The City Council’s education committee approved the Memphis City Schools’ $879 million budget this afternoon.
The city’s contribution to that figure is $78 million.
Members of the city school board also told the committee they were for the concept of single-source funding, but need more details before they can back a specific plan.
Three superintendent interviews down, two more interviews to go. So who should be the HNIC of the Memphis City Schools?
HNIC, as Mayor Willie Herenton and other fans of the 1989 movie Lean On Me know, stands for “head [N-word] in charge.”
Don’t worry. Nobody used those words this week in interviews for the best-paid government job in Memphis. They’re taken from the movie about bat-wielding principal Joe Clark, played by actor Morgan Freeman. Herenton and some members of the Memphis City Council think a Clark-type is needed as the next school superintendent.
The school board and its search-team consultants have other ideas. The first round of interviews Monday and Tuesday consisted of a dainty game of “22 Questions” posed to each applicant, who had three minutes to respond to each question. Neither the applicants nor the board members had seen the questions prior to Monday afternoon.
This brings to mind a puzzle that ancient philosophers called the “Job Applicant’s Dilemma”: If the questions are secret and the interviews are seven days apart, should next week’s job candidates Google the questions and look like a smartypants or not Google the questions and exhibit a stunning lack of curiosity and research skills?
Far be it from me to be a snitch, but here are 22 questions NOT on the list, which should give you some idea how the search is being conducted:
Should a fictionalized portrayal of a principal in a 20-year-old movie be the role model for the next superintendent?
Should a 6′-7″ mayor and former superintendent be the role model?
Should an eighth-grader who is big, easily pissed off and has access to guns be paddled, suspended, or told to sit in the corner as punishment for bad behavior?
Should a first-grader who is shy, small, and gets smacked around at home be paddled for misbehaving in school?
Should the MCS dress code be strictly enforced? Define “strictly enforced.”
Should the MCS mission statement, “Every Child. Every Day. College Bound.,” be kept, modified, or abandoned?
Should every child pass through a metal detector every day?
Should the Memphis City Council withhold all, some, or none of the $93 million city contribution to schools this year, as has been proposed?
If your answer is “none,” then should there be a 58-cent city property tax increase, as has been proposed?
Should the city and county school systems, which are both funded in large part by the county, be merged or kept separate? You have three minutes to answer.
Should city schools get $3 for building or renovating schools for every $1 the county schools get for construction?
Should the governor of Tennessee take over the Memphis City Schools this year or next year if they don’t improve? By the way, name the governor. If you don’t know, why are you here?
The Memphis Education Association has 6,350 members. Would you like to say a few words to them?
Within 10 percent, what are the annual operating budgets of the city of Memphis and Memphis City Schools? If you don’t know, why are you here?
If the optimum size of a high school is 1,200 students, how many students should graduate each year? Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings wants to know.
If your answer to the above question is equal to or more than 125, what would you do about nine high schools that graduated fewer than 125 students in 2007?
Explain why Memphis rebuilt Manassas High School, which graduated 38 students in 2007, for $30 million.
Should Southwind High School, opened in 2007, be a city or county school?
Should the city school board, county school board, or developers with a vested interest choose new school sites in unannexed areas that are growing?
Should the school board get a raise, and should there be a school board at all?
Why are there no mayors among your references?
Are you sure you really want this job?
John Branston (“City Beat,” July 5th issue) says Willie Herenton will win. I say: no way.
Put simply, Memphians are tired of Mayor Willie Herenton, including his shenanigans and histrionics. This is not unlike the fatigue the American public is suffering with our current president (and the members of his party), which was substantially responsible for the transfer of power from Republicans to Democrats in last November’s congressional elections.
Just like the W. in the White House, W.W. Herenton has an Iraq. It’s called crime. Memphians are scandalized by an upsurge in violent crime in the Bluff City, a troubling trend that has placed Memphis in the first tier of the most dangerous cities in the country.
History has a way of showing mayors who preside over dangerous trends in their cities to the door. So too will it happen in Memphis where, other than calling for an unfunded and — probably unfundable — dramatic increase in the number of police, our mayor has done little or nothing to stem the advancing tide of criminality in our city.
The second element in Herenton fatigue is also analogous to the national scene. Memphians have watched as an arrogant, aloof, frequently disconnected mayor launched all manner of attacks on those he perceives as his enemies. The last unhinged politician who compiled an “enemies list” was Richard Nixon, and we know how well that turned out for him.
Herenton attacks the media and anyone who dares speak out against him as being racist or, worse, ungodly. One need only look at the recent, surreal press conference conducted by the mayor in which he accused several unnamed “snakes” of mounting a campaign to unseat him. Never reluctant to play the race card when it suits him, the mayor suggested that those out to get him were motivated by racial animus.
Never mind that the Memphis electorate (including black voters) is increasingly showing the ability to discriminate among candidates, not on the basis of race but on the basis of competence — a phenomenon most vividly displayed in the elections of Steve Cohen to Congress and A C Wharton as county mayor. So, where’s the race card in that deck (other than the mayor’s joker)?
The mayor’s credibility is at an all-time low. One clear proof of that comes from the recent thumping that his man, Robert Spence, took in a race for the state Senate seat vacated by Cohen. The fact that voters apparently were more influenced by a circular circulated by lead “snake” Richard Fields calling attention to Spence’s shortcomings than by Spence’s close affiliation with the mayor bodes ill for the voters’ willingness to credulously accept the mayor’s conspiracy theory.
The ultimate factor in Herenton fatigue is doubt about his competence. Whether it’s raising city property taxes to the point where Memphis enjoys the distinction of having the highest property taxes in Tennessee, presiding over a failing public school system, demonstrating the same kind of cronyism in the appointment and retention of city officials (remember Joseph Lee?) or the granting of favors to his pals like the other “W” (remember beer board baron Reginald French?), Herenton has disaffected wide swaths of the Memphis electorate regardless of race, and several early polls (which the mayor predictably discounted) showed that.
Finally, the one potentially superseding force that would assure Herenton’s loss would come when and if Shelby County mayor A C Wharton comes to his senses and realizes that the future of this city is far more important than his sense of loyalty to a man who is dragging down both Memphis and Shelby County.
I predict that 16 years of King Willie will be end up being enough for most voters in Memphis. What’s more, I think black voters are tired of being played by a mayor who has no problem, when it suits him, of cozying up to the same constituency of white businessmen he now accuses of turning on him. I predict they will see through his transparent tirades and turn him out of office.
Marty Aussenberg writes the “Gadfly” column on www.memphisflyer.com.
When Memphis City Schools (MCS) superintendent Carol Johnson announced she’d be leaving for Boston in August, students asked her to stay and school officials quickly recognized that hiring both her successor and a qualified replacement to serve in the interim would be a challenge. Now, following the July 5th application deadline for an interim candidate and a July 9th search committee meeting, MCS must make an important decision. The Flyer recently spoke with Martavius Jones, MCS board commissioner and head of the search committee, about the interim search process and position.
— By Rachel Stinson
Flyer: How long do you think it will take to hire an interim superintendent?
Jones: When we had the original June 29th [application] deadline, I was hopeful that we could have the process done by the 16th. In light of the process being reopened until July 5th, I’m hoping we can make the decision by July 30th.
What qualities are you looking for?
The board feels that we’re headed in the right direction with MCS. We’re not looking for someone to come in and change the way things are. We want to continue in the same direction.
How will the interim’s salary compare to Johnson’s?
The interim’s salary range will start at $150,000 with the upper end at $185,000. The upper end is about $20,000 less than Dr. Johnson’s salary.
Do you think it would be beneficial to hire someone who is already familiar with MCS?
I think it would be a benefit. I also think it would be a benefit to hire someone with a management or business background. There are merits to both.
I’d like the board to select the top three traditional candidates and the top three [management or business] candidates.
How long will it take to hire a new superintendent?
We think that a comprehensive search will last six months to a year, but Boston’s search for a superintendent lasted 18 months. Finding a qualified superintendent for a large urban school district is a challenge. We have our work cut out for us.
Do you believe this is a competitive position?
Finding someone qualified to do the job is difficult. It would be a lot easier if we had 25 qualified candidates for a large urban school district knocking on our door.
Why is this an important decision, even though interim superintendent is only a temporary position?
The loss of Dr. Johnson is a definite setback. The interim will decide if that setback is permanent or not.
As a commissioner, I am saddened when I hear blanket, broad, and baseless attacks from people concerning the Memphis City Schools (MCS). I was especially disappointed to read the comments of former city councilman John Vergos (Viewpoint, “Time for a School Takeover,” June 21st issue), since I would expect a former public officeholder to help educate our community on the challenges public officials face when trying to run any large urban government entity.
I certainly would not expect a former officeholder to misspeak so terribly. While I dare not point out each instance, I would be remiss if I did not address some of his blunders.
First, while Mr. Vergos attempts to compare the budgets of the city and the school system, he overlooks the fact that MCS has 16,500 employees (half of whom are teachers), versus the city’s 6,700. Since its work force is more than twice the size of the city’s, isn’t it logical that MCS would have the larger budget?
Further, Vergos opines that MCS is not fiscally responsible and attempts to illustrate as much by pointing to two projects that amounted to less than 3 percent of the budget (using his numbers). In addition to being just plain wrong (the nutritional center he mentions has only cost the district $2.8 million to date and is a revenue-generating venture), Mr. Vergos’ arguments are completely illogical.
He fails to acknowledge that people are about 85 percent of the MCS budget — that’s the principals, teachers, other instructional staff, and administration.
Perhaps Mr. Vergos has been out of the loop since 2003 when he was last on the City Council, but over that time MCS cut $55 million from its operating budget. Thus, we do not have much flexibility in our budget, and to suggest we would be more fiscally sound by forgoing projects that amount to less than 3 percent of the budget — including one that is actually generating revenue — is absurd.
Finally, Vergos states that while the MCS budget has consistently increased, the performance of the district has rapidly diminished. A look at the performance data of the system proves otherwise. This data is neither buried nor manufactured, as Vergos implies. Be assured, we do not have our heads in the sand. We know we still have a lot of work to do.
However, we can no longer sit quietly by while some people in this community continue to berate, degrade, and insult MCS with no real foundation or basis for their sentiments. Contrary to what Vergos says, MCS is not broken beyond repair. We have great administrators, principals, teachers, students, and parents who work hard every day to make our schools successful.
We have National Blue Ribbon schools and students who are National Merit Scholarship semifinalists; we have outnumbered all other systems in the state with the number of National Board certified teachers; we have increased the graduation rate over the last three years; and several of our schools have made vast improvements in student achievement. We have plenty to be proud of.
If people in this community would spend as much time constructively assisting us, we could do much more. Communities that have great schools do so because the entire community decided that the schools would be great. The people and businesses in the communities with successful schools believe in the system, they support the system — they don’t spend all of their time with destructive comments that do more harm than good.
You would think a former elected leader of this community would be outraged that the governor would threaten to take over MCS. This would not just be an indictment of the school board, but of us as a community for allowing it to happen. If nothing else, that possibility alone should make people decide that enough is enough and that it is time for us to take 100 percent responsibility for our school system, whether one has students in the system or not.
MCS has the structure and many ways for people to get involved — through the Our Children Our Future tutoring program, through the Connect mentoring program, through Adopt-a-School partnerships, and through simply showing up at a school and letting the principal know you want to do your part. (Note: You will need a background check.) Those simple actions will make a huge difference.
In the words of Forrest Gump: “That’s all I got to say about that!”
Tomeka Hart, an attorney and president and CEO of the Memphis Urban League, is a member of the Memphis school board. This essay is adapted from her online response to John Vergos’ Viewpoint column.
In 2004, 15-year-old Westside High School student Tarus Williams wanted to be a member of G-Unit, a small student-led gang. But in order to gain entry, Williams had to fight another member in the school bathroom.
Williams never joined the gang. During the fight, his heart ruptured after he was thrown into a bathroom stall.
Such fights — along with an increase in citywide gang violence — have led to a tougher anti-gang policy for Memphis City Schools (MCS). Starting this fall, students caught wearing gang colors, throwing gang signs, or participating in any type of gang activity will face expulsion.
“Our greatest concern should be that recruiting of new gang members is occurring in elementary and middle school,” Mike Heidingsfield, director of the Memphis/Shelby County Crime Commission, said in an interview last year.
“From the media, we get a sense that [gang members] are young men in their early 20s, but it begins long before that,” Heidingsfield said. “Schools are the single biggest center for gang recruitment.”
The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office estimates that there are roughly 5,000 teenage gang members and “wannabe” gang members in Shelby County.
“We do have a growing gang problem in the Memphis community, and thus in our schools,” said Memphis City Schools board vice president Tomeka Hart. “We want the message to be clear that gang affiliation is prohibited.”
In addition to hand signals and colors, teachers also will be looking for any student passing out gang literature, wearing jewelry that represents gang affiliation, participating in gang fights, or writing gang graffiti. They’ll even be looking for gang affiliation in how students groom themselves.
“Some styles of braids mean kids are in a gang, or maybe it’s a certain way they wear their belt,” Hart said.
However, students won’t be expelled immediately because of their fashion choices. Rather, students caught displaying certain colors and styles will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
“If we see a child wearing their belt in that certain way, we’re not going to immediately expel that child,” Hart said. “We’ll bring the child in and figure out what’s going on.”
If middle or high school students are displaying gang affiliation, they will face an expulsion of 11 to 180 days. The longer, 180-day punishment probably will be reserved for students who bring weapons to school or commit more serious offenses.
Before expelled students can return to school, they must go through mandatory gang-prevention counseling. Students facing longer-term expulsions may be eligible for placement in an alternative school.
But some critics of the plan worry that expulsion won’t be a deterrent to some gang members.
“I’m going to be frank,” Hart said. “If we have a kid who doesn’t care and there’s nothing we can do, then he or she is probably more of a distraction than we need. If a child knows an offense can get him or her kicked out of school and it doesn’t matter to them, what else can we do for that child?”
Elementary school students will face a three- to five-day suspension if caught demonstrating gang affiliation or interest.
“If a third-grader has an older sibling in a gang and they bring a scarf to show off, we don’t want them suspended from school,” says Hart. “But we will know that child is a potential target for [future gang recruitment]. That’s where the intervention comes in.”
The district’s new gang-prevention coordinator, a staff position created last spring, will oversee enforcement of the gang policy. Director of Student Engagement Ron Pope is currently serving in the role on an interim basis. Pope was unavailable for comment.
“We need our kids to understand we’re not playing around,” Hart said. “If students are walking up and down the halls throwing gang signs, we don’t know who is for real and who is [just messing around]. Last year, that might have gotten a lesser response. But this year, it could get you expelled from school.”
Memphis City Schools is probably not “the best part of wakin’ up.” Good things don’t “come to those who wait.” And students can’t “have it your way.” But the school system is trying to create a brand that will be as ubiquitous and memorable as Folgers, Heinz, and Burger King.
MCS is in the midst of a revamped campaign surrounding its “Every Child. Every Day. College Bound” tagline. After months of using the phrase on the district’s Web site, letterhead, and signage, the school board voted this month to make it the district’s official “brand” with a community-wide awareness campaign to follow.
Superintendent Carol Johnson has called the subject a civil rights issue, pointing out that citizens must have some form of post-secondary education to attain a decent standard of living. As it is, only a quarter of the city’s population has a college degree.
The board’s resolution cites a culture of lowered expectations and says that students are more likely to fall short of their potential without a specific goal. For at least one school board commissioner, however, “Every child. Every Day. College Bound” is a lie.
“It’s ridiculous to me,” says New Olivet Baptist Church pastor and at-large school board member Kenneth Whalum. “Every child, every day, is not college-bound. It’s just that simple.”
Whalum has no argument with the concept that every MCS student should be able to go on to post-secondary education. However, he feels the school board should focus on other priorities, goals he calls “no less fanciful” but “more realizable.” One of which is school safety and curbing the number of on-campus assaults.
“How about ‘Every Child. Every Day. Safe and Sound’? If you don’t live until graduation, then you’re not going to college,” he says.
MCS’ graduation rate is currently 66 percent, meaning that 34 percent of MCS students drop out or don’t finish high school with enough credits to earn a diploma. Statewide, 81 percent of Tennesseans over the age of 25 have attained a high school diploma or similar status.
And now that the board has made the slogan official, Whalum wants to see it become the truth, as well.
“I want to see the results, and I want to see them soon,” he says. “I want to see the data that every child, every day, is college-bound. I think that’s fair. If you say it, mean it. If you don’t, why are you saying it?”
I think the school district has good intentions. Even if every child isn’t going to college, at least the district is saying that it believes every child should be educated as if they were.
I believe in high expectations (especially if the other option is low expectations), but it takes hard work on everyone’s part. The danger is in students becoming frustrated and giving up before they have a chance to succeed.
But the thing that interests me the most is the use of the word “brand.” Not “motto.” Not “mission.” Not “slogan.” “Brand.”
When Johnson first came to MCS, she made no secret that public schools compete for children, or, as they are called in other service realms, “clients.” Parents can choose private schools, parochial schools, home schooling, or charter schools for their children.
It’s one thing to promote that every child in an urban school district can be prepared for a post-secondary education. But in adopting a brand, the school system itself becomes the product, not the students it serves.
Communities based around more affluent school districts often assume that every student is “college-bound,” especially as it is defined by MCS: any post-secondary education, whether it be technical training, two-year colleges, or military service. But in promoting the idea that every MCS student goes to college, the district is not only changing their students’ worldview, but sending an important message to parents who might be considering other educational options. Or other school systems.
Whalum is probably correct about one thing: There’s not always truth in advertising. Wearing deodorant is good, but it’s not going to make you a chick magnet. A pair of sneakers isn’t going to turn you into Carmelo Anthony. And not every MCS student is going to college.
But “Every Child. Every Day. College Bound” sounds a whole lot better than “You want fries with that?”