School Board notes: Patterson in, ABLE program moved?

[jennifer scott]

I think you must have nailed it Colleen....this thread got awfully quiet.

[jennifer scott]

I think you must have nailed it Colleen....this thread got awfully quiet.

[jennifer scott]

I think you must have nailed it Colleen....this thread got awfully quiet.

[jennifer scott]

Wow, looks like that just posted 3 times...sorry. Jim???

[Jim O'Bryan]

Wow, looks like that just posted 3 times...sorry. Jim???

WOW

That is quiet!

I will be honest, this thread has affected many. The talk on the street is WOW. But why get
overwhelmed with the WOW factor, lets talk about this and everything. Damn, we are adults
we have vested interests in all of this. Do we really need to retreat to the land of Facezac
"I want coffee" "3 Likes" 2"Bob I like coffee too, maybe I want some" "Coffee is good."

Damn, lets fix this city together with help from each other, for the betterment of all.


.

[jennifer scott]

Well gosh Jim, thanks...kinda meant maybe delete 2 of the 3?? Glad this topic is being talked about, it should be.

[Valerie Molinski]

Sorry, Jennifer. I stopped posting because I was not getting the answers I was seeking and was tired of trying to get them in the midst of Jim attempting to push the entire thread into the direction he wanted it to go.

No offense, Jim, but you often drown out others with your agenda in these types of threads. Clearly, you want to address a larger conversation at hand here, but I do not want to contribute to that yet (as I said, until I got the actual story of what went on to precipitate this discussion). You already put words in my mouth earlier that I never said/typed, so I bowed out of the convo. It was going nowhere for me.

[Charlie Page]

Sorry, Jennifer. I stopped posting because I was not getting the answers I was seeking and was tired of trying to get them in the midst of Jim attempting to push the entire thread into the direction he wanted it to go.

No offense, Jim, but you often drown out others with your agenda in these types of threads. Clearly, you want to address a larger conversation at hand here, but I do not want to contribute to that yet (as I said, until I got the actual story of what went on to precipitate this discussion). You already put words in my mouth earlier that I never said/typed, so I bowed out of the convo. It was going nowhere for me.

The perp was caught within a few minutes of the robbery. The program is being fixed. No one needs to know anything more. Carry on, nothing to see here. Move along. These are not the droids you’re looking for.

[Betsy Voinovich]

Hi Valerie,

I have friends with kids at Emerson, and elementary kids in Lakewood schools also. My question today, on Tuesday, the first day of March, after this "incident" happened, would be whether steps were taken yesterday to make sure that if there are two programs that are supposed to be running simultaneously, but separately, that this is actually the case.

I'm glad that it looks like the program is in the process of being put somewhere else, but my question as a mom is whether adults and children are on the schoolyard together? Are they in the halls of the school together, the lunchroom, the bathrooms, etc?

As I'm sure you and the other moms on here know, we have to be fingerprinted and given background checks to be in the schools with our own children, or to go on field trips. Only sanctioned adults are allowed near our kids. Maybe the adults in the Adult Education program aren't being viewed as "adults" but "students", but they are still adults.

I'm hoping that if some of the structures that kept the classes separate failed two weeks ago, that that has changed. Though I don't know how much separation there is if one program starts at 9 and the next one starts at 9:15. If you are truly wanting separate programs, a child coming to school late will run into all of the adults coming to school.

I know that I'm being repetitive, but this would be a matter of concern anyway, even if we didn't know that one of the adult students had committed a crime near the school. Socially, our elementary kids aren't expected to have to deal with adult students, like teenagers, or young people in their early twenties, or adults of any age except for their teachers.

So I guess I'm expecting that you guys who have kids at Emerson have talked to the principal, who I hear everyone feels is very good and who everyone likes, about how the school is being run today, right now. It would be good to hear what the results of those conversations were on the Deck. I'm assuming that what can be fixed, has been fixed, and will be monitored until the program moves (and after? I'm not sure how I would feel if I was an adult registering for the ABLE program, and I learned that one of the other students had left school and committed a crime outside school) though I don't know.

Another issue (and I know there are more-- like who is in these programs, and do they live in Lakewood, and did they come to Lakewood voluntarily to mention a few) we haven't delved into is why a decision was made in the first place to put these two programs into Emerson. At some point, the Board of Education, or some portion of the Board, and some portion of the Administration, had to have made the decision to rebuild Emerson in this manner. The Ohio School Facilities Commission works with the School District to determine which buildings are rebuilt and how they are used. If the Board didn't make the decision, they were supposed to have. If they didn't make the decision, who did? And why? Bill Trentel has said that the use of the building had already been determined before his committee got to work on it, so who made those early decisions and why?

Sometimes with a thread like this, it seems like everybody takes a breath before coming back on. If Jim O attempts to steer threads, so can anybody else. Jim isn't the School board, the District Administration, the Police, or the City. In this situation, they are the only ones who can provide authoritative answers. Jim also isn't the the arbiter of how information is disseminated on the Deck; we are. Though he is one of the founders of the Observer project, in this context, he is just one of us. He is a noisy and demanding one for sure, but there are several noisy and demanding people here and I've appreciated the courage and knowledge and different perspectives of every one of them, as I've tried to learn more about Lakewood, and how to best bring my family up here.

I've been pretty amazed at how everyone in their different ways has tried to figure this situation out, contribute and make it better. I think this thread is only beginning-- and maybe it will have to eventually be split into more threads, there are several very important topics going on here.

Betsy Voinovich

[Bill Call]

My question should be, at what point does it change the complete
feel of the city? 5%, 10%, 25% 50%? And at what point do we start to drive out or
alienate those paying taxes? At what point do we start to drive down property values?
I am not talking of White Flight, that is simply stupid fear. What I am talking about is
the financial collapse of the city. What I am talking about is making it easy or even
desirable for criminal activities here?

The people of Lakewood have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build and maintain schools, libraries and infrastructure all in the hope of preserving and improving one of Ohio's finest cities. All of that effort is being undone by public agencies and institutions that view this City as a great place to relocate someone elses problems.

The people of Lakewood have spent hundreds millions more to pay people to work in the schools, to work in the libraries and to maintain and protect that infrastructure. All of that effort is being undone by government policy specifically designed to slaughter cities.

Even though the deck is stacked against us I think there is still hope. But there won't be much hope much longer if we join in on the destruction.

For over a two years parents have been complaining about the decision to house adult education programs in an elementary school. All but one member of the board was indifferent to their concerns.

Why do the powers that be think:

a Lakewood elementary school is the place for that type of program but that Lakewood is not the place for a Tri-C campus?

that we should accept the conversion of apartments into halfway houses?

That we should accept MHS' homeless resettlement program?

Look, I'm not bothered by people who are poorer than I am or who need housing assistance or need food or medical care. I'm not even bothered by that seedy unkempt looking guy at Drug Mart (Disclosure: sometimes that guy is me) A lot of people need that help and I'm glad the people of Lakewood offer that help.

But:

This City cannot be the the regions refugee camp.
This City cannot be the regions way station

How many people have thought to themselves, I'm not going to be the City's last taxpayer?

It's time for someone in a position of leadership to say it out loud. Enough Already!!

[Jim O'Bryan]

All but one member of the board was indifferent to their concerns.

That would be two members.

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[jennifer scott]

And to that Bill, I say Amen!

Betsy,...Very good post, you hit the nail on the head with several of your comments. Nicely done.

[Mike Zannoni]

FWIW, I took part in the evening registration sessions yesterday and today, and will be ongoing, for Tues and Thurs night sessions, as a volunteer tutor of sorts. The participants were very serious, atmosphere most like a library, so far. Very quite, as people are learning using materials geared toward their individually assessed levels, and there are all levels of ability and learning happening simultaneously. Very few conversations going on at all, except for the facilitator with different individuals over a three hour period.

About 65% white, 35% black, no Hispanic, I'm guessing. Ages from "looking like you still should be in high school" to old people, with most looking middle aged. Socioeconomically, I'd say more Clevelandy than Rocky Rivery, as would be easily expected. Nothing gangy though, that I could see. Maybe one guy: white dude looking pretty urban, with the black nylon du rag and too-big sports jacket. But he was sitting quietly reading the whole time. Have no idea how many live in Lakewood, but many could be. Not too far different from being at Marc’s.

I don't know how it is in the day, but participants enter through a door common with the rest of the school (two different buzzers I noticed), but go directly down a half flight of stairs to an area exclusive to the programs (ABLE/GED and ESOL). There is a unisex bathroom exclusive to this area. It has its own snack table, self-sustaining by honor payment of 60 cents into a box for anything (pop or snacks).

There is no way out of this area into the rest of the school, except back up the stairs and then around to the main entrance, where there sits a guard, who was there for the whole time. (Again, not sure of the daytime proceedings).

Even at night (when you might expect some "sneak" smokers), everybody seemed to respect the rule: no smoking on school property, even in your car, even on the sidewalks on the far perimeter of the property. I saw a few light up while their cars were in motion leaving the parking lot afterwards. (But I was one of them.)

There may well be a different clique and overall rhythm there in the day. If the Lutheran youth re-entry contingent was present around me, I couldn't tell. It may well be they are part of the day sessions, which are Mon through Thurs 9:15 - 12:15.

Talk of moving is already circulating, March 24 or some time just prior, based on things said at this orientation. The facilitator doesn't seem to mind, said they've moved 4 or 5 times in 7 years.

I'm curious about the day situation, for here, and for wherever it moves.

[Mike Zannoni]

Sorry, I just realized there is no immediate context to the last post of mine: it is about the ABLE (Adult Basic & Literacy Education) program currently at Emerson, soon to be elsewhere. I've spent about 6 hours over two evenings there, and some of my observations are in my previous post.

[Meg Ostrowski]

Mike,

Thanks for sharing your experience and observations here. It sorts many of the assumptions and rumors from the facts. It is also encouraging to know so many adults are committed to advancing their education at this level.

Matt Markling, School Board President, addressed the Lakewood Council PTA last night and confirmed that the administration is gathering information so that the BOE can make thoughtful decisions regarding the future of this program in Lakewood.

Meg