From the PG:
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/12/17/Pittsburgh-school-board-losing-veterans-Isler-Hazuda-Brentley/stories/201412160213
New
board members coming as some current members not running for another
term. Will this make any difference in how PPS operates?
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27 comments:
The header isn't really accurate, should say "losing Isler and Hazuda, may lose Brentley"- the body of the article makes it clear that Mark Brentley has not yet decided whether to run.
Re: Mark's comment that "the board is moving in a direction I don’t support”- it would have been helpful to have follow up on the specifics of that direction.
I agree. What exactly does Brentley's comment mean? It doesn't sound positive.
Mr. Brentley, if you read this blog:
Please run again! Right now you are just a voice in the wilderness. But with new Board members coming in, you might be able to make a real difference down the line.
And let me add one more thing. Many teachers and parents take heart when they see you standing up to fight the good fight. Do not underestimate your value there.
The PPS Administration has be "moving in a direction" that cannot be supported---and the Board majority is simply a "rubber stamp" for that "direction".
Yes, Mr. Brentley may be a voice in the wilderness; but there are thousands of children lost in the "wilderness" of PPS decisions, promises, projects, and curricula, instruction and too many assessments that are disconnected from reality.
We can only pray that Mr. Brentley finds the courage and support to continue being the "voice" for children in the wilderness of under-served Pittsburgh communities.
Without Mr. Brentley's voice there is little hope that underserved students will ever be educated in PPS.
Yes at times it's nice to have a new voice on the board yet Mark Brently always spoke his voice .Sometimes you get a voice and can't hear nothing .Just because you have a voice don't mean you hear that voice their be others to be the voice from the one you don't hear his/her voice.
Mr. Brently know what I'm talking about don't have to mention BOARD MEMBER(S) NAMES!!!!!!!!!
Biggest news .... Chris Potter's reporting for the P-G. HUGE.
It is time to dance!
4:54
Could it be the wilderness is the raw material out of which the underserved students will carve out their own future?
7:47-Hopeful thinking (or worse); but. . .how long do you estimate it will take before the dominant culture asserts its power and subverts the underserved who are beaten down in criminal ways at every turn in the wilderness obliterating that precious and promising raw material.
9:01
Will He who has done so much for us fail to bring us to the light? If we need to be taught, He will teach. He knows our inner most thoughts.
9:01PM-Hopeful thinking always. The wilderness is the place of inspiration not obliteration. These under-served students will find their own 'voices'.
6:16_ Indeed. That'voice' is not dependent on PPS .
One way to resolve this BOARD conflict in regard to the under-served students in WILDERNESS PPS
School Board should be run by the state like in the
Duquesne School Dist. which the state makes all FINAL decision especially when it comes to what school to close leave open and to SELL in the long run the students in WILDERNESS might get attention pertaining to a EDUCATION RIGHT meaning can't keep doing the same thing and expect to see something different .Or else we keep going down that same old road over and over again
Let's continue "hoping" that the many, many thousands of "bb" students will be lifted by forces beyond the wilderness of PPS to an inspiration that defies the past five years of decline. Let's support the "hope" with something more--- for those currently lost or struggling to survive---something more than words.
To 7:46-The state will never be an answer if Duquesne is an example.
Yesterday's PG called attention to the two lowest achieving districts, Duquesne and Wilkinsburg and those two districts have had full-time people from the state for the last 5 or 6 years. ( I hear that those same two people from the state are now working in PPS---can that be true?)
8:55AM -Beginning in the 1950's some black communities created "citizenship schools" to prepare would-be voters. It was a grassroots movement that had a dramatic impact on literacy rates in a short time. The credo was "each man get a man". "Once you learn to read, you go and help someone else".
Something more than words.
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2014/12/21/The-Next-Page-Set-up-to-fail-Jim-Crow-literacy-tests/stories/201412210025
I do NOT want the STATE to come into PPS to run the district. Screw that idea. We need to have an elected group of citizens running the district, not some state appointed OVERLORDS and bureaucrats in charge.
The STATE is already here in PPS at the PRIORITY schools!
The PRIORITY schools are the LOWEST-ACHIEVING 5% in the STATE of Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh has quite a few PRIORITY schools---and FOCUS schools that are the lowest 10% in the state..
If the communities took over the schools in these areas, the Hill, Homewood, the Northside they could hardly do a worse jpb of educating kids than PPS or the State are doing!
The communities need to rise up and take over the job of educating the kids when the "educators" FAIL at doing it.
10:24AM
When the educators FAIL and the community leaders FAIL....
10;24, your point is not lost! The children are left in the wilderness with no supports, no advocates, few resources, and even less opportunity . . .
In other words ALL of the adults are FAILING their inherent roles and responsibilities to the children?
Surely, that can be remedied. We (any one of us) cannot abdicate those roles and responsibilities with comments that point fingers. The children are our future!
10:18 AM
Surely that can be remedied? Obviously not.
Out of the chaos a Leader will emerge. History tells us that. My guess is that these very underserved children hold the promise for their own future.
Never underestimate the human spirit in these under-served children. They will rise up!
How about those apples for all in the Christmas Spirit of new beginnings.
Obviously not? Such despair! Clearly, the children are not making their way out of THIS wilderness (education).
The last ten years are showing us that the children need more than than can access on their own. After all they are not adults.
Despair will not get you to a destination.
10:18
Everyday those in position of power abdicate those roles and responsibilities to serve the underserved. In the last decade or so no remedy has come forward in any actionable way. Thus the ...."surely, that can be remedied " by present day leadership is in doubt. However, hope rather than despair seems to be the sentiment in this thread of posts with the exception being 9:01PM.
Despair is not a destination and hope is not a strategy. Remediation is actualized by leaders leading. Walking the talk every step of the way. Something more than words.
In case any of us have forgotten what leadership looks like, sounds like or feels like.....read today's PG article ,"The Pope Scolds Vatican's Curia". Just substitute PPS for the Curia.
Hope springs eternal when there are working plans with people taking action against the doubts and fears of 9:01. We know enough to successfully prepare ALL of the children for positive and productive futures. It takes committed, creative, culturally-centered, caring, courageous, community TEAMS!
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