FL school board member demands that charters account for kids sent back to public schools.

madfloridian

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Tue Sep-28-10 11:25 PM
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FL school board member demands that charters account for kids sent back to public schools.

I say good for Frank O'Reilly. Guess what? The thought came to him as he was watching parts of Education Nation.

He got to thinking about all the high scores in one charter in particular, and thinking that school needs to be more accountable for the students they reject.

To be frank it takes courage to take on this particular charter school. Its head is a major conservative player in the Florida legislature. The elite in the area will defend these charter schools to the end because their kids go there.

School Board Member Asks for Better Charter School Tracking

School Board member Frank O’Reilly wants district official to start tracking how many students are transferred from charter schools to public schools as a result of their grades, social economic status or behavioral issues. During a work session this morning, O’Reilly read a letter sent by Harold Maready, superintendent of McKeel charter schools, to a parent about their third grader who flunked the FCAT.

“Your child does not meet the criteria to be a McKeel student,” O’Reilly read.

If public schools were to reject students based on their academic performance, then they could be A schools, too, O’Reilly said.

“We must take every child that comes through that door whether we like it or not,” O’Reilly said. ‘‘That is a public school paid by taxpayers’ dollars, and I like to remind Mr. Maready of that.”

Yes, our taxes are paying for a school that will kick kids out with little explanation. I know, I got a lot of them when I was still teaching. It has taken a long time for the board to speak up about this.

O'Reilly and other school board members have tried to hold McKeel Academy accountable for other things. No luck. The last two years the school has spent, respectively, $70,000 and $69,000 of public tax money to sent their teachers on a week-end resort at Clearwater beach.

Charter school beach trip irks public school officials

At a time when Polk's traditional schools have virtually frozen funds for out-of-county training travel, McKeel charter schools continue to see value in a $69,000 weekend retreat at a Clearwater resort for 166 staff and board members.

Currently, traveling out of the county for training is hard to be approved for employees of traditional schools. Charter schools receive public money but operate independently of the local School Board.

Kay Fields, Polk County School Board chairwoman, said the public school district has "enough to chew on" rather than worry about how much the McKeel charter system is spending on a conference.

"Whatever they do, that's up to them," she said. "Since they are not a part of our school system, I don't think that should be something we should be concerned about because it's something we can't do anything about."

Well, I don't take her too seriously since she still believes in teaching Creationism in science classes.

The school did the same thing last year.

McKeel Charter Schools Spends $70,000 on Weekend Retreat

Remember that is taxpayer money.

Polk County School Board Chairman Frank O'Reilly said McKeel could have held its orientation in Polk County.

"To take $70,000, which is the equivalent of more than a teacher, seems to be a little out of line with the crisis we are having with funds," O'Reilly said. "It certainly does not show very much respect for the parents and the taxpayers of Florida and Polk County."

Mark Thompson, McKeel's chairman of the board, said the training is essential to develop teachers at McKeel.

"One of the beauties to me of the whole charter movement is you put dollars into hands of businesspeople who know how to leverage them," Thompson said. "The taxpayer expects us to produce a product.

No, Mark Thompson, the training at a luxury resort using taxpayer money is NOT essential to develop good teachers. In all my years of teaching I never heard of such a thing.

The fact that you consider that a "beauty" of the charter movement..."putting dollars into hands of businesspeople who know how to leverage them"...is a scary thing to me.

Perhaps I should be glad at least one school board member watched Education Nation. It surely made him question why charter schools here get so doggoned good scores. They do it by sending kids back to public schools with little or not explanation.

Teachers here are very concerned over the national attitude toward their profession right now. Obama and Biden and Arne are warning us to quit "whining" and be thankful.

Then they keep right on talking about how wonderful charter schools are, saying that "bad" public schools teachers should be fired (without even addressing the poor quality of testing).

And I am supposed to shut up and quit whining. Sorry but when I see some of these kids being kicked back down to public schools in a humiliating way, when I hear the arrogance in the voices of the charter leaders....I start feeling very whiny all over again.