple bullying has been associate with the initiation of gang activity - at which point we all lose whether we have kids in the district or not.

2: To make the budget work administrators would accept pay cuts across the board. I am sorry but Dr. Mayo's performance during his tenure does not substantiate the $180 thousand he gets. He is fond of making great promises, but, in practice, the team he has in place has consistently underperformed. Part of this has to do with hiring practices. There are some administrators who make over $100 K who are resentful of having to work more than 40 hrs per week. Mayo encourages incivility among his administrators as a means of retaining control. He periodically chases out experienced and talented adminstrators under the guise of doing something "new" and "better" - the truth is, however, he has over spent his budgets and has to find a new funding source who want to put their own people in charge.

3: Patronage is a problem in New Haven and Public Schooling foots the bill. Whether you are the daughter of a minister, wife of a lawyer, mother of a goverment official, son of an in-law, daughter of an administrator, son/cousin/nephew of a retired New Haven police sargent, daughter of an alderman.. if you are applying for a job in New Haven, most likely you will end up in the public schools. Often times this burdens the budget, and given the mixed bag of talent and motivation of these employees this may or may not put an undue stress on the administrators they work for. This needs to stop regardless of whose cousin, daughter, or son these employees are.

4: Dr. Mayo needs to have an honest discussion with himself about the numerous scandals within his administrative ranks looks to the rest of New Haven. It appears that larceny, stealing funds, stealing checks and check washing, drugs, submitting fraudulent projections, losing track of funding, and DCF investingations combined with the apparent lack of judgement in his own responses are too much of a coinsidense. The people getting into trouble seem to be ones closest to him and most protected by his umbrella of endless second chances. Indeed, his excuses seem to be insulting the intelligence of the city.

Posted by: Yeswecan | May 4, 2008 2:31 PM

Congratulations to the parents who are taking an active role and building a positive movement to demand better schools for their kids.

Your hard work, your dedication to quality schools, and your desire to secure the best opportunities for your kids, is the only thing that can truly build good schools. Your organizing power is a rich resource in New Haven's poorest neighborhoods.

Remember these words of Frederick Douglass, from an 1856 speech. He was speaking to an audience that wanted to shy away from controversy rather than take action to abolish slavery.

"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation ... want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters .... Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Posted by: Tricia | May 7, 2008 8:07 AM

For wiseman45: Hip Hip Hooray, you are right on the money. Maybe you should run for office. Nothing will get any better as long as Mayo is in charge. Get rid of him, then maybe the BOE can start cleaning house, and really do what it's supposed to do.