OCPS: You Already Know!
- Details
- Category: Education
- Published: Tuesday, 30 July 2013 17:31
You already know that the Orange County School Board with the help and support of Kat Gordon and Dr. Barbara Jenkins are busing kids out of their neighborhood away from schools they could walk to, in favor of schools 6 to 10 miles away. This action will keep other schools full to capacity while Black schools suffer with low enrollment.
You already know that this practice is cutting the enrollment in our schools to dangerously low levels. Jones High School at close of the 2012/2013 school year is less than half capacity. Many other Black neighborhood schools are below 70% capacity. How many more athletes and honor roll students will Jones High School have, if there were 700 more students?
You already know that each child represents over $6,000 dollars from the state education department and you know how that money follows the student to the school. Therefore, you already know that Dr. Jenkins and Kat Gordon are transfering millions of dollars away from our neighborhoods and giving it to other neighborhoods.
You already know that this transferring of student money
actually financially harms the neighborhood that money is moving from while enhancing the neighborhood that the money goes to. Our community suffers while their community prospers at our childrens expense. That is not fair, Dr. Jenkins you know it. Chairman Bill Sublette, are you listening? Kat Gordon, where are you?
You know that good neighborhood school improves the quality of life and enhances the property value of the neighborhood which they are located. Therefore, you know that when Chairman Bill Sublette mandates that our neighborhood school closes, he is actually shooting our community through the heart just as effectively as George Zimmerman shot Travon Martin and the results will be the same.
The school board shoots the community then tells everyone we brought it on ourselves. They say our parents don't go to PTA meetings. The school board made sure that those meetings are across town. They say our students don't study and sleep in class. Getting up an hour earlier and being bused for another hour before school starts will wear out an elementary school child. The school board knows this, but channels our kids out of the zone anyway. They don't care about our kids. The school board feed our children poison and call it food. They force virus shots on our kids and call it medicine. Let's not talk about the how they handle the made up issue of ADHD.
You already know that Chairman Bill Sublette made a very moving speech in favor of neighborhood schools. You should know that he didn't mean a word of it. He allowed the school to close and is championing all other negative ideas that are shooting our community through the heart. School Board Chairman Bill Sublette, appears to want to help, but in reality he doesn't care.
Here is part of the audio from the school board meeting of 10/25/11. Listen starting at 2:30, to hear Chairman Bill Sublette give a heart warming performance about how he would like to keep Richmond Heights Elementary open. Know that it is all a misrepresentation, just as this entire board meeting was a total misrepresentation to the public.
You already know that when you follow the money designated for school use, you see that it tends to leave our neighborhoods for places beyond the tracks.
You know all of this. Here is something new that you may not
have known. According to some news sources, Florida's school chief Tony Bennett may have changed the grade of a school to an 'A' rating in order to satisfy the charter school owner who made donations for his benefit. Now we know that we can't trust the school grading system. This guy was hand picked by Gov. Scott. Of course, we picked Gov. Rick Scott, didn't we?
So now you know that this treatment of school and the grading system and where the money goes and where the moneys come from and buildings and equipment and busing... you know all of this has nothing to do with the training of our kids, right? You know that all of this has nothing to do with the education of our children and preparing them for the future. You know this now, right?
You know that everyone who runs for office during the campaign will say that they are pro-education. Once in office there is nothing done and very little talk of fixing the problem.
During State Representative Bruce Antone's Town Hall Meeting earlier this month, Mr. Antone was asked what could be done about the failures of the Orange County School Board as it related to the closing of Richmond Heights Elementary School. Mr. Antone's response was, 'nothing can be done.' He went on to say that OCPS is an autonomous organization. After I reveiwed the word 'autonomy,' I realized this means that the Orange County School Board is 'politically independent; sovereign; free.' So now, I am confused. Does he mean that the school board answers to no one?
I think that the Orange County School Board answers to the people that elected them. We the people must have a long talk with the school board members and their chairman. The system just is not working for us and our elected officials are useless in doing anything.
So now you know. What are you going to do?