Recently in Schools K-12 Category

 Source: Class Struggle blog at Washington Post, August 22, 2009

 

 The nation's largest teachers union sharply attacked President Obama's most significant school improvement initiative on Friday evening, saying that it puts too much emphasis on a "narrow agenda" centered on charter schools and echoes the Bush administration's "top-down approach" to reform.

Source: By Diane Ravitch, Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2009


The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District is opening 50 schools over the next few years and considering a proposal to allow some or all to be privately managed. Before taking this step, the board should take a hard look at the evidence about charter schools and privately managed schools.

Because of a brilliant media campaign by charter school organizations, there is a widespread impression that any charter school is better than any public school. This is not true.

Source: Marisa Schultz, The Detroit News (MI), Saturday, July 11, 2009


Detroit -- Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb announced Friday that he has hired four educational management companies to turn around 17 of the worst-performing high schools in the district, a move that marks what leaders say is the largest public school district overhaul of its kind in the nation.

Source: By Beth Smith, The Suburbanite (OH), New! Fri Jun 05, 2009, 10:02 AM EDT

 

Members of the Coventry Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) accepted a pay freeze and rolled over their contract. The announcement was made at the school board meeting by Brian Smith, president. OAPSE represents clerical, support staff and bus drivers.  Closely related, a number of citizens attended the meeting expressing concerns about the future of busing and Coventry bus drivers.

.... School Superintendent Rusty Chaboudy has begun an exploration of Petermann LLC  to provide bus transportation for the district's students. Coventry would give up their bus fleet and the cost of its maintenance in favor of buses dispatched from a Petermann terminal on Triplett Blvd.

Source:By Amanda McGregor, Salem News (MA), June 09, 2009

 

 School bus driver Carmella Cote said she can't count the number of times she has comforted students, or sung to them to calm them down for the ride to and from school.  Other drivers said they always call families if they are running late and try to adhere to a consistent routine, which is important to many children with special needs.

..... The drivers and monitors are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, which is set to meet with the school administration on Thursday afternoon for "impact bargaining."  Union members said yesterday that they are ready to make concessions in order to save their jobs.

Source: KYW's Mike DeNardo (PA),Thursday, 11 June 2009 6:28AM

 

The Philadelphia school district wants to put outside managers running some city schools on a shorter leash. Associate superintendent Ben Rayer told the School Reform Commission that Philadelphia schools run by private companies perform no better than district-run schools, and he said it's time the commission re-examined the role those private managers play:

Source: Mid Hudson News (NY), April 24, 2009

 

The Port Jervis City School District Board of Education Thursday night approved a $59 million 2009-2010 academic year budget which includes the privatization of student transportation.

...... There are 100 district employees who work in the transportation department and are represented by the CSEA. Some may get picked up by the private company, but they would lose in the end, said union spokeswoman Jessica Ladlee. "It's lower wages, minimum benefits," she said. "Right now, we have workers here who have invested many, many years with the district, but they are not quite at retirement age, so it puts them in a very tough position because they had years in the state retirement system but they are not quite where they need to be in order to receive a full pension."

Source:BY DIANE C. BEAUDOIN, Leominster CHAMPION (MA),March 20, 2009

 

 ..... Jennifer Taralli, a kitchen helper at Samoset Middle School, and Darlene Spenser, baker at three city schools, have expressed deep concern about the possibility of loosing their jobs within the schools.

..... According to Taralli, the school meals are reimbursed by the state and those funds go into a revolving account, which in turn is used to purchase the food for the meals.  "This account has not been in the red since 1989, we are not loosing any money. This is the only department of the school that does not cost the city any money at all," she said. In total, the staff of cafeteria ladies is at 51, with 28 of those receiving health insurance through the city plan. The cafeteria staffers are also members the AFSCME, Local 93 union.

..... The cafeteria ladies expressed doubt that a private company would deliver the same quality and care to the breakfast and lunch menus.

Source: HometownLife.com (MI), March 27, 2009

 

Custodial and transportation services for the Bloomfield Hills Schools will not be privatized. Instead, the school board voted unanimously Thursday night to adopt a new five-year contract with AFSCME Local 1628, which covers the district's approximately 178 bus drivers and custodians. The new agreement, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2009, and runs through Dec. 31, 2013, will save about $2.1 million, according to the district.

It includes changes in health care coverage and a contribution toward health care, wage reductions, holiday and vacation day reductions and overtime changes. Wages are frozen at their new levels for the first three years of the contract, with a wage opener in contract years 2012 and 2013.

Source: William J. Mathis, Ph.D., Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union, Lorna Jimerson, Ed. D., Champlain Valley Union High School, The Great Lakes Center for Education Research & Practice, March 2008 [31-page report]

....... Virtually all school systems have historically used and continue to use private vendors to some degree. In many cases, contracting out is simply the most efficient, practical and prudent path. Yet, the appealing promises of commercial vendors to provide higher quality services at cheaper prices while relieving administrative headaches are not always realized. This paper reviews critical considerations for school officials considering contracting out. These include hidden costs, quality control. impact on administrative time, social costs, and loss of control and restricted flexibility.