Starting Over: A Post-Katrina Education

I was really looking forward to a break for the next two weeks while school was closed for the winter holiday. But, there’s so much that needs to be completed, we really can’t afford to stop. It’s more like catch up time than vacation time.

Early this morning I got several emails from our business manager about unfinished business which demanded immediate attention. Teacher retirement plan enrollments, final pay checks, and employee exit procedures were on the agenda. We have to create every policy, procedure, and form for our charter school. Someone told me that we are running a tiny school district with only one school. That person was correct. How hard can it be with only one school? It’s harder than you’d think, but not as hard as it could be.

After Katrina, the school district scheduled times and dates when employees could go into the storm damaged buildings under the supervision of school security personnel. You were allowed to remove your personal items from the building once a month on the special date for about eight to ten months. I made several trips to my office on the third floor of the central services building. The elevators were not working; the building was stuffy, moldy and extremely hot. I managed to take out most of my personal items including my copies of the New Orleans Public School policy manuals. The manuals had not been updated completely in several years. However, they are life savers for me when I need to write a policy for our charter school. The district was sued so many times the policies have been court tested and provide an excellent base from which to begin.

I was able to work in comfort for the first time since school opened because my home office is now completed. I have lovely furniture and all of my supplies in one spacious closet. The carpenters were with us up until Christmas Eve finishing the downstairs restroom in time for my family dinner guests’ arrival. I plan to unpack one or two crates a day until everything is in its place. Our business manager has already been put on notice that I won’t be coming to the school as often to sign checks or meet with people, now that my office is ready. They will have to come to me instead. Besides, if I don’t go to the school as often, the teachers will be less confused about the role of the charter school board and the charter school administration.

By the way, the Christmas party for the faculty was very nice. We had a great time all night. A large group of teachers all showed up together after obviously attending another party given by a former employee. I was happy to see them come. Better late than never. Several teachers even thanked the Board for sponsoring the party for them. There was still some tension in the air about the week’s events, but it was barely noticeable. Also, the gift certificates for the faculty arrived on time before they left school last Friday. I hope they realize how much we really care about them. I think we are going to be okay.

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 12:03 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

After a very rough week that started out with a media frenzy around our teacher sick out, we are getting dressed for the first faculty Holiday Party. It’s being held at a lovely reception hall not too far from the school. It’s a catered affair in a beautifully decorated place. In New Orleans, everything revolves around food and music. We’ll have both. The only drawback may be the cash bar.

Our new principal is escorting his wife and introducing her to the staff tonight. They will also meet the spouses of some of our Board members. It’s our first party. I hope everyone has their dancing shoes ready. We’ve even invited most of our vendors to celebrate with us.

Today at the school, they distributed about $1,000 in toys and games to the students in a Yule Lottery. Every child who was present for class received a ticket. After the students wrote their names on the tickets, one name was drawn from the pile. That child had first-choice of all of the gifts. There was a Holiday Barbie, Transformers, Tea sets, footballs, scooters, skateboard, musical instruments, dump truck, board games, bubble bath, toy make-up kits, even a cat that moved when you passed your hand before its eyes. The teachers continued to draw names until all of the gifts were distributed. Each lucky child picked a gift from the display, based upon the order of his or her name being selected. I always love to watch the toy selection. Most children will have their eyes on a special gift, hoping that no one picks it before it’s their turn. Older boys and girls frequently select something for a younger sibling. The lottery is a great way to encourage attendance on the last day before a long holiday. I wonder what the attendance was like today.

We tried to order personally engraved pencil sets for each child in the school, but the order never went out. We’ll have them for New Year’s. The students received only the peppermint candy canes that were supposed to adorn their pencil cases. All teachers and staff members received a beautiful silk poinsettia. Their gift certificates had not arrived when I finished signing checks at 3:30 this afternoon. We’ll have them for New Year’s too, I guess.

I have to stop blogging early now because I need to find my dancing shoes. What are you doing to celebrate the holiday, now that school is out?

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 8:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I’m not sure where to start with this story of turmoil, hurt feelings and differing views. I apologize if I am incoherent, but it is 5:00 in the morning and I can’t sleep. The story in the morning paper reports that some of the teachers and the former principal of our charter school felt that I was micromanaging the school. From my perspective, I was not as much trying to carry the ball as I was trying to pick up the fumble. Is it possible that I was creating interference instead of helping the team? Obviously, some people think so.

We’ve had two days of constant scrutiny from the media. It’s hard to work or meet or have open discussion when every word or utterance might be quoted for the world to read. Emotions are very high. That would be a good thing, if the emotions were about children and their education. I don’t feel as if that is what is happening.

It may be hard to blog about what’s happening because I am at the center of the controversy. I learned that the former principal did not ask for a five-week leave of absence because she had personal business to conduct. That’s what she wrote in her request for time off. In reality, she wanted to be away from the job long enough for me and the rest of the Board of Directors to miss her leadership. She explained this in a telephone conference on a morning news show six days after leaving the job. I thought she needed time to repair her house which she started renovating recently. I even designed a plan for her to take the leave without jeapordizing her status as the principal. She left last Wednesday morning, two days before the plan was to be presented to the Board in a special meeting.

When she left, the principal took her personal belongings, including her mini-refrigerator. She left her school cell phone and the keys to the office with the business manager. She didn’t call the next day. But, in her mind she was not really quitting her job. She was still trying to make a point. Her departing message was something like “Roslyn needs to get a weak Assistant Principal and run the school herself.” I missed all of the clues that she felt this way. I loved being an elementary school principal. But, I swear that I have no desire to return to that level of pressure and responsibility.

Our teachers staged a sick out that has made us look like we can’t manage the educational programs of our own children. I’m not sure how we can repair the damage and get back on track. The new principal is confident and excited about his work, including healing the wounds of injured staff members. The irony about this situation is that while the Board was meeting to select the new principal, our staff was planning the sick out at a local fast food restaurant six blocks away. Why didn’t they just come to the meeting? Why air our dirty laundry and make a spectacle of our school? Was it fear of retribution or a calculated power play? I have a hard time accepting that our employees plotted to shut down their own school. They can’t possibly know that their actions could result in the loss of the charter and their jobs as charter school employees. I’m sure they didn’t know that the lower than anticipated number of returning students has created a reduced job market for teachers. Other schools are cutting surplus staff, not hiring. Or maybe they did know and acted out of desperation, anger and frustration.

Although the conversation in the marathon meeting yesterday was about Board and Administration relations, I sat out most of the meeting with reporters. Too many Board members in the auditorium would have constituted a quorum and made it subject to the open meetings law so I left the room and provided a venue for teachers to speak their minds without fear of being quoted by the reporters. Also, I knew that they wanted to talk about me.

One of the reporters asked me “How do you know that the selection of the new principal will not result in the same type of problems?” I know that communication is critical to our progress and I know that trust is equally important. I can take responsibility for being overzealous. I don’t want this principal to take drastic measures to get the Board’s attention. He’s a real team player. I was impressed that he took the large charter application plan home after the interview and returned the next day with a list of tasks to complete that included many of the things his predecessor had not started. He also asked more questions than I did during the interview.

I’ll let him carry the ball without interference. If he fumbles, I’ll wait to see if he can recover it before diving into the melee. I’ve been a principal—state principal of the year and president of a principals’ association. I’ve been an area superintendent—supervising over thirty school principals (including McDonogh 42’s exiting leader). I’ve never been a charter school Board president until now. How hard can it be? This lesson is hard, but I’m still learning.

Read the article: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2007/12/school_hit_by_teacher_sickout.html

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 6:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

“You can't get to no better days unless you make it through the night.”
-Better Days sung by Dianne Reeves

We want to provide a great education for children living and surviving in the neighborhood we call Treme. We’ve hired experienced, highly qualified, veteran teachers. We promised and delivered to them the highest salaries in town. We involved them in decision-making, purchasing, and every important plan, giving them respect for the school leaders they are. How hard can it be with this type of staff? It’s very difficult when teachers are distracted by politics. It’s a challenge when teachers are in an emotional turmoil about things that they think they know. It’s impossibly hard when the teachers decide that the children WILL NOT BE FIRST! Monday morning, fifteen of our twenty four classroom teachers made that decision. It is too disheartening to write about and I need to be up early for tomorrow.

I do understand how the teachers may be feeling, if they really believe that the Board fired their principal. It’s just not true. I can accept that they want to blame someone for their disappointment and are focusing that anger on the Board. It’s just not fair. I can’t understand how some of the teachers who I’ve known and loved for many years could turn their backs on our children today. I didn’t think they could do that to me either. But they did. And it hurts so much. Good night.

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 1:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

I love to tell short stories and share interesting vignettes several times each week through this blog. How hard can it be? I didn’t get to write anything at all from Monday to Friday, although it was on my mind every day. I actually miss writing more when there’s no time to think much less write. Normally, I don’t blog on the weekend, but I feel guilty thinking about those of you who correspond with me and offer positive feedback to the obstacles of starting over.

It’s been a pretty rough week, but there were some real “highs” and some serious “lows” depending on your point of view. The highs included a ceremonial donation of books to our seventh and eighth grade students. The Second Annual Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame sponsored a Holiday Luncheon and Big Chief and Big Queen Book Club Book Presentation Ceremony. The Indians sang traditional songs with revised lyrics as the tambourines rang out in the school auditorium. It was fun but the older kids are too self-conscious to join in for a sing-along. They barely clapped to the music. This is strange behavior for children who live in the middle of Second Line central.

It was the first assembly this year for the middle school students, unless you count the meeting with the principal on the first day of school to set the stage for the year or the one gathering in October during which the students were read the riot act for their misbehaviors on the third floor. As the books were being awarded and pictures being taken, I kept wondering how many children could or would really read the books. I hope the teachers will use the gift books in class. A few children already have personal libraries at home. Most of them don’t own any books. Other children said that their personal libraries floated away in the flood waters the same as mine did.

We held our first Holiday Door Decoration Contest and most of the teachers were really into the spirit of the season. One or two didn’t participate at all. The winning teacher decorated her door with quilting squares of felt that each first grade student created for their class quilt. She even included a short story about the importance of quilting as an art. When we got ready to award the prizes, I was told that one of the gift wrapped boxes had disappeared from the office counter where they had been on display. I hope the person who stole the box of chocolates enjoyed them. I had to rush out to the store and get a replacement gift 20 minutes before the presentation to the winners.

On Friday, we had a special board meeting to discuss applicants for our Assistant Principal vacancy. The Board decided to cast a wider net for applicants. I’m going to put an advertisement in the daily and weekly papers next week. We also have an excellent candidate for a Speech therapist and possibly a Social Worker. We’ve been using a specially funded support program called Louisiana Spirit for social work referrals. But, we need a full-time social worker of our own. The families need lots of assistance and someone to help them access the available resources.

Our TV/DVD combinations finally came on Friday. Lots of our supplies and materials are arriving. We hadn’t bought much because there was no inventory of what was already in the building or on order for our school. Now we know what we need to buy. The teachers will be very happy that, finally, they can use the DVDs that come with many of our teaching materials.

Now that we have a better idea of our funding, we will try to fill the remaining vacancies for a librarian, another math teacher and a social studies teacher for the middle school. The Recovery School District and some other charter schools overstaffed—not enough students enrolled. They will have to cut teacher positions. I hope to pick up one or two good teachers during the surplus process. I will write to the HR people I know to ask them for contacts. Some of these surplus teachers traveled a long way to work in the Big Easy. I’d hate to see them have to leave already.

Today, I attended a meeting sponsored by the Louisiana Justice Institute. The meeting was for parents of children with special needs. There were several organizations present whose representatives agreed to form an advocacy group. We’ll meet monthly to discuss solutions to the problems facing families whose children with disabilities can’t get required services.

We have one more week before the first semester ends. We haven’t formed a PTA yet. None of our children have been on a field trip. We’ve had one cultural resource activity. The school wide discipline plan is not in place and we have to give the employee handbook another review before it is final. We also have several overdue state grants to submit. These are just some of the reasons we knew we needed an Assistant Principal.

Finally, we have a new interim school leader due to the sudden departure of our school’s principal. She wasn’t fired and it was her decision to leave for personal reasons. I think she gave her best effort to opening the school. Some of the teachers are very sad to see her leave. The principal was allowed to choose the entire staff and a few of the teachers signed on because of their personal loyalty to her. They are angry, feeling betrayed and confused. I think the anger of one or two is misdirected toward the TCSA Board. I also believe that a handful of teachers are afraid of the future and their job security, in spite of the fact that they have signed contracts. Others are looking forward to the change in administration. I have hope that the staff will have loyalty to the school and its students. Change is rarely comfortable. We have a two week vacation after December 21. I’m looking forward to the break as much as the students are looking forward to their toys and gifts.

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I can’t leave home today because our construction crew is installing doors in every room on the first floor of my house. When the levees broke following Hurricane Katrina, my house was flooded and stewed by 4 ½ feet of muddy, salt water for two weeks. All of the doors were off the hinges or warped and bloated when we were finally allowed to return, a month after the storm’s passing. It’s costing us $6,000 to replace them—with an upgrade. I included some fancy etched glass doors for my new home office and the front foyer. I’m determined to work from home more in 2008 and the setting will be ideal once everything is finished.

My friend Paulette Bruno is the Principal and CEO of Moton Elementary Charter School. Her school is one of 12 chartered by the New Orleans Public Schools. The program is unique in that the calendar is a 45:15 year-round schedule. We talk almost every day about school stuff even though our chartering agencies are different. She the one who nicknamed me “Still Working” because I work every day, in spite of my officially retired status. In return, I renamed her “Hard to Help” because she is strong willed and sets extremely high standards for anyone around her.

Since I’m stuck in the house, I decided that my work would be limited to tasks that make me happy. How hard can it be to plan fun activities for the school? Let’s start with the holiday calendar of events. We already have dates for the following list of activities.

December 7 – TCSA Door Decoration Contest
December 12 - Band Concert
December 13 - Basin St. Station Luncheon and Book Give-away
December 19 - Santa Pictures
December 19 - School Wide Winter Activity
December 20 - Classroom Winter Activity
December 20 - Distribution of Student Gifts
December 21 – Student Gift Lottery
December 21 - TCSA Holiday Party
December 21 - Distribution of Staff Gifts

I would like to use the holiday season and special events to create some positive public relations for McDonogh 42 Elementary Charter School and the Treme Charter School Association. Therefore, I want to publish a listing of all of the holiday related activities scheduled at the school for the month of December.

We need dates for several other activities including the Christmas Luncheon for Students –the Board has to purchase the ice cream; a Parent Holiday Gathering (5:00 - 7:00 p.m.); it's a Board activity; and a performance by students from Joseph S. Clark High School. Mr. Norvelt Estrella, the principal, offered to have his choir and dance group entertain our students.
I am also going to design the invitations for the Christmas party. We will be sending out Holiday greeting cards to all of the other schools and special donors, but I don’t have a roster with addresses. This is the kind of “work” I really like.

An email to the principal asked that she make sure our students have grade level Holiday Homework packets with real assignments and projects. One of our former superintendents did this with district designed packets for all schools. The teachers hated it. But, as a classroom teacher, I always looked forward to creating this type of thematic unit that allowed students to teach themselves. I found some cute mazes and puzzle sheets to share before I remembered that I was no longer a teacher (or a principal). Probably, our principal has already planned this project. Just in case she’s been too busy with a thousand other tasks, I suggested that the packets should include components such as the following:
• Spelling Bee Word List
• Writing Assignments
• Math Practice pages
• Social Studies Project
• Science Investigation
• Current Events Assignment
• Reading Assignment
• Study Guides for Exams (extra work for individuals who need more practice)

Our quarter ends on December 21 and the two-week winter break from December 24 – January 4 will mean fewer grades to compute for report cards. Teachers must prepare to grade these holiday assignments—it’s not busy work. The holiday packets should be distributed on December 20th. That’s the day of the class parties and student gift distribution so I know we’ll have good attendance and every child will get a copy. We will have quarterly exams as soon as the students return from the break. Teachers should develop their quarterly exams this week or on the weekend and prepare the study guides for the take-home packets. I am especially concerned about science and social concepts and math word problems for grades 3-8. We have a school improvement consultant who suggested that the students focus more on the writing process.

I took a break to drive uptown for some festive paper to use for our invitations and special announcements. Although it’s after 7:00 p.m. now, I’m “Still Working” and it’s fun.

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 8:28 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The headline in today’s Times-Picayune newspaper reads “Eight new charters endorsed for N.O.” None of those schools will be operated by the Treme Charter School Association. Our applications to operate two more schools for 2008 - 2009 were denied. I can’t tell you the reasons because that information will be released by special request after the formal vote of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday. Our applications were not among the eight recommended for approval by State Superintendent Paul Pastorek.

I believe that all things happen for a reason. I can think of many reasons why we are better off with one school instead of three schools. My main reason for being grateful that we were turned down is that it allows us to focus on creating the model school we dreamed of at McDonogh 42 Elementary Charter School. Although things are running smoothly for a newly opened charter school, we have so much more we want to do. One thing I want to focus on is parental involvement and volunteer efforts.

Our upcoming holiday activities will include a Parent’s Night to hear what they think about our school and an opportunity to start up our PTA. Now that we don’t have to worry about hiring two more staffs, negotiating two dozen more vendor contracts, and completing thirty pre-opening procedures, we can pay attention to the students, teachers and staff who have trusted us to create a wonderful place to learn, live, and love. Thank you, Superintendent Pastorek.

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 10:32 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)