Yes, Dr. Lewis Ferebee our new superintendent of the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) is young – the youngest ever, I believe.
But when I interviewed him on radio last week, when I personally saw him speak at the community meeting for the superintendent finalists, I was pleasantly surprised by his maturity. At a press briefing, I asked him his age, he said 39. I thought he was telling me a Jack Benny joke, but quickly realized that was really Ferebee’s age.
In the end, in a search process that many wondered if it would actually produce a result, the IPS Board seems to have found the right person for this critical time.
Because of shrinking enrollment, IPS is faced with more budget cuts; cuts that must include closing some buildings and facilities.
And despite the botched staff cuts of this year, many of us feel IPS’ downtown bureacracy is still top heavy. Cuts must be made there!
Ferebee was in charge of making cuts in the Durham, N.C. school system – $70 million in cuts. When he was asked about that, he didn’t shy away from the hot button, emotional subject, “We closed two schools, we did reorganize our central services and we did eliminate some central services personnel as well.”
One of Ferebee’s challenges will be dealing with the distinct differences between Durham and the IPS area. Durham is part of North Carolina’s research triangle, which includes a swarm of colleges and universities. So even though the population of the Durham district (273,992) is similar to the population within IPS (297,326) educational attainment is far different.
A bigger difference is poverty. Within the IPS district 50.1 percent of all children under 18 live below the poverty level. That’s seen in the stunning IPS stat that 83.9 percent of IPS students are on free and reduced lunch. Compared with just 62 percent in Durham’s schools.
The poverty, low incomes and low educational attainment of those living inside IPS’ geography are a reality that school reformers fail to understand. I hope Ferebee understands the differences between Durham and Indianapolis and adapts his success strategies.
With hiring a “traditional” superintendent, IPS won’t be the first Indiana district taking advantage of the new law that loosens who can be a superintendent.
School reformers and many in the business community were pushing for a “non-traditional” person to run IPS. Many pinned their hopes on former Lt. Gov. and budget whiz Kathy Davis.
Instead, businessman and former Indianapolis native Thomas Darden became their hopeful. But questions swirled around the failure of Darden’s venture capital firm, Reliant Equity Investors in 2008. There were other questions about why he left his Philadelphia Public Schools job.
When the Indianapolis Star’s Scott Elliott, occasional Recorder contributor Abdul Hakim-Shabazz and I brought up these issues at a press conference, Darden got testy, defensive and argumentative.
Being able to communicate through mass media is essential for any major urban school district superintendent. That lack of ease with media was one of Eugene White’s Achilles heels. It didn’t help Esperanza Zendejas. It wouldn’t have helped Darden if he got the job.
So, now that the IPS Board has unanimously selected Dr. Ferebee, all elements of our Indianapolis community need to rally behind him and the IPS Board. We all need to give Ferebee, give the brother, a chance to show his mettle; to see if can bring about change that will benefit our children.
This space will give Ferebee a chance and so should others.
I’m calling out the school reform community. They need to pull back on their plans of wanting to radically shape (or misshape in the views of some) IPS.
I’m especially calling out those pushing a revised (and still secret) plan concocted by the mayor’s office; specifically Deputy Mayor of Education Jason Kloth with ill-conceived backing from the Indianapolis Urban League and UNCF.
Some of the few briefed about this plan are convinced it could destroy IPS and public education in America’s 11th largest city. The plan, code-named “NEO,” is currently being shopped around to national foundations.
The “NEO Plan” has been hatched mostly in secret. Kloth and his partners have refused to make the plan public or share the contents with the general community within IPS and Indianapolis/Marion County.
Worse, and more distressing, the Indianapolis Urban League and Indiana Office of UNCF have signed off on Kloth’s obsessive secrecy in refusing to share, release or brief Black media about the plan.
That’s especially galling since 52.8 percent of students in IPS are African-American. And 38.0 percent of all school age children in Indianapolis/Marion County are Black.
Kloth, UNCF and the Urban League need to deep freeze “NEO” while Dr. Ferebee and a newly energized IPS School Board tries to turn IPS around.
Jason, Joe and Andrea? Give the brother a chance!
What I’m hearing
in the streets
Media’s always been a cruel business. One of media’s sins today is ageism. Talented, experienced employees, over a certain age, pushed out in favor of the younger flava of the moment.
That’s apparently what happened to WTHR/Channel 13’s multiple Emmy Award winning, esteemed, eventual Hall of Fame Broadcaster, veteran meteorologist Chris Wright, who’s leaving after 14 years because WTHR couldn’t find a new role for him.
Wright’s out because of Angela Buchman moving from WISH-TV/Channel 8 to Channel 13 replacing Wright as their top weathercaster.
The longest tenured African-American weathercaster in Indy TV history, Wright has been on air here a combined 21 years with three stations – Channels 13, 8 and 59.
When Wright came to WTHR, he supplanted the venerable Bob Gregory as top forecaster. But 13 didn’t throw Gregory out on his heels, like they’re doing Wright. The way WTHR’s mistreating Chris Wright isn’t indicative of “Indiana’s News Leader.”
See ‘ya next week.
Email comments to acbrown@aol.com.
