By Antonio D. French
Filed Wednesday, February 22 at 8:02 AM
But the truth is different for people who have actually been paying attention to the district's moves from a view other than an office fax machine waiting for press release after press release from the district's New York-based PR machine.
Dr. John Patrick Mahoney, who served on the board from 1983 to 2001, recently wrote in an open letter to the community that Dr. Williams should be congratulated and commended. Not necessarily for much imagination, but for doing what hundreds of people have been asking for for the last three years -- to reverse many of the decisions made by the school board majority and the turn-around firm they hired.
Mahoney reminded the media that the school uniform policy that the district was scrambling last week to make clear was voluntary was actually established back in 1994.
So-called alternative schools, like King Tri A in north St. Louis, were closed by the board majority not long ago, but will now be reinstated.
Williams' 9th grade academies are no different than those created at Beaumont, Northwest and Roosevelt in years past, said Mahoney. And in-school suspension centers, first established in the mid-70's, too were discontinued by the board only to be reinstated now by Williams.
"The highly successful [Missouri School Improvement Program] office started by superintendent Dr. Cleveland Hammonds, Jr. and administered by Dr. Charlene Jones" is also making a comeback, said Mahoney.
For many people, it seems that the board was told by one superintendent, Robert Roberti, that the district was spending too much money and needed to make cuts -- even at the cost of educating kids. But after a 20-point drop in areas judged by the state for accredidation, the new superintendent has said that we need to educate our city's children at all costs.
In an election year, the board majority appears to agree. "We need to support the superintendent," said board members Jim Buford and Darnetta Clinkscale at a recent candidate forum. It appears that they truly believe that, even if two superintendents are telling them completely opposite things.
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