ROEA Reporter

Executive Board

Sidney Kardon
   President
Marcia Rauschendorfer
   Executive Vice-President     
Christine Baer
   Program Vice-President
Jennifer Jump
   Secretary
Beth Morrison
   Treasurer
Barbara Pollis
   Middle School Director
Pat Hein
   Elementary Director
Vince Caruso
   High School Director
Betty Ong
   NEA Third World Delegate,
Tracy Crawley
   MEA Delegate
Kara Daunt
   MEA Delegate
Stuart Asch
   NEA Delegate
Nila Wilson
   NEA Third World Delegate
Betty Ann Garlak
   PAC Chairperson

Uniserv Director
   Paul Chambers

March - April, 2005

SUPPORT HARTWIG AND McLOGAN

We are in the fight of our professional lives and need to do everything we can to insure the re-election of School Board president Kevin McLogan and treasurer Christine Hartwig. Kevin and Chris support the renewal of the District’s hold harmless millage which needs to be approved by voters next year. The hold harmless millage is the basic financial foundation of our schools. Without it, we will lose approximately 25% of our operating budget necessitating about 100 teacher lay-offs.  We have reason to believe that challengers Dale Savage and Carolyn Steele do not support the hold harmless millage, thereby threatening to undermine public education in Royal Oak. Although Savage told our Screening and Recommendation Committee that he supports the hold harmless millage, it is difficult to accept his statement given his membership in an organization known as Save Our Schools. SOS is a small fringe group which includes board members Frank Tyndell and Debra Wright. SOS is an anti-tax group, not a group that is interested in the welfare of public schools. This means that they are primarily interested in saving taxpayer dollars at the expense of public school students. SOS members such as Mr. Tyndell have talked about not approving the hold harmless millage. The reason? My speculation is that it is nothing more than an excuse for avoiding the civic and moral responsibility of contributing to the welfare of others—in this case, public school students. Mr. Tyndell supports Dale Savage, making it hard to believe that SOS member Savage will not support Mr. Tyndell’s and SOS’s destructive goal of not renewing the hold harmless mills.

Currently, all citizens pay a state assessed minimum of 6 mills for public schools. Communities which pay the 6 mill rate receive the basic state foundation allowance of $6700 per pupil. When Proposal A came into effect, some districts, including Royal Oak, opted to assess a higher millage rate in order to maintain a higher level of support for students. Royal Oak residents are paying approximately 9.6 mills for schools. As a result, the Royal Oak per pupil foundation allowance is $8,851. The assessed

mills would remain the same after renewing the hold harmless. If the hold harmless millage is thwarted by the School Board (keeping in mind that if Savage and Steele win the election four Board members will belong to SOS) our foundation allowance will be reduced to approximately $6,000. This will make us the lowest funded district in the state. The importance of this election for us and our students can not be overstated. First, there will be massive teacher lay-offs. Next, the SOS School Board would attempt to drastically cut wages (most recently advocated by Mr. Tyndell at the March 22^nd Board budget hearing when he compared our wages to wages in small rural Michigan districts) and eliminate our MESSA health insurance which has been publicly promoted by Dale Savage. The impact upon our students in terms of greatly expanded class sizes and a loss of music, art, foreign language, and sports—also publicly espoused by Dale Savage—would be devastating to a real education. As next year is the last year of our contract and a bargaining year, our fight for decent wages and benefits for ourselves and our families and quality educational programs for our students begins with this election.

Reporter Interviews Hartwig, McLogan

The ROEA endorses incumbent school board candidates Kevin McLogan and Christine Hartwig. Mr. McLogan and Ms. Hartwig have dedicated many years to serving Royal Oak public schools. They are strong supporters of quality instruction in a well maintained learning environment. Here are excerpts from a Reporter interview with Christine Hartwig and Kevin McLogan:

Interview with Christine Hartwig

What do you hope to achieve as a member of the school board?
I guess my motto would be, “Kids come first!” I want to focus on supporting children in the community by maintaining a strong instructional program in well maintained facilities. We need to continue to support a bond proposal. Our hold harmless millage also needs to be renewed, especially since it represents 25% of the district budget.

What about school closings?
It’s very difficult to deal with the closing of a neighborhood school. I know because my daughters attended Lockman and Churchill when they closed. My family found the experience to be very unsettling, but we managed to adjust and found new friends and learned that we could blend in to a new school family.

What positions have you held on the board? 
I’ve been on the school board since1997 and am finishing my second term. Last year I was president and currently I’m treasurer. I’ve also served as secretary.

Have you been involved in other school and community activities?
With my husband Jim I’ve been active in the PTA’s in each of my two daughters’ schools. My educational background is in environmental studies and I have served on the city Solid Waste Advisory Board since 1991. I do recycling presentations and run the city sponsored INFOLINE for recycling questions.

Interview with Kevin McLogan

What is your current position on the school board? 
I am currently serving as president. I’ve been a member of the school board for eight years. Previously, I held the positions of treasurer and vice president.

Have you been involved in other school district or community activities?
Yes, I enjoyed being active with the Starr PTA and served as president of that organization. Coaching soccer for the Royal Oak Soccer Association was a lot of fun.

So, are you a parent of a Royal Oak student?
My two sons attended Starr, Churchill, and Kimball. My oldest boy is now a student at Wayne State University and my younger son is attending Northern Michigan University.

FAILING DISTRICTS

The following editorial was published in the Daily Tribune as a response to a news article about failing districts in Oakland County-ed.

Dear Editor:

In addition to Hazel Park and Oak Park failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress under the No Child Left Behind Act as reported recently by Christy Strawser, two other Oakland County districts, Walled Lake and Waterford, also failed to make AYP. These districts have a higher per pupil state foundation allowance, but the cause of failing to make AYP was largely the same. Two subgroups, special education students and English as a Second Language students, failed to meet MEAP standards causing the districts to be labeled as failing. The label misrepresents the districts and their students. Regular education students are misrepresented as they didn’t fail anything; they passed the MEAP. Special education students are misrepresented because the definition of a educational disability is that the student is unable to perform at the same levels as the non disabled; it’s the reason that students are considered handicapped in the first place. The ESL students are misrepresented because the test is predicated on knowing the English language. Being a non native speaker and not knowing English at a proficient level is the requirement for being labeled ESL with the understanding that ESL students are not prepared to perform at the level of others due to this language barrier. If either group was able to perform to the standards of the regular education population, there would be no need for their designation as special student populations. But they can’t do as well as others and it is terrifically unfair to ignore their educational handicap as NCLB does by holding them to the exact same standards as regular education students who do not have handicaps or environmental barriers to learning. Worse, qualifying for special education or ESL services will eventually become a statistical analysis of how to minimize the effects of the students’ failing MEAP scores upon the district as a whole. Will the impact be less profound if the student is part of the general population and their failing MEAP score is averaged in with the regular education population or will it be better to certify the student as qualifying for special education or ESL services and confine their scores to their subgroup? This thinking ignores the real educational needs of students in order to serve the statistical needs of the district in order to avoid failure as defined by NCLB.

NCLB was designed to insidiously drain public schools of financial and popular support with the goal of diverting public tax money to the private sector. It abuses special education students, ESL students, and will eventually abuse all students as is the case in the so-called failing districts in Oakland County in its zeal to accomplish that end. This is not a financial issue in the sense that schools need more money to prepare special education and ESL students to pass tests such as the MEAP; this is an issue of honesty in interpreting what such tests mean for the student and the school. NCLB needs to be rethought and repealed. A coalition of parents, teachers, administrators in failing and passing districts, and school board members need to petition their representatives and demand fairness for our students and schools. In our case, we need to start with a phone call to Congressman Sander Levin at 202/225-4961. Let the ROEA know if you call, we want to work with you to stop the attack on our special education students, English as a Second Language students, and the integrity of our public schools.

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