Yes, I'm disgusted with the Times-Picayune, same as E. They took a meeting that determines the future of our public schools' facilities in a major way and stuffed it into a corner. Sadly, I'm not surprised...just disgusted.

The one article on the schools that was put on the front page, however, has got me wondering...

Several schools in the Recovery School District are likely to become charter schools in the next few years as part of a continuing push toward school decentralization in New Orleans (emphasis mine), which already has the highest percentage of charters of any city in the country.

Independent charter operators will probably take over the lower grades of at least four poorly performing schools next fall, said district Superintendent Paul Vallas. At the same time, the top-performing district schools, probably about a third of the elementary-level programs, will be given the option of applying for charters over the next two years, he said.

All of the changes need the approval of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The move is part of an effort, pushed by Vallas and state Superintendent Paul Pastorek, to create a system in which successful schools can "graduate" out of the state-run district and attain more autonomy, while failing schools receive swift help, sometimes from outside school operators.

I find myself wondering if the farkakhte Master Plan actually has some sort of privatizing rationale behind it, i.e.:

Go charter and save your school building.

Yesterday, Paul Vallas was jumping up and down about how the RSD, BESE, and the OPSD had to jump on the bandwagon and accept the SFMPOP, or else the money for the first couple of phases of the plan would be going right down the tubes. There is a great deal more money available out there for charter schools than for open enrollment, "traditional" public schools to pick themselves back up and get going again.

Couple all of this with an emergency order that is still in effect:

This transformation of a school system was orchestrated largely outside of New Orleans. In fact, state law was changed to eliminate requirements that parents and teachers in New Orleans have a voice in the restructuring. After the storm, then-Governor Kathleen Blanco issued an Executive Order that waived, among others, a provision requiring two thirds of teachers, and a majority of parents to agree to the conversion of a public school to a charter school. That Executive Order remains in effect today, though the “emergency” it proclaimed has clearly passed.

...and many community developers who want to get their neighborhoods up and going again are stuck with no schools with which to help attract young families. Unless they go the charter route.

Yes, it's an effort to shrink the footprint of New Orleans.

It is also another chapter in the story of the continuing siege on public education in this city.

And our Recovery Czar and our Walking Id of a mayor are only too happy to help fund it.

By the time I finish posting this, only one thing will be absolutely certain:

We have until midnight.

In all honesty, there are times when I don't know why I'm still doing what I'm doing. There are times when it is exhausting to care. Days when it feels as though banging one's head against a wall will do so much more than sitting through yet another meeting, enduring yet another litany of what people ought to be doing and aren't, wondering why people in power don't just do the right things. Yep, this was definitely one of those days.

I kinda envied one councilmember who didn't show up to the Facilities Master Plan meeting in the City Council Chambers today. Perhaps he was the one who was doing the right thing in not legitimizing the show I saw Paul Vallas, Darryl Kilbert, Constance Caruso, the principal planners of Concordia-Parsons, and Torin Sanders put on for nearly an hour and a half. Several public commenters who managed to tough it out beyond noon to make their comments noted that the public comment period that day actually began at 11:20 AM, not at 10 AM, the scheduled beginning of the meeting.

The same bunches of folks speaking up for their schools came to the podium, as well as some new groups voicing their concerns and their needs. Most of those needs were not reflected in the current Master Plan. Many spoke of the double-talk they encountered when taking their cases straight to Vallas and the RSD planners, and Vallas himself spouted a great deal of that same double-talk in his answers to these parents, educators, community (re)developers (apparently, Wendell Pierce, from HBO's The Wire, is the executive director of the Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corporation. His group wants Coghill Elementary School to be rebuilt where it is, not moved to a different site.), and other citizens who presented one instance after another of the myriad ways in which the communities were not considered at all despite the many community meetings held by Concordia-Parsons before this day. When even Louella Givens, a BESE board member, is speaking out against the Master Plan, something's wrong.

The real kicker, however, the one that made me want to rip out the seat in front of me, was when Frances Sewell of the English Turn Civic Improvement Association expressed her indignation at having a school put in the middle of English Turn without the knowledge of anybody living in the area...and she wanted to know "who put the money there to go into a wilderness park?"

I know. It's English Turn. The place that buses its children out to schools for everybody's Peace of Mind and Convenience. "The Realm of the Extraordinary", where all the rest of us peons must scrimp and pinch to the nth degree to manage to wedge a toe in the gate of their community if we really want to. That place. (Note from an anonymous commenter: Frances does not live in the Subdivision. Before the English Turn subdivision there was English Turn. That is what she is talking about. My apologies.)

Paul Vallas did the best song and dance he could. He touted a Species Survival Center that was going into that wilderness park, saying it was going to be classrooms meant for high school students at the junior and senior levels for specialized instruction. He threw in something about the Audubon Institute's involvement in the center. He said the RSD was not using FEMA or state money to build these specialized classrooms.

"Yes, but where is the money coming from?" Sewell pressed.

Vallas finally got to it: Ed Blakely and the Mayor's office had authorized the use of Community Block Development Grant monies to fund this wild 'n' woolly Species Survival Center in the wilderness of English Turn.

Ummm...why is that money going there when it is clearly needed on the East Bank and in other parts of Algiers on the West Bank?

Throw in the fact that Parsons bears responsibility for this mess in Iraq and we have ourselves a serious problem here in the Crescent City.

From Paul Vallas' point of view, we have to strike with some sort of plan, any sort of plan, while we still can. Moneymoneymoneymoney, citizens - take it and run while we still can, because the economy's going down the tubes and that money will go with it unless we get this thing done right nownownownow.

Wendell Pierce threw out a bit of a Freudian banana peel when he spoke of the numbers folks behind the planning as being "demagographers". Very, very apt slip.

We have until midnight to comment at masterplan@rsdla.net.

At least it will be on record.

__________________

About the only other thing I got out of today:

Another piece of advice: never watch Children of Men in the middle of any school facilities muddle. Period.

Last day to:

Please sign the petition to extend the public review period for the School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish.

Click here to do so.

via Save Our Schools New Orleans, and E.

City Council Chambers on Perdido Street is the place. 10 AM tomorrow is the time. Cone on out, if you can, to express yourself about the School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish. If not, send your emails to masterplan@rsdla.net

Happy New Year 5769 Folks!

Yeah, the last two numbers on the current Jewish calendar year are enough to give anyone pause. Are you screwed financially?

Well, according to the following advice, don't worry too much, so long as you follow the following with regards to the markets:

Sell Rosh Hashanah - Buy Yom Kippur

L'shanah tovah!

Some recent reading of mine - and observing that not even a fifth of the goal of 1000 signatures has been reached by these folks (come on, people! October 1st is around the corner!!!) - has me wondering:

Out of my own pocket, I paid for the following message, booked via our ad agency, at half a dozen north and central Louisiana TV stations, markets where Edwards needed help the most: "I'm Dave Dixon, I want to tell it to you just the way it is. It's goodbye LSU Tigers or it's goodbye David Duke. Take your choice. If David Duke is sitting in the Governor's Mansion, how can we recruit the best football talent in America to come to LSU? Take your choice: LSU Tigers or David Duke."

Thirty days later Edwin Edwards came into our office on Royal Street to show me a Mason-Dixon poll. "Here I am thirty days ago, actually a little bit behind this clown. Today we're 250,000 votes to the good and we're going to win by 350,000 votes on Election Day." He actually won by 384,000 after trailing at the beginning of the runoff. "You know what all of this tells me?" he questioned. Dutifully I asked,"What?" Edwards continued,"This tells me that 250,000 Bubbas, Rednecks, and ex-Ku Kluxers have suddenly decided that they like LSU football a whole lot more than they dislike blacks. Do you have any more ideas?" We laughed together.*

The biggest problem with the Master Plan is that it is still highly dependent on the whims of two people - those Paultards, Vallas and Pastorek - who hold a lot of sway over whether or not the recommendations coming in from the public will be fully included or not. Yes, they will be filed and catalogued, but will the parties whose votes count the most in the acceptance or rejection of this giant rotten egg of a plan be able to get those things into the plan before Thursday? As one concerned citizen at the past emergency meeting in Mid-City noted, if the plan is accepted as-is, this city is stuck with it for the next 25-40 years.

When even the planners are admitting the numbers they had been working with were wrong, when the vote on this is being rushed into being before the votes the city will cast that will change most of the make up of the Orleans Parish School Board (October 1st for the SFMPOP, October 4th for the OPSB district member elections), when complaints/concerns/questions are not being accepted by the current school board members at their community review meetings on the Master Plan - bottom line is, this city needs more time on this.

And, if Dave Dixon is right and football is still king in this state, how can we get to the hearts of more parents on this one through the gridiron?

Oh, yeah, sure, we still want a good education for our children. But with so many school facilities slated for demolition and landbanking being a rule rather than an exception, one has to wonder if our more athletically inclined sons and daughters will even have places to play on which they can improve their skills. We'll probably have to keep paying for it at schools like De La Salle, at which point those skills honed at a private school will enable the kids to be taking their skills anyplace, which they are certainly entitled to do. And, if they do decide to come back and raise families of their own, what will keep them here the most? By then, the cost of those private schools will most likely be astronomical.

Soooo - good athletics at no cost, or good athletics highly dependent on money that could be going towards the astronomical costs of a college education as tradition would dictate, but is instead going to the private school for your children from pre-kindergarten onwards?

And people wonder why there is a serious financial crisis hitting this country.

We must get our priorities straight...

...and hey, if this has to be done through sports, then so be it.

Sign the petition. Flood the email account at masterplan@rsdla.net. Even if you are NOT a parent. Because this does affect our whole city.


*Dave Dixon, The Saints, The Superdome, And The Scandal: An Insider's Perspective

What I learned at tonight's emergency meeting on the numbers analyzed and put to work by a concerned group of folks from the 4th SFMPOP Planning District, in a nutshell:

-The RSD planners, when confronted with the numbers analyzed, admitted that their numbers were wrong.

-The 4th Planning District activists got the planners agreeing to bring revised recommendations to the Paultards (Vallas and Pastorek) for possible inclusion into the Master Plan

-The key is getting OTHER folks in OTHER planning districts to take those numbers (which were analyzed for the whole city, mot just the 4th district) and beat the RSD over the head with 'em.

A start is getting more people to sign this petition, which is currently nearly a tenth of the way towards the goal of obtaining 1,000 signatures. Add yours and get everybody else you know to add theirs. Otherwise, flood the RSD with your emails at masterplan@rsdla.net. Snail mail 'em to the OPSD office at 3520 Gen. DeGaulle Dr.

More on the meeting tomorrow. Must. Sleep.

Update, 5:24 PM: Permission granted!

Thanks, Mr Stein!

Thanks to Scout Prime at First Draft for the heads-up on it.

It is simply one of these things that drives home with a bullet what we in New Orleans have been saying about the current administration in DC and their biggest supporters - they are out for themselves and that is that. Their own little Green Zone, in the form of a bailout scheme, is being created even as we speak. Tighten your belts, folks. Times will be tough.

_____________________

Once again, sign the petition to extend the public comment period on the School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish here.

A community review meeting on the Master Plan for Districts 1 & 2 will be held tonight at 6 at Fannie Williams Elementary School, 11755 Dwyer Rd.

An emergency meeting on the plan is happening at 6 PM at First Grace United Methodist Church, 3401 Canal Street. More details at the end of this post.

And yes, I know both of the meetings mentioned above are happening at the same time. My advice: if you have read through the Master Plan and wish to get a complaint/question/observation on record with the OPSB, go to Fannie Williams. If you don't know too much about the plan and would like to learn more, head to First Grace. You can always email a response afterwards to masterplan@rsdla.net, and it, too, will be on record.

So many scheduled events, so little time...

seems as though even the disasters are planned...

Yeah, all my immersion in school issues has been weighing on me a tad, but I take some time out by finding such internet gems as these:

Let's see: has the large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?
(thanks to aliciammyers)

And a little something I have to remember when I think of this continuing shonda to all Louisianians everywhere:

Back in 2005, when Rep. Rangel was asked about what he thought of President Bush, he replied:

"If there's one thing that George Bush has done that we should never forget, it's that for us and for our children, he has shattered the myth of white supremacy once and for all."

Update, 6:55 PM: On the way back from the grocery store tonight, my son wiggled his second loose tooth, and, remembering how he lost his first tooth, asked me, ever so sweetly: "Mom, when's the next evacuation?"

Pity the Orleans Parish School Board a little, folks.

As an organization, it is currently at the short end of the administrative stick, the scapegoat for generations' worth of ills in New Orleans' public schools...and not without reason. It is currently saddled with $450 million in long-term debt obligations, it only has control over five schools, with another thirteen charter schools under its umbrella of accountability, and it is facing a serious reckoning with regards to the impending retirement of its most experienced teachers - a mass exodus of employees opening up huge holes in the classrooms that will need to be filled. The only consolation the current board members seem to have these days is that, now that the state has had control of darned near all of the public schools for the past three years, it sees how difficult the task really is.

Oh, sure, the state is continuing with certain...errm...traditions in that it is going through superintendents like there is no tomorrow. Its Master Plan for the public schools seems to have been cobbled together with the express directive behind it of ticking off darned near everyone in the community except those who will benefit from its Quick Start constructions. Eventually, however, things will progress far enough along that the state may well toss the schools into the OPSB's laps, because it really isn't that easy to run a school system without a board. "Take this sucker back!!!" they'll say to the repentant, cowed stepchild made to pay for its crimes since well before 8-29's events transpired to drown the city.

Will the board be ready for this?

This is where you, the voter, will come in. Yes, I'm talking to you.

At the past Rising Tide conference, Center for Community Change education team leader Leigh Dingerson said that one of the things that speaks to the dissatisfaction of the city's residents with the current modus operandi of the OPSB is the sheer number of candidates for the school board positions that will be voted on come October 4th (yes, October 4th. Not so far off, is it?). It also speaks to how much hope this crop of candidates has, this belief that they can help usher in real, lasting change that will benefit all of our kids. I am grateful to them for at least driving that home.

Most of the candidates that were at the Urban League's forum last night have themselves been educated in Orleans Parish public schools and/or have sent/are sending their children to OPSD schools. A number of them have experience in the field of education through teaching in the schools themselves, through administrative positions they have held, through their own degrees in education., through their own experiences in dealing with the way the OPSD schools work. Of course, the big question is: which ones of these candidates are going to do the job?

Okay...deep breath now...

What follows are the different districts into which the city is divided, maps of those districts, and the candidates running for the positions in each district. To check which district you are in, head here to enter in your address. More info on candidates without websites can be found here.

District 1 - map
John M. "Johnny" Blanchard, Democrat, Ballot # 104
Christopher H. Smith, Republican, Ballot # 107
Ira Thomas, Democrat, Ballot # 108

District 2 - map
Cynthia Cade, Democrat, Ballot # 109
David Durand, No Party, Ballot # 110
Dwight McKenna, Democrat, Ballot # 111

District 3 - map
C. Davin Boldissar, Democrat, Ballot # 112
Brett A. Bonin, Republican, Ballot # 113
Pat-Sheila Brewer-Felix, Democrat, Ballot # 115
Margaret Dallosta, Other, Ballot # 116
Amelia "Amy" Lafont, Democrat, Ballot # 117

District 4 - map
Lourdes Moran, Democrat, Ballot # 118
Camacia Ross, Democrat, Ballot # 119

District 5 - map
Seth J. Bloom, Republican, Ballot # 120
Avis Brock, Democrat, Ballot # 121

District 6 - map
Woody Koppel, Democrat, Ballot # 122
Percy J. Marchand, Democrat, Ballot # 123

District 7 - map

13 of the candidates were there to answer questions from the public last night. I didn't come in right at the beginning of the event, but I sat next to E and Christian Roselund in the blogger peanut gallery in the back and was clued in by them a little. A person with a query had to direct their question towards the candidates from his/her district or a district, and the district's candidates were the ones that answered.

Like E says, it is shocking how many of the candidates were not clued in to the Facilities Master Plan- yes, it is under the RSD's jurisdiction right now, but it affects ALL of the public schools. At least attempt to read it, comment on its daunting size, anything to indicate you know it exists! The ones that demonstrated the most familiarity with the Master Plan and its shortfalls were District 6's candidate Percy Marchand and the three District 3 candidates present, Davin Boldissar, Amy Lafont, and Brett Bonin, though Bonin mentioned that he was critical of the criticism from the community towards the plan, noting that major decisions still need to be made somehow.

A question arose for the District 2 candidates from a parent sending their child to Jefferson Parish for school: when will I NOT be sending my children out of the district for school? Give me a timetable. None of the candidates could give a clear answer to this one, other than to say that most of the District 2 schools are still under the RSD's control - Cynthia Cade was horrified that the RSD was still turning students away.

District 4 candidates were asked about their academic expertise and how they would use that to ensure that all students benefit from a quality education regardless of their economic backgrounds and race. Lourdes Moran, the incumbent, advocated bringing the issues to the superintendent and having him/her deal with them. Challenger Camacia Ross felt that the board members' task was to govern and to be held accountable in the task of making that education available to all, and that her background in teaching and public school administration would prove to be a great asset. A similar question put to both candidates: "What would you do to ensure that the schools will be quality schools?" elicited responses that were nearly as similar as the ones for the first question. Ross brought in the issue of making all the stakeholders in a school - the students, parents, teachers, and the administrators - a part of the larger dialogue in bringing the schools up to a higher standard. "We have been doing things in quick isolation," she said. Moran leaned towards "site-based management" and once again directed the issues towards the superintendent. All the board is there for is to evaluate the academic achievement of the schools and the "high-stakes test scores" so that the board will be accountable to the state.

District 6 candidates were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the philosophical push for charters. Percy Marchand stated that he believed in what works, but feels that a "hybrid system" - a mix of charters and traditional public schools - is best. Woody Koppel felt that we needed to get away from "who's educating kids", stand aside, and let the schools continue their jobs.

Yes, some of these candidates have a past of being perpetual candidates for school board positions. Overall, though, I think the quality of the candidates is higher than it has been in a long time. The issues are quite juicy and will likely make for some races that will turn into possible runoffs. In other words, New Orleanians aged 18 and over, don't sit this race out. Get educated so's our board will be educated.

Well, as educated as they possibly can be...

Percy Marchand's comments on the School Facilities Master Plan

(from the updated comments on Christian Roselund's Master Plan meeting account of 9-20):

I also want to note School Board District 6 Candidate Percy Marchand’s critique of the School Facilities Master Plan, which was published 9-23-08 on Vincent Sylvain’s New Orleans Agenda:

Facilities Master Plan Concerns:

1. Inefficiency and Ineffectiveness: This facilities master plan has been created without a comprehensive “system” master plan even being discussed.

2. Questionable Statistics: Projected high school student populations lower than the current high school student population (the plan’s goal is to create first-rate 21st century public schools. If this is the case, student populations should increase not decrease.)

3. Fewer High School Choices: Based on the aforementioned projections, the plan calls for decreasing the number of high schools from 28 to 17. The entire uptown area would only have one high school (McMain would be moved to Central City (Booker T. Washington site); Priestley and Cohn would be sold or re-purposed; and Lusher (selective enrollment) would be the only high school.

4. Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance: The multi-billion dollar plan only calls for “limited” ADA compliance upgrades totaling only $1,000,000 in upgrades citywide.

5. Funding for Phases II and III: While funding is in place for Phase I which involves a considerable amount of demolition and selling of land and buildings (including several operating schools), there is nothing securing funding for Phases II and III in which new schools come online.

6. A Losing Deal: The plan calls for the selling of up to 52 schools. Do to current market conditions, real estate developers would love the deals they receive, but those deals would come at the cheat our students and public school system. The plan also suggest that the remaining properties and buildings currently owned by the school board be given to a separate “private”, “public”, “non-profit”, or hybrid board which would lease the properties back to the school board.

for more information see Percy Marchand’s website at vote4marchand.org

Must read: Christian Roselund's eyewitness account of what went down at the Thursday night RSD Facilities Master Plan meeting

Karen Burke of the RSD offered to meet with Bagert and his mid-city organization the following day. However towards the end of the presentation, fellow mid-city resident Shana Sassoon asked a question that was likely on everyone’s mind: “If our numbers are right, will you change the plan? And after hearing all our concerns, will you change the plan?”

This remains to be seen.

E comments on how non-inclusion in the Master Plan has affected Frederick Douglass High School.

School communities like Frederick Douglass never quit on the kids. Instead, the city quit on the school communities. How else could a nationally acclaimed writing program like Students at the Center be discouraged from returning to Douglass? Instead, Paul Vallas and the RSD are implementing an experimental "theme" school at Douglass, a police academy, for the next year before the facility will likely be shuttered.

That's not change, it's more of the same failed slash and burn policy.

I was one sick, puking puppy yesterday. None of this helps me feel better, that's for sure...

My son has been to two meetings this week concerning the Recovery School District's Facilities Master Plan, and I didn't have the heart to drag him to the one that was conducted at McDonogh 35 last night. He was more than patient at the other meetings, but something in him cracked when I told him he had to get his shoes back on.

"Moooooooom, not another meeeeeting!!!!!!!!!!" he whined heroically.

God bless the Tweeter Tube, and the attendee who was tweeting from McD, Sarah Lewis. She let everyone know that the proceedings were going to be shown on channel 8 in real time, so I dodged some more whining from the little guy due to some interruptions of his viewing of Ratatouille, popped a videotape into the VCR after making sure it was a blank tape and not our wedding video or any South Park episodes, and I watched it today once I dropped the kid off at school.

If it weren't for my hard and fast personal rule of not drinking in the daytime unless it is a party, I'd have inhaled all the rum in my home by now. And we have a LOT of rum right now. I need to bake more rum-glazed pecan pound cakes to use it up...focus! FOCUS!!!!

My tape begins in the middle of Constance Caruso's comments on the extension of the public comment period due to the appearances of hurricanes Gustav and Ike in the Gulf. Everyone attending the meeting (and, from later scenes showing the auditorium seats, I gathered that there were approximately 80 people in attendance, give or take) had had to fill out comment cards on attending the meeting, and those cards would be catalogued, compiled, recorder, and used by the RSD and BESE superintendents in making their decisions on the Master Plan. Nothing at this point is set in stone, Caruso emphasized. The final vote on the plan would be made by the boards of the OPSD and the BESE.

A happy, optimistic video presentation is shown to the assembled group, with the song "St James Infirmary" and a streetcar scene kicking it off. The Quick Start schools are touted as state-of-the-art facilities that will be ready for students in 2009. According to the RSD, what it gathered from previous community meetings was that the public wanted state-of-the-art facilities, as well as

-facilities within walking distance of public transit
-facilities available for public use after school and on weekends
-facilities close to libraries and clinics
-space for athletics and further growth of the school facilities

Remember the list above, as well as the "state-of-the-art" moniker. It will be brought up again later by a disgruntled teacher.

Also to be remembered: BESE superintendent Paul Pastorek's determination: "We have to really put the past behind us." That also means there will be a trend towards "multi-neighborhood schools" of 600 students each, if the Master Plan is allowed to stand as is.

A "plan-at-a-glance" PowerPoint follows the video. More details here. Funding sources for Phase One of the plan are mentioned here. A great deal of emphasis is put on the big, bad past and how there were more school facilities in the city than is currently needed. - remember that tidbit of information as well, y'all. 52 schools are slated to be landbanked.

A timekeeper tells everybody the comments will be limited to two minutes per person and/or two questions, which doesn't apply to the people on the stage. It is mentioned that pre-8-29, there were 128 public schools, and now there are 84 in the works, with 7,000 kids currently in modular buildings. It is mentioned that candidate for Congress Cedric Richmond is in the house, as are Orleans Parish School Board members Una Anderson, Cynthia Cade, and Phyllis Landrieu, all sitting in the audience. None of 'em say a thing the whole evening.

The comments are kicked off by a parent from District 4 telling the planners that they have been blind to community support, and a fellow named Bagert chides the planners for ignoring the demographic realities on the ground - there is a real "disconnect between need and capacity." An example he cites: in District 4, 3932 students need schooling, yet, currently, there are only 2500 seats available for those students, and the Master Plan's numbers make a dire situation worse:

Karen Burke, the RSD's Deputy Superintendent of Operations, offers to meet with Bagert the next day to go over the numbers with him.

Two other curious phrases that come up in the continuing barrage of master Plan criticism:

Building name neutral - brought up by a Ms French, who is seated on the stage next to planner Steven Bingler, in response to a community member's concerns that the preservation of history is going to be left by the wayside - i.e., that the names of activist, anti-segregationist educators such as Fannie Williams and Edward H. Phillips will be lost in the haste to make way for the state-of-the-art. If Pastorek really wants the past left behind the Orleans Parish schools, these names will most likely be gone.

Don't merge a school with an operator.

That one gave me pause.

Said by the same Ms French in response to a few people who wanted Priestley School's dilapidated building to be included in the Master Plan - hell, they are fighting to have the Priestley School included in any way, shape, or form, period - it was an attempt to shut down Jerry Speir's emphasis on community support for Priestley and the submission of plans the school itself had had drawn up for renovations to its rotting building on Leonidas Street. I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what the hell she meant. Disregard demonstrated community support for reopening a school in a neighborhood with one of the highest rates of return of any 'hood in this city? Emphasize that the plans will be considered by the board members but will not be catalogued in the public comment records? (Thank God for the insidious nature of the interwebs, there.) Thou shalt have no other operators before Concordia-Parsons and the local architects it has engaged in implementing the hastily cobbled-together Master Plan?

I'm thinking it's the last one.

Check G-Bitch at Humid City for the McMain representatives' input. I would add that the teacher in the "No Booker T" t-shirt chastised the board for ignoring all of the things its video presentation mentioned it got from previous community feedback on what the public wanted with regards to relocating McMain in the unsuitable building and neighborhood of Booker T. Washington school.

Also, Ms Cook said of McMain: "Yes, it is dilapidating (sic), but whose fault is that?"

Did I mention that both McMain and Priestley are open enrollment?

The fact that Central City's Sandra Reed was cut off on the public access broadcast in the middle of her pleas to extend the Master Plan public comment period another 30 days speaks volumes about how much the RSD, OPSD, and BESE value the public input.

Doesn't mean you should not keep the comments coming, however - just don't submit your own blueprints, or you'll have Ms French crying, "Operator!" on your initiative-minded tuchus.

______________________

As always, email your input to masterplan@rsdla.net , or snail mail it to the OPSD office at 3520 Gen. DeGaulle Dr.

Information on Community Review Meetings for Districts 1-7 can be found here.

An emergency meeting on the plan is being convened at First Grace United Methodist Church - 3401 Canal Street - at 6 PM on Thursday, September 25th:

Please RSVP to clofton@mindspring.com by Monday, September 22, whether or not you can attend.

The meeting will include:

· A presentation of a comprehensive, independent analysis of the School Facilities Master Plan and its effects on Planning District 4.

· Strategizing together on how we can take action to make sure "Master Plan" meets the interests of our children and our community.

The presentation on September 25^th is something EVERYONE connected to any of the neighborhoods above has to see, along with anyone with an interest in basic fairness and the future of education in our City.

Below are highlights of the information contained in the analysis:

1) Planning District 4 in 2008 starts off as the district with the greatest unmet need, i.e. public-school attending elementary age children without seats in the planning district. Our district has a capacity shortage of 1375 seats currently, the largest shortage in the City.

2) Phase 1 of the Master Plan would make that shortage even bigger, leaving us with over 2,000 children without seats in District 4 by 2012. That project shortage is higher by 1,400 seats than ANY OTHER PLANNING DISTRICT in the City.

3) Phase 2 of the Master Plan would further increase the shortage of elementary seats in District 4 to between 2,382 seats (low estimate) and 3,204 seats (moderate estimate).