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Endorsements for Downs and Jones
By Antonio D. French
Endorsements for Peter Downs
Maida Coleman, Missouri State Senator 5th District
Rita Heard Days, Missouri State Senator 14th District
Amber Boykins, State Representative 60th District
Juanita Head Walton, State Representative 81st District
Robin Wright Jones, State Representative 63rd District
Ester Haywood, State Representative 71st District
Jeanette Mott Oxford, State Representative 59th District
Yaphett S. El-Amin, State Representative 57th District
Suburban Newspapers
Pub Def Weekly
Mattie Moore, State Democratic Chairperson and 2nd Ward Committeewoman
Arthur (Chink) Washington, Committee Man 21st Ward Organization
Irene J. Smith, Former Alderwoman
6th Ward Democratic Organization
22nd Ward Democratic Organization
Kenneth Jones, Former Alderman
22nd Ward Committeeman James “Jay” Ozier
22nd Ward Committeewoman Fay Davis
17th Ward Democratic Committeeman Robert Hilgemann
18th Ward Committeeman Jesse Todd
15th Ward committeeman Greg Thomas
15th Ward Committeewoman Alice Nicholas
25th Ward Democratic Club
26th Ward Democratic Club
26th Ward Democratic Committeeman Joe Palm
26th Ward Democratic Committeewoman Pat Moss
5th Ward Committeeman Republicans Isaiah Hair, Jr.
Black Women's Political Action Coalition
Retired Employees of the City of St. Louis
8th Ward Democratic Club
Steve Patterson
Percy Green
Jamala Rogers
John Curtis, Community Leader
Janet Becker
St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council
St. Louis Teachers and SRP Union, Local 420
AFT 691 in Kansas City
St. Louis Area Labor Council
St. Louis City Labor Club
Operating Engineers Local 02
Laborers local 509
Workers for a Labor Party
Workers International League
Action Re Union 2006
Organization for Black Struggle
George Cotton
IBEW Local 1
Two Rivers Greens
Gateway Green Alliance
Progressive Party of Missouri
Veronica O'Brien, School Board Member
Bill Purdy, School Board Member and former President
Dr. Rick Bender, Former School Board Member
Dr. John P. Mahoney, Former School Board Member and President
Bill Haas, Former School Board Member
Harold Brewster, Former School Board Member and President
Dr. Amy Hilgemann, Former School Board Member
Dan Kinney, Former School Board Candidate
Citizens to Stop Eminent Domain Abuse
Carpenters Union
Ellen Todd, Student Body President at Harris Stowe University
Retired Employees of the City of St. Louis
Chip Clatto, Educator
Endorsements for Donna Jones
Maida Coleman, Missouri State Senator 5th District
Rita Heard Days, Missouri State Senator 14th District
Amber Boykins, State Representative 60th District
Juanita Head Walton, State Representative 81st District
Robin Wright Jones, State Representative 63rd District
Ester Haywood, State Representative 71st District
Jeanette Mott Oxford, State Representative 59th District
Yaphett S. El-Amin, State Representative 57th District
Suburban Newspapers
Pub Def Weekly
Mattie Moore, State Democratic Chairperson and 2nd Ward Committeewoman
Irene J. Smith, Former Alderwoman
John Curtis, Community Leader
Percy Green
Jamala Rogers
18th Ward Committeeman Jesse Todd
22nd Ward Democratic Organization
Kenneth Jones, Former Alderman
22nd Ward Committeeman James “Jay” Ozier
22nd Ward Committeewoman Fay Davis
17th Ward Democratic Committeeman Robert Hilgemann
4th Ward Democratic Organization
15th Ward committeeman
15th Ward Committeewoman
5 th Ward Committeeman Republicans Isaiah Hair, Jr.
Black Women's Political Action Coalition
St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council
St. Louis Teachers and SRP Union, Local 420
AFT 691 in Kansas City
St. Louis Area Labor Council
St. Louis City Labor Club
Operating Engineers Local 02
Workers for a Labor Party
Workers International League
Organization for Black Struggle
Action Re Union 2006
Steve Patterson
George Cotton
IBEW Local 1
Two Rivers Greens
Gateway Green Alliance
Progressive Party of Missouri
Veronica O'Brien, School Board Member
Bill Purdy, School Board Member and Former President
Dr. Rick Bender, Former School Board Member
Bill Haas, Former School Board Member
Dr. John P. Mahoney, Former School Board Member and President
Harold Brewster, Former School Board Member and President
Dr. Amy Hilgemann, Former School Board Member
Dan Kinney, Former School Board Candidate
Citizens to Stop Eminent Domain Abuse
Carpenters Union
Ellen Todd, Student Body President at Harris Stowe University
Chip Clatto, Educator
A Counselor's Modest Proposal
By Peter Downs
by Peter Downs
March 20, 2006 -- Richard Pack made a modest proposal to the St. Louis Board of Education on March 14: teach children how to focus by teaching them chess.
Pack said he was a counselor at Scruggs Elementary School when he ran a program to teach students chess. The MAP scores of children who were taught chess went up 30 - 40%, he said. And when the chess program was stopped, the scores of students at the school dropped back down.
Pack asked for a chance to put the program back in a school during the class day, not after school, to see if he can duplicate its accomplishments at Scruggs. "Evaluate it, and if it doesn't work, stop it," he said.
Pack said the point of the program is to teach children how to focus their thoughts. With fast-paced TV shows, music, movies, and video games, "I contend children haven't learned to focus," he said, and low test scores don't reflect an ignorance of the material so much as an inability to stay focused on the test.
The current curriculum, he suggested, fails to teach students how to focus. "How can they be taught to focus when teachers are under pressure to teach the material," he asked?
In concept, Pack's chess teaching program sounds similar to the violin program at Holy Trinity Catholic School, where teaching a difficult instruments teaches children how to concentrate and focus their attention.
Currently, St. Louis Public School teachers are trying to teach the MAP test, "but imagine the outcomes," Pack said, "if we can teach our children to think."
Parents Send Message, Was It Heard?
By Peter Downs
by Peter Downs
March 2, 2006 -- Nearly 80 people attended a meeting at Mullanphy School last night to discuss problems with student transportation and a longer school day. The meeting was arranged in response to complaints that a delegation of six parents from Wilkinson School took to the school board at its last regular meeting.
Parents complained about long waits for buses, missed drop-off times, and the inability to get through to anyone at the transportation department, or get straight answers if they did. They said that waiting for buses to bring children home 90 minutes to two hours after they were picked up from school was not uncommon. And when calling the transportation department, they could be put on hold for 30-45 minutes!
The parents also proposed several specific steps to correct the problems.
At 7:30, Mullanphy Principal Kenneth Branton interrupted the meeting with an announcement that underscored the problem. He said the last bus had left the school at 5:15. "I still have children on that bus and it's 7:30 p.m.," he said. "I've been in my office taking calls from parents. It's deplorable."
Transportation Supervisor insisted that she is doing the best she can "with a very skeleton staff." There are only five people in the district to oversee 421 bus routes carrying 16,000 children a day, she said.
"Nobody is perfect," she added.
If the problem is having adequate resources to provide good service to children and parents, then the people who needed to hear from parents are the school board members. Only one school board member was present at the meeting, however, and that was Bill Purdy. Four of the people running for school board attended the meeting, but neither of the incumbents running for reelection showed up.
In an email to parents after the meeting, Katie Wessling of St. Louis Parents for Kids said that Wilkinson PTO president Lori Baker will follow up with district administration to find out what they do in response to parent concerns.
Parents also raised concerns about the negative affects of extending the school day, which the school board had previously announced would be lengthened by 20 minutes next year. The school day was already lengthened by 18 minutes this year, which gives St. Louis children the longest school day in the area.
Ruth Mach, who supervises elementary school principals, said that Superintendent Williams shares some of the parents' concerns about keeping children in school longer. She said that she thinks the planned extension will be canceled.
Parents are circulating petitions against the longer day. Hundreds of signatures have already been turned in from parents at Wilkinson and Kennard, and organizers say they intend to keep the pressure on.
Parents At Stevens Middle School Protest Violence, Lack of Schooling
By Peter Downs
The way parents at Stevens Middle School describe it, their school simply collapsed this year: there is no teaching, no learning, and no safety.
"I have two children in the school," said Ms. Way. "They have a substitutes every day. I talk to a new teacher every week. . . . They've had no homework since school began. They aren't getting the classes they should. They are confined to one classroom all day, instead of moving to different subjects. My sixth grader was taught nothing but math for a whole month. . . The school has had seven secretaries since August and so many substitutes I can't count."
Not surprisingly, the breakdown in instruction has gone hand-in-hand with an increase in violence.
"Kids are beating kids, parents hitting teachers, students hitting teachers, and the students who do that are still in school. There is no support from the principal to do anything about it," Way said.
Way said she sat in on a fifth grade class for 45 minutes. "The students were cussing, they were throwing stuff, they were tearing that room apart. The teacher called security, but they never showed up."
One of her own children was attacked and suffered eye damage that required treatment from a specialist at Children's Hospital, she said. She witnessed another child beaten bloody. But when she tried to talk to the principal about it, "she insisted it didn't happen at her school," Way said. "She said I didn't see what I saw, and she said my children were lying."
Another mother, who identified herself only as Regina, said, "They've stolen a year from our children." She agreed that the principal denies that there are any problems.
Several parents have distributed handbills in the neighborhood decrying the problems they say exist at the school. Six of the parents went to the teachers' union in mid-February to try to get their help.
"We just want someone to do something," the mothers all said.
A special report on KSDK Channel 5 on Tuesday night underscored widespread concerns about violence not just in St. Louis schools, but also in Normandy and Riverview Gardens. In St. Louis, however, teachers who responded to the reporters' survey complained that they did not get any support from the administration.
Channel 5 reporter Leisa Zigman quoted Alexia, who had taught at Ashland School, who described getting attacked twice by students, and each time the attackers were back in her classroom within a couple of days.
Over 100 St. Louis city teachers took part in the TV station's survey. Superintendent Creg Williams declined to respond to the report. In public meetings, however, he has blamed teachers for the violence by saying that it is their fault for not controlling their classrooms.
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