Carstarphen’s headed south

 

Meria Carstarphen

The Austin Independent School District has just announced that Meria Carstarphen, Superintendent of St Paul Public Schools, is there next choice to lead the district.

 

Since the Pioneer Press broke the news earlier this month that her house was for sale, speculation has been rife that she’ll be headed elsewhere. Carstarphen’s contract is up in a few months, and negotiations for a new contract had been taking place, according to SPPS board members. Last week, the Star-Tribune’s Emily Johns relayed reports from an Austin, TX paper that Carstarphen was one of three finalists in their search to replace Pat Forgione as Austin’s superintendent, who is retiring after 10 years.

Next is a 21 day period where the public, media, and other stakeholders in the Austin schools are invited to comment and question Carstarphen, after which the Austin board will vote to approve her appointment “if she’s adequately answered concerns” brought forward during the process, said Mark Williams, President of the Austin schools’ Board of Trustees.

Filed under: St Paul, Austin, Education, Meria Carstarphen, St Paul Public Schools, Superintendent

Hijinks in Princeton?

(H/T Joe Nathan, of the U of M’s Center for School Change)

Joe Nathan pointed this out to me on Friday. Something strange is going on in Princeton, MN! While the school board and the Superintendent are tussling over his contract, the board puts the Super, the HR director, and the “Community Education Director” on paid administrative leave in response to “complaints” made to the district. Because of legal issues, no-one is allowed to discuss the charges — or who made them — until an external audit is completed. No word yet on when that will be.

Filed under: Minnesota, Minnesota

More on St Paul / Austin, TX connex

The Pioneer Press’ Doug Belden has a good story in today’s paper, speculating on what St Paul Public Schools might do to keep Superintendent Meria Carstarphen. Carstarphen, whose contract is up in four months, is being wooed by the Austin, Texas public schools with a much larger salary.

St. Paul cannot match what Austin pays its current superintendent — $285,000 — nor does it need to, said Jean O’Connell, a former 3M executive who has worked closely with St. Paul school officials and chairs an advisory panel to Carstarphen.
But St. Paul will “have to up the ante because they’ve given her three glowing appraisals over the last three years,” she said. “It isn’t the time to say, ‘Well, we want you to stay, but we’re not going to give you any reason to stay.’ “
The cost of a salary increase would be less than the cost of changing superintendents, O’Connell said, plus the costs of disruption to the system that would entail.
And the corporate and nonprofit support Carstarphen has cultivated in her time here might wane if she were gone, O’Connell said.

Filed under: St Paul, Education, Meria Carstarphen, St Paul Public Schools

St Paul super “a finalist” for top Austin, TX job

Yesterday afternoon, the Star Tribune broke the news that Meria Carstarphen, superindendent of St Paul Public schools, is “a finalist” for the superindentent of the Austin, TX schools, according to the Austin American-Statesman.  Everyone at SPPS is keeping mum about it, and  but (as the Strib reported a few weeks ago), Carstarphen’s house is up for sale.  

Carstarphen said in a press release that she’s “still the Superintendent of St Paul,” and she’s still committed to serving the district, etc. etc.

Emily Johns at the Star Tribune points out that, going by average tenure of urban superintendents, her time’s up.

Filed under: St Paul, Education, St Paul

Krazy for Kale — It’s the Friday Round-up!

After a two-week hiatus, the Friday round-up returns, full of health promoting, sulfur-containing phytonutrients. 

- Firing the newest-hired teachers in a budget crunch (as Minneapolis does) is not good for business.  (Ed Week, 2/17/09)  Doug Mann (and his 2008 last-place finish) is vindicated…

- It’s echoes of Minneapolis’ Fresh Starts as St Paul Public Schools restructures Arlington High, and Humboldt Junior and Senior High Schools — 46 re-assigned teachers say they were imperiously re-assigned, and want more input.   The three schools have persistentnly failed to meet Federal student performance benchmarks under the No Child Left Behind law, which mandates their restructuring.  (Pioneer Press, 2/18/09)

- The Stimulus floods the federal Dept. of Ed with money.  ”What’s this strange stuff?” they ask.  (NYTimes, 2/16/09)

…Amy Wilkins, who as vice president at the Education Trust, a civil rights group, has studied the budgets of several of Mr. Duncan’s predecessors. “Margaret [Spellings, the previous Secretary of Education] was looking for quarters in her pencil drawer.”

Some nitty-gritty deets here and here.

- Obama and Duncan want the stimulus to “transform the Federal role in education” (AP, 2/17/09)

- Gov. Pawlenty’s -er- controversial teacher pay-for-performance scheme  works for us, says Marshal, MN super (Marshall Independent, 2/13/09)

- “The budget boondoggle” at the U of M, MnSCU (MN Daily, 2/18/09)

- Why Americans love peanut butter. (Slate, 2/9/09)

- And lastly, Some Tasty Kale Recipies.

Filed under: Announcements, Minneapolis, Minnesota, National, St Paul, Arne Duncan, Fresh Start, Minneapolis Public Schools, Minnesota, National Issues, News, Peanut Butter, Q Comp, Stimulating Stimuli, Teacher Quality

Meet the new school, same as the old school?

 

Photo: Flickr/Chuckumentary

In between 60-plus charter schools, several private schools, and two school districts, I’ll bet you didn’t think we had enough choices for schools.  A group of education reformers including Robert Wedl of Education Evolving, a Hamline University education reform think-tank, says we don’t. 

Along with Representative David Bly (DFL – Northfield), they’ve proposed a bill that would essentially allow school boards to start “charter-like” schools that would still be within a district framework.  Because the schools would still be part of the district, Wedl says, school boards could try out new ideas without worrying that they’d lose funding as pupils switch to these new schools.  In case you’ve forgotten, each child in a traditional public or a charter public school is worth a certain amount of money every year to the school (and district) enrolls them.  This is supposed to set up a competition between school districts and charter schools to offer the best education or the coolest programs to win parents and their students. 

Filed under: Minnesota, St Paul, Charter Schools, Education, Education Policy, Education Reform, Minnesota

To save money, Minneapolis schools plans major restructuring — Parents skeptical their voices will be heard

(Originally published in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, 2/18/09)

Faced with a growing – and seemingly permanent – gap between revenues and finances, Minneapolis Public Schools is organizing meetings where parents and teachers are invited to give input into the district’s future. It’s not news that school politics and policy in the Twin Cities are less transparent than a brick wall, with precious few people trying to shed light on the goings-on in either district. But not everyone at one of Thursday night’s three community meetings was convinced MPS is trying to shed its old, top-down, bureaucratic ways as it looks to reorganize and shrink the number of elementary, middle, and high schools, and the complicated and expensive busing system.

“Community engagement is just an obligation for the district to fulfill,” said community activist and Ramsey Fine Arts Center parent Ralph Crowder, who was disappointed that the Northside meeting did not include a broader discussion of why poor students and students of color were not succeeding in the school system.

“People have a lot of suspicion that the community opinion might not sway what happens,” said David Allen, a contractor who works with the district’s Student Placement Center.

Filed under: Minneapolis, Achievement Gap, Budget Crisis, Education, Education Funding, Kate Towle, Minneapolis, Minneapolis Public Schools, Public Schools, Restructuring, Shameless Self-Promotion

Minneapolis “community meetings” — a sign of things to come?

I spent yesterday evening at one of MPS’ community meetings on the Northside (see previous post), about re-structuring the numbers and types of schools, as well as the current busing system, in order to close a growing structural deficit in district finances, caused by declining enrollment. District officials there seemed honest and earnest, but I think the best quotes of the night may belong to activist Ralph Crowder:
“Community Engagement is nothing but an obligation the district has to fulfill.”
…and to a Henry High parent whose name I think I forgot to write down:
“It was advertised well to people who’re really involved in the schools, but not to the average, working-class parent.” (there were around 30 people there, I counted 4 members of the District Parent Advisory Council, a voluntary organization of parent leaders)
All of the various options participants were asked to discuss were extremely short on data — what kinds of cost savings would they generate, how the district would ensure all schools were good schools if the district went over to all-neighborhood schools, etc. Moreover, in the process outlined by Deputy Superintendent Bernadiea Johnson, this is one small part– there are a lot of other parts of the bureaucracy that will have input, and the School Board will be presented with one plan by the administration by March 24th.  

Kate Towle, a big-time parent activist I spoke with yesterday before the meeting summed up her feelings: “There’s going to be a big push nationally for more autonomous schools, and more direct community involvement. It just remains to be seen what way [the district bureaucracy] is going to fall apart.”

More details to come in tomorrow’s Daily Planet…

Filed under: Minneapolis, Achievement Gap, Education, Education Funding, Education Reform, Governance, Kate Towle, Minneapolis, Minneapolis Public Schools, Ralph Crowder

Quick Hit — U of M layoffs / Have a say in the Minneapolis schools’ budget!

Pow! the U of M is laying off the administrative office that oversees grad school programs. No word yet on how much the U will save, how many will be laid off, and what kinds of work they did.

Ka-Bam! You, too can have a say in how Minneapolis Public Schools deals with the surely-enormous gap in funding for its 2009-2010 budget. MPS has scheduled three community meetings for Thursday. We’ll see if it’s more than an informational meeting, though…

Filed under: Minneapolis, Minnesota, Achievement Gap, Community Involvement, Education, Education Funding, Minneapolis, Minneapolis Public Schools, Minnesota, U of M

OJT for teachers? No problemo! — US Dept. of Ed.

Photo: Flickr/user "Wappas"

It’s good news for Teach For America’s plans to move into Minneapolis: A new study commissioned by the US Department of Education argues that teachers who are still completing their teaching credentials while they teach aren’t any better or any worse than teachers who follow the traditional route of completing their coursework before stepping into a classroom.  In the past, TFA and other groups have raised eyebrows – and attracted significant criticism from the likes of the Obama campaign’s top education advisor, Linda Darling-Hammond – by putting their teachers on the front lines after relatively minimal training.

Filed under: Minneapolis, National, Achievement Gap, Arne Duncan, Education, Education Policy, Education Reform, Minneapolis, Minneapolis Public Schools, National Issues, News, Race, Teach for America, Teacher Quality