Candidate for
Board Member; Cincinnati City School District

I support the operating levy on the ballot this November. I tried very hard three years ago to avoid the current financial situation by requesting the district wait on the 2004 levy request until a redesign plan was in place that aligns revenues and expenses. However, while the levy was supported by the voters in 2004 the redesign did not occur, creating the current financial situation. My fiduciary responsibility always requires by law that I ensure the financial means are there for the district to operate. We did not need to do a levy in 2004 to meet that responsibility, and we would be in a much better financial condition today if we had waited a year while creating a redesign plan. Today that fiduciary responsibility requires redesigning the district and asking the voters to support a levy at the same time because we are two failed levies away from a State declared financial emergency.

Requesting a levy from the voters while redesigning the district is the way to ensure the districts financial viability. My goal is to redesign the district based on our current revenues, and based on successful implementations in urban school districts across this and other countries.

Since the State of Ohio is so negligent in its support of public education, Cincinnati Public Schools revenues are disproportionately dependent on local property taxes. Over the years our expenditures have been rising faster than our revenues, without attention to the local community's ability to pay the cost. The result is the current financial state of the district where effective schools have made staffing and program cuts detrimental their historic success, and teachers with two grade levels in the same classroom due to budget limitations. Student achievement is doomed under these circumstances. This financial situation tells me that we need to redesign and restructure our school system to fit our financial realities while delivering quality education for our children.

The State of Ohio is also harming our children educationally with low achievement standards. In 2006 and 2007 only 49% of Caucasian students met the college readiness benchmark for mathematics. For African American students which is on 70% of the CPS population, the numbers are 13% and 11% respectively. For science, the percentage of African American students meeting the readiness benchmark was 6% in 2oo6 and 5% in 2007. We are obligated for the sake of our children and community to have a school district that prepares them for life choices instead of a district based on the low achievement levels presented by the State. This again tells me that we need to redesign and restructure our school system to fit our financial realities while delivering quality education for our children.

I have begun to make this redesign a reality. I fought for this re-design three years ago, but as a minority member of the Board of Education. At the September 24, 2007 board meeting though, a resolution I co-authored with Susan Cranley was passed by a majority of the Board to begin the re-design process. The resolution enlists assistance from the Council of Great City Schools, the Knowledgeworks Foundation, and the local STRIVE initiative.

It is mandatory to have community ownership of the redesign, which requires a community driven process. A community driven process begins with community conversation. The Public Engagement and Partnership committee of the School Board, which I chair, will be designing the engagement process with STRIVE.

This redesign will eventually include updated job descriptions with accountability measures for school principals, teachers, and other staff to tie them into the structure that is based on best practice and successful implementations.

We have to stop allowing the state to set or direction and create our own standard of excellence for our community.