Ida B. Wells-Barnett
The Ida B. Wells Community Academy Hosted by Mt. Olive Baptist Church of Akron
COUNTY: Summit IRN: 133553 Part III: Annual Report for 2001-2002
11. Student and Parent Satisfaction 11.1 Retention Rate The Academy retained at the close of the 1999-2000 academic year 44 (85%) of its original complement of 50 students. The new academic year, 2000-2001, opened with 70 registered students. We were successful in retain-ing 91 percent of these students. In 2001-2002 we opened with 84 students; in June we had retained 72 of them or 86 percent. NOTE: These retention rates are based on September to June statistics. In July, fewer students usually returned for the six-week extended summer program. For instance, this past summer we had 44 students returning (61%). This problem is discussed below under “Indices of Failure,” p. 18. 11.2 Parent and Volunteer Participation Rate The Academy has not yet attempted formally to elicit from parents through a questionnaire what aspects of its curricular and educo-social program they appreciated. We can intuit from the Academy’s inability to enjoy satisfactory increases in parental participation over the past two program years that we have not engendered much excitement in these areas. Of course, some parents, grandparents and others have volunteered their support where they were most needed. Parents continued to be helpful in responding to appeals for their assistance with homework, discipline, assistance with fund-raisers and field trips, attendance, and in completing important food and health forms, serving breakfasts or lunches, etc. This willingness was especially evident during Thanksgiving and Christmas when the Academy distributed free turkeys to parents. For the past three years, we have canvassed parents and other community residents to have them join us on the Academy’s Site-based Management Team (or Advisory Board). The object of this committee is to afford parents as stakeholders hands-on ownership and an opportunity to participate in the management of a developing educa-tional institution. Our attempts at building an effective organization were stalled by not having worked out a well organized process for accomplishing our intentions. The Academy’s administrators met towards the end of the academic year to discuss our approach to parental and community relations. They decided to reassign one of our assistant teachers, Mrs. Doni Burrus-Brooks, to the position of community and parent relations. Mrs. Brooks, a parent herself, had already demonstrated an interest in and the ability to succeed in this arena. Her specific task, among other things, would be to recruit parents for the Site-based Management Team, to keep parents and the community informed about the Academy’s educational program, specifically why it has a year-round academic year; to make certain the Academy’s stakeholders are aware of special events sponsored by our students and faculty; and to enlist the community’s help in finding an appropriate learning facility. 11.3 Faculty Satisfaction During its first three academic years, the Academy experienced several losses in its teaching and support staff. Faculty satisfaction, however, cannot be determined by these losses alone. Indeed, during our first year, the Academy applauded its ability to retain 66 percent of its certified teaching faculty. In 2000-2001, the Academy in toto employed nineteen (19) teachers, administrators and support staff. Our files show that we lost six (6) teaching faculty and three (3) support staff. In all but one instance, those persons leaving the Academy’s employ were anticipated, indeed in some cases elicited. Of these six, it also shows that two faculty were lost at the start of the academic year. Five (5), all certified classroom teachers, were terminated for misfeasance in their classroom man-agement, failure to accept the Academy’s mission. Among the others were two assistant teachers and a highly motivated and creative faculty member who moved to Houston, Texas; she has remained in touch with the superintendent. The truth, then, is that instead of faculty being dissatisfied with their work conditions, the Academy became in 2001-2002 dissatisfied with some employees who were pushed to seek employment elsewhere. The unfortunate consequence with these terminations is that we had prided ourselves on our ability to retain a majority of our facul-ty and staff from year to year. As pointed out earlier on, we have altered our salary structure and now offer employees a 9 month salary and a summer teaching stipend. This salary structure is both fiscally prudent and contributive to higher faculty morale and acceptance of our mission. No faculty member had previously complained about her or his remuneration or the length of the academic year. The only critique on the salary issue came from the chair of the Personnel and Benefits Committee who appealed to the Board for a change in the salary structure. [11] The chair felt our ability to hire better qualified teachers would be enhanced. if we were also going to increase the level of our teacher performance demands. The Board, therefore, made the recommended salary and service adjustments. We have provided faculty with the requested materials and equipment as much as possible given available finances. We no longer shy away from hiring those we think will provide our students with a quality education. At one time we tended to seek out ethnically related teaching staff. At the end of the 2001-2002 academic year, we determined to revamp our hiring practices, having more critical interviews and making our performance expectations more strict. All first-hired faculty and staff must serve on a 90-day probation. Moreover, we also pledged not to shy away from terminating those faculty and staff we find unable or unwilling to assure our students, their parents and, of course, ourselves that they were committed to quality education. It should be noted that the Academy’s superintendent, principal and business manager have worked continually full-time before and after the Academy was chartered on May 4, 1999. The superintendent is not remunerated save reimbursed for some of his authorized out of pocket expenses. From the outset, he has also chaired the Academy’s Board of Governors. His administrative staff have also committed themselves to pursuing the development of the Ida B. Wells Community Academy. 12. Programmatic Obstructions and Other Disabilities We introduced this Annual Report saying we had experienced during the year the “best of times and the worst of times.” Up to this point, we have paid attention to what in our opinion reflected the best of times. That is not to say that everything was rosy. In the field of education, particularly in start up operations with a self-imposed mandate to be non-traditional in curricular design, staffing arrangements, assessment strategies, etc., our painting a rosy picture would be contrary to fact. It is, however, a rhetorical overstatement to leave the impression that the hard times the Academy experienced were the worst of times. Nonetheless, operational bad times did certainly occur. 12.1 The Need for Administrative Shifts Dr. Crosby, the founder and primary architect and drafter of the Academy’s governance, curricular and assessment plans, was incapacitated frequently during the year. In February, 2000, he was almost forced to resign from all cademy functions because of his health. In 2002, health problems surfaced once more. This time, however, he could not disregard medical advice any longer. On February 26, 2002, he decided to resign from his position as chair of the Board of Governors stating that he would continue to remain on the Board of Governors and try to maintain his role as superintendent for as long as he could. In May or June, he did resign as superintendent and proposed to the Board that Ms. Angela M. Anderson, the current business manager and Board treasurer, be installed as the Academy’s interim chief administrative officer until a full time permanent administrator is appointed. Dr. Crosby’s resignation was debilitating, but its potentiality was reduced by quickly putting Ms. Anderson in charge, for she was, from the beginning, one of the principal developers of the Academy. Moreover, Dr. Crosby’s subsequent decision to serve as a temporary program management consultant to her until she gained a firmer administrative footing made her transition more easily accomplished. |
ACADEMY ADMINISTRATIVE, FACULTY AND SUPPORT STAFF ROSTER FOR 2001 to 2002
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FBI |
DATE |
EXPIRATION DATE |
1. Dr. Edward W. Crosby
(1) |
Founder, Board Chair and Superintendent |
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2. Perkins B. Pringle (2) | Principal |
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3. Angela M. Anderson | Business Manager and
Treasurer |
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4. Regina L. Gregory (3) | Secretary, EMIS Coord.
and Records Keeper |
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5. Gwendolyn R. Poole | Kindergarten Teacher |
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6. Molly McCrea | First Grade Teacher |
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7. Ida Symonette (4) | First Grade Teacher |
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8. Janeanne Huber (5) | Second Grade Teacher |
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9/14/00 |
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9. Kenya L. McKinnie
(6) |
Long Term Substitute |
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10. Wilma Wood | Title I Tutor, Spec. Ed |
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11. Shirley B. Brown (7) | Spec. Educ. Teacher |
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12. Berrenda Love-Lewis | Long Term Substitute |
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13. Erlene Haslam | Assistant Teacher |
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14. Alfonzo Bush (8) | Long Term Substitute |
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15. Vincent Taylor | Assistant to Principal and
Student Discipline Coord. |
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16. Kelly L. Pack | Asst. to Bus. Manager |
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17. Kim Brantley | Temporary Help |
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18. Judith Denson (9) | First Grade Teacher |
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19. William Chambers (10) | Long Term Substitute |
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20. Garrett Chidsey | Short Term Substitute |
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21. Rosalyn Curry | Short Term Substitute |
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22. Collins Green | Long Term Substitute |
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NOTES:
1. Dr. Crosby resigned
as the Academy's Board chair on 2/26/2002. Subsequent to this resignation,
he resigned as superintendent, but continued to function as
chair of the Board's Personnel and Benefits Committee and agreed to act
as a consultant to the Academy's new administrative leadership. Dr. Crosby
was not
compensated for his services as superintendent and program management consultant.
In effect, he was (and still is) a volunteer.
2. Mr. Pringle replaced
Ms. Symonette in the team taught 1st grade. Mr. Pringle is the Academy's
principal.
3. Ms. Gregory was
elevated to replace Mrs. Clark. Formerly she was functioning as a Business
Administration intern (Akron U).
4. Ms. Ida Symonette
was dismissed in December after many attempts to have her present evidence
of earned BS and MEd degrees and teacher certification.
5. Mrs. Huber took
maternity leave in 2002; Alfonzo Bush replaced her in the 2nd Grade. She
did not return.
6. Ms. Kenya L. McKinnie
replaced Mr. Chambers as Long-Term Substitute in 3rd Grade.
7. Ms. Mrs. Shirley
B. Brown is a retired, certified Learning Disabilities specialist with
considerable public school experience in Cleveland and Warrensville Hts.
8. Mr. Alfonzo Bush
was first hired as a substitute teacher and was hired later to replace
Mrs. Huber who left on maternity leave.
9. Ms. Judith Denson
resigned to take a position at Kent State University in the Office of Research
and Graduate Studies.
10. Mr. William Chambers
taught 3rd Grade and was summarily terminated for gross disrespect of administrators,
colleagues, and students and non-compli-
ance with Academy rules and regulations. His classroom management style
was as if he were teaching in a boot camp: discipline, Yes, regimentation,
No!
In quick succession, another administrative problem arose. The Academy's
principal, Mr. Perkins Pringle began
expressing a desire to relinquish his position and become a classroom teacher on a full time basis. In July, 1999, Mr. Pringle became principal shortly after the Academy was chartered and has served in that capacity ever since. During our formative years, he has made a much valued contribution in terms of faculty management, curriculum and program development, student recruitment and discipline, and parent and community relations. But burn out became evident in 2001-2002. The energy, administrative zeal and attention to detail he once displayed was no longer present. This presented us with another problem in our top administrative echelon. Mr. Pringle would be hard to replace as principal, for not only did he serve in that position for three years, he also began working with the idea of starting a school long before 1998 when he joined the Academy's program development committee composed of some 20 community activists. He, therefore, had already informed himself on the Academy's mis- sion, its curricular philosophy and how he could contribute to it. Without question, it would be difficult to replace him considering his preparation and his experience and knowledge of the Academy's mission and developmental strategies. A Governor proposed to the Board in light of these two disruptive advents
this would be a good time for the Board
12.3 Board of Governors A full listing of the current membership of the Board of Governors is given above. It may have been noticed that the Board’s complement is five (5). This number is four short of the minimum of nine (9) stated in the ODE contract. This year we made an unsuccessful effort to nominate and install additional members. We have had as many as nine (9) governors on the Board in past years. Even though we are currently short, the Academy continues to feel our work has not been obstructed overly much. If there has been any perceivable disability, it stems from the fact that some governors or staff members have to take on the work we would expect Board standing committees to carry out: facilities, discipline and grievance, fund-raising, health and safety, and public relations. It can be discerned from the nature of these standing committees that we have had to do without concerted activity in these areas. This is, to say the least, a serious circumstance. 12.4 Faculty Retention and Turnover (See also "Faculty Satisfaction" and "Programmatic Obstructions . . .") As noted above, the Academy has always taken the position that its faculty are the heart and soul of the educa-tional operation. We have, therefore, instituted a policy designed to remove newly hired faculty and staff within 90 days should they proved to be ineffective. In the past, we concerned ourselves so much with having a good record on faculty retention that we tended to overlook mal- or misfeasance. That is no longer the case. All faculty and staff now have to sign attesting to the fact they have received, read and understood the Academy’s statement on Faculty and Staff Employment and Performance Expectations. This statement indicates that all faculty and staff “serve at the will of the Board of Governors” and that “the authority to recommend for hire or termination of employment is vested in the . . . chair of the Personnel Committee or his/her designee.’ The statement also points out to employees that due process will be exercised in all termination or other grievance situations. All things being considered, we have retained a good percentage of our effective (we stress “effective”) personnel. 12.5 Facility Acquisition Planning In our previous two annual reports, we outlined in some detail the continuing difficulties we have experienced find-ing adequate space. We also outlined the moves the Board made to alter this experience. The latest move was to apply to the Ohio Commission for School Facilities for a guaranteed loan. This application, although it was something community schools in general were excited about, did not work out. The Board is still determined to pursue this resource again. At the time we were looking at constructing this facility land that Antioch Baptist Church owned and had agreed to allow the Academy to build on. We learned, however, from Antioch’s pastor that this land would no longer be available to the Academy. Shortly after receiving this information, we were told we would have to look for another school facility. Antioch Baptist would not be willing to lease space to us beyond August 2003. Both of these denials came to us without the formal notice we expected; however, the Academy had already seen that the leased space in Antioch was already inadequate, and was fast becoming more so. To find space to add a fourth grade in 2001-2002, the Academy’s principal and business manager addressed our need for space with a well thought out and creative plan to capture space and succeeded in finding room for more students. Their solution: give up our administrative offices in the Learning Center and move them to the church’s annex a short dis-tance away but on the same grounds. In 2002-2003, we would have to add a fifth grade so we initiated negotia-tions with Mt. Olive Baptist Church (1180 Slosson Street, a 10 minutes or less drive from Antioch) to house two grades and reduce the squeeze at Antioch. We thought it would help to solve our immediate space needs. Now, instead of looking to Mt. Olive to house just two classes, our negotiations shifted to moving our entire operation – bunk and junk – into this facility. The lease with Mt. Olive was finalized in August, and the Academy moved its classes in on September 16, 2002. We have solved a very vexing problem so far. We still have to work out a more permanent solution, for we have to add a sixth grade come 2003-2004. 12.6 Refusal to Transport Our Students After a year of legal obfuscation and stalling tactics, the Akron Board of Education finally altered its position on transporting our students. For the next two years the Akron Board strong out the compensation process by using three appeals of court decisions in the Edge and Ida B. Wells Academies’ favor. The Akron Board claimed it was unnecessary or unreasonable (and impractical) under the provisions of Section 3314.09 of the Revised Code.” A hearing officer found on March 8, 2000: “. . . it is recommended that the State Board of Education decline to confirm Akron City School District Board of Education's request to offer payment in lieu of transportation to the parents of students attending the Edge Academy and Ida B. Wells Community Academy [italics ours].” . . . “Additionally, the Akron City School District Board of Education should be required to repay the Edge Academy of Akron and the Ida B. Wells Community Academy's direct expenses for having to provide transportation for their students for the 1999-2000 school year.” [12] The State Board of Education adopted the recommendation of May 8. Once this recommendation was received by the Akron Board of Education, the Board decided on May 10, 2000, to appeal the recommendation. On June 7, 2001, Franklin County, Common Pleas Court Judge Alan C. Travis affirmed the State Board of Education’s order that the Akron Board of Education must transport the students of Edge Academy and Ida B. Wells Community Academy. Sometime after learning they had lost their appeal, the Akron Board decided to appeal once again. That appeal has now been decided in favor of Edge Academy and Ida B. Wells. However, in order to receive funds from the Akron Board, both academies must go to court once again. 12.7 Civil Charges and Suits Ohio Congress of Parents and Teachers, et al. v. State Board of Education, Superintendent Susan Tave Zelman and the Lucas County Educational Service Center (LCESC) et al.On July 17, 2001, Community School detractors decided on another method to destabilize community schools in Ohio. The status of this suit in the courts is murky so we will only say that we are not destabilized by it, but do have to keep our detractors constantly in mind so as not to be blind sided at some other time or place. 13. The Academy’s Assessment of Its Success and Failures 13.1 Indices of Success The Academy has continued to move progressively toward academic and programmatic success. It started the 2001-2002 academic year with 90 students and ended the first 180 day learning period with 46 students attending during the extended 6-week period.
Another index of our success is the fact that we have moved from theory to practice. And, by having done so, we have brought a not insignificant portion of Akron’s youth along with us. Our design is to do an even better job. Other indices of success are contained in the Academy’s ability to surmount some of the hurdles that were placed in its path (see “Programmatic Obstructions . . .”). 13.2 Indices of Failure The summer retention rate of 61% is absolutely unacceptable. This loss of students was attributed in part to a mischaracterized or misunderstood extended academic year. We experienced among some parents a reluctance to support their child’s attending the Academy year round. We remembered that, during the previous summer, we had not adequately instructed our students, their parents and our faculty about the year round concept. Therefore, we did not waste any time developing a strategy for maintaining student attendance for the six weeks after the Akron Public Schools had ended for the summer. Some working parents had no conflict with the Academy’s extended schedule. Other parents claimed their children were already enrolled in other activities. The Akron Beacon Journal article, quoted on p. 6, testifies to the favorable attitude some parents have expressed concerning not only the Academy’s 210-day learning year but also its correctness of its curricular process. We have since deter-mined to tighten up our community and parent relations profile and our student recruitment. From its inception, the Academy has worked to establish an educational institution that was grounded in diversity – diversity in its curriculum, its student body and its faculty. In the first two, we were very successful in 1999-2000. In the third and fourth years, it was difficult to attract a diverse and effective complement faculty. The staff remained constant and consequently, were able to hold their own. As the Academy matured, however, the nature and number of responsibilities also increased. During academic year, we learned just how difficult it was going to be to recruit faculty, even with using the standard methods of faculty recruitment, e.g., attending teacher interview days at area universities, newspaper ads, fliers in church bulletins, and word of mouth. The Academy’s Site-based Management Team (or Advisory Board) which is supposed to be composed of faculty, parents and community residents, did not materialize as we had wanted. The advisory council was to handle internal management and curricular issues such as dress code, discipline, field trip planning, parent information sessions, technology in the classroom, etc. During the academic year, there were some encouraging initial meetings held when Academy business was deliberated and acted on; however, once organized it was difficult to arrive at a commonly agreed on meeting time and day when members, i.e., parents, faculty and community residents could be present. A Local Professional Development Committee and an In-Service Training Program was organized as conceptu-alized in the LPDC manual. This has been furthered in its development in part with the funding of our SchoolNet Technology Plan which requires that faculty and staff be developed professionally so that they are capable of professionally incorporating technology into their lesson plans. Moreover, all faculty were advised at the time they were hired that they were personally required to effect their own professional development. The SchoolNet professional development process will be put before the faculty and staff by this and future administrations. It is to assist faculty members in establishing their own professional development routine. This routine was augmented by in-service workshops, orientations, and weekly faculty meetings. Moreover, as pointed out earlier on, the Academy’s financial situation was not enabling except those funds contributed by Title I and SchoolNet. Currently faculty and other staff members are instructed to pursue . . .
14. Program Enhancements A major public relations and faculty and staff information move was of the development and posting of the Academy Web site: This comprehensive Web site is updated regularly and presents all of those programmatic and operational aspects of the Academy’s educational program including registration and employment forms:
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11. The Academy offers its first-year certified teachers an annual salary of $27,500. Teachers with several years of prior teaching experience and/or MEd or MA degrees are offered $30,000 or more. All salaries were based on 12 months which is counter to common practice of 9 months. For the 2002-2003 academic year, the Finance Committee and subsequently the Board decided to hire all teachers for 9 months and offer a pro rata stipend to those teachers chosen to teach in the extended six-week academic year program. This policy could increase a first-year teacher’s salary to, say, $31,064. The average teacher salary for community schools in Ohio in 1999-2000 was $26,384 with 3.7 average years of service. Teachers in city school districts with 13.5 average years of service earned an average salary of $44,160 (see “Community Schools in Ohio: Second-Year Implementation Report,” Vol. II, published by the Legislative Office of Education Oversight, April 2001, p. 11). This report can be accessed at 12. REPORT
AND RECOMMENDATION OF HEARING OFFICER In Re: The Edge Academy & Ida
B. Wells
13. See sections I, D and IV, B of the “Faculty and Staff Employment and Performance Expectations” for the Academy’s expectations on professional development. See the full document for an outline of other professional and general employment expectations on the Academy’s Web site: http://hierographics.org/AcademyIndex.shtml. 14. These profiles have some factual errors in them; however, they do give a fair picture of what the Academy is all about. The best profile is contained in the above referenced Academy Web site. |
End of Annual Report for 2001-2002
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Chief Administrative Officer
or
Mrs. Michelle C. Rumrill, MEd
Faculty and Curriculum Manager
or
Dr. Edward W. Crosby, PhD
Founder and Program Consultant
The Ida B. Wells Community Academy
1180 Slosson Street
Akron, Ohio 44320-2730
Office 330.867.1085
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