Unsolicited advice to JCPS PR lady Lauren Roberts: Next time a kid gets beat-up on a school bus and the press asks you what happened, just say “No comment” if you don’t know what really happened. Okay?

Here’s what Roberts had to say to the C-J after a Highland Middle seventh-grade boy was assaulted on a school bus last Friday afternoon by another seventh grade boy:

There was no immediate indication of an injury to either student, Roberts said, but later in the day, the school system was notified that one of the students had complained of headache and was taken to Norton Audubon Hospital. After being examined there, he was transported to Kosair, where he underwent surgery.

This incident was the talk of the neighborhood kids over the weekend.  A bunch of kids said the kid’s ear was purple or red, depending on which kid told the story, and they all said he had a welt/bruise under or near his eye after he had been punched.  Even a bunch of usually-unobservant middle-schoolers were able to determine that the kid looked pretty banged up.

What’s JCPS trying to do by saying there was no indication of injury?  Are they trying to imply that the bleeding in his brain that required BRAIN SURGERY was a pre-existing condition?  Lordy, Lordy.  Sometimes, they just need to say “no comment” until they have more information.

The kid who got clobbered is a good kid, doesn’t cause trouble.  Big surprise, right?  The kid who did the clobbering is a known troublemaker who even bullies sixth-grade girls on the bus.  Nice kid!  Probably has some really nice folks, too!  I hope they have a really nice insurance policy to cover the cost of the brain surgery that resulted from their son’s malicious behavior.

Of course, all of the kids on that bus are breathing a sigh of relief that Clobbering Kid isn’t on the bus anymore and they’re hoping he gets expelled.  But JCPS has a strict NO EXPULSION policy so this kid will be around for a long time.

Highland Middle School Principal Steve Heckman isn’t getting the credit he deserves for how well he handled this situation.  I need to tell you about that later.

The holidays are keeping me hopping!  I’ll be slow pokin’ it on the blog until after Winter Break!  I have so much to tell you!

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Sheldon Berman’s defiance gives Louisville another big, fat black eye. David Jason Stinson returns to coaching at PRP High School; holy rollers praise God he’ll be coaching in a temperature-controlled environment

Yes, here in Louisville’s public school system you can kill a kid and stay on the Jefferson County Public Schools payroll thanks to a dishonest principal, an unethical teachers union and a lame-duck superintendent who place absolutely no value on a young man’s life.  Of course, it helps a whole bunch if you’re white and you’re genetically attached to a well-worn Bible that you wave around like a demon-possessed evangelical when TV crews roll up your driveway.

One word for this for now: UNBELIEVABLE.

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If one more person calls pink-slipped JCPS superintendent Sheldon Berman a scapegoat, I’m going to scream

For over three years we’ve never heard a sincere apology or a legitimate solution to any of JCPS’s problems from Berman.  Just look at video clips on WLKY and WAVE-3.  Read past articles about busing fiascos, failing schools and cringeworthy test scores.  Lots of excuses but no solutions. It’s enough to make you want to slit your wrists, really.

Meanwhile, Michelle Rhee rolled into one of the worst school districts in the nation, cleaned house, resigned  and is starting an education-reform advocacy group (i.e.,  union busters who will give the National PTA a run for their money).  This is from yesterday’s Washington Post and the bold is mine:

“The ultimate goal is to shift the power dynamic of education in this country, which I think for far too long has been dominated by special interests, whether the teachers’ unions or textbook manufacturers,” Ms. Rhee, 40, said in an interview.

One issue she would tackle, she said, was the practice of laying off teachers, according to their contracts, by seniority rather than classroom effectiveness.

“We won’t shy away from the fight,” she said. “We’re a little too obsessed right now with harmony in public education. How can we all come together and collaborate? That’s been happening the last 30 years, and because we’ve been trying to smooth each other’s feathers over and make the adults happy,” students have suffered, she added.

Ms. Rhee’s three-year tenure as head of Washington’s public schools was marked by rising test scores and the end of a long trend of declining enrollment by families fleeing dismal schools.

She had three years and she made a difference.

Million-dollar Berman had even more time than Rhee yet we have nothing positive to show for his tenure.

Absolutely nothing.

He’s hardly a scapegoat.

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So, helicopter parents, how are those fundraisers going for arty field trips and new playgrounds?

The good news is we’re not in last place.  Yet.

From the NY Times: Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators

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JCPS is bossing around a bunch of parents to go green and save the planet but when it comes to JCPS adopting a few super-easy green policies, forget it.

If you’re a JCPS parent, you’ve heard all about the “No Idle” policy for folks who pick up their kids from school.  “No Idle” implores folks to turn off those bloatacious minivans and SUVs while sitting in the carpool line waiting for Junior to be dismissed.

The policy has two angles.  One is health-related so you’ll reduce pollutants and particulate matter and stop poisoning kids’ lungs.  The other conservation-related so you’ll save fuel and stop frying the planet.

It’s a really great idea so I probably shouldn’t make fun of it.  But, come on, with JCPS’s armada of pollution-spewing buses logging around 90,000 miles per day this one is just begging for a little heckling.

So get this.  I was in two schools last week and guess what the thermostat settings were?  72 at one school, 71.7 at another.  So much for a 68 degree setting that all of the tree-huggy websites strongly encourage – the folks at   www.care2.com give you some powerful economic justification for going green, too.

“It’s burning up at school,” my kids tell me.  “Sometimes we have to open a window, it gets so hot!”  This is a school that doesn’t have a boiler, has a modern HVAC system and my kids are not on the top floor so what gives? Can someone just take the thermostat down a notch or two?   I don’t even want to know how balmy it is at VanHoose Palace.

I suppose nobody expects a school district with the most bloated busing program in the nation to actually embrace energy conservation and saving money so no more mentions about thermostats.  You get my point.  Government agency = wasting tax dollars.

Back to that whole “No Idle” business.

Here’s the info from JCPS Parent Connection or you can click **HERE** to see it with your own eyeballs.

bnbn

Schools are No-Idle Zones

New signs proclaiming JCPS a No-Idle Zone are being posted beside car-rider lines at the district’s elementary schools.

Idling creates clouds of exhaust around schools. Concentrated exhaust increases allergies and asthma symptoms. Asthma is the most common chronic illness in children, and it’s the cause of most school absences.

JCPS buses already comply with the no-idling policy. Parents who comply not only help clear the air but also save money. Just ten seconds of idling can use more gas than turning off the engine and restarting it. Two minutes of idling uses about the same amount of gas it takes to drive a mile.

bnbn

The “No Idle” plan for the carpool line is great in theory but some of the environmental benefits were cancelled out  by JCPS’s poorly-planned, revamped busing plan. Why?  Well, there have been so many bus stops eliminated throughout the district that parents are driving their kids to their bus stops and plenty of parents in my neighborhood have simply resorted to driving their kids to schools all over the county.  Reducing the number of stops was a part of JCPS’s push to reduce travel time for kids – you know, fewer stops makes the trip to and from school shorter.  You  know how JCPS always cooks up these number-crunching schemes instead of just addressing the REAL problem.

So what is the best way to reduce pollution and conserve energy?

You already know.

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The JCPS Diversity Gospel says best-integrated is supposed to translate into best-educated. So, why is one of the most ethnically- and racially-integrated high schools in the state a failing school? (I’m talking about Iroquois High School.)

I don’t have an answer to that question.

I just took a really quick look at the C-J’s report on Iroquois High School, a “school on the brink”, they call it.  I think it’s interesting how they aren’t giving up much ink to celebrate Iroquois’ rich ethnic or racial diversity in any of the articles. Instead, they’re leaning on words like poor and blue-collar.  High-poverty.  Impoverished families.

Gee, what happened to the C-J’s non-stop celebration of diversity?  It’s not happening with their investigative series on Iroquois.  Go figure!

I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around the diversity/forced busing demagoguing from JCPS while we keep getting hammered by really bad test scores.   Whatever happened to spending money on teacher aides and teachers to reduce student:teacher ratios?

BTW, Iroquois ranks 221st out of 224 high schools in Kentucky.

Here is the link to the Iroquois High School website – it’s a really good one so take a look.  If you’re interested in helping out the school, and they’ve basically sent out an SOS to the community, here’s the address for a contact who will point you in the right direction: autumn.reece@jefferson.kyschools.us.  Please write I want to help Iroquois! in the subject line.

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Stop talking about Michelle Rhee replacing Sheldon Berman or I’m gonna start crying! She’s engaged to a hottie who’s the mayor of Sacramento and there’s no way she’s coming to Louisville.

That’s Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of D.C. schools, and her fiance, Kevin Johnson.  They’re not coming to Louisville so we need to get over it and move on.  I know.  Sad face times ten.

The Washington Post wrote this about Johnson and Rhee:

They seem to have bonded over education reform. Johnson, 43, is a former NBA star who transitioned into politics as the founder of a charter school — Rhee served on its board — before winning his first race last year to become mayor of his home town [of Sacramento]. Rhee also served on his transition team.

When she was tapped by Mayor Adrian Fenty in 2007 to become schools chancellor, Johnson testified at her confirmation hearing. (Rhee left the board of his St. Hope Academy after starting her job here.)

It would be so great to have someone like her but let’s be real, she’s just too badass for Louisville, Kentucky.

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Mandy Connell on WHAS84 has a handy guide for hiring the next superintendent. Interesting item on the wish list: “Be a union buster.”

Mandy had some good stuff on her program the day after the Jefferson County Board of Education’s November Surprise.  The union buster part is pretty provocative so the show deserves a listen.

Just click here to listen to the November 23rd show.

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