Talk Priority Schools

Forsyth County Association of Educators President Tripp Jeffers was in Denver this week for the Advancing Student Achievement Through Labor-Management Collaboration conference, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.

Jeffers was part of a presenting team, along with Donny Lambeth, Chairman of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education and Donald Martin, Superintendent of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. The three have a worked to build a collaborative relationship that has allowed WSFCS to move forward on a number of innovative projects in North Carolina, which is a non-bargaining state.

During the presentation, Jeffers shared an example of how collaboration guided the union and the district through a difficult Reduction in Force (RIF) policy that bases RIF decisions both on a teacher’s work experiences as well as performance on evaluations.

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By Paula Monroe, NEA Executive Committee

A very emotional four days in Denver-area schools showed opportunities and challenges ahead for priority schools.

Lake Middle School

The visits started at Lake Middle School, the school saved from closure last year by member and community organizing by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. This is the school NEA President Dennis Van Roekel visited in September with the superintendent.  I went with DCTA Executive Director, Carolyn Crowder and national and state association staff and met in the school library with approximately 10 staff for various lengths of time.  The site rep, Jim Goffred, was in attendance and provided a constant voice throughout the conversation.

Lake’s parents and teachers came up with a transformation plan and submitted it to the school board, but they were not allowed to do the transformation model.  The district identified it as a restart/turnaround model.  However, the turnaround model wasn’t actually implemented in the defined method.

Today they have divided the current student population into three different schools on one site.  read more »

By Paula Monroe, NEA Executive Committee

In the end, as so many had heard and didn’t want to believe, the Denver Public Schools School Board voted 4 to 3 to “reconfigure Montbello High School and its five feeder schools”. The decision came at approximately 1:30 a.m. on November 18. The Board meeting room was still packed. Students from Montbello who held up posters signed by the MHS students that read – Montbello High School 30 years old too young to die! – were in tears. Teachers and staff left in tears. It was very disheartening and disappointing.

That being said, DCTA did a great job of organizing community support and building a community coalition around saving these schools. read more »