Thursday, December 16, 2010

California Board of Educationseeks probe of Comptoncharter campaignThe board will ask the stateattorney general to examinecharges of misconduct in apetition drive to convertMcKinley Elementary into acharter school.

The state Board of Education will
ask the attorney general to
investigate complaints of
misconduct surrounding a parent
petition drive to turn over a
struggling Compton elementary
school to a charter school
operation, the board president
said Wednesday.
The petition drive at McKinley
Elementary School, the state's
first test of a new law that
empowers parents to make
sweeping changes at low-
performing schools, has been
mired in charges and
countercharges of deceit and
intimidation since signatures, said
to represent 62% of the school's
parents, were submitted to the
Compton Unified School District
last week.
Those charges resurfaced this
week. At a Compton school
board meeting Tuesday evening,
which drew a crowd of nearly
200 people, several McKinley
parents drew cheers as they
praised their school's progress
and alleged that petition
organizers used misleading
claims and stealth tactics to
gather signatures.
Parent Revolution, the Los
Angeles nonprofit that targeted
McKinley for its first petition
drive, chose a charter conversion
as one of four options for
change and selected Celerity
Educational Group as the charter
operator. The group chose not
to speak Tuesday evening. Nor
did parents supportive of the
petition.
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But many opponents lined up to
voice complaints about the
petition process. One parent said
she thought she was signing a
petition to beautify the school
while PTA President Cynthia
Martinez complained she was
not allowed access to all Parent
Revolution gatherings. Last week,
for instance, Parent Revolution
moved a news conference
featuring Los Angeles Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa from public
space outside McKinley to a
private residence. Some anti-
petition parents said they were
denied entry.
Karen Frison, Compton's acting
superintendent, said Wednesday
that the district would launch a
new "parent empowerment
initiative" of its own that will
include a "robust community
conversation" about the new law
and the petition process in
Compton. Test scores at
McKinley have increased by 77
points in the last two years but
the school remains in the lowest
10% of all California elementary
schools.
"The parent-trigger law presents
more than one option.... Our
parents and guardians deserve
to discuss these options in an
open and transparent manner,"
Frison wrote in a letter to The
Times.
Paulette Gipson, of the National
Assn. for the Advancement of
Colored People's Compton
office, also said the organization
would seek to host a town hall
to fully discuss the issue. The
group supports the parent-
trigger law but not the process
used to gather signatures in
Compton, she said.
Pastor Lee Finnie, whose three
children attend McKinley, said
the school's PTA planned to
create a website to publicize
concerns about the petition-
gathering process.
"We're going to let the state of
California know that when you
hear Parent Revolution, you'll
smell a rat a mile away and lock
the doors and run," he said.
For their part, pro-petition
parents and organizers spoke at
the state education board
meeting Wednesday with
passionate pleas for better
schools. McKinley parents
Shemika Murphy and Ismenia
Guzman, for instance, said they
were grateful to Parent
Revolution for informing them
about their rights to demand a
better education for their
children under the new parent-
trigger law.
Gabe Rose of Parent Revolution
told board members that his
group has documented threats
against pro-petition parents and
would welcome a state
investigation into them. The
group, for instance, produced
written remarks by a McKinley
teacher falsely claiming that
Celerity would not accept
special-needs children; state law
requires that any charter
operator taking over a district
school must accept all students
in the attendance boundaries.
Charter schools are
independently run and publicly
financed.
Board President Ted Mitchell said
he would ask the state attorney
general to investigate the
numerous allegations on both
sides, acting on a request by
board member Alan Arkatov.
In other developments, the
Compton school district clarified
Tuesday that no action or
recommendation has ever been
made to shut down McKinley, a
claim some parents said
persuaded them to sign the
petition.
A scenario to shut down
McKinley and consolidate it with
another school is one of six
options the board is considering
to save money. But no decision
will be made until the district
holds several public hearings on
all options next month.
In Sacramento, the state
education board voted to start a
15-day period for public
comment on regulations to
implement the parent-trigger
law.
teresa.watanabe@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles
Times
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Discussion FAQ
WantResults at 3:59 AM
December 16, 2010
Part II, What is going on in
Compton is going on throughout
the United States, no parental
commitment to education and
poorly trained teachers. Also, a
lack of true accountability of
administrators and school board
members is ever present. West
on the 105 freeway you have a
similar thing going on in
Inglewood (let’s call it Compton
West), board members who are
really clueless and some case
corrupt in addition to a public
that has their heads in the sand.
With parents not becoming
actively involved in the education
process things will not change.
The problem with both Big
Compton and Compton West
(Inglewood) the parents in many
cases themselves lack a
foundation in education; many
have not completed K-12, so
once again many do not
appreciate education because
the system failed them. What to
do is Part III, to come tomorrow.
WantResults at 3:48 AM
December 16, 2010
Part I- Here we go again
students suffer because of
parental neglect. These kids are
not and have not been educated
for decades and people are
unwilling to go down what
appears to be a better path.
What they and others must do is
monitor the progress. Obviously
no one in Compton has
monitored the present system
and look what they have,
“Educational Malpractice”.
Remember, “Ignorance has no
color is just has symptoms and
results”. Compton has shown the
symptoms for many decades and
the results have right in front of
everyone’s eyes.
Marine_1 at 2:51 AM December
16, 2010
Sounds like the union has it
panties in a bunch and are afraid
of starting to lose it's grip here in
the Socialist state of California.
Nothing more nothing less!
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