| Newspapers; 3/20/06 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 20 2006, 07:00 AM (415 Views) | |
| NFarquharson | Mar 20 2006, 07:00 AM Post #1 |
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From the Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...05/1026/SCHOOLS Monday, March 20, 2006 School threat suspect ID'd Sheriff's Office believes the male student scrawled graffiti threatening a massacre at Rochester High. Oralandar Brand-Williams and David Josar / The Detroit News Oakland County Sheriff's Office officials say they've identified a male student who they believe made Columbine-type threats at Rochester High School. Sheriff Michael Bouchard said they believe the youth scrawled a threat on a bathroom wall in the school last Wednesday. It read: "On Monday March 20 I'll bring a gun to school. It will be Columbine Part Two. This is your only warning." A second threat Saturday night forced the cancellation of the school's Sadie Hawkins dance. Bouchard said Oakland County investigators do not believe the threats are credible, but they are treating them as if they were. "We are still going to go forward with protocols and procedures including sweeping the building (for weapons or explosives) and having uniform and plainclothes personnel at the school Monday," Bouchard said. The student, whose name has not been released, could face charges. "We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law whether (investigators) deem the threats to be credible or not," Bouchard said. "Even if (the threat) turns out not to be credible, it still creates a lot of anxiety for moms, dads, students and teachers and that's not acceptable." Bouchard declined to release details about the suspect, citing the ongoing investigation. Schools in Metro Detroit and across the United States have taken swift action when any threat to copy the 1999 Columbine High School massacres has been made. School officials said Sunday night that parents could let their children stay home Monday. "If a parent decides to keep a kid home, they can call in and it will be listed as a justified absence," said Rochester School Board President Michelle Shepherd. "We just have to know where every student at least is. This is up to individual parents." School officials and the Sheriff's Department met Sunday evening with about 400 parents and others at the school administration building to tell them what is being done to safeguard their children. Over the weekend, bomb-sniffing dogs went through the building and all lockers were searched, Shepherd said. Students already do "lockdown drills," along with fire drills and tornado drills, she said. Only four entrances, manned by police and district staff, will be open before school on Monday, and once classes begin, only one entrance will be available, she said. And, while some parents at the meeting suggested inspecting every student's bag, which the school has the right to do, Shepherd said that wasn't necessary. "We looked at the current threat and the current info and that wasn't warranted," she said. Wendi Santavicca, the vice president of the Rochester PTA said the information provided at the meeting made her feel better about her children's safety. But, she added, some parents still were concerned because the suspect had not been arrested by Sunday night. "I suspect some will not send their kids to school because of it," she said. "I felt that way before the meeting, but now I feel relieved after we got the information." You can reach Oralandar Brand-Williams at (313) 222-2027 or bwilliams@detnews.com. |
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| NFarquharson | Mar 20 2006, 07:08 AM Post #2 |
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From the Detroit Free Press: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article.../603200400/1004 Wayne County Count of Detroit district's students off, audit finds March 20, 2006 BY CHASTITY PRATT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER The Detroit Public Schools had about 1,455 fewer students in the fall than previously reported, according to preliminary audit results sent to the state Wednesday. School officials have reported for months that between September 2004 and September 2005, about 10,000 fewer students, as projected, attended schools in the district. The decline was expected to cost the district about $54 million in state funding. However, the Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency reported Wednesday that so far, it appears that on the student-count day in September, the district didn't have 130,598 students, but 129,143, said Beverly Finlayson, manager of student accounting and auditing at Wayne RESA. The agency audits enrollment data in the county and reports it to the state. The change in the figures could cost the district at least an additional $7.9 million in state funding. Finlayson said she is still reviewing the enrollment data and doesn't expect to have the final tally for another two to three weeks. ___________________________________________ http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article.../603200401/1004 Wayne County Redford parents wage battle for school Keeler supporters work on petition March 20, 2006 BY ZLATI MEYER FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER The Keeler Elementary School community has decided to fight the Redford Union school board's decision to turn the school into the site of the elementary day-treatment program for students with emotional issues this fall. About 30 parents spent Sunday afternoon collecting signatures for a petition. Bulman Elementary School supporters fought to keep their building open; it will house grades 2-5 next year. To reduce costs, Redford Union is closing three buildings and shifting some elementary school students. The district faces declining enrollment and a projected $3.7-million deficit. "We were told it would never happen, so we didn't worry about it," Terri Blalock said about closing Keeler. "At this point, we're trying to gather as much information as we can to fight against the school board to at least reconsider the decision." Redford Union Superintendent Donna Rhodes said revisiting the issue is unlikely. "The board worked for two months to talk with the community and hear the community's responses. They went from three to 13 options. The decision has been made," Rhodes said. Shuttering the elementary school Blalock's grandson attends was among the 13 options the school board considered at its meeting last week. According to the proposal approved 5-2, the rented Roosevelt Elementary School, the Beck Educational Center and the Board of Education office will also be closed and 41 staffers laid off. Stuckey Elementary School will take in second- through fifth-graders, while kids in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade will attend MacGowan Elementary School. Blalock and others in her group allege the decision to save Bulman and close Keeler was based on geography, not logical reasoning. Officials wanted schools in the north, middle and south of the district, so they didn't consider that Keeler has 11,000 more square feet than Bulman, plus a larger gym, a better playground and wider hallways. "We believed our PTA; we believed our school board," said J.D. Beaubien, whose 7-year-old son James goes to Keeler. The Bulman parents took action before the March 13 school board ______________________________________ http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article.../603200432/1005 Oakland County Suspect detained in Rochester threat March 20, 2006 BY STEVE NEAVLING FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER Oakland County Sheriff's Office investigators spent several hours Sunday questioning a student they believe threatened to stage a Columbine-style attack on Rochester High School. Police said the suspect didn't appear to have plans to carry out an attack, but declined to identify him or release additional information. "We want moms and dads and teachers to have a degree of comfort in knowing we believe we're talking to the person who made the threat," Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Sunday night. The suspect was still in police custody as of 9:40 p.m., but had not been arrested. The threat was found scrawled on a bathroom wall Wednesday at the school. Police said it read: "On Monday March 20 I'll bring a gun to school. It will be Columbine Part Two. This is your only warning." The district sent letters home Friday about the threat. Students returning to class today will see additional security measures, including the limiting of entry to one doorway and more police presence, according to a notice posted on the school's Web site. "People are anxious, and our presence is there to reassure them," Bouchard said. "We want them to feel comfortable as well as safe." Authorities found no weapons in a weekend search of the school grounds and lockers. A second threat was discovered at the school Saturday, prompting cancellation of a school dance, but police wouldn't release details. Contact STEVE NEAVLING at 586-469-4935 or sneavling@freepress.com. _________________________________________ http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article.../603200368/1005 Oakland County 2 school changes weighed Madison district looks at clustering March 20, 2006 BY BILL LAITNER FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER Hoping to close a budget deficit but also improve learning for elementary students, administrators in the cash-strapped Madison School District in Madison Heights are suggesting two big changes: clustering and focused instruction. Clustering requires fewer teachers because it involves fewer, but larger, classes. Some parents oppose clustering, which would turn the district's three elementary schools into specialized learning centers, each with only a few grade levels. Focused instruction is a teaching approach in which students are quizzed daily on what they've learned. Those students needing a review get it immediately, while faster learners receive enrichment lessons. Administrators say this would more than compensate for being in larger classes and end the instances in which one teacher may be teaching two grades in a classroom. Clustering and focused instruction are new to most Michigan school districts, although Livonia is considering clustering, and Ferndale adopted it for elementary grades in fall 2002. Ferndale officials rave about the higher MEAP scores they say have resulted. As enrollment has declined in many schools during the past two decades, Madison and other districts have wrestled with how to cut costs. The Madison district has three elementary schools, each with grades K-6. But this year's 1,602 elementary students are in buildings constructed to accommodate 2,304 students, according to the district's new 5-year strategic plan. That plan predicts that, by 2010, elementary enrollment will shrink to 1,321. Jackie Bonk, 62, who raised six children in the district and now has five grandchildren there, said she likes the idea of clustering. It could create one elementary school with grades K-2, another with grades 3 and 4, and another with grades 5 and 6, she said. "Now, you go into a media center that has to cover kindergarten through sixth grade," but clustering would put a specialized library in each school, she said. To learn about focused instruction, which she also said she likes, Bonk joined a delegation of parents and teachers the district sent to Indiana in January to see the method in action. John Gregory, 38, has two children at Edison Elementary and he's against the new plans. Living near Edison has "been nice and convenient" for his second-grade daughter and kindergarten-age son, he said. Clustering would make them attend different schools, creating transportation hassles. ______________________________________________ http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article.../603200425/1006 Macomb County Pointe student is math champ National contest is teen's next step March 20, 2006 BY ANDREA K. FARMER FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER For the second straight year, Parcells Middle School in Grosse Pointe Woods will have a student competing in the Mathcounts national championship. Matthew Vengalil, 13, an eighth-grader from Grosse Pointe Woods won the state championship at Grand Valley State University on March 11, qualifying him for the national competition in April in Arlington, Va. Mathcounts is a national program that promotes achievement in middle school mathematics. Matthew competed at Grand Valley State alongside three others from Parcells -- Lydia Fuller, 12, Shuaib Raza, 14, and his brother Nathan Vengalil, 11. The students competed against 40 teams from other schools. Students were given 46 questions they had to answer in a specified time period. The amount of time allotted for each question depended on the complexity of the material. "I felt I needed to do well to represent the school because Parcells has done very well in past competitions," Matthew said Thursday. According to Parcells mathematics teacher Alan Silverston, the school had won five state competitions -- in 1983, 1990, 1999, 2000 and 2005. To prepare for this year's competition, Matthew and his classmates sometimes stayed at school until 5 p.m. studying. "Matthew was one of the best students I've ever had," Silverston said Thursday. "He's very enthusiastic and has wonderful work habits." Matthew said his teacher helped him tremendously. "Mr. Silverston worked with us every day, provided us with practice questions and was always a good source of confidence," he said The district might provide a shuttle bus, so parents could make a single drop-off and pickup, but Gregory opposes that, too, saying it would eat into the cost savings of clustering. As in many districts, Madison's teacher contracts limit elementary classes to 28 students, said Superintendent William Harrison. "But if you have 35 students in third grade in one school, that means you must have two teachers and two very small classes. Small classes are wonderful but the cost is prohibitive" for districts like Madison, Harrison said. The next Madison school board meeting will be at 7 tonight at Wilkinson Middle School, 26524 John R. Contact BILL LAITNER at 248-351-3297 or blaitner@freepress.com. |
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| Grant | Mar 20 2006, 03:46 PM Post #3 |
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This Week's Fact to Memorize: Charters outpaced the state average gains on the 2005 MEAPs in 7 of 10 grades/subjects, including a gain in two instances when the state lost ground. CRC Paints Gloomy Long-Term Budget Picture A Citizens Research Council (CRC) report released last week suggests state government can expect more tough budgets, barring a fundamental shift in how the state spends or raises money. Read More At: http://www.charterschools.org/pages/lansingnews.cfm March 15 |
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| homegirl26 | Mar 21 2006, 09:35 AM Post #4 |
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Did anyone read the letter in Sunday's OE from the person who called those of us who worked at Washington over the weekend elitists? I've had a couple of letter published recently in the OE so they won't publish another letter from me, but I'm really confused why she would call us elitists. She implied we crossed some industrial boundary??? I didn't cross any boundary...I live within walking distance of the school and welcomed, with open arms, any Westland residents who wanted to stop and sign the petition. To be called an elitist, in the newspaper, in front of everyone in the community, by someone who didn't know what they were talking about really hurt. |
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| ForMySons | Mar 21 2006, 06:22 PM Post #5 |
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I did not read it, but want people to know that some of us from Westland helped get signatures at Washington over the past few weekends. |
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| Grant1 | Mar 21 2006, 07:22 PM Post #6 |
We have just begun to fight!
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It was another article that should have never been published...another black eye on the citizen's by playing a race/ethnicity/social upbringing/class issue. If the paper does not stop propagating these types of scenarios then the entire district loses. Even Dave Varga's article afew weeks ago was the worst piece of literary trash I could have read. It also sows the seeds of seperatism. People - there is no seperatism! We are all one district, one community, one voice against an ill conceived, poorly executed, community destroying plan that is only benefitting the few, the elite, those that have the knowledge of the real purpose of this! |
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| NFarquharson | Mar 22 2006, 06:39 AM Post #7 |
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Also from the Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../603210321/1009 Tuesday, March 21, 2006 Kailey Regalo-Miller, 16, of Clarkston prepares to call residents for a 10-minute school district survey. Clarkston canvasses community District uses phones and volunteers to survey residents about schools' performance, curricula. Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News Rob Widdis / Special to The Detroit News Anita Banach, director of communication and marketing for Clarkston Community Schools, prepares a group of volunteers to conduct phone surveys for the school district March 14. See full image Sample questions The following are some of the questions from the Clarkston Community Schools District opinion survey 2006: How many years have you lived in the Clarkston school district? Do you have children of school age or younger? What grade would you give Clarkston Community Schools … A, B, C, D or F? In your opinion, what is the single biggest problem facing Clarkston Community Schools? School administrators are interested in the opinion of residents: Agree, disagree or don't know. CLARKSTON -- All school districts want to know how they are perceived in the community -- good or bad. Some pay thousands of dollars to big-league survey companies. But Clarkston Community Schools always has relied on a low-tech, cost-effective and consistent method: phones, notepads and volunteers armed with a list of random phone numbers. Phones rang all over the city last week, and continue this week, as volunteers randomly call residents inquiring about everything from how well they think the district is performing to their thoughts on transportation and curriculum programming. It's a process the district goes through every three years. "We've been doing it this way since the 1980s, and you can't change midstream and go to electronic, for instance, because we wouldn't be using the same formula," said Anita Banach, director of communications for the district. "We conduct the same survey in the same manner at the same time of year every three to five years. If we used an electronic survey, we'd only have access to people who know how to use it. But we need to reach a general population." The district uses the information to implement needed changes, and expects to have the results of this year's survey by summer. The district's last survey, in 2001, yielded several changes, including giving its Web site a higher profile so more people would use it. More importantly, district officials used the information to help craft a bond issue that took effect in June 2003. In that survey, residents were asked how important it was to keep fifth-graders in the elementary school, and how important it was to keep ninth-graders in the high school. In the survey, residents indicated that it was more important to keep fifth-graders in the elementary schools. So when the district expanded several buildings to revamp its grade structure, the fifth-graders stayed in elementary school, the ninth-graders joined eighth-graders in the junior high and sixth- and seventh-graders were put together in middle school. The high school was limited to grades 10-12. The district also built an early childhood center and renovated the community education building. This time the purpose of this survey is to not only gauge community opinion, but to compare it to previous surveys to determine any progress the district has made, Banach said. For instance, on one question the parent and student volunteers ask respondents to give the school district a letter grade. "It helps us to know our strengths and weaknesses," Banach said. "This is a major time of change and growth in our community. We've completed a lot of projects since the last survey, so now we want to know what the big issues are -- school safety, or too much emphasis on sports, or whatever it may be." Clarkston school district administrators say they're comfortable with the less formal method. "We've never felt a need to hire an outside survey company because our communications department has always done a great job," said Karen E. Foyteck, school board president. "At a time of budget crunches everywhere, you don't need to add that into the budget." The district pays about $350 for a list of phone numbers -- without names so it remains confidential -- and pays another company about $400 to tabulate the results, Foyteck said. Denise Cotter, president of the PTA for Springfield Plains Elementary School, is one of the volunteers. She has a 13-year-old in middle school and a 10-year-old in elementary school. "Before we asked questions on the phone, we practiced on other people," she said. "Each survey takes about 10 minutes, and I only had one person say they didn't have time to talk to me. Most people said very positive things about the district. I only had one or two who said negative things." This particular survey does not just target residents with children in the Clarkston public schools. "We talk to anyone in the community," Banach said. "There are times when we have just parent surveys or just student surveys. But this one is for anyone over 18 in a household." Clarkston isn't the only district to do its own phone surveys. The Avondale school district never has used a major company to produce its surveys. "The last time we did a survey, it was for a family retention committee that had been formed to try to help families," said Julie Kelly, administrative assistant for Superintendent James. J. Bird. "We just had people here making the phone calls." But other districts, including Troy and West Bloomfield, prefer to pay the hefty prices to allow the professionals to do the work for them. "We tried to cut costs by using volunteers to make calls, but that didn't work," said Steve Wasko, an assistant superintendent for community relations in West Bloomfield, which paid $3,000 to a Grand Rapids company to conduct its survey. "By using professionals, we ensure that there's no confusion. And the real value is that you could see trends over time -- for example, the percentage of parents who might question school safety. If we're using the same process, we will have good statistics over time." The Troy school district hired another survey firm, EPIC-MRA. "It was a survey we conducted before a bond issue in 2004," said Tim McAvoy, director of community relations. "We paid the company $15,000 for that survey." John Cavanaugh of EPIC-MRA, said there are two areas that drive cost: interview length and sample size. "It can range anywhere from $7,500 to $25,000," he said. You can reach Shawn D. Lewis at (248) 647-8825 or slewis@detnews.com. ______________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../603210314/1014 Tuesday, March 21, 2006 Second-graders are en route to the media center at Washington. The community is banding together to improve education. Battle for better schools Mount Clemens leaders fight underachievement Charles E. Ramirez / The Detroit News Todd McInturf / The Detroit News Fourth-graders Jamie Jones, left, and Kordell Liming, both of Clinton Township sit in front of a flag sewn by fifth-graders in 1975. They attend the Washington Academy of Science and Arts in the Mount Clemens school district. See full image Student help Teachers, school officials, administrators and concerned parents gathered Saturday to discuss how they could help children in the Mount Clemens Community Schools district improve their academic performance. Among the ideas that came out of the summit: A tutorial program. The group plans to organize hour-long tutoring sessions twice a week to help at-risk students with reading, writing and math at local churches. Greater promotion of Study Island, the district's Internet-based tutoring program. The program -- available on the district's Web site at http://www.mtcps.org -- provides lessons and practice exercises. Ask local businesses to help fund and support efforts to help kids improve in school. Source: Gregory Murray MOUNT CLEMENS -- A community initiative is under way to boost the academic performance of students in Mount Clemens schools, particularly elementary-age boys. Greg Murray, a local civil rights activist and member of the Mount Clemens school board, and the Rev. Alexander Minor Jr., pastor of the Turner Chapel AME Church, have joined to combat what they say is the alarming underachievement of the district's students. "This is a community issue," Murray said. "We think the district as a whole should benefit and should address the problem." For Cassandra Esselink of Mount Clemens, the initiative is well-intentioned but too little, too late. Esselink pulled her two children out of the school district a couple of years ago and enrolled them in a private school. "I think the district has some great teachers who really care and are doing the best they can," she said. "But I think the district isn't doing enough to give teachers the resources they need to be able to challenge their students and give them the education they deserve." Murray and Minor have known each other for some time. Minor is a member of the Macomb County Ministerial Alliance, a coalition of local African-American church pastors that has lobbied for changes in county and local governments. Murray is the group's spokesman. Their concerns about education in Mount Clemens' public schools prompted them to organize and hold a summit over the weekend and call on the community, businesses and the city's churches to help develop a plan to improve education. The summit was Saturday at Minor's church in Mount Clemens. About 20 teachers, school administrators and parents attended, Murray said. The group came up with several ideas to address the problem, including creating an after-school tutorial program with sessions held at local churches, aggressively promoting an existing online tutoring program as well as the district's summer education program and asking local business to help, he said. Murray and Minor's call and their conference come a week after the release of the results for the fall 2005 Michigan Educational Assessment Program -- or MEAP -- tests for third- through eighth-graders. The MEAP test scores showed there are significant gaps between the number of middle school and elementary students passing math exams across the state and in Macomb County. The results for students in the Mount Clemens Community Schools were not much different. For example, the test showed 75.5 percent of seventh-graders failed to meet the state's standards for math, according to the state Department of Education. It also showed 65.9 percent of the eighth-graders didn't meet math standards. Meanwhile, the number is much lower in third grade -- only 16 percent failed to meet the state's standards for math, according to the state Department of Education. The scores are vital for school districts because educators use them to measure students' academic performance and the federal government penalizes districts with poor scores. Murray said the effort is independent of the Board of Education. "It's not an official board project," he said. "I'm not speaking for the Board of Education, but as a member of the board." T.C. Wallace, the school district's superintendent, said the district welcomes any and all help from the community to improve academic performance. The district has about 2,500 students. "We've already established partnerships with the city's faith-based community in all of our schools," he said. For example, some schools have recreational programs that are hosted by local churches, he said. Wallace also said the school district still has work to do to shore up the academic performance of its students and that it has made some gains. "Are we where we should be?" he said. "No, but we're getting there, and academic achievement in the district continues on an upward trend." He also said the district is not in a crisis: "Absolutely not." You can reach Charles E. Ramirez at (586) 468-2905 or cramirez@detnews.com. |
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