Special NAACP Branch Meeting (open to the community) Topic: Appointment of David Jennings as School Superintendent Date: Thursday, October 2, 2004 Time: 6:30 PM Place: Zion Baptist Church - Elwood Ave (1 block east of Logan Ave), just north of Olson Highway on western side of the street
It is very likely that the NAACP branch will also have a special meeting to discuss what is happening with the Hollman Consent Decree before October 17, 2003. STRIB EDITORIALIZING / REPORTAGE (JENNINGS & GALLMON) STRIB EDITORIAL "Jennings comes to the superintendency believing that the course set by Johnson is the right one for producing lasting improvement in student performance. In that sense, he represents stability. But he is also capable of challenging sacred cows, including the teachers' union, in order to more effectively produce results." Unfortunately we got about the same results under Johnson that we got with the Superintendent she replaced, Peter Hutchinson: Falling graduation rates and a widening academic achievement gap. The rate at which students entering 9th grade graduate from High School dropped from over 50% to 46%. The district's claims of progress in "closing the gap" and boosting student achievement are fraudulent. The district is cooking its data. The district is measuring the progress of "continuously enrolled" students. In year-to-year comparisons of districtwide test scores, the scores of newcomers are NOT added in and the scores of the dropouts / pushouts that are included one year are dropped the following year. I first note this method of cooking the books in a report at a November 1998 school board meeting and the 1998 better schools report card (dated Jan. 1999) Remember, the board predicted that its recently introduced attendance policy would contribute to falling graduation rates and falling enrollment (which would contribute to its financial troubles). The board was right. Predictably, a large majority of the students pushed out of school with this policy happen to be students who get low scores on the standardized academic aptitude (NALT) and curriculum content (Basic Standards) tests. That helps to raise the test score averages and "close the gap" on paper because the district is making year to year comparisons of different sets of students as described above. We need a superintendent search process that includes hearing for public input and open board meetings without hidden agendas. Above all, the process needs to focus on what the district needs to do in order to close the gap, and how that's going to be done before serious consideration is given to who should lead the district. RESIGNATION OF GALLMON AS NAACP BRANCH PRESIDENT The "news story" on Gallmon reads like an opinion piece by Gallmon as told to Terry Collins. You only get Gallmon's side of the story. The problem with the Gallmon administration wasn't so much a problem with Gallmon as it was with the regime that put him in office and that now needs him to step down. Here's my Top 3 reasons that Gallmon couldn't unite the branch and get things done. 1. The branch executive committee generally operated outside of the constitution and bylaws of the NAACP. Rank-and-file members were not allowed to attend executive committee meetings as observers. Minutes of the branch executive committee were not made available to the general membership. The executive committee did not seek endorsement of policy decisions from the branch membership. Gallmon, the chair, ruled motions from the floor "out of order" as a tactic to prevent anything from being decided at the branch meetings. When those rulings were overturned by a 2 / 3 majority (per the by-laws and Roberts Rules of Order), and the "out of order" motions were passed, Gallmon and the executive committee simply ignored the decisions of the branch, e.g., the decision to back out of the deal to open "NAACP" Parent Information Centers on June 28, 2003. The branch president received authorization from the NAACP national office to open the centers in a letter dated June 30, 2003, subject to conditions that the local branch executive committee has also ignored, including endorsement by the branch of a hiring policy (not going to happen anyway). Membership meetings disrupted and broken up by members and supporters of the executive committee on various pretexts, the latest and most outrageous one being a false complaint to the police (by Gallmon or by an Urban League employee on behalf of Gallmon) resulting in the threatened arrest of branch members attending last Saturday's branch meeting and the actual arrest and beating of one branch member. That's all got to change immediately. 2. Members not allowed to join committees. Committees not formed in critical areas such as education advocacy and housing (advocacy). It is especially important to have education and housing committees up and running because the branch has settled lawsuits that resolve on paper but not in reality the problem of colored people generally not getting access to education and housing on the same basis as whites. That's got to change immediately. 3. The Minneapolis branch is run by people who turned the branch into one of the NAACP's most productive cash cows. The NAACP leadership is pleasing wealthy folk and corporations and sometimes extorting money from them. The NAACP has been "letting shit happen" in Minneapolis because the local leadership is doing such a good job of pleasing liberal donors. Settlements of the Hollman and Educational adequacy lawsuits were precedent setting, policy-setting legal agreements that really hamper the ability of NAACP branches to fight for better access to education and housing. That's got to change immediately. -Doug Mann, King Field REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
