--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "justifiedright"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
What i read in the Press last week I thought it said the Abbott
Schools wouldn't be in the mix of regionalizing
I've been writing about the segregation of Asbury Park High School
> for years. It's about time the Press started to catch up. I've
> been studying this issue for a long time now.
>
> Everytime I talk about desegregating the schools, people just call
> me a "liberal." They're that freakin' stupid.
>
> There is no political will to desegregate Asbury Park High School.
> Money has already proved ineffective too.
>
> Remember the old busing cases where they bussed kids into schools
> they didn't belong in? Asbury is the opposite: The bussed out all
> the white kids that are supposed to be here.
>
> The only politically possible solution is to close the High School
> and send kids (there is about 475) to each High School from
> Manasquan to Reb Bank Regional (about 60 per school?).
>
> Immediately each child would be in an far better educational
system,
> and segregation would be over. Also, the State could stop spending
> $60 million each year on an Abbott district.
>
> Now is a unique time to do it with Senator Karyllos leading the
> consolidation charge.
>
> Will the people who make money from Asbury Park High School let it
> go? That's one barrier. The other is removing the fear of the
> other towns who would receive the kids. Sity kids- 15 per grade?
> Shouldn't be a problem.
>
> Let me be clear: No other plan will work. Not even close. We
will
> just continue to have more generations of kids languish in one of
> the worst schools in the State if we don't break that school up.
>
> --- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "dfsavgny" <dfsavgny@> wrote:
> >
> > Superintendent spurned efforts to restructure Asbury Park schools
> > Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 12/5/06
> > The Dec. 3 editorial "End segregation in N.J. schools"
> concentrates
> > its verbal firepower on what you call "one of the state's most
> > dysfunctional" school systems, Asbury Park. However, I
> congratulate
> > you on a thoughtful and appropriately harsh contribution to
> finding
> > an appropriate solution. You suggest a plan to distribute the
> > children from Asbury Park into other schools. You even recommend
> that
> > one or more of the city's schools be turned into magnet or
> specialty
> > schools.
> >
> > The sad fact is that had now-suspended Superintendent of Schools
> > Antonio Lewis followed the direction expressed by the board
> majority
> > more than two years ago, our district would be well on its way to
> a
> > much-needed restructuring. Back in 2004, the board majority knew
> that
> > the district was both largely dysfunctional and unstable,
> especially
> > on the secondary level. We asked the superintendent, newly
> returned
> > to the district after a failed attempt to dismiss him, to put the
> > district on a trajectory to a newly structured educational model.
> >
> > The greatest stability, improvement and hope for the district lay
> at
> > the elementary level, and the greatest problem was at the Middle
> > School, both as a concept and a reality. We wanted the district
to
> > return to a K-8 model, with three "neighborhood" elementary
> schools
> > Thurgood Marshall, Bangs and Bradley and one district-wide
> > elementary school to be housed in the current Middle School
> building.
> >
> > The district-wide elementary school would then be established as
a
> > Board of Education-run non-traditional charter school, with
unique
> > rules and programs that might appeal to parents throughout the
> city.
> > For example, uniforms might be a requirement there, as opposed to
> the
> > other elementary buildings, and rigorous performing arts or
> > math/science programs could act as magnets.
> >
> > It was even demonstrated to the superintendent how that might be
> > accomplished over a three-year period with a minimum of
disruption
> to
> > the educational process. Unfortunately, the only things we got
> were
> > lip service from the administration and green-wrapped
indifference
> > from the state.
> >
> > The second phase in the "restructuring that never happened" would
> > have addressed the inadequacies at the high school level, mainly
> > through regionalization. Consider that even a district as small
as
> > Rumson has within its borders two school systems. There, the
> effect,
> > if not the intent, was to further segregation, both by race and
> class.
> >
> > With the right incentives and prodding from the state, Asbury
Park
> > and Neptune, historically joined at the hip, could carve out a
> shared
> > high school system. Both the impressive, new, taxpayer-funded
> Neptune
> > High School facilities and the exquisite 1925 Asbury Park High
> School
> > building, campus and stadium could all be put to great
educational
> > use. Within a newly restructured high school system, there could
> be
> > both a Neptune-Asbury West High School and an Asbury-Neptune East
> > High School, each magnificent buildings with unique programs to
> > attract students from both communities.
> >
> > Although I am a member of the Asbury Park Board of Education, I
do
> > not and cannot speak for the school board. I can tell you,
> however,
> > that we have been struggling to overcome years, maybe decades, of
> > inertia and business as usual. It was with sadness that our
acting
> > superintendent, Kathy McDavid, reported at a parent meeting last
> week
> > that other superintendents have made it clear they will fight any
> > regionalization with Asbury Park. That may be sad, but it is not
> at
> > all surprising.
> >
> > It will be up to the state to finally stop turning a blind eye to
> the
> > de facto segregation in Asbury Park, exacerbated by misguided
> worship
> > of home rule throughout New Jersey.
> >
> > Frank D'Alessandro
> >
> > ASBURY PARK
> >
>
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