By John R. Butcher
a/k/a CrankyOctober 9, 2017
The September 28 agenda for the Board of “Education” included the “Annual Progress Report on Memoranda of Understanding as Required for Divisions under Division-level Review for Franklin City Public Schools, Petersburg City Public Schools and Richmond City Public Schools”
As to Richmond, the Report mentioned quarterly meetings in 2014-16, followed by a list and table that tell us:
We have seen that the Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) is a wordy edict under which VDOE will (unlawfully) run the Richmond schools. Given that VBOE has demonstrated (and admitted) that it does not know how to fix failed urban schools (Sept. 21, 2016 video starting at 1:48), this has a considerable potential to further embarrass that Board but little potential to actually fix the Richmond schools. As well, the onsite review was a bureaucratic monstrosity in which only one of twenty-seven items even mentioned student achievement. The report continues:
[The three divisions] will participate in technical assistance sessions provided by the Office of School Improvement (OSI). The technical assistance for the 2017-2018 school year will focus on the implementation of essential actions identified as a part of continuous school improvement planning. Additionally, divisions with a division level memorandum of understanding and corrective action plan will have regular meetings with OSI staff, the support of an OSI contractor(s), and the opportunity to select from the OSI/VDOE Technical Assistance Menu. Additional differentiated support will be provided as needs are identified through the continued implementation of the corrective action plans. Divisions that did not make progress toward full accreditation may have additional meetings with the Office of School Improvement in order to determine appropriate next steps. In short, they haven’t done anything useful but they’re going to have technical assistance sessions.
They also would hold meetings with Richmond and provide contractor support if Richmond had the prerequisite corrective action plan. But it doesn’t (a full year into the process), so there’s no telling what will happen with Richmond.
Your tax dollars at “work.”
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