BLISTERING Oshkosh Editorial re: their School Board

This blistering editorial about the lack of action at the BOE in Oshkosh goes with a previous article here on the blog about boundary changes in Oshkosh. Do you think we might expect our local paper to actually notice and comment in a straightforward manner about the INACTION that has been in place here for 10 years??

Maria


This is a printer friendly version of an article from the Oshkosh Northwestern

Editorial: Time to replace school district management
October 7, 2007
One year ago, the Oshkosh School District received an urgent wake-up call.

A Green Bay-consulting firm issued a troubling report that educational
opportunity and equity in our schools were being compromised. Public
Management Partners found that Oshkosh has more schools than
comparable school systems and those buildings needed, in 2006 dollars,
$10 million in repairs.

The report painted a bleak picture of a hodge-podge of facilities that
were not meeting the needs of students, with some schools seriously
overcrowded and others with unused space. For example, some have
adequate space for media centers, art and music, while other schools
are using cafeteria space for those needs. In addition, the report
ranked school buildings based on national standards to help school
leaders objectively decide which ones were worthy of repair and which
ones needed to close.

One year later, it's sad to report that little-to-nothing has been
done to address the core educational equity issues in our schools.
Judging by results, the wake-up call was put on a 365-day snooze.

It is inexcusable and the responsibility rests on eight people. Seven
elected school board members and the superintendent of schools. Though
they may consider themselves individuals, they collectively are the
management and leadership of the Oshkosh school district. They have
collectively failed the students and the community. This is not a
finger pointing exercise. This is the hard truth. Our school district
is paralyzed and unable to make fundamental decisions about the
future.

If the managers can't get the job done on the field, it's time to
bring in new management – a new superintendent and new elected board
members.

The current management of the district has lost the confidence of the
community that it can resolve the issue. It no longer has credibility
to go to the voters at-large to get support for a $46.6 million
referendum that will be required to upgrade and repair facilities.

It's not as if there hasn't been an extraordinary effort to find a
solution. Hundreds of volunteers have been tapped, thousands spent on
public relations and other consulting services and facilitators and
scores of hours spent in meetings, listening sessions and other forms
of public outreach.

But recent efforts to redraw boundary lines have disintegrated into a
bruising, divisive and pointless detour from the core objective. The
same can be said for the time spent on re-designating elementary and
middle school class splits from K-5, 6-8 to K-3, 4–8. That's the real
"social experimentation" taking place in our schools. It's a change
backed by scant research that largely focused on K-8 school
configurations.

Consider this: Five Oshkosh schools were recognized for fulfilling the
"New Wisconsin Promise" because of impressive test scores despite high
numbers of students living in poverty. Four of those schools —Webster
Stanley Middle and Elementary, Washington Elementary and Merrill
Middle School — would cease to exist as we know them if the plan is
implemented.

The real irony is that the school board fixed a problem that did not
exist and failed to fix the problem staring our students in the eye
everyday.

One-year later, there is no end in sight to the gridlock.

Without fundamental change in the management of the district, the
gridlock will continue and our schools will fall into greater
disrepair and decline. The budget, likewise, will be in disrepair,
necessitating program and staff cuts, further diminishing
opportunities for Oshkosh students.

Continuing on the same path will not get the job done for the Oshkosh community.

The Final Thought: There must be fundamental change in the management
of the Oshkosh school district to jump the start the process of
facility planning and improving the quality of our school system.