Reply to Wards Five & Six - Let's Make "Deals"

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Reply to "Wards Five & Six - Let's Make "Deals""

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Compounding that unhappiness is that Ward 6 — the gentrified locus of a parent-driven elementary school revival — successfully negotiated a plan with Rhee to strengthen programs at the ward’s existing three middle schools (Stuart-Hobson, Eliot-Hine and Jefferson).

Maria Jones, an African American Ward 5 parent, told the council that her community was stampeded by Rhee into accepting the closures — and the creation of several consolidated Pre-K-8 campuses that don’t adequately meet the needs of middle school students — while Ward 6 was accommodated.

Jones said it was not a matter of middle- and working-class parents in Ward 5 failing to speak out, “contrary to what Jonetta Rose Barras wrote in her City Paper article.” Barras wrote last month that school reform in Wards 5, 7 and 8 has not taken hold in part because the black middle class abandoned neighborhood schools to send children outside the ward.

“The wealthy and well-organized Ward 6 parents casually networked over bubbly wine and cheese and presented a school plan to Chancellor Rhee that she lauded and immediately implemented,” said Jones, parent of a former John Burroughs Education Campus student. “Hats off to Ward 6 parents for using your money, power and influence to create an ideal school community.”[/quote]

Yeah, but Ms. Jones doesn't really know the first thing about what happened in the creation of the Ward 6 middle school plan.   She has some sort of fantasy about wine and cheese.  I can tell you first-hand it was more like hundreds of hours of meetings, consensus building and drafting of proposals. Hundreds of hours when the people working on it weren't with their kids, weren't with their spouses, weren't relaxing and in many cases, were skipping dinner instead of missing meetings.  No wine, no cheese.  And no great results, either.  I can see why Ward 5 wants more attention on their schools and their educational issues.  But trying to play like someone else got it the easy way is just wrong. [/quote]

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