In its endorsement editorial, Wednesday Journal paints me as an elitist traditionalist wanting to return OPRF High School to the glory of some fantasy past. I want to clarify that in my career at OPRF I was a dedicated agent for educational change, particularly on equity issues, and as a D200 board candidate, I am deeply concerned, as everyone should be, about ways the school is currently compromising educational quality.
In my long OPRF tenure, I helped change the culture to one that is more inclusive, equity-conscious, and celebratory of diversity. My partial equity record:
- Sponsored SOAR (Students Organized Against Racism)
- Co-chaired Anti-Defamation League’s A World of Difference program for OPRF staff, the school’s first diversity consciousness-raising effort
- Helped conceive and implement the school-within-a-school 4-for-100 program
- Helped conceive and implement 4-District Network of Consortium for Educational Change, forerunner of the Minority Student Achievement Network
- Led the district book group of board members, administrators, and teachers, focused on diversity and school change
- Helped conceive and/or implement classroom transition programs, including College Prep Scholar, Project Scholar, Collaborative Teaching Model, Learning Support Reading, co-teaching efforts for Transitions students, and literacy teaching in content areas
- Recruited, hired, and retained outstanding minority teachers more successfully than any division head
- Advocated forcefully and successfully for Peter Kahn’s unique Spoken Word faculty position
Concerning quality now, the historically high class sizes, the wrong-headed rules on hiring and retaining teachers, and the top-down, non-collaborative decision making by a bloated, unwieldy administration blunt students’ educational experiences, corrode staff morale, and weaken a highly professional faculty. Nothing is more important for OPRF than building and maintaining a top-notch faculty. Excellent quality can become mediocrity nearly imperceptibly, as is happening now at OPRF.
As a board member, I would work effectively for excellence, as I always have.