Advisory board set up to help Recovery School District schools

The Recovery School District on Friday announced that a 22-member advisory board has been formed to assist with a network of seven RSD-run schools in north Baton Rouge called the Baton Rouge Achievement Zone.

The board, which first met in November, includes politicians, community and religious leaders, educators and parents from Baton Rouge. Two of them are East Baton Rouge Parish School Board members Craig Freeman and Barbara Freiberg.

Other prominent figures are State Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, Metro Councilwoman Ronnie Edwards and Star Hill Baptist Church Pastor Raymond Jetson. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., also has a representative on the advisory board.

RSD spokeswoman Zooey Reed said the advisory board does not meet on a regular schedule, its meetings are private, and it has opted thus far not to elect a chairman or president from its ranks.

In the news release issued Friday, RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard emphasized the diversity and the commitment of the new board.

“I look forward to working with them as they lead the community discussion around the school turnaround and transformation in the Baton Rouge Achievement Zone,” Dobard said.

The board is already visiting schools and participating in roundtable discussions with various education organizations, and spent much of this past week on an RSD-sponsored visit to four charter schools in New Orleans, Reed said.

The board is planning to hold a series of forums to stimulate public discussion about what should be the priorities of schools located in the Achievement Zone. The board will subsequently develop a report filled with findings and recommendations drawn from the forums.

RSD formed the Achievement Zone in April 2012 in hopes of creating a charter school-heavy network of schools, similar to New Orleans, that would improve student achievement in the historically low-performing schools in north Baton Rouge. RSD leaders have been in discussions for months with East Baton Rouge Parish Superintendent Bernard Taylor about expanding the zone beyond the seven schools it currently contains.

To see all the members go to http://www.rsdla.net/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=266373&id=0.

Comments

1) Comment by tradewinns - 09/03/2013

the only thing the advisory board needs to do is assess fines/ place liens/ and hand out jail time to the parents of the students not prepared to do the days study at school. even if the parent(s) are already in jail, take ALL their earned time away, sieze any funds in their acounts and any they may earn or have placed in their account, put them in segregration with one hour of mandated "sunshine" a day and absolutely no visitors of any sort, including their attorneys till their kids straighten out and perform properly. if they are not going to do this everything else in a political grandstanding accomplishing notghing. write it down and compare today with a year from now don't just take my word for it. do your homework!

2) Comment by LawyerDan65 - 09/03/2013

According to the Attorney General: The main criteria of what constitutes a public body is stated at the end La. R.S. 42:4.2, “[W]here such body possesses policy making, advisory, or administrative functions, including any committee or subcommittee of any of these bodies enumerated in this paragraph.” It seems pretty clear that this group is subject to the Open Meetings law.

3) Comment by evangelindangelo - 09/03/2013

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4) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 08/03/2013

Laughing. And I might add, my position in the Holmes Program was "Clinical Faculty Member." My job was to teach, and to connect the "theory" of the university with the "practice" in the schools, so I was in the schools in several parishes (and in some private schools as well) for nearly 20 years on a regular basis. I lost two elective races, one for BESE where I was outspend over 15 to 1, and once in the most recent school board race when I was outspend by about the same ratio. Both times it was the "reformers" who were afraid, very afraid that I might ask too many questions. :)

5) Comment by pete.kelly - 08/03/2013

Thanks Noel for your reply. I knew there had to be a Paul Harvey "rest of the story."

6) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 08/03/2013

Don't mind sharing with you at all... I took all coursework required of a teacher in the state of Louisiana, in fact went back to school after my Bachelor of Science in Business Management (summa cum laude) just so I could get certified. I did not get certified because the state of Louisiana wanted me to take a course THAT I HAD BEEN TEACHING FOR TWO YEARS AT LSU! I know, sounds silly, but I just figured that it was absurd for the state to say I had to get it put on my transcript when I had been teaching. I tried to remedy the situation by signing up to take my own course. (Got a not so friendly call from the Chancellor on that one.) At any rate, I applied to teach, was told there was no way in h--- I could get a job without the certification, then was hired two weeks later to take over a set of classes that had had 6 teachers prior to my arrival. I then left the high school the next year to teach at Kenilworth Middle School, where I was selected as Teacher of the Year and was Parish Finalist for Teacher of the Year. I was also chosen to be president of the EBR Council for Social Studies and lead that group for two years. After than I was asked to take a position at LSU where I worked with the Holmes Program in Social Studies. I worked with Master's Degree students and taught graduate and undergraduate courses for almost 20 years. So, in simply terms. No, I was never certified, I have no Ph.D. either, and have never claimed to be certified or a PhD. Any other questions? I have studied the reform movement for many, many years, and if I had found it to be meaningful and useful in improving the lives of students, I would be in full support. It has not. I am not. Thanks for the questions. I like it when people disagree, and even moreso when they are up front and honest about what they believe, so we can actually look at truth. I don't rail against public education, my friend. I mostly question, as I hope all do. And when the state hides data, lies about gains, fakes the data, and violates open meeting laws, I kind of get upset. Oh, forgot to mention, served 16 years on the local EBR school board and helped end 54 year old deseg suit. Served on numerous national task forces and groups, and seek truth. Always.

7) Comment by pete.kelly - 08/03/2013

I very much enjoy reading Mr. Hammatt's comments on a wide variety of articles. While I sometimes agree and other times disagree with his views or conclusions, Mr. Hammatt always backs up his posts with data. I presumed Mr. Hammatt had vast experience as a traditionally-trained classroom teacher in the public K-12 world due to his condemnation of "five-week wonders" a.k.a. alternatively-certified classroom teachers, i.e. Teach For America graduates. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Mr. Hammatt holds no certification in public education from the state of Louisiana, at least as far as the verification tab on teachlouisiana.net is concerned. Mr. Hammatt, please re-affirm my confidence in your railings against all things public education in Louisiana, in particular the RSD, and tell me you are a certified Louisiana K-12 public school classroom teacher with a few decades of experience in the elementary, middle school or high school classroom. Thanks in advance for your reply.

8) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 08/03/2013

Zooey Reed is dead wrong about one thing. This "Advisory Board" specifically set up to sidestep the laws concerning open meetings, it indeed still required under the law to post their meetings in advance: "D. The provisions of R.S. 42:7 and R.S. 42:7.1 shall not apply to any meeting of a private citizens' advisory group or a private citizens' advisory committee established by a public body, when the members of such group or committee do not receive any compensation and serve only in an advisory capacity, except textbook advisory committees of the State Department of Education or the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. However, all other provisions contained in R.S. 42:4.1 through 42:12 shall be applicable to such group or committee and the public body which established such group or committee shall comply with the provisions of R.S. 42:7 in providing the required notice of meetings of such group or committee." Note the "ALL OTHER PROVISIONS APPLY. As usual, Dobard, White, Freiberg and Freeman and the backroom bevy of profiteers are trying top pull one over on the citizens of Baton Rouge and The Advocate. Why are they ramming this down our throat, when they have failed miserable in the RSD. Lowest performing district in the state, BY FAR! In spite of their lies and deceit, the evidence is clear that they have not created positive choices for parents. Why are they afraid to ask parents and the public if THEY want their schools taken over by Dobard and the failed RSD?