By the time you read this, you’ll know what Eugene White’s plan to radically change the Indianapolis Public Schools’ academic calendar is. IPS began meetings (the first this past Wednesday at Arlington, then Thursday at Broad Ripple) to discuss creating a “year round” school calendar for IPS.
Many, hearing the phrase “year round,” assume students would be in class more days during the year. But that is a fallacy. “Year round” school isn’t an extension of the number of student instructional days, but rather a shuffling of the existing state mandated 180 days.
Currently, only Warren Township has a full “year round” schedule. They began this school year Aug. 2. They’ll go for four quarters of roughly 41 to 48 instructional days each.
Four schools in Pike Township have had “year round” school for several years. Called a continuous calendar, three Pike elementary schools have three trimesters of roughly 60 days each. Meanwhile, New Augusta North Middle School has a continuous calendar of two semesters of roughly 90 days each.
In their preliminary spin, IPS says their “year round” plan would reduce the existing two-month summer vacation.
Even though Warren students spend all of August in school, under the district’s plan, they’re out of school nearly all of June and July.
In Pike, summer vacation runs the last week of June, all of July and the first week of August. Both Pike’s year round plans straddle Christmas vacation, while Warren’s plan doesn’t.
White wants discussion on his plan to be on a fast track, with community meetings over by Oct. 28 and a board vote by Thanksgiving. But, that’s not sufficient time for a discussion of both the merits and the implications of so-called “year round but not really” school in IPS.
No major big city school system has adapted its entire system to year round, continuous or whatever you call this scheme. More significantly, while there’s ample research touting the benefits of so-called year round school; there’s just as much research touting the drawbacks; many of which are financial.
How can IPS have the temerity to say they’ll have enrichment and remediation programs during the calendar breaks, when with IPS’ continued enrollment declines they are slated to receive reduced state funding? Even more cuts will follow if Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Republicans win complete control of state government in November’s election.
I hope IPS presents more than fancy PowerPoint slides to bolster its case. It needs to produce the research to show specifically how IPS students will benefit. And IPS must address how the cash strapped system can afford this.
Our community needs more than fancy charts and flowery educational rhetoric to convince us that “year round but not” school will benefit IPS students.
What I’m hearing
in the streets
Politics was on full display at this year’s Circle City Classic.
It’s been years since the governor didn’t attend the parade. Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office gave no reason for his absence. In his place Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman walked the length of the parade in the rain.
Parade organizers committed a major protocol blunder placing Mayor Greg Ballard ahead of the lieutenant governor. I talked to some former aides to governors and lieutenant governors who said that was a major protocol breach.
At the parade, Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Brad Ellsworth prepared to walk with Sheriff Frank Anderson, who’s running for the state Senate in District 31. Anderson’s opponent, Sen. James Merritt, who’s never darkened the door of a Classic parade, showed up in the VIP area, ostensibly to greet the lieutenant governor.
Inside Lucas Oil Stadium’s suite level, politics was in full display.
Ellsworth toured the suites with Congressman André Carson. Nearly the entire Indiana Black Legislative Caucus was there, including Lake County’s Sens. Lonnie Randolph and Earline Rogers and Rep. Earl Harris.
The big surprise was the appearance of controversial Republican secretary of state candidate Charlie White, who was escorted around by Tony Bell, spouse of Expo CEO Tanya Bell.
White has been invisible since being blasted by Indiana media and Democratic leaders for possible voter fraud. White is also being investigated by a special prosecutor for his voter misdeeds.
So, I, along with many in the suites, were stunned that Charlie White was there.
I talked briefly with him, but since conversations I have in the Classic suites are off the record, I can’t tell you what he told me. Though I invited him for an on record interview soon.
While Mayor Ballard was at the parade, I don’t think he was at the game (I never saw him). Nor did I see any of the other mayoral candidates or Charlie White’s opponent, Vop Osili.
Marion County Clerk Beth White was the only countywide candidate I saw at the game, and Jose Evans was the only Indianapolis mayoral candidate I saw. Though some political observers complained to me about Evans’ supporters passing out political literature in the suites promoting his candidacy.
The announced attendance of 35,217 surprised many observers who felt the stadium didn’t reflect that number. Also, several longtime Classic sponsors and supporters also expressed to me dismay at the low attendance actually inside the game.
The rain may have kept the Classic Parade’s crowd down, but it doesn’t explain the humongous number of unsold and unfilled Classic Parade seats, even though thousands lined the curb in the rain watching the parade. The huge number of empty seats was deeply disturbing to those who watched WISH-TV/Channel 8’s coverage.
Just as Black Expo and the Classic Game have issues they must address, so does the Classic Parade which has become somewhat ossified in its operation.
Now that the Classic is over, the leadership of Indiana Black Expo needs to have a serious examination of how it intends to rebuild two classic institutions of our African-American community. Sponsors, foundations, elected officials and the grassroots are nervous and concerned. Some quietly whisper whether the Classic or even Expo can survive in the next few years.
Organizations, institutions and brands with the longevity of Expo (40 years) and Classic (27 years) often need refreshing and reinvigoration. But, Expo’s leadership can’t do that in a vacuum. They can’t do it with a head-in-the-sand, us against them attitude.
The time to plan for the comeback of Expo and Classic begins now. And Expo’s leadership must embrace the community as partners in that rebuilding.
See ‘ya next week.
You can e-mail comment to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
