Tulsa School Board Almost Redeemed Themselves
Lisa and I attended last night's meeting of the Tulsa Public School Board of Education, along with 300 of our best friends. The room was packed, and so was the overflow room watching on closed circuit television.
Here is a link to the Tulsa World story. Here is a link to the video from the news.
The board listened to many people, all in support of keeping Bunche Early Childhood Development Center open. Some were volunteers. Some were business people. Others were alumni, whose children now attend the school. One man owns an insurance agency, and estimates that in the past ten years, his firm has given the equivalent of about $300,000 to the school, and tens of thousands of man-hours by sending their employees there to volunteer. One lady took it upon herself to build a website which would allow supporters to publicly comment on the Bunche issue. She collected hundreds of comments, and emailed them to school board members. According to her, not on email she sent to board members was ever opened and read.
Some who were in attendance tried to turn it into a racial issue, which troubled me. Bunche is in a predominantly black neighborhood, but I don't see the closing as racially motivated. But then, I'm a white guy. I just think that this superintendent thought no one would care about a bunch (sorry) of four year olds on the north side. He was wrong.
Dr. Zolkoski, pictured above, said that he was unmoved by all the speeches and pleas made by these supporters of the school. How do you like that? We pay his salary, and he does not feel inclined to listen to us. The above picture is kind to him—mostly he sat with his head down, as if he could not hear a word anyone was saying.
The school board, however, was a different story. At least two of the board members (Oma Copeland and Lana Turner-Addison) stated emphatically for the record that they believed it would be a mistake to close Bunche. One other, Matt Livingood, hinted at the same, but I couldn't tell how his vote would end up, from his comments. The board's vice president, Ruth Ann-Fate seemed irritated at the support shown to the school. The other members didn't say anything.
Ultimately, when one board member withdrew her second on the motion, the board asked counsel if they could split the motion into separate parts, and vote on the Bunche issue on its own. He agreed, so Ruth Ann-Fate made a motion to close Bunche. When there was not a second to the motion, it died without taking a vote. This was when all those Baptist Church business meetings came in handy—most people in the crowd did not know what had happened, but I did. I was surprised—I really thought the board was going to vote to close. In the end, they did not. Good for them.
But before you break out the party hats, hold on. Because there was not a vote, this issue can be brought back before the board. And we know it will, because Ms. Ann-Fate snapped at another board member (she did not realize her microphone was live), "Yes, Dr. Z plans to bring it back."
Ruth "I can't hear you" Ann-FateI'm going to make a suggestion to Dr. Zolkoski and Ms. Ann-Fate. Buy some hearing aids. You weren't listening. You have a program in place that is the envy of school districts across the nation. It is studied by universities like Georgetown, as a model for how to do early childhood education right. And your parents, your constituents, the people who pay your salary, want you to keep it. So next time, do what you were taught to do when you were in an early childhood education program: look up, pay attention, act respectful, and LISTEN.
And by the way, we will be at the next board meeting too.
Would it not be better to insist that each and every 4 year old center in the TPS district is of the quality of Bunche?
Reply to this
Indeed, Shadow6, it would be great if all the 4 year old programs in the district were of the same quality as Bunche. However, it is purely nonsensical to attempt to improve all the other 4 year old programs in the district by closing down what is arguably the strongest program in the state of Oklahoma, if not in the region.
This isn't about improving anything. It is about politics, and power trips. Maybe you saw the quote in a recent edition of Tulsa People magazine, where the president of the school board said that at the end of the day, people will see that we are right. How arrogant. And it is his arrogance, along with a couple of other key members of the board, and the lapdog they hired to run the system, that will end up hurting students instead of helping them.
What a shame that they would rather fulfill an agenda than to do what the voters of the district hired them to do.
Yes, let's improve four year old programs across the district, but not by closing down such a successful program.
Thanks for your comment.
Reply to this