In celebration of alternatives to conventional public school education, National School Choice Week (NSCW) will host a free reception and rally at the Valentine Theatre, 401 Adams St. in Downtown Toledo, from 9-10:15 a.m. Jan. 31.

“[The rally] is a public information event, a celebration and an information session for families who may want to learn more about sending their child to the school of their choice, including [traditional] public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, blended schools, private schools, online learning and home schooling,” said Andrew Campanella, NSCW president.

Ohio was the school choice movement’s “original pioneer,” Campanella said. “Ohio passed the Cleveland Scholarship Program and took it all the way to the Supreme Court to defend it. I think when your history as a state shows that you’re willing to take something to that level — protect and defend it — and you see that it works, people come on board. That’s why we see Democrats and Republicans working together to expand all sorts of programs. And that’s why we’re able to get all sectors of education together for an event like this.”

School choice movement supporters will gather to celebrate the variety of Ohio school choice options.    In addition to Campanella, featured speakers will include:

• Rochelle Gould, a grandmother of three boys who each attend a different type of school — traditional brick-and-mortar public, charter and private.
• Ruthanne Johnson, a Toledo School for the Arts eighth-grader and founder of BeYou YouthEmpowerment, an anti-bullying organization she established in 2011.
• John Jones, the Greater Toledo Urban League’s former president and Ohio Council of Community Schools board member.

Johnson is an ardent believer that school choice is “a right of ours even though we’re not adults. We can make decisions on what we want to do with our life, even when we’re young.

“I think it’s important that if you want to go to a charter school like mine that you have the opportunity and as equal a chance as anyone else. I think you should get a quality education while doing what you love. It’s priceless. You can spend that time without worrying about getting bullied but focusing on your craft and focusing on your academics so you can go to a good college and have a good start in life.”

Not one size fits all

Kaleigh Frazier, communications director of School Choice Ohio, said she’s excited that the rally is “going to feature parents, students and school leaders from all different types of schools, which gets to the message of what we stand for at School Choice Ohio — ‘Education is not one size fits all.’

“And this program is going to highlight that and show what can happen when students are placed in a school that fits their needs and it allows them to thrive.”

Frazier says it is important for people who can’t attend the Jan. 31 rally to still research their children’s options.

“If a parent calls us from Toledo and says, ‘I’m interested in knowing my options,’ we can look at it from a scholarship perspective to see if the public school their child attends is not the right fit for them, is that public school or that child eligible for a scholarship from Ohio Council of Community Schools?

“There are several groups that have joined efforts at this event to serve as a resource for Ohio families. We would love to hear from families who can’t make it and talk to them about the options that are available to them.”

New to Ohio

Ann Riddle, executive director of Northwest Ohio Scholarship Fund (NOSF), oversees a need-based scholarship foundation for K-8 private schools and home schooling. Riddle said her organization operates on the premise that “every parent should have a choice to do what’s best for their child as far as education.” This is NOSF’s 14th year of making scholarships available.

“For example, this year, the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship (JPSNS) is new to Ohio,” Riddle said. “That scholarship is giving parents who would have had only one option, other options. Now they can take their own little suitcase of funds and use it where they think it will be best for their child.

“I think many times parents — if they’re not necessarily in the loop — take for granted and assume the school at the corner is what’s best for their child because that’s where they went to school. That’s not always the case.”

Best for each child

The initial recipient of the JPSNS is Bridget Allen, the 6-year-old daughter of Amy Allen, an assistant professor in the Department of Early Childhood, Physical and Special Education at The University of Toledo’s Judith Herb College of Education, Health Science and Human Service.

“For me, I think the biggest reason [to attend the rally] is to fully understand what the school choice movement is,” Amy Allen said. “A lot of people have this misconception that it’s about good schools and bad schools. And that’s not really the case at all. It’s about different schools.

“I happen to live in an area where the public school is really good. But because of my child’s disability (Down syndrome), I liked the idea of having the opportunity to pick the school that I felt was best for her — not that the public school where she would go isn’t good. It’s just that there was a better place for her that would be able to meet her needs in a different way.

“So it’s not about what’s good and what’s bad. It’s about what is different and what is best for each individual child.”

The rally will also include student performances from an area glee club and band and a martial arts demonstration by Toledo Preparatory and Fitness Academy students.

“I would tell people, ‘If you can’t attend this event, start looking [at your options] now,” Campanella said. “If you’re looking for a new school for your child, start looking now and don’t wait until summer break because now is the time where the seats start filling up.”

Toledo is the eighth stop in a 14-city cross-country, train tour Campanella said is aimed at “galvanizing public support for enhanced educational options.”

Tags: John Jones, National School Choice Week, Rochelle Gould, Ruthanne Johnson, Valentine Theatre

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2013 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Community, Education.
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Toledo is not the hub of industry it once was, but if The Blade continues to manufacture stories like its recent Brian Wilson series, the Glass City’s production will rival Pittsburgh’s during the steel boom.

Wilson, the program director, news director and afternoon host for 1370 WSPD, is an unrelenting critic of The Blade. He mocks its publisher, its unsigned editorials and a number of its reporters by name, including Blade politics writer Tom Troy. Because of this adversarial relationship, Troy should never report news involving Wilson; how could Troy’s work be objective when he is writing about a man who publicly derides him?

And yet on Jan. 8, The Blade published a story attributed to Troy, “WSPD host compares TPS students, monkeys; Wilson denies racism.” What unfolded during the next few days was a striking example of journalistic malice and recklessness.

Troy’s article began, “A radio talk show host’s reference to ‘little monkeys’ while talking about students at Toledo Public Schools on Friday generated outrage that the language was insensitive to African-American students, and all students.”

Let’s break that down.

• “A radio talk show host’s reference to ‘little monkeys’ while talking about students at Toledo Public Schools.” That sure sounds definitive, doesn’t it? No qualifiers such as “alleged” or “interpreted” or anything that makes the reader doubt the equal sign between “little monkeys” and “students at Toledo Public Schools.”
• “generated outrage” That makes it sound as if a mob, pitchforks in hand, took it upon itself to break down the studio doors at WSPD. That was not the case. The station reported it did not log a single complaint after Wilson’s Jan. 7 monologue. Where did the outrage originate? Apparently, from Troy and his editors.
• “insensitive to African-American students, and all students” The first web version of the story I read did not include the qualifier, “and all students.” Troy’s original version equated Wilson’s supposed offense to just African-American students. The written quote attributed to Wilson, “certainly, teaching little monkeys to peel bananas and so on and them learning to do it correctly on cue does not mean that they’ve learned everything except a funny parlor trick,” does not reference TPS students, or African-American students. But Troy’s opening paragraph linked the two, and that is all the evidence The Blade offered. A 14-second audio clip of that phrase was embedded in the story online.

Troy, in the first of two references, writes that Wilson was “broadcasting the show from Virginia where he now lives.” That must be important to the narrative for Troy to include it twice in one story.

Troy then reports comments from three sources; two of them Black, one Hispanic. Did it not occur to him that any Caucasian people would be offended? Troy quotes Rev. Kevin Bedford, president of the NAACP; Larry Sykes, whom Troy describes as an “African-American member” of the TPS Board of Education; and Bob Vasquez, the president of the TPS Board of Education. Why did Troy feel compelled to describe Sykes as an “African-American?” Journalism 101 teaches the importance of not labeling sources by race or other traits unless is it important to the story. You would never read in The Blade, “Mike Bell, the African-American Mayor.” Was identifying Sykes’ skin color important to illustrating his “outrage?”

All three men excoriated Wilson; of course they did. They were given a 14-second quote and most likely told by the reporter that the quote was directly referring to TPS students. More prudent men might have asked for a larger context or asked to speak with Wilson before they condemned him.

Here is another quote from the story that reeks of bias: “Contacted later by phone at his home near Lynchburg, Va., Mr. Wilson sloughed off the criticism of those who read racism into his diatribe about public education.”

There’s that second Virginia reference. And check out these loaded words: “sloughed off,” which implies arrogance and insensitivity (“disputed” would carry more neutrality) and “diatribe,” which implies senseless ranting (“monologue” or “comments” would be more objective).

Troy goes on to drag in a Wilson use of the phrase “plantation mentality,” and then adds this detail: “During the interview he used another animal metaphor, saying that American education follows a model established in Germany to train ‘young minds to be good little government lemmings’.” That would seem to show Wilson has a habit of using animal analogies, which would take some steam out of the notion he used “monkeys” to specifically degrade TPS students; I wonder if Troy took the time to Google “lemmings,” hoping that animal could be negatively equated to some human racial group.

Stirring the outrage

On Jan. 9, “Wilson’s remarks stir more outrage” appeared, attributed to Mark Zaborney. Zaborney’s lead: “Remarks by a radio talk show host that were considered insensitive to African-American students in the Toledo Public Schools reverberated throughout the community Saturday.”

Notice that we are back to Wilson only offending African-American students; Zaborney must have missed Troy’s revisions. Note also the dramatic “reverberated throughout the community,” as if every segment of Toledo’s population was preoccupied with this nonsense. Zaborney does remember to remind readers that Wilson’s broadcast “originated from his home in Virginia,” so he got that part of The Blade’s mission.

Zaborney’s story centers on a protest meeting: “The Parent Congress has called a news conference …  at the Thurgood Marshall Building on Manhattan Boulevard — the Toledo Public Schools headquarters.”

It was certainly friendly of TPS to open its headquarters for such a news conference on a Sunday, wasn’t it?

In addition to recycling comments from Troy’s sources, Zaborney adds that Toledo Mayor Mike Bell called for Wilson to apologize. Zaborney adds his opinion to the news story with this sentence:

“Mr. Wilson doesn’t limit incendiary remarks to the airwaves. Atop his Web site is a picture of a microphone aflame.”

What does that have to do with anything? Well, it gives Zaborney an opportunity to quote Wilson making some “incendiary” blog comments about NW Ohio residents.

Hitting the brakes

During the first two days of Blade coverage, no one quoted had heard anything except the 14-second audio file helpfully shopped around by The Blade. That segment of the Jan. 7 show was not available on the WSPD website. So unless you heard the comment live (which apparently none of the quoted leaders did), or caught it overnight during the Web streaming repeat of the broadcast, your only source for the content was The Blade’s race-baiting reporting.

On Jan. 8 and 9, I talked to Wilson (from his home in Virginia!) two or three times, hoping to get the file of the full segment so I could hear the context for myself before I decided if Toledo Free Press would report anything on the controversy. I tried to get Wilson to talk about The Blade’s story and provide the audio clip, but he told me he was not talking to the press and did not provide the file.

Toledo Free Press and WSPD have a hot-and-cold history. The radio station is an ally, and I have guest-hosted shows a dozen or so times, but a few philosophical breaks have kept us from being full-fledged, in-step partners. I still wanted to hear Wilson’s comments in full, so I pursued a few back channel contacts and eventually obtained the five-and-a-half minute audio clip. I played it on my BlackBerry. Then replayed it. Then played it again.

While the audio clip on The Blade’s website contained the supposedly offending reference to monkeys, it did not include the setup, in which Wilson criticized the concept of teaching through repetition without teaching independent thinking, nor did it include this crucial next sentence: “Similarly with children, just because you can teach them the answers to what are the capitals of the 50 States in America, that’s a fun exercise but it doesn’t teach them how to think, doesn’t teach them how to be objective, doesn’t teach them to be entrepreneurs and individuals and things along that order.”

There was no way an intelligent, discerning person could interpret Wilson’s “monkey” comment as anything resembling a direct reference to humans, much less TPS students.

I sent the clip to Toledo Free Press contributor Lisa Renee Ward and asked her to send it to sources included in The Blade’s coverage to seek comment. Toledo Free Press provided the transcript of the segment to those who had made statements calling for Wilson to apologize and/or asked Clear Channel Communications to discipline him, including TPS Superintendent Jerome Pecko, who had appeared at the Jan. 9 news conference; Bell; TPS Board Vice President Lisa Sobecki; President and CEO of the Greater Urban League John C. Jones;  the NAACP’s Bedford; and Chris Varwig, past president of TPS Parent Congress.

Despite clear evidence that Wilson had not called TPS students “little monkeys,” Sobecki and Varwig stuck by their statements.

The first crack in The Blade’s mission to sink Wilson came from Bell, when Jennifer Sorgenfrei, public information officer for the City of Toledo, said, “[The mayor’s] statement was in direct response to the portion of audio he was provided by The Blade,” the first public indicator that this mess originated with the daily paper of record.

For the next 24 hours, the only public place to hear the full context of Wilson’s comments was on the Toledo Free Press website.

I am not a monkey

The Jan. 10 Blade story, its third front-page story in a row, “TPS parents: WSPD’s Wilson must apologize,” was authored by Jennifer Feehan.

Notably, The Blade coverage begins to soften here, but not much. Wilson’s comments are merely “decried” and Feehan writes “some took” them as a “blatant racial slur.” No need to write like a political pamphleteer when you have everyone stirred up, right? Feehan does make sure she notes that Wilson “lives in Virginia,” but that might have been written by Troy, who contributed to Feehan’s story.

For the first time in three reports, The Blade quotes someone who actually thinks before he reacts: “Denny Schaffer, a former Toledo radio talk-show host who was contacted by The Blade Sunday night, said he would have to hear more of Mr. Wilson’s show Friday to comment on whether his words crossed a line.”

Good call, Denny.

In the printed version of The Blade, the Wilson story jumps from Page 1 to a page filled with coverage of just the Tucson shootings tragedy, linking the two stories in a way that shows The Blade was ahead of the curve in linking conservative talk radio to the massacre. In a separate Jan. 10 story on Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s reaction to the Tucson shootings, Troy quoted Kaptur condemning Wilson’s comments and, startlingly, calling for a listener boycott of WSPD.

It is interesting to note that one of the photos published with Feehan’s story shows a Rogers High School student holding a sign that reads, “I am NOT a monkey!” After publication of that photo, the boy’s mother posted a Facebook message to abc13 reporter Kristian Brown that read, “did you see the front page of the Blade today and that little monkey? LOL.”

Pecko’s persistence

On Jan. 10, the Urban League’s Jones called into Wilson’s show, and while he stopped short of agreeing with Wilson that The Blade had “duped” him, honorably made it clear that he no longer believed Wilson’s comments were directed at TPS students. During his broadcast, Wilson said he was sorry if anyone was offended by his remarks — which isn’t the same thing as being sorry for making the remarks.

On Jan. 11, a fourth reporter was stained by this epic libel (and it’s fair to ask — had any of these journalists bothered to listen to the full Wilson segment, or were they relying solely on Troy’s reporting?). “TPS’ Pecko says Wilson’s apology over comment is insufficient,” attributed to Christopher D. Kirkpatrick, gives the TPS chief something to talk about besides a $38 million deficit. Now that the full audio had been available on the Toledo Free Press website since Jan. 9 and on WSPD’s website since Jan. 10, there seemed to be far fewer people willing to go on the record condemning Wilson.

Here is Kirkpatrick’s lead sentence: “Public Schools Superintendent Jerome Pecko said he doesn’t buy an apology Monday from WSPD-AM, 1370 radio personality Brian Wilson, who on Friday compared the district’s instructional methods to the same type of rote instruction that succeeds in teaching little monkeys to peel bananas.”

In four stories, The Blade evolved from Troy’s opinion-laden reporting to Kirkpatrick’s more fact-based description, which is notable for not placing quotation marks around its “little monkeys” reference.

Pecko told Kirkpatrick late Jan. 10, “he had not heard the entire Friday broadcast,” even though Toledo Free Press had provided it to his office mid-Sunday afternoon. Even after he listened to it and commented to Toledo Free Press on Jan. 11, Pecko insisted that Wilson’s comments were racial in nature and aimed at TPS students; he renewed his nonsensical and censorship-leaning call for the FCC to review WSPD. He was joined in his racial context belief by Blade Managing Editor Dave Murray, who told 13abc that “the paper stands behind the story and felt it was put in proper context.”

The reversal

I wonder how Pecko, Murray and others who continued to stand by The Blade’s libelous series felt when they read the opening sentence in The Blade’s Jan. 12 editorial, “Free, responsible speech”: “No, Brian Wilson did not call Toledo Public Schools students ‘little monkeys’.” Mea culpa!

Here is the next line from the editorial: “But the talk-radio host and his defenders ought not complain that this newspaper yanked his recent observations about public education out of context, and at the same time try to ignore or deny the broader context of local leaders’ criticism of his remarks.”

But when the “broader context of local leaders’ criticism” comes from a slanted, 14-second clip, why shouldn’t that context be ignored and discounted? None of the myriad people hoodwinked by The Blade on this story are going to publicly admit to being played for fools, but they were. Twice. First when they knee-jerk commented in their rush to criticize Wilson, and again when The Blade left them standing all alone after it changed its mind.

The unsigned editorial also includes this puzzler: “Comparing humans with lesser primates is, of course, a standard racial insult.”

Really? Think about the stunning implications of that statement. There’s no outrage in it, just a ho-hum admission that “That’s just the way it is.”

Maybe that is the way they think in The Blade newsroom. Someone mentions monkeys, and the people there think of race. If I say Toledo Free Press threw a monkey wrench in The Blade’s scheme to harm Wilson, will Blade editors think we hired an African-American mechanic?

The editorial then admits, “there is no evidence that that was Mr. Wilson’s intent.”

Tom Troy and his editors sure thought there was, for four consecutive days of front page stories.

The hardest word

They have no real governing authority, but perhaps the Associated Press, Ohio Chapter of Society of Professional Journalists and the Toledo Press Club should closely examine their membership guidelines and compare them to The Blade’s conduct in this case.

And, hey,  city leaders, the next time The Blade calls, shopping around an inflammatory quote, how about doing some research before you open your mouths and condemn someone? If you jump anyway and then discover you were wrong, how about being a man and apologizing as loudly as you criticized?

This is the second time The Blade has taken a major swing at its nemesis Wilson, following a number of stories on the host living in Virginia, and it is the second time Wilson has walked away. In this case, that 800-pound gorilla at 541 N. Superior St. looks a lot less like King Kong and a lot more like Captain Huggy Face.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. E-mail him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Brian Wilson, Christopher D. Kirkpatrick, Clear Channel, Dave Murray, Jennifer Feehan, Jerome Pecko, John Jones, Kristian Brown, Lighting The Fuse, Lisa Renee Ward, Lisa Sobecki, Marcy Kaptur, Mark Zaborney, Michael S. Miller, Mike Bell, The Blade, Toledo Free Press, Toledo Public Schools, Tom Troy

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 13th, 2011 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
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The Lucas County Citizen Review announced Sept. 16 the members of its advisory panel that will oversee a six-month citizen study of county government.

The advisory panel, co-chaired by Tom Killam of Marshall & Melhorn, LLC and Olivia Summons of Sunoco, Inc., will serve to maintain the integrity of the study and oversee the actions of the expert citizen volunteers conducting the research, Killam said.

“It’s a terrible thing to waste a crisis, and maybe the immediate crisis has passed, but we felt this needed to be done and would be best done by a group of citizens,” Killam said. “We’re just trying to make our county a better place in which to live and learn.”

The advisory panel includes Alison Dillion of EPIC; John Jones of the Urban League of Greater Toledo; Tom Palmer of Marshall & Melhorn; Kim Partin of East Toledo Family Center; Larry Peterson of AMobility; Bob Savage Sr. of Savage & Associates; Sharon Speyer of Huntington Bank; Rick Stansley of University of Toledo Innovation Enterprises; Sen. Mark Wagoner of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick; Don Warner, formerly of SSOE; Ray Wood of UAW Local 14; and Blade president and general manager Joe Zerby.

“These are people we view to be community leaders and they all bring their intellect and their altruistic desire to make this a better place,” Killam said.

Many members of the panel were formerly involved with the non-partisan Corporation for Effective Government (CEG) that disbanded in 2002 after 70 years of operations due to lack of financing, Killam said.

Summons, past president of CEG, said, “Study recommendations were always non-partisan, independent, objective analysis of issues in the community that looked at the efficient and effective delivery of public services.”

“The whole reason for having an advisory panel is because we have no base of operations, no CEG,” Summons said. “They are serving as the check and balance in the absence of any board.”

The advisory panel is seeking approximately 25 expert citizen volunteers to participate in the study.

“We’re looking for people with backgrounds in finance, law, logistics, IT. Whatever would be germane to the study itself: People with qualifications and experience,” Killam said.

The volunteer research group, chaired by Marna Ramnath, will take a critical look at all aspects of Lucas County government: Structure and organization, interrelationships of county jurisdictions, finances of elected officials and administrative departments as well as the financial and operational effectiveness of a restructured government.

Cities and counties in the U.S. that have undertaken structural change will also be considered by the research group. With the aid of a professional research associate and office space from the University of Toledo, data will be compiled for use by the research group.

Recommendations and findings from the research group will be presented at the culmination of the study to the Lucas County Commissioner. Several local corporations, whose names were not released at press time, have committed to funding clerical and administrative costs for the study.

Tags: Bob Savage Sr., John Jones, Lucas County, Mark Wagoner, Sharon Speyer

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 16th, 2010 at 10:06 am and is filed under Breaking News, Community, Government.
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The people behind two competing review committees say they have the same goal: achieving the best education for every child in the Toledo Public Schools (TPS) district.

On Aug. 25, a group of 10 area organizations challenged the TPS Board of Education to sanction a committee of area professionals to perform an “in-depth and independent review” of the district. Board president Bob Vasquez proposed the idea of assembling a similar committee independent of  TPS to examine the district’s procedures  in June.

Both would have individuals from outside the district review TPS policies and make recommendations to the board of education on how to improve the district. Additionally, both aim for a more efficient TPS system that provides a quality education in every setting to every child in the district.

Challenging the board

In May, after the Greater Toledo Urban League (GTUL) took a stand against a TPS levy, individuals and organizations started talking about the need for change within TPS, said John Jones, GTUL president and CEO.

“People started popping out of the woodwork and that’s when we started coalescing,” he said. “Not just individuals, but organizations. People were basically saying ‘Enough is enough. If we don’t do something to help our young folks, what are we going to do?’”

The groups began discussing what they could do “collectively and proactively as part of the community” to help drive discussions, Jones said. After a few meetings, facilitated by the GTUL, the groups developed a joint statement about the state of the TPS.

The statement, delivered at an Aug. 25 press conference, called for a board-chartered committee autonomous of the school district to perform a review of TPS.

“Every one of these groups, in one shape or another, I believe, has expressed frustration in their dealings with TPS and many had offered to be part of the solution,” said Steven Flagg, member of the Urban Coalition, one organization involved in the statement. “This was our opportunity to challenge [the board] to be accountable, justify or say why suggestions weren’t effective. It was done in spirit of cooperation, to be a productive process.

“Times have changed. It’s time we look at how we can be effective in this nanosecond world.”

John Jones is president and CEO of the Greater Toledo Urban League.

Additional organizations involved in the joint statement include: African-American Bureau of Commerce, African-American Parents Association, Cherry Street Mission Ministries, Toledo NAACP, Toledo Area Ministries, Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce, United North and  United Pastors for Social Empowerment.

“It’s a good broad cross section of our city,” said Carol Van Sickle, vice president of public affairs for the chamber of commerce. “We all, all the people in those groups, feel it’s very important to support good education in TPS. We’re having challenges as many metro school district are. We need to look at things long term and work together to get the best education we can for the children.”

The group said its decision to make a joint statement does not have to do with a 7.8 mill levy on the November ballot, or the $824,000 that was “found” the previous day.

“This is way beyond the levy,” Jones said.

The organizations would like the committee that is established to do an extensive review of the district, examining curriculum, union contracts, the use of buildings, size of the administration and finances, Jones said.  An example of what it would examine is curriculum efficiency and how minor changes to procedure could allow teachers to be more efficient in the classroom, saving costs elsewhere, Jones said.

“Let’s look at everything and see what’s going to be that tipping point that causes us to move in the right direction, positively,” he said.

The committee would require individuals from a vast array of skill sets, all of which Toledo has, Jones said.

The groups are asking the board to sanction a committee, but aren’t trying to take its power, Jones said.

“It’s not an effort to abdicate authority or ask the board to abdicate their authority by no stretch. We want you to use your authority, get engaged, get involved, make sure that process is ushered through to completion,” he said.

Although the group is asking for a committee, it does not want board members or district staff to be on the committee. The groups are also calling for all committee members to be “free of financial or other relationships that pose a conflict of interest” with the district.

“Should the institution be responsible solely themselves to review themselves? That don’t work,” Jones said. Jones noted, however, that some institution involvement may be necessary.

Jones also said defining conflict of interest may be difficult.

“Let’s be honest about this. You have a $300 million organization; who in Toledo ain’t got a piece of that pie?  Full disclosure, the Urban League has a program in the summer that gets a small amount of money from the district to do it — about $3,000,” Jones said. “Would that $3,000 be considered a conflict of interest in the scope of  $300 million? I would say no, but the flip of that is how do you really determine it?”

Jones said committee members should be picked based on their skill set and if there is a conflict of interest they should remove themselves from the discussion.

“For instance, my wife’s a teacher, so if I were on the committee, and I’m not asking to be, I’d probably need to recuse myself from the discussion of a union contract,” he said. “Would I be able to have a discussion about a review of actual finances, like finding $824,000 somewhere? I probably could because I have an auditing background. It’s those types of things we’d have to walk through.”

The organizations involved in the public statement are not suggesting they be the committee the board appoints, Jones said.

As a collective, the 10 groups did not talk to any board members before making their announcement, Jones said. The group did meet briefly to discuss with Superintendent Jerome Pecko what some of the community concerns are.

Jones said the groups were aware that Vasquez made a statement in June about forming a review committee.

“Vasquez had already said he wanted to see a committee formed. We agree with that,” he said. “As we were talking in May and he said that early June we were like, ‘Hey, that’s a winner, thumbs up.’ The question then becomes how this committee is formed, what are they commissioned to do and is it really all-inclusive?”

Vasquez’s plan

Vasquez was taken aback when the groups announced that the board needed to create an outside committee.

“I am surprised they took the same idea that I had and asked for it again,” he said. “The other thing that surprises me even more is that John Jones is on my committee.”

Vasquez hosted a meeting of approximately 20 area business leaders and higher education staff Aug. 26 to discuss solutions for TPS, he said. Individuals were asked to attend one week prior by e-mail, Vasquez said.

Jones said he was at the meeting but was under the impression it was a discussion and not a committee yet. If a committee does result from the discussions and if it gets it right, it will pay for the century to come, Jones said.

Vasquez

“I believe there are a couple of different ways to get to a spot … What I would hope is the discussion spurred is a community feel that backs up what we already know. We need to dig in and get this thing right and there has to be some change. The model that currently exists for Toledo is not sustainable,” he said.

“I could care less who participates. At the end of the day, let’s get something done,” Jones said.

Vasquez hopes to have the group meet again to discuss a possible setup for a committee, define and expand the mission and decide how to proceed, he said. Once those details are decided, Vasquez would like to bring his committee to the board for approval.

Vasquez has support from three other board members for his committee and hopes to have it sanctioned within the next month, he said.

The next meeting of business professionals is tentatively scheduled for  Sept. 9, with Mayor Mike Bell leading the meeting, he said.

Jen Sorgenfrei, public information officer for the city, confirmed the mayor will be involved.

“Everyone in that room sees value in TPS and participating in the success in TPS,” she said. Sorgenfrei noted, however, that a formal request for the mayor to be part of a committee has not been made yet.

Vasquez has been working since June to bring business leaders to the table to help reorganize TPS, he said.  He’s spoken at business luncheons and at the Toledo Rotary requesting assistance. Members of the group he’s established include chamber of commerce members and University of Toledo President Dr. Lloyd Jacobs.

Vasquez plans to do a complete review of the district focusing on three main parts. In the first part, the committee will look at the structure of the district­—who reports to who and what are the positions’ responsibilities, Vasquez said.

Second, the committee needs to look at how the district provides services, he said. The committee will need to look at curriculum and how that meets the needs of current and future students, Vasquez said.

Last, the district needs to look at finances and compare how the district finances things in relation to other districts, he said.

“I’m not looking for a study or strategic plan. I want to get the information that we need and make changes that we need to right away,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez said he hopes to use the business leaders as a steering committee and eventually reach out to other organizations within the region for their input, he said.

The major difference between what he and the groups are proposing is the involvement of the district in the committee, Vasquez said.

In Vasquez’s committee, the superintendent, the treasurer and Vasquez are all members.

“Dr. Pecko and Dan Romano are part of the committee so they know what the suggestions are, because they are part of implementing whatever recommendations that come out of the committee,” Vasquez said.

Having a board member, the superintendent and the treasurer present also saves time, he said. The trio have the institutional knowledge and the policy knowledge to know whether or not something can be done, he said.

“We talked about online classrooms. The superintendent, Mr. Foley, had to share a certain number of hours [teachers] have to have with students face-to-face. I didn’t know that and I’m sure the general public doesn’t know that,” Vasquez said.

“This doesn’t mean we can’t do things, we just need to have that information so we can make good recommendations,” he said.

Vasquez also emphasized his committee is separate from the levy.

“We’re interested in long-term transformation change. It’s no trick or anything for the levy,” he said.

“I’m not politicizing this committee. That’s why I was not out having  a press conference for the meeting. I wasn’t looking for the media,” he said.

Both Vasquez and Jones said there is a sense of urgency to help TPS, but it doesn’t mean the committees are going to work haphazardly.

In addition to possible committees to review TPS operations, the Ohio Auditor;s office just began its yearly audit of TPS.

All recommendations made by any committee that is formed must be voted on by the school board before suggestions are implemented.

Tags: Bob Vasquez, Jerome Pecko, John Jones, Mike Bell, Toledo Public Schools

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Community, Education, Featured.
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