Kitsap Education

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I went to the Bremerton School Board meeting Thursday night to listen to what board members and citizens had to say about the upcoming school support levy. The levy will be on the Feb. 9, 2010, ballot. From discussions, the levy will be a renewal of the current school support levy that was approved in 2006.
There was some concern expressed about the economy and how it has affected property values and whether it would affect voting. Board member Louie Mitchell, noting that unlike his neighbors his property assessment went up this year, said despite the economy, he was confident Bremerton voters would renew the levy. He also noted that BSD has been conservative in the past when asking for money in the levy, creating goodwill with the community.

Board members did toss around the idea of whether the district needed more than one levy on the ballot. Other districts have run levies for specific purposes, such as technology. But board member Vicki Collins said perhaps technology should be included in the school support levy, as it’s no longer considered an “extra.” “That is a basic need in my mind as well,” she said.
Board member DeWayne Boyd urged his fellow board members to begin the conversation about the levy from the perspective of what the schools and teachers need to provide the best education for the students. “The question is not how little we can ask for, the question is what do we need? What do we need to provide our students and our teachers with the resources they need?” he said.
Mitchell then brought up questions about involving the community. Julie Wasserburger, a BSD teacher and leader of the advocacy committee, Citizens for Good Schools, said a group of more than 15 people have come together to promote the levy. Mitchell urged the board to make a decision on the levy as soon as possible as the citizens’ group would need as much time as possible to advocate for the levy. He also asked for as much input as possible from citizens’ groups on what needs to be included in levy spending. Boyd agreed.
“Let’s get some feedback so the board isn’t here making decisions on its own biases and prejudices,” he said.
Superintendent Flip Herndon said he would have more information for the board in two weeks, with a possible time for a study session and public input soon.
The board meeting ended in just an hour and 20 minutes, which has to be some kind of record for local school board meetings. As a reporter for many of those meetings, I was thrilled. But then I heard that many of the folks at the board meeting were headed to Emmanuel Apostolic Church on 6th Street for a big community meeting. Bishop Larry Robertson was kind enough to let me sit in on the event.
Boy was I ever thankful for his graciousness.
Robertson is such a dynamic speaker and an interesting man, I could have listened to him speak all night. It was a THURSDAY NIGHT and at least 200 people gathered in the sanctuary. He began with prayer and then there was a lot more work to do. The meeting began as a kick-off for a community organizing program.
“This is about our community. This is about you taking charge of your destiny and making our community what we want it to be,” he said.
Robertson envisioned people at the meeting interacting and networking work on social justice issues, small business development, education, health, employment, problems in the legal system. (“There is no agenda here,” he said, “the agenda is to let it flow.”) Up front were community leaders, including Bremerton School Board member Vicki Collins, Pastor Frankie Coleman, Pastor Richmond Johnson, NAACP member and health activist Gwendolyn Shepherd, OC Professor Hella-Ilonea Johnson, housing and youth advocate Grover Johnson and Kitsap County Auditor Walt Washington.
Each leader named their passion: children, health, education, employment etc, and Robertson encouraged people in the audience to network with the leaders after the meeting to find ways to come together.
After that, we were all wowed by Erin Jones, who is the new assistant superintendent for student achievement in the Office for the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Jones, a multi-lingual Miliken Foundation teacher of the year, mother of three teen-agers and wife of a pastor, was impressive in her candor and her speech. She gave a rundown of an SPI study on the African American achievement (or as she likes to call it “access” or “opportunity”) gap.
While overall students have gained in their scores on the WASL in the last 11 years, the gap between white and black students has widened. It was 22 points in 1998; it was 35 points in 2008. Jones said African-American boys drop out at a rate of about 50 percent; with A-A girls, it’s 30 percent.
In light of the data, Jones said studies show more than 77 percent of family-wage jobs will require some secondary education by 2014. Even for folks who don’t care about black kids, the push must be for self-preservation, said Jones. The state needs people who can work in those family-wage jobs. The state will not have those people if Washington does not provide a proper public school education.

The primary goal of the study addressed the quality of teachers. By 2014, according to the recommendations of the study committee, all districts should ensure that teachers, staff and administrators in a school with more than 20 percent or more of African-American kids are qualified, trained and effective at meeting the academic, cultural and social needs of all students. Subsequent goals involved early learning and graduation rates. Jones also talked about addressing cultural differences when trying to reach families of color. One of my favorite bits was when she talked about how white folks send home tons of paper with kids. “Brown people” don’t communicate that way, she said, prompting lots of applause. She urged parents in the audience to contact her at SPI with issues or concerns.

After Jones’ presentation, Robertson aired a video by Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership. The Kentucky-based organization teachers parents how to be advocate for ALL schoolchildren. CIPL will visit Bremerton soon, said Robertson.

At that point in the night, it seemed as though Robertson hoped for more interaction between the community and the politicians, but the hour was late. So he invited each of the candidates up to the podium. Overall, they stated their intentions and gave reasons for folks to vote. Lynn Horton,  candidate for Port of Bremerton commissioner, even offered her husband up as a free tutor, especially in math. Frank Horton, ph. 440 9823.

At the end, s asked for folks to “mill around” and talk to each other. “I don’t mean just the black brothers, I mean all y’all,” he said.

And then he offered a caveat (“How many of you realize this is just the beginning?’) and a prayer, “Father, we ask just that you help us persevere throughout this year and accomplish something.”

For someone who attends a lot of dry, dull school board meetings, Robertson’s version of  a community gathering was fresh air.

Tags: Bremerton

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 11:01 pm by marietta nelson and is filed under Bremerton. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.