I thought it would be interesting to collect and analyze some data concerning how our cyber community feels about the most important issues facing the Michigan City community:

• the schools
• north end development
• economic development
• crime
• taxes
• leadership
• and others

So I'm starting with the School System/Chamber of Commerce's Strategic Plan.

I don't suppose you might have a link to the plan?

Its not giving me a good hyper link, so click here

http://www.mcas.k12.in.us/

Then click the "Stategic Plan" tab once you get to the MCAS page. You can view the summary and the full detailed plans in there.

BTW, I voted for the first option, but my problem is that any plan is only as good as the people executing it. Michael Harding has to be replaced, otherwise you could have the Marshall Plan, and it wouldn't work.

I looked at the plan, briefly. As long as I could without projectile vomiting, anyway. That thing is so full of MBA/Consultant-speak it makes my brain hurt.

Sorry, I can't vote on any of the offered options. Put in one that says "This is a bunch of crap written by morons" and I might go for it.

Allow me to quote it a bit...



The student writes his/her own learning plan? WTF? These are children, for crying out loud! They're supposed to be learning to read and write and do math, maybe throw in some history and general science, and make them computer literate by the time they graduate from high school. Do we really want children with little knowledge or life experience deciding these things for themselves? Children need to be led, they shouldn't be driving the bus.

And how the heck can they "focus" on four different things? However wrote this nonsense doesn't know what that word means, I believe.

And that's just the first step of the plan. It gets worse the futher into it I go.

direct link (warning: pdf file):

http://www.mcas.k12.in.us/documents/StrategicPlanTwo.pdf

You want a better plan? Here you go. Fire anyone at MCAS with an MBA, anyone who thought this plan was brilliant, use their salaries to hire more teachers to reduce classroom size, go back to teaching the 3 R's, and set up an alternate school to warehouse the students who are disciplinary problems.

I would say that you your choice would be "The Plan does not address many of the important issues facing our schools" plus "and it is a bunch of garbly-gook." Unfortunately, after creating a poll, the author is not able to modify it (as far as I can tell).

Now. put that in as an option and I'd vote for it!

If you need another option, let us know and Ang or I can add it.

I agree wholeheartedly with Dave on this issue. i was involved at Joy with the "Learning Plan" committee. The lack of respect and consideration for our children's abilities and the teachers own personal time. A 5-year old cannot write a personal learning plan, and a 10 or 11 year old is not old enough to know what to do with this either. Sure, it's supposed to get the parents more involved, but if they're working 2 jobs just to make ends meet and taking care of a family, they don't have the extra time.

Hmmmmm.....

I must apologize for some of the vitriol in my earlier comment. The points stand, but I probably could have been a bit more diplomatic about how I phrased that.

I don't have any kids of my own, but I think that those who are in charge of the education of our community's children owe everyone something better than a bunch of doublespeak nonsense. I bet they have this whole thing in a wonderful powerpoint presentation to impress the school board . (edited to add: yes, they do have it as a powerpoint presentation, but I can't open the ppt file. Ack!)

Didn't I see something in the paper the other day (or was it on here?) about how 75% of the high school graduates (graduates, mind you -- a substantial percentage don't graduate) from Michigan City do not go on to college? The reaction -- push academics harder, get some college placement counselors, something along those lines, so more of the kids can go on to college and get better jobs? Heck no, let's go with vocational training! Let's reduce expectations!

And this thing has 6 year olds writing lesson plans. I just see something fundamentally wrong with that.

This sort of thing just pushes my buttons. Sorry.

The whole concept of the Strategic plan was born as the result of some community meetings called for by the NAACP. The first couple were held at the Mount Zion Baptist Church on the East side. They were attended by several members of the School Admin. some city officials and a good size turnout from the community. They were called specifically to address racially different disciplinary issues at the high school. Black kids were treated and still are more severely than their white classmates. Michigan City and our leaders are very good at diverting attention from an issue rather than address the issue. The garble gook in the plan was a pretty good diversion. It also defies logic. Our school system has one of the highest spending per student in the state. With way to much of it never making it past the administration to the student. With such a high number of school administrators per student, why do we have the hard working taxpayers gathering after work to come up with an administrative plan to teach our kids? Should the highly paid professionals not be the one to come up with a strategic plan? Developing this plan the administration said they need community input, yet at the same time the school board restricted comment from the public at the board meetings. What are they really saying? Shut up and speak? or speak but shut up?

Speak and say what we want to hear seems to be the theme. Its why we need to sway the vote during the next election cycle. My first question to all candidates is going to be, will you vote to renew Michael Harding when his contract comes up for vote?

Ssider, why wait until the contract is up? Why not ask what they'll do to replace Harding now, and do a little damage control?

OMG!!! I just looked at the oxymoron called a Stregic Plan. I went through all the "update" pages and so far I don't see anything actually being done. The only one who appears to have made any progress is Herb Higgen for item VI. (BTW, I have always liked Herb) And what is item VII. Open exchange of info & ideas all about? "Open Exchange" my dyin' ass. There has been nothing but secrets, lies, and fluff coming from Admin. AND the school board.

MC is in SERIOUS trouble academically folks. I totally agree with JHeath and SSder on this. Well, Dave and Love..City too. The people need to DEMAND that Harding be replaced. The School Board is supposed to answer to them, not each other, or Michael Harding, or Marcia Volk, or that new SpinDoctor.

And please remember that the woman whose vote was critical in keeping Harding said that his satisfactory progress with respect to the SP was the major factor in keeping him. See what I mean: THE BOARD IS THE PROBLEM.

What about the other board members who voted to retain him? It wasn't Kathy Lee alone...

The kids will be the ones penalized the $250K it takes to buyout the remainder of his contract. It will come out of the education budget, which means the kids lose. I want him gone, but not at the expense of teachers and staff.

She was the only who claimed to be a friend of the teachers before casting her extention vote. That alone is going to draw a much more stern collective glare from the community. They all should have to answer for their votes though.

She was also considered a "safe" vote against Harding.

This whole post needed to be quoted because most people have forgotten the context of this issue. I had even forgotten the history behind the Strategic Plan. And a Strategic Plan is a good thing to have, but it has to address the most important and divisive issues in the community. Certainly one of those in Michigan City would have to be "race:" race relations in our city, the clash of cultures, the fear and mistrust on both sides, the prejudice and discrimination on both sides, and the ambivalence and doubt that people feel about addressing it. This is where the Strategic Plan is silent.

I even took part in working on one of the Action Plan groups (not the core group): Strategy V - creating Professional Learning Communities. Those three words are capitalized because it refers to a specific philosophy, and our strategy was narrowly defined to focus on that philosophy as it was presented in a couple of books. Without going into the details, it involves teachers working together more as a team and breaking down the individual classroom fortresses. One member of our group tried in vain to address those fundamental questions of "race" within the context of our Strategy, but even I had a hard time seeing how it fit in a meaningful way into our specific assignment. After a couple of meetings, she stopped attending. I was wrong, especially since it did not seem to be addressed anywhere else in the plan. We should have taken the opportunity to have done so.

Leadership is another issue, but many of you have noted how crucial it is to making any Strategic Plan actually work. How can a General conduct any kind of campaign if 90% of his soldiers do not even trust him? For such an endeavor to suceed, those teachers working in the trenches must believe in their Superintendent. If only 50% of our teachers had confidence in our Superintendent, the job would still be very difficult. At 10%, it is impossible.

From the inside folks:

The plan is another hyperbolic attempt to look and sound like something productive is happening, without ever really DOING or ACCOMPLISHING something productive. This is another collassal, wordy, paper-pushing, busywork making endeavor that will< i guarantee you, end up in a file cabinet five years from now. The "personal learning plans" that each student is suppose to "steer on their own" has no shape at this point - they've corralled a small sub committee of teachers and told them "figure out how this is going to work". Of course it is ridiculous, all of it. There does not need to be this massive "plan", the plan should be: an alternative school, after school tutoring w/ enhanced transportation options, raise the teacher salary schedule to attract better candidates (some ain't so good - sorry), timely, fair, and good faith negotiations, and leadership based on evidence, not hyperbole - or in our case - NEW LEADERSHIP.

I'm glad the thread provoked some meaningful conversation over this important subject, but, c'mon people, eight votes? Those eight votes obviously came from some very well-read and thoughtful people, but statistically speaking that sample size is pretty much meaningless.

Lurkers, come unto this poll and let thy thoughts be known.

Vouchers. Public schools have failed. Time to replace them.

With all of that being said in the last few posts....what do you think we should do about it? I spend too much time with kids around here trying to make an impact. I'm a little tired of all of the pointing fingers. I say a step is a step. I really believe that we have issues on both sides of the coin. I also believe all of the state imposed requirements hinder progress. We don't have that community ownership of our kids anymore. I'm just blabbing right now, when I have more meaningful dialogue, I'll chime back in.

Thank you, RedDev. What CAN parents and interested parties DO? Thread readers, whaddya think?

IMO the first step should be for parents to attend school board meetings and remind the Board members that they answer to the public. Then, the parents need to make it clear what they expect. Forget about strategic plans, that is synonomous with the City's "North end studies."
They need to call for Harding's termination--or reassignment-or whatever-just get him gone. Then they need to demand a "slimming of the administration." That money would be well spent hiring a few more teachers to lower the student/teacher ratio.
In order to have a fair representation of what the parents want, I think each councilperson should have meetings in their wards. A few spokespeople from each ward could attend the school board meetings so as not to inundate the meetings and cause pandemonium.
In order for the schools to get better, the community needs to come together and say, "We are tired of this!" The Town Council needs to be involved with the process to maintain order and organization, also to address individual school issues/needs as well as the corporation as a whole.

I am picturing a "Loyal Opposition" to keep the Board honest and honorable.

Let's tackle this one step at a time, shall we? There are many difficult parts to this equation, a lot of state laws about budgeting that come into play, and limited resources. But, like any difficult but worthwhile endeavor, it can be attacked best by breaking it into small pieces. So...

First, teachers need more help in the classroom and also need to be held more accountable for their performance.

Easy to say, but the devil is in the "How?" If budgeting limitations, space, and existing laws restrict how much we can affect teacher-to-student ratio; we can still provide the teachers more help in terms of discipline, resources, training, planning time, and classroom "helpers." The Alternative School and certain Title I programs for at-risk students need to be brought back; and that may mean making some cuts at the Pre-School, without eliminating it completely. We do need to prioritize our spending to put more emphasis on what goes on in our classrooms and less on how many people we can have working on Carroll Avenue. Teachers need to be given the tools they request and not "tasked" with extra busy work. Arbitration and resolution need to happen quickly in the case of grievances. Contract negotiations should be fair and happen at the negotiating table, not in the media. A respected and consensus-building leader must be brought in as our Superintendent. Qualified parents must be enlisted to help throughout the schools in order to allow funds to be reallocated and give teachers more planning time. Available funds should be directed more toward classroom work and less toward new buildings. Our efforts should be shifted towards strengthening our parent-teacher organizations and working with neighborhood groups, the Boys and Girls Club, Hope and other like-minded organizations that have something to offer. Our school system must develop a network and system of tutoring that provides at least three times the amount that we do now. Suspension rates can not be lowered simply by not handing them out to student's whose behavior calls for them, but there should be "in-school" working suspensions. And the basics -- redefined as reading, writing, math, the arts, and health -- must come first.

We also need to look closely at teacher compensation to put it on par with other jobs where employees are evaluated and rewarded based on performance. Performance should be clearly defined to focus on those "basics" mentioned above. We should look closely at how tenure affects teacher performance and how we can better pair up our slower students with our more gifted teachers. We need to hire motivated teachers, and help them take advantage of local resources (at PNC, the National Park, and private schools) to give our students with initiative and creativity more opportunities to use them. And we need to diversify our teaching ranks to more accurately reflect the look of our community.

I know that's not all of the answers. I don't have them all. However, that's a start, and it comes from a teacher with 3 and 1/2 years of experience at a private school and hundreds of hours (cumulative) teaching as a substitute at every school in our system, as a father with an eight year old, and as a very concerned and involved citizen. At least some of that is in the strategic plan, but it is pretty well hidden.

Next: the administration.

I'm going to bump this thread to the top just one more time because we still don't have enough votes for this to be statistically meaningful.

Given that there have been about 500 views, I'm guessing that at least 25 people have viewed this poll without voting. Here's my reasoning. First, let's say that the eight people who voted came back to read the postings about 30 times each: that's probably how many times I did. That would account for about 250 "views." Now let's assume that the people who did not vote or comment, whom we shall lovingly call "lurkers," viewed it on average ten times each. That would account for the other 250 "views" if there were 25 "lurkers."

Actually, those assumptions aren't even necessary. According to the "Board Statistics" on the home page, there are 78 registered members at this site. That means 78 people at one time or another viewed this website. Coming back to the assumptions, let's assume that 50% of them still view this site: that would mean that there are about 40 active members. Eight voted, leaving about 30 who did not.

Thanks to the "City By the Lake" creator and moderator this is a nice little community of informed and concerned citizens. So, in addition to all of its other positive attributes, it seems like this would be the perfect place to get a "sounding" of the depth of opinion on any particular issue.

To drum up some more votes, what else can I do besides nagging? I thought I could address what may be a perceived obstacle to voting in such a poll -- privacy. Perhaps the mod can address that issue better than I, but it should be said that these types of sites are "ipso facto" places of anonymity (unless you're like me and don't care). Now I'm not naive enough to think that my privacy is ever fully protected in these times of hackers and conmen, but I don't believe that anyone who votes in such a poll should ever expect that vote to come back to haunt them (opinions might be a diferent matter). I also believe I know the moderator here well enough to have a compelling reason to believe that the little information that is required for registration (an e-mail address?) is protected.

That brings us back to the heart of the matter. Registering for this site and voting in this poll is a good anonymous way to let yourself be heard. Almost as good as voting, and, actually, in one respect, arguably better: it isn't official. You can vote today and change your mind tomorrow. No one has won or lost an election, and the issue is still up for grabs. What you will have done is provided a little data for those of us who might use it some day, let's say, in a school board election. But for that data to be meaningful, there has to be a big enough sample size. So, "lurkers," come join the party; and then please vote.

And "that's all I have to say about that." -FG