Confessions of an Urban Principal / If they had come looking for a fight, they quickly found one.
by Frank Murphy
Installment 6 of 8
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Long before the alarm clock sounded, I was awake. The sound of another torrential downpour broke the pre-dawn silence of my bedroom. I had been tossing and turning for some time as I tried to recapture fleeting sleep. It was a futile effort. A nagging worry had captured my thoughts. Was the frantic work of the last few months about to be washed away by another Saturday storm?
I arrived at the church an hour earlier than the scheduled start of the Home and School meeting with Mr. Vallas. Reverend Moore and Hope were already there. We reviewed the agenda one final time. It was essential to our success that we control the tone and direction of this meeting.
With only a few minutes left before the ten o’clock start time, the hall was mostly empty. A half dozen people dotted the room. The first official to arrive was the assistant of Vallas who had attended the last meeting at the senator’s office. He said that Mr. Vallas would be late. “ He is just leaving a meeting in another section of the city.”
I wished he wasn’t coming at all. It seem as though all of the effort we had put into organizing this event had been in vain. The handful of people who were present would confirm that the Meade community wasn’t a serious concern to Vallas after all.
And then just like that, people started to enter the church hall.
One small group after another came into the room. By the time Vallas made his entry, a good-sized audience had gathered. Parents and other members of the community continued to pour in during the first half hour of the meeting. By ten-thirty, there was well over a hundred people in attendance. Additional chairs had to be set up to accommodate the larger than expected crowd.
Hope thanked everyone for coming out on such a rainy and unpleasant morning . She introduced Reverend Moore. He explained to the assembled crowd that he would be acting as the moderator for the session. The pastor outlined three points of concern expressed by the Meade school parents. They wanted Meade to be managed by Temple University. They didn’t want any more school reform experiments to be performed on their children. And finally the parents wanted Mr. Vallas to acknowledge the district’s failure to communicate with them. The Reverend passionately described the frustration of the Meade School parents over being ignored by district officials. When he was finished speaking, he introduced Paul Vallas.
Mr. Vallas neither acknowledged Reverend Moore nor greeted the audience. He took hold of the microphone and immediately started to shout at the people. “I’m upset too. I’m very upset. Do you know what upsets me? Abysmal test scores upset me. The scores of your school are really low. They just aren’t good enough. I just can’t tolerate such low performance.”
Vallas was combative. It felt like he wanted to pick a fight. I was taken aback by his display of aggression. He radiated annoyance. His opening speech continued for ten minutes. During this time, he didn’t address a single one of the points that Reverend Moore had articulated. He concluded by calling his Chief Academic Officer up to the microphone. He said, “Mr. Thornton will talk to you about the test data we have collected.”
The tone of Mr. Thornton, the Chief Academic Officer, was just as aggressive as Mr.Vallas’. The two of them acted as though they were offended by our request to meet with them. In their view, Meade School was an obvious failure. Repeatedly Thornton said, “The test scores of Meade are very low.” He started to hand out a packet of papers. Thorton said it contained multiple years of test score information for Meade and Ferguson schools.
“We have compared the scores of these two schools to other district schools. When you look at our information, you will see how poorly these two schools are performing.”
The pastor stopped him from handing out his data packets.
“We didn’t ask you here in order to discuss the test scores of different schools. We have questions and concerns about your plans for Meade. We will look at that information later. The parents here today are offended by how you have failed to address their concerns. And you are continuing to ignore them right now.”
Reverend Moore restated the three points he had made when he opened the meeting.
“Our parents support the Temple Partnership. Our parents don’t want you experimenting with their children’s education. They are not pleased with your continuing failure to respond to their concerns. What do you have to say about these points?”
Vallas and Thorton again tried to brush aside the parents’ concerns. They wanted to talk about poor test scores, the advantages of the Creative Action and Results region, and their perception of Temple’s work in managing Meade School. Their insistence on setting the agenda and their aggressive tone backfired on them. They ignited the ire of the crowd. If they had come looking for a fight, they quickly found one. This group wasn’t going to be bullied .
The meeting lasted for more than two hours. During this time there were more than a few heated exchanges between the audience and the district leaders. I was especially surprised by the harshness of Vallas’ critique of Temple. He stated that Temple hadn’t done a good job of managing its schools. Then he claimed that Temple wanted to give the schools back to the district. After he said this, several audience members referenced the Temple President’s letter of support for the Temple Partnership Schools. They waved copies of this letter in the air. Mr.Vallas responded, “The man I spoke to in private wasn’t the same person who wrote that letter.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant by that comment.
The parents were particularly expressive regarding the plan to bring in Johns Hopkins University to conduct a study of our school.
“Why do you have to pay another university to study Meade School? They aren’t even from this area.”
In responding to this question, Vallas used the phrase, “I am very careful about how I spend my money.” As soon as those words were out of his mouth, the crowd shouted back at him. “Whose money? It’s our money!”
Several times during the meeting it felt as though things were getting out of control. The pastor did a great job of keeping everyone in line.
Repeatedly parents made it clear that they were satisfied with the performance of Meade School. Parent after parent stated that his/her child was reading at or above grade level. “Our children are doing well. The teachers are doing a good job.” The parents forcefully made these points. They refused to be dismissed or ignored.
Mr. Thorton replied, “Obviously you are the parents of the children who are doing well. I’m glad you are here for your children, but you are a minority. I also have to be concerned for the children of the parents who aren’t here. Their children are the ones who are scoring too low. We have to do something for those children.”
The parents responded by telling him that he doesn’t know anything about their neighborhood or school. They ticked off a few facts of their own. Number one on their list of concerns was the high number of children who move in and out of the neighborhood. Next they talked of the difficulties of converting a K-4 school to a K-8 school. Thorton quickly dismissed their concerns. “I have schools all across the city that face the same problems. Those schools still make AYP.” I thought that his comparison was unfair. There are close to two hundred schools in the system. The range in the socioeconomic status of the children who attend these schools greatly varies. Meade School has the highest percentage of low economic families in the city.
Throughout their presentation, Vallas and Thornton repeatedly stated that they had nine years of failing PSSA test scores for Meade students. It was on the basis of these results that they had decided to place Meade in the CAR region. I was confused by this reference to nine years of data. During five of the nine years to which they referred, Meade was a K-4 school. Since the PSSA test has only been given to fifth and eighth grades, we didn’t have any test results during that time. Our current eighth grade is the first eighth grade in our school’s history. They haven’t taken the test yet. In fact we didn’t have much in the way of test results. When an audience member pointed out there weren’t any eighth grade test scores, and only three years of fifth grade test scores for Meade students, Mr.Thorton was flustered. It occurred to me that they weren’t well prepared.
I remained silent in the background until the last five minutes of the meeting. There were several times when I wanted to dispute a statement made by one of the district leaders. But I held my tongue. I didn’t want to distract from my parents’ voices. Near to the end of the meeting, my hand finally shot up in the air. The pastor saw it and called on me.
“Let me offer a principal’s point of view. I am very proud of my staff. The teachers of Meade pour themselves into working with our children. They have been very active participants in district professional development activities. When the district was implementing a Balanced Literacy Framework, the participation of the Meade staff was among the highest in our region. In the Temple Partnership, our teachers have been the most active participants in the workshops and courses that have been offered by the Partnership. The Meade staff is a committed group of professionals. Yes, our students’ test scores are low. We are struggling with this issue. And we are confident that we will find solutions that will help our students to do better.”
Reverend Moore brought things to a close right after my remarks. He summed up the meeting in a few words. “We all agree that Meade’s test scores are low. We need to work together in order to achieve improvement. Our parents expect to be heard and involved by you, Mr. Vallas when you make important decisions concerning their children’s school. The Home and School President is going to contact you soon in order to set up a meeting between the two of you and the President of Temple University. We are going to figure out a way for Temple to keep on working with Meade.”
As the crowd started to disperse, Mr. Vallas told the pastor in private that Meade was going to stay with Temple. I hope he is telling the truth this time.