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Tuesday, December 09, 2014

Allentown's Educational Failure

You may know Jose Rosado as Fountain Hill's Mayor.  But like many other involved in local government, he's an educator. But that's an almost impossible task if you work for the Allentown School District. Aside from the usual challenges presented by an underfunded school district, with around 90% of its 17,500 students under the poverty guidelines, a good educator has to deal with an arrogant and insular administration. Jose was up to the challenge, and stood up to the arrogance. It has cost him his job. He hasn't seen a paycheck since July. He and his wife had to move into a smaller home. He's trying to get his job back, but that depends on how much control Allentown administrators have over the school board.

Allentown's schools have some real problems. They expel an average of three students per day. Only 62% of its students ever graduate. About 50% of its 8th grade students are illiterate. Less than 40% are proficient in basic math. Some of its students score in the single digits on proficiency tests. It only spends $5,800 per student, the lowest of any school district in the Lehigh Valley. Yet, according to Rev. Gregory Edwards, an educational specialist who also serves as the Senior Pastor in downtown Allentown's Resurrected Life Church,it has a top-heavy administration,one of the largest in the state. Between 15-20 scattered throughout 23 buildings make over $100,000 per year. "Where else can you do that?" he asks. "Sign me up."

Noting Allentown's abysmal return on investment, Edwards likens the abuse of resources at Allentown to "giving the captain of the Titanic a tugboat." It's an insular environment, not intent on educating, but on protecting their own. That's how Rosado got in trouble.

Allentown, like many other school districts, has a very strong teachers' union. Their President, Debbie Tretter, helps teachers to get rid of kids they don't like. The answer is to send them to the problem school, the school for troublemakers, the place I'd be in if I were an Allentown student. The disruptive student.

Technically, it's called the "Alternative Education Program," at two different buildings. Rosado was the Principal. He began noticing some strange things. nearly all of the students sent over, by mostly white teachers, happened to be black or Hispanic. He objected to their automatic placement at his school because it violated state regulations that required these students be provided with due process.

Superintendent Russel Mayo, with his Virginia drawl, ordered Rosado to take all transfers, regardless whether these students had been afforded their right. Rosado did so, but also blew the whistle with the state department of Education. They conducted an audit, and from that alone, determined there were eight violations.

Rosado's school for problem students also has a detention room ,and gets a lot of business there from children who need a day or two to think about things. It's great for teachers who don't like their job, too.  Some would report all of their students to him for a day in his "Refocus Room." That way they got a day off with pay.

Rosado complained about these teachers to whom he thought ws a person who could take action. She turned out to be a mole for the King, Spry firm, which represents Allentown schools.

Then Mayo and another Administrator, David Wildonger, in an effort to save costs, told Rosado to wink his eye when they classified students with emotional disabilities as "disruptive students".Rosado refused because there is a separate program for those children. He was suspended

Today, Rosado will be railroaded at a hearing before a lawyer who already is paid by the school district to perform other matters. He will undoubtedly recommend that Rosado be fired.

And the performance scores will continue to drop.

39 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

"Conform or be cast out". "... Opinions all provided The future pre-decided Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone."

Wow.. hoping that Mr. Rosado weathers this one.

Bernie O'Hare said...

1:28, Yiu are getting tooo personal. ID yourself.

Anonymous said...

Aside from the usual challenges presented by an underfunded school district.

Underfunded! $225M budget.
You gota be kidding.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Not when it has 17,000 kids and pays less per student than any other district. If i were King, I would put this district to death, and have its resources divided among the four school districts who surround it. Minus the administrators.

Anonymous said...

The dirty little secret is that public schools in the northeast are more racially segregated than those in the south where there are county wide school districts. There is no need for 500 school districts in PA, each with its own superintendent, assistant superintendent, and curriculum director.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Agreed. I have concerns that the new NIZ school is designed to provide a safe harbor for kids of NIZ employees, who will be mostly white. That's why the blue bloods are financing it.

Anonymous said...

Ahh, the NIZ Kids, that's an interesting theory.

michael molovinsky said...

there will be no NIZ kids. moving there would be grounds for divorce

Anonymous said...

I sure don't know all the details here, and with confidentiality laws, I don't expect to hear specifics from the ASD administration side.

In the past, if an administrative type's performance was not as expected by those who placed him/her in that role, the employee was returned to their previous spot, in most cases, returned as classroom teacher or guidance counselor. Even sometimes with the same pay as they received in the administrative role they are leaving. Because your report claims this employee is now without a paycheck, I'm wondering why not? Why is he not doing what he did previously?

I also take exception to the mention that most students assigned to the alternative program were, so-called, minorities. That seems normal to me, given that ASD district-wide enrollment is about 70% non-white.

Having followed local news for a very long time, I know this employee has found himself in several other strained relationships. Just guessing, I believe his (workplace) superiors found him insubordinate in his new role. Evidently, too much so.

I'm afraid very few will ever know what really happened here, certainly not me.

Fred Windish

Anonymous said...

15-20 administrators is not unusual for an organization of that size. I'm always amazed that people believe there are people just dying to hold that responsibility for $50K. IT's as if people suddenly forget how the free market works when it comes to the public sector.

Anonymous said...

Bernie - can check your math? In your article you mention that the ASD spends $5,800 per student. Yet with a $225 million budget and 17,500 students that works out to be $12,800 per student. Would be good to know which number is correct.

Anonymous said...

Windish is spot on. There is a hell of a lot more to the story than a whistleblower.

Bernie O'Hare said...

8:27, I am relying on figures given to me by Rev. Edwards. I would argue that jmuch of the money is wasted on 23 buildings and $100,000 administrators.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bernie O'Hare said...

Fred, Let's say the employee was "insubordinate", i.e. unwilling to break the law. The remedy that your yourself posit was not followed. This guy was simply canned, and without pay. As for the composition of what really is a reform school, a sworn affidavit in the case denotes that 98% are black or Hispanic. Maybe that's who's offending. or perhaps, maybe that's the way their white teachers see things. I don't know.

Bernie O'Hare said...

8:40, you'll have to ID yourself.

Anonymous said...

Agree with Mike, I can't see any NIZ kids there either. Only poor people's kids are used as cannon fodder for the ASD, not rich people's kids. They'll stay in Parkland and East Penn.

The Banker

Anonymous said...

8:27, I am relying on figures given to me by Rev. Edwards. I would argue that jmuch of the money is wasted on 23 buildings and $100,000 administrators.

These costs are not separated from the equation. The cost per student is the cost per student.

Anonymous said...

Old angry white male suburbanites talking about a city school system that is majority minority. Kind of like listening to Fox "News". Fair and Balanced -give me a break

Bernie O'Hare said...

Like I said, I am relying on information provided by Rev. Edwards. Do you dispute that less money is spent per student in Allentown than in the rest of the LV?

Bernie O'Hare said...

"15-20 administrators is not unusual for an organization of that size."

We're talking 15-20 being paid $100,000 or more. The actual number is much larger.

Anonymous said...

Let's say ASD has 2500 employees and they have 20 people making over 100K. Is less than 1% in management with a high level of responsibility outrageous?

Bernie O'Hare said...

Considering the poor ROI, I'd say yes

Anonymous said...

Bernie, this is a very complex issue that has many varibles as the issues faced¿ Not only are unions involved but also the manipulation of the masses¿ This is an administrational skill set of transgretional transformational tools¿ This is not just a local issue it is national, but only epicentralize to inner cities of the new third world nation¿ Failure is a top notch tool in the USA today, the money shell trick is to most interesting economic tool¿
Locally one just has to ask Loe Hershman¿

redd
patent pending

Anonymous said...

Bernie:

You can go to openpagov.org and get the per student spending. For the 2012/2103 school year Parkland was at $14,261 per student, East Penn was at $14,199 per student, Allentown was at $14,122 per student and Whitehall/Coplay was at $12,974. Salisbury led the pack at $19,043 per student

michael molovinsky said...

bernie, i have considerable issue with the premise of this post;;; white teachers dump kids of color into an alternative school, where the good principal is not allowed to follow his conscience because of a corrupt administration, and is fired for doing the right thing.

the alternative schools were created to provide disruptive students an alternative to expulsion, and also spare the main schools excessive disruption. administrations only resort to removing a principal they hired as a last resort. in our politically correct world, a minority administrator such as rosado, would have to be almost useless to be fired.

being a personnel issue, the facts are unknown to me, as they are to mr. edwards and bernie.

Anonymous said...

Call a spade a spade, but this is not an issue of any colur it is an issue of ot buying into the false bag of goods being force feed to the public? There is a instance were a adult is not following there agenda, and said administration as well as other institutions have negated facts and pushed paperwork around? That this henious administrational skill set is diverted to a innocent child, black, white, green with purple pookadots?


Bottom line is failure and this is just yet another henious crime against humanity commited against innocent indigent children on American soil? If this be a developmental tool I am very glad to be an outsider?


redd
patent pending

Bernie O'Hare said...

MM, I agree our facts are limited, but the hearing today was open to the public. I would have been there but for the fact that I had to be in court for another matter.

I would conclude that either you are correct or this is an arrogant administration. I have seen evidence of the latter.

Bernie O'Hare said...

12:59, Thank you for the informative comment. Does that include both the monies from the school district and the monies from the state and feds? I will check later.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Riley poached another suburban business into the NIZ.

monkey momma said...

The Reverend is a bad source of information. His expenditure per student is very wrong. 12:59 is exactly right about the numbers.

Allentown SD is not underfunded. You cannot spend your way out of these kids' problems.

As a matter of fact, Allentown spends more of its budget (66%) on instruction than any other district I compared (Parkland, East Penn, Whitehall and Northampton).

I do not know Rev. Edwards, but he is not a credible source.

Anonymous said...

This is a very complex matter with roots in our culture. Increasing numbers of children arrive at the school's doorstep unprepared for education. In the olden days, whatever a child learned at home was reinforced by the schools and vice-versa. This is probably no longer the case in a large segment of homes. So now after a generation of single-parenting, very often, (not every case) we have children who end up like this. Simply throwing more money at the problem is not the answer.

Funny how suburban and parochial schools have only limited problems. I doubt that parochial schools spend anywhere near $14,000 per student.


VOR

Bernie O'Hare said...

VOR, Parochial schools have the same problems as public school, with one exception. They do not fight as much. This is what a judge tells me who sees the kids in court.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Monkey, Either he made a mistake, or i did in taking notes.

Anonymous said...

Bernie: I doubt that parochial schools see a drop out rate like ASD. No way.

Anonymous said...

The problem is more serious than even the situation with Rosado indicates. The culture of ASD is toxic, to administrators, teachers and students. At least the administrators and teachers have a choice. The poorest kids of the region do not have another choice. They deserve so much better.

Rosado is a true education professional who cares about the kids. The entire Lehigh Valley should support him. He is also something we don't see that often, an elected official at the local municipal level who is a Latino. He is a true leader.

Thanks, Bernie, for shining light on the ASD. Sunlight is the best antiseptic.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bernie O'Hare said...

If you can't post a comment without vulgarity, I will remove it.