During remarks at his last meeting as a board member, Allen said union leaders, including President Paul Helder, did not bring a potential contract agreement to member teachers in February.  District teachers just finished their second school year without a contract.

“Imagine that: seven people deciding the fate of over 1,700.  That does not sound like a democracy, it sounds like a dictatorship, ironically one of the things of which [the union] accuses (Superintendent) Dr. Taylor,” said Allen, a one-time board president. He said the union’s tactics have mirrored a 2003 warning presented by a staffer at Michigan Association of School Boards

Allen, who has served since 2002, also discussed what he saw as successes during his tenure: the passage of a school bond, making needed building and program cuts, more schools meeting state and federal standards and looming high school reforms.

In an interview after the meeting, Helder told 24 Hour News 8 Allen is entitled to his opinion.  But he said there never was a tentative agreement he could have presented to his membership.  And the union president said he would literally be willing to be locked in a room with negotiators until a contract is settled.

“We’re offering right now again: go into a building, chain the doors — we’ll get flat food, you can slide it under the door,” Helder said.  “And we’d like Dr. Taylor there as well.”

Also Monday night, the board approved pink slips for 141 teachers.

The district typically recalls most of the teachers who receive the slips, although because of lower than expected retirements and the elimination of 95 full-time positions, that may not be the case this year.

Those 95 positions will be cut through not replacing retirees, moving some teachers from full- to part-time and laying off some teachers.  Helder said he expects roughly 30 retirements this year.
Also Monday night, Superintendent Bernard Taylor offered a moment of silence for two members of the school community who lost their lives recently, including Nathaniel Jones, who was shot Thursday afternoon near Fuller Avenue and Kalamazoo Street SE.

GRPS has announced LEED certification, a nationwide environmental designation, for Gerald Ford Middle School. It’s the third district building to receive the honor.  A fourth has applied for it.

The board also approved the lease of Park School, 1150 Adams Street SE, to Michigan Family Resources/Head Start.

Keep it here for the latest.

–Tony

GRPS board meeting, May 4, 2009.

A team of Grand Rapids Public Schools students took top honors in nationwide math and language competitions at the National Academic Games tournament in Tennessee.

GRPS’ “senior team” — Kierstdea Furey, Theodore Petzold, Terrance Carrothers, David Casaletto and Michael Myckowiak — took first place in “equations” and “linguishtik” at the competition, held in April in Knoxville, Tenn. and billed as the largest such tournament in the country.  Myckowiak and Petzold earned perfect scores in the two competitions.  Furey earned a perfect score for “linguishtik.”

 The district’s junior team took third place in “equations” and the elementary team took third in “on-sets” and fourth in “linguishtik.”

Two from the elementary team — Jack Culp and Adrian Bonilla — earned perfect scores in “equations.”

The students were honored at Monday’s GRPS board meeting.

Here are the “budget parameters” set forth by the administration in no particular order.  The board voted unanimously to adopt them:

- Schools that have fewer than 200 full-time students as of the fall count or are at or below 85 percent of capacity would be under consideration for closing or consolidation in the fall of 2010  (Full story here.)

- Elementary class sizes shall remain between 22 and 30, with kindergarten through third grade at the lower end of the range
 
- Reductions at the elementary level should be minimized as much as possible

- Secondary school class sizes should be between 25 and 35 (some electives such as band could be higher)

- Class sizes may be higher when technology is used to deliver instruction

- Elective classes at secondary level not retained unless 25 students or more are enrolled

- Staffing will be driven by student needs

- Increase use of technology

- Minimize the use of fund balanace to meet recurring expenses

- No increase in number of administrators

- Efforts to reduce cost of health insurance

***

GRPS CFO Lisa Freiburger says the decline in student enrollment from the fall count to the winter count appears to be weighted toward the secondary schools, which was not unexpected.  As we reported last week, the student drop from count to count this year was about half of what it was last year.

***

Tonight’s board packet includes the list of board candidates who will appear on the May ballot.  Former board President David Allen announced earlier that he would not seek re-election.  Board Secretary Arnie Smithalexander is running for re-election and Senita Lenear, who was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Jim Rinck but lost her bid to keep that seat in last May’s election, is also running.  Tony Baker, who beat Lenear, is running for re-election.  Three seats are open.  The candidates are:

Tony Baker
Wendy VerHage Falb
Senita Lenear
Arnie Smithalexander
Kevin Weiss

Teachers union President Paul Helder asked the Grand Rapids school board Monday night what the district’s plan is for “recruiting and retaining the best teachers next fall” in light of the proposed retirement incentives for eligible teachers and school staff statewide.

“I expect we’ll see a huge exodus not only in Grand Rapids, but throughout Kent County,” Helder said.  “That means our competition is going to be in the same position we are.”

That is to say, all districts will be looking to fill teaching positions if the proposal passes and a wave of retirement occurs. 

GRPS Chief Operating Officer Lisa Freiburger said administrators have been looking into what should be done in response to the plan, pushed by the Michigan Education Association and a bipartisan group of lawmakers.  But Freiburger noted that the fluid nature of the legislative process makes it difficult to plan concretely.

District spokesman John Helmholdt said 1,000 people applied for a couple dozen open teaching positions in the district at the outset of the current school year, including candidates with experience.  implying that there are plenty of willing candidates to fill GRPS positions. 

**

Superintendent Bernard Taylor is in Washington this week, lobbying lawmakers for financial help as part of the economic stimulus plan.  Taylor is there along with board President Catherine Mueller and Vice President Lisa Hinkel.

Helmholdt said tentative plans now sitting before the U.S. Senate would give GRPS roughly twice as much as the House-passed plan ($70-some million versus $30-some million).  That’s because the Senate plans includes money to help districts stabilize their budgets.

**

GRPS’ new facilities director, Ken Klomparens, laid out specific plans at Monday’s meeting for the extensive renovations planned for the district’s Houseman Field.

Klomparens said new publicly-accessible basketball courts will be installed, replacing tennis courts he said neighbors indicated weren’t needed.  The renovations will include new restrooms, new entrances, a new press box, a new concessions stand and new turf for the field.

Board member Amy McGlynn noted that GRPS staff has to reconstruct the turf after each game played there because the field has served well beyond its usefulness.  “We have maintenance staff out Monday with fishing line and glue putting it back together,” Klomparens responded.  “This is safety.”

The board approved construction contracts in December that authorize up to $6 million in funds for the project.  It will be paid for by savings from the district’s construction bond issue.  Responding generally to concerns that the money shouldn’t be spent that way, District Chief Operating Officer Lisa Freiburger noted that “the bond language specifically addressed athletic fields.”

**

Board member Arnie Smithalexander made it official Monday:  she’s running for re-election in May.  Smithalexander had said at a prior meeting that she was interested in running again, but needed to get the proper clearance from her employer.

- The theme schools are sixth-grade programs — now connected to City Middle/High School — at Blandford Nature Center (now City @ Blandford), the John Ball Zoo (City @ Zoo) and the Center for Economicology (City @ Riverside).  Applications are due March 2.

- The Central High School campus has a School of Health Science and Technology, partnered with Spectrum Health and others.  Union hosts the Academy for Design and Construction, featuring a new public-private partnership with area construction companies such as Christman and Rockford.  GRAPCEP/Engineering and Biomedical School is now open to ninth-graders at the Creston campus.  Ninth-graders are also now welcome at the School of Business at both Ottawa Hills and Creston.  Applications are due Feb. 5.

- GRUPA is now accepting sixth- through eighth-grade students.  Applications for the GPRS school, modeled after a charter program in Detroit, are due March 2.

- City Middle/High School offers a college preparatory curriculum.  The district often notes the high school is the region’s top-performing school on state standardized tests.  City Middle/High is in the process of finalizing its use of the rigorous International Baccalaureate curriculum.  Applications for City Middle/High School are due Jan. 31.

The open houses feature information on all the specialty programs for all grades, but are split between the high schools and the City building.

Here are the dates and times, per GRPS:

9 – 12 Grade School Choice Open Houses
Tuesday, January 13 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm @ Creston High School
Wednesday, January 14 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm @ Union High School
Wednesday, January 21, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm @ Ottawa Hills High School                                               
Thursday, January 22, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm @ Central High Campus / Montessori Building

6 – 8 Grade School Choice Open House
Saturday, January 31 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm @ City High/Middle School

The announcement kicked off Monday night’s GRPS board meeting.  Parents at Harrison Park will meet for two-hour English As A Second Language (ESL) courses twice a week.

It’s a pilot program expected to start in January.

“The data is very cleary that families who read together can help children significantly boost their vocabulary and school performance,” Literacy Center of West Michigan Executive Director Susan Ledy said in a statement.

The district also announced it exceeded its United Way fund-raising goal by $13,000. GRPS raised $103,000 for the campaign.

That money in a way comes back to GRPS, particularly in the form of Schools of Hope, a massive tutoring program also led by the United Way. Schools of Hope gives first- through third-graders access to an in-school tutor at a total cost of roughly $90,000 per year.

Here’s how the board voted:

Kenneth Hoskins – YES
Amy McGlynn – YES
Tony Baker – NO
Harry Campbell – NO
Jane Gietzen – NO
Lisa Hinkel – YES
Catherine Mueller – YES
David Allen, Arnie Smithalexander – ABSENT

GRPS also announced a new United Way program to help parents at one elementary school with their English and other literacy skills.

“We’re surprised that we’re this high when we had 1,100 all of last school year,” said Teresa Neal, an executive assistant to GRPS Superintendent Bernard Taylor, citing the 485 homeless students identified as homeless in this year.

“Those are the ones we know about.  There’s probably a lot more of them,” board member Amy McGlynn said.

Board member David Allen said the numbers indicate it’ll be a difficult year, noting that the coming months are often the toughest for families struggling with homelessness.

Administrators discussed the situation after ERA Network Real Estate of Kalamazoo donated 1,000 shoes, slippers and boots for the students. They will be distributed through the district’s homeless office along with the Hispanic Center and In The Image.

***

The GRPS board Monday night voted to sell the former Lexington school property to a neighborhood organizer who wants to turn it into a community center. 

The building, on Lexington Avenue NW between Fulton Street and Lake Michigan Drive, will be sold to Anna Marie Adema on the condition that she comes up with the $690,000 offered for the property by January 15. 

Adema made the offer the day the board was set to sell the property to an Ann Arbor-based developer who planned to turn the former school into apartments with Grand Valley State University students as likely tenants.  She and other neighbors expressed concern about adding rental units to a neighborhood they say already has plenty.  Adema’s plan is to create a “multi-denominational” community center for all ages, but she wouldn’t elaborate on what services the center would offer. 

She has suggested in the past that a health clinic was needed in the neighborhood.

If Adema fails to get the funds needed to make the purchase, the Ann Arbor developer’s offer will be honored.

The offer lists the purchaser as Adema and “an entity to be formed,” but Adema won’t identify who her associates are in the venture.   

***

Teachers union President Paul Helder told the board his union, the Grand Rapids Education Association, will take on safety issues itself. Helder said members and leaders are talking about a strategy that could involve going door-to-door, talking to students and parents about discipline problems and proper behavior, in light of what he sees as ongoing safety and security issues in GRPS facilities.

***

On a lighter note, despite the ongoing disagreement between Helder and some district leaders, board President Catherine Mueller invited the union leader to be her walking partner in the upcoming Turkey Trot to raise money for GRPS athletics.

“At the risk of sounding like a complete dork, believe it or not, I’m going to have to check with my mom,” Helder told Mueller. “We’ll say it’s a date but we won’t probably call it that.”

***
Your thoughts on these developments?

Tony

Voters could be asked to pay for much of the changes come May or November 2009. District administrators have said private donations will cover some of the cost of the plan, now estimated at between $202 and $243 million.

Initial recommendations called for only two traditional high schools, Ottawa Hills and Union. Under the new task force recommendations, Creston would remain a traditional program to serve the northeast side, “with the caveat that in five years, we’re going to step back and look to see if the numbers justify keeping it as a comprehensive high school,” spokesman John Helmholdt told 24 Hour News 8.

The plan still includes “major” building renovations to the buildings proposed to remain comprehensive as well as renovations to Central and City high schools.

The Central campus would host a theme high school focused on health and science and the Montessori high school. Central already has a health-science school-within-a-school program and the Montessori high school program already operates within the Central building.

City High will also serve as a theme-based school, including the International Baccalaureate program already under development there and the “Economicology” program with its focus on the economy and the environment.

School board members reviewed the task force’s new recommendations Monday. According to a district statement, the recommendations also include moving alternative high school programs to the traditional high school facilities, although some “separate, stand-alone” facilities would remain.

The task force included parents, teachers, administrators and some from the original community committee

The district plans to submit applications Friday, 24 Hour News 8 has learned.

Governor Jennifer Granholm laid out the grants in her State of the State address this year, saying smaller high schools will foster better educational outcomes thanks in part to closer relationships between students and instructors.

GRPS wants to use the money for its health sciences small high school inside the Central High buliding, the GRAPCEP engineering and biomedical program inside Creston High and the new Grand Rapids University Preparatory Academy (GRUPA).

The district will first seek programming grants to help run the existing schools and hopes to later apply for capital grants to help fund the renovations of the district’s high school buildings as part of GRPS’ Phase II building improvement plan.