And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >From: "Gary Glenn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: FLINT JOURNAL -- Profile of Lily Tomez Kehoe >Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 10:52:20 -0500 > >This profile of Flint (Michigan) School Board member Lily Tomez Kehoe was >published in Sunday's newspaper. > >This Wednesday evening, because of her support for a new charter school for >Latino and Native American children, Trustee Kehoe is expected to face calls >for her resignation by the president of the local teachers union (a matter >of rank hypocrisy, since roughly a third of the union's membership is >estimated to have placed their own children in a private or charter school). > >Your support for Lily Tomez Kehoe, in one form or another, is deeply >appreciated. (For example, if you simply reply to this e-mail with a >statement of support for Lily - either personally or on behalf of your >organization - I will forward it to her as a means of encouragement.) Thank >you! > >(Click on the link at the end of the story below to see the story as it >appears on the Flint Journal's website. On that website, there is a link by >which you can send a letter-to-the-editor if you wish. Thanks again.) > >GARY GLENN >President >School Choice YES! >517-839-4500 >517-839-4506 (fax) >www.SchoolChoiceYES.org >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > >THE FLINT JOURNAL >Flint, Michigan >January 17, 1998 > > >LIFE TESTED: School board member's >public fight can't compare to private battles > >Sunday, January 17, 1999 > >By Dave Murray >JOURNAL EDUCATION WRITER > >Flint - Lily Tamez Kehoe probably will find the room more than a little >chilly when she attends a Board of Education meeting this week. > >Kehoe has supported a proposed charter school for Hispanics and American >Indians - a move that has outraged colleagues, divided the Hispanic >community and drawn offers of help from national organizations. > >Board members - who say that the proposed school could drain between $3 >million and $7 million from the district - have demanded her resignation. > >Kehoe, 50, appears unfazed. > >"This is peanuts," she said. "So some guy is trying to force me off a board. >Big deal. I've endured far, far worse." > >She has lived through a challenging childhood as a migrant worker and >survived a marital breakup that forced her to pack up her two kids and start >all over in a new city. > >But Kehoe said it was a 1986 battle with cancer that changed her life, >giving her focus and a big promise to keep. > >"I had nothing - no money, no real home and I didn't even have my health," >she said. > >"I reached out to the Lord. I said, 'Do with me what you want. But please, >please give me three or four years to see that my children are old enough to >be on their own. In return, I will give whatever is left of my life to >helping others.' " > >Aside from her position on the school board, she has been the director of >the Spanish Speaking Information Center - a clearing house for educational, >social and health programs aimed at Hispanics - since 1994 and has been >president of the Greater East Side Community Association for two years. > >Kehoe's support of the proposed school angered Flint school board members, >district administrators, teachers union leaders and some Hispanics not only >because of the financial threat: Some see an ethnic school as a means of >further segregating the community. >It also could destroy the Flint School District's bilingual program, which >employs a number of Hispanics. > >Critics, especially those on the school board, said Kehoe comes on too >strong and will have trouble pushing her causes if she is constantly butting >heads with other members. > >"She seems to be kind of a renegade," board Treasurer Joan E. Evans said. >"Team work is not one of Lily's strong points. She might do better in a >situation like a charter school, where she can be the boss and not have to >work with anybody else." > >Attacks on Kehoe have drawn fire from state and national groups such as >Midland's School Choice YES! and the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for >Justice, a public interest law firm that advocates school choice and other >personal freedoms. Leaders of those groups said they are as impressed with >Kehoe's resolve as they are angered by her attackers. > >"The public education bureaucracy bullies have picked on the wrong lady this >time," said Gary Glenn, president of School Choice YES!, a group that >advocates educational choices for parents. > >Friends say Kehoe is tireless and uncompromising - and blunt - as she >fulfills her pledge. > >"What always amazes me about Lily is her ability to come out and speak her >mind," said Aurora Sauceda, who was chairwoman of the Spanish Speaking >Information Center board in 1997. "If she believes in something, she won't >back down." > >Migrant child >Kehoe's parents were the children of Mexican immigrants who migrated to >Michigan each summer to pick crops. > >Her father, Macedonio Tamez, worked for Heinz and later managed two camps >for migrant workers, making sure that they had food, a place to live and >other services. Kehoe - the oldest child - and her four brothers worked in >the fields with their mother, Guadalupe. >Her parents never finished school because they frequently moved. >Kehoe herself missed the start and end of every school year, but she said >she always loved learning and reading. > >Kehoe said the family was poor, but the children did not realize it. > >"There was always a lot of love and togetherness, and this helped me," she >said. "As I got older, I gradually realized that other kids had more >material possessions, but they didn't have the closeness that we had. Now I >think of those other students as being deprived." >Macedonio Tamez died in 1981, but the rest of the family remains close. >Everyone gathered at Guadalupe Tamez's home in La Villa, Texas, during the >holidays. > >Kehoe said she married a dentist in Texas and had two children, living "what >I consider to be high on the hog." But the marriage went sour. Kehoe said >that in 1986, she packed up her then-high-school-age children, Robin and >Andrea, and brought them north. > >"I just needed to get away and I didn't really know any other place," she >said. "Some of my best summers were in Michigan and I had a cousin in Flint. >We were going to stay two weeks. But at the end of the two weeks, my >children said, 'Why don't we stay here?' " > >Kehoe's cousin offered her a place to live and a job as a hostess in her >restaurant to help the family get settled in the area. > >Cancer scare >That December, Kehoe said, she was not feeling well and suspected something >was wrong. She was diagnosed with cancer in the lymph nodes of her left >breast. > >Kehoe said the prognosis was poor. After a mastectomy, she worried that >traditional treatments involving radiation and chemotherapy would do more >harm than good. > >Her brother, Gilbert Tamez, a police officer in Miami, learned about an >experimental treatment practiced in the Bahamas by a doctor from New York. > >"Gilbert said to me, 'Lily, do you want to do this?' I found out what it >cost and told him that my insurance would never pay for out-of-the country, >nontraditional treatment," she said. > >"But he said, 'Lily, I didn't ask you if you could afford it. I asked you if >you wanted to do this,' and he put a second mortgage on his house to make it >happen." > >Tamez said he believes that Kehoe, who then weighed less than 100 pounds, >had given up and was ready to die. > >"She had already made up her mind, but I panicked," he said. "I could not >accept what she had accepted. I was not going to let my sister die." > >Tamez said he investigated the doctor and the treatments as best he could, >then begged the doctor to examine his sister. > >The treatment included frequent blood transfusions and serums injected over >12 weeks, then additional treatments every six months. >Kehoe said the treatment marked a turning point. > >"I asked for three years - I got more than I bargained for," she said. >Building a new life > >During her recovery, Kehoe said, she was too weak to work and lived on >Social Security benefits of $400 a month. > >She said she realized that she would need more schooling to be successful >and enrolled in part-time classes at Mott Community College. > >As her strength returned, she was able to work up to a full-time schedule. >She eventually transferred to the University of Michigan-Flint, earning >bachelor's degrees in foreign language and social sciences. > >Working in a cinnamon roll bakery until graduation, Kehoe was hired at the >Spanish Speaking Information Center as summer youth coordinator in 1992, a >move that she hoped would help her fulfill her pledge to assist others. In >1994, she was named the agency's executive director. > >The agency has offered translation and health services, food and shelter >assistance and employment training since 1970. It serves the 4,520 Hispanics >in Flint and 10,895 in Genesee County, according to 1998 population >projections by Claritas, a national research firm. Like Kehoe, most local >Hispanics are the descendants of migrant workers. >Kate Fields, a member of the agency's board of directors, said Kehoe >revitalized the program. > >"Lily's word is gold," Fields said. "She took an organization with probably >$50 in the bank and had lost its United Way rating and turned it around." > >Fields said one of the center's largest successes is a diabetes program. >Kehoe, who loves to cook, translated a cookbook for diabetics into Spanish >as part of a statewide program. > >The center also offers health screening, referrals and provides information >about the disease, which strikes Hispanics at a disproportionately high >rate. > >Fields also works with Kehoe on the Greater East Side Community Association, >a group aimed at improving living conditions in eastern Flint. Among its >projects is a partnership with Hurley Medical Center and land-use >assessments to guide demolition projects. > >School board bid >Through her work at the Spanish Speaking Information Center, Kehoe said she >saw many young people struggling in school and dropping out, a move that she >knew would make it difficult for them to find good jobs. > >In July 1995, she saw that the school board was going to appoint someone to >fill a vacancy. She said she thought that Hispanics were under-represented >on the board and believed that she could help. > >"I can really relate to what these children today are going through," she >said. "For many Hispanics, they might want their children to do well in >school, but they have no formal education themselves. They can't understand >what it's like for the children." > >Board members instead appointed William A. Tipper, a black male and retired >community school director. After the vote, one board member angered many >Latin-Americans by saying that African-Americans on the board could >adequately represent Hispanics. > >The appointment and the remark drew protests from leaders in the Hispanic >community, and the cries grew louder later in the year when the board had to >fill another vacancy. Members selected Vincent Lewis, a black male, over >Kehoe and Ralph Arellano, a retired Flint teacher and university professor >who is Hispanic. > >Kehoe vowed to take her case to the voters and ran in the 1997 election, one >of six candidates chasing three seats. Saying that she would represent all >children, not just Hispanics, Kehoe collected the second-highest vote total, >bouncing Lewis, who finished fourth. > >On a school board in which virtually all decisions were unanimous, Kehoe is >often the lone dissenter. > >At her first meeting, she voted against electing Pamela Y. Loving - the >board's most visible leader - as vice president and against re-electing >Bobbie Ann Wells as secretary. > >This year, Kehoe voted against re-appointing Lewis to the board, accusing >members of backing away from a pledge to consider diversity when filling >seats. The board worked out the plan with Hispanic leaders after the 1996 >appointments. > >She also has criticized the sale of the district's radio station - "We got >taken!" she said - after members learned that the buyers did not create >scholarships and internships, as the contract required. > >Evans, who was president during the first year of Kehoe's term, said Kehoe >got off to a rocky start with her colleagues and the situation has not >improved. > >Evans said Kehoe needs to sit back and learn how the system works and >recognize what the board and administration has accomplished. > >"She never gave us a chance and doesn't give us credit," Evans said. "Lily >has to take the time and see the things we've already done. But she wants to >jump in and do things. We're trying to be a policy-making board, and she >wants to be a hands-on person." > >Charter involvement >This fall, Kehoe was approached by a group of east side activists working >with a Boston-based school management company to open Flint Advantage >Academy. Catherine Davids, one of the proposed charter school's directors, >said that given the school's targeted enrollment of Hispanics and American >Indians, it was natural to ask for support from the head of the Spanish >Speaking Information Center. > >Charter schools are independent public schools that cannot charge tuition. >Flint administrators and board members said Flint Advantage Academy would >pull students from city schools and hurt programs by costing the district >millions in state aid. > >In a letter to the media and board members, school board President Randall >G. Talifarro said Kehoe's support of the proposed school displays an "utter >disregard" for her duties and she should no longer serve on the board. > >The leader of the district's teachers union, George Wingfield backs >Talifarro, saying that he probably will call for Kehoe's resignation at >Wednesday's meeting. > >Evans said Kehoe's support of the charter school was "like a slap in the >face." > >"She never once came to us and said the bilingual program is not meeting the >needs of the Hispanics," Evans said. "If Lily had come to us over a period >of time saying there was problems, then it would be different." > >Talifarro's request for Kehoe's resignation caught the attention of The >Institute for Justice, which recently claimed a victory when the U.S. >Supreme Court let stand a school choice case argued by the group in >Wisconsin. > >"Any action taken by that board to punish Mrs. Kehoe for her interest in a >charter school, we would view as troublesome and will be prepared to act on >her behalf," said Clint Bolick, vice president and litigation director. > >"This is very typical of the tactics practiced by the educational >establishment when someone speaks their mind on a topic such as charter >schools. They'd rather suppress the debate than let the facts get out." > >Hispanic reaction >Kehoe's involvement has also angered some in the Hispanic community, >especially those loyal to the district's bilingual program, said Lee >Gonzalez, chairman of the Hispanic Caucus of Genesee County. > >"I like her as a person," he said. > >"In fact, she's pretty charming as an individual. She works hard. But there >are a lot of people who think she painted a very pessimistic view of >Hispanics in the area. She could have spoken about the many successes of >Hispanics, who are a valuable part of the country." > >Gonzalez said that while caucus members oppose Kehoe's support of a separate >school for Hispanics, they are angry at the way the rest of the school board >has treated her. > >"That board needs to be more tolerant of people who have opposing views," he >said. "What they did to Lily - in a football game, you'd call that piling >on." > >The caucus's vice president, David Solis, said he questions many of the >statistics included in the proposed charter school's application, such as a >65 percent national dropout rate for Hispanics and American Indian students. > >Solis, who is also assistant principal in Flint's Whittier Middle School, >said his goal is to promote the district's bilingual program rather than >attack the proposed charter school. > >He said the local dropout rate for Hispanics is about 9 percent. >Solis said many in the Hispanic community are pleased with the bilingual >program, which is offered in Washington Elementary School, Whittier and >Central High School. > >"I don't know if Lily is aware of the history of the bilingual program, that >the people who started the Spanish Speaking Information Center were among >the people who created the bilingual program in the Flint schools," he said. >"She's still new to the area and maybe she didn't know these things." > >Solis also serves on the Spanish Speaking Information Center board, and said >board members were not aware that Kehoe had sent the support letter for the >proposed school. > >Kehoe said she does not like to anger people, but she will endure the slings >if it helps others. > >"I try to take it one day at a time and follow God's lead," she said. "In >the end, it will be rewarding. There will be gratification from the job if >we can get it done." > >Gilbert Tamez said family members were a little worried when they heard >about the controversy. But he is confident that she will come out on top. > >"My prediction is that Lily will make her stand and eventually the people >around her will start to wonder where they went wrong," he said. "They'll >look back at Lily and see she's standing right where she started. > >"That's just the way it's always been with her." > > >Dave Murray covers education. He can be reached at (810) 766-6383 or by >e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > http://fl.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/lilyke$01.frm > > > <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-=>>>> If you think you are too small to make a difference; try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.... African Proverb <<<<=-=http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ =-=>>>> IF it says: "PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW...." 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