SCHOOL BOARD PASSES ON ELIGIBILITY MEASURE
February 24, 1999
A plan to raise the academic bar for students to play sports in Toledo Public Schools was scrapped last night because it wasn’t tough enough.
In this article they talk about the discussion of raising the then current GPA necessary for playing sports at TPS from 0.08 to 1.2. Most members felt even raising it to 1.2 wasn’t enough, but felt that the raise in GPA necessary should be phased in slowly.
Board member Larry Sykes didn’t say what GPA level he would support but argues against a standard that would “punish” students. He served with Mr. Silverman on the committee that produced the 1.2 GPS plan.
“Don’t punish the children for something that’s not their fault,” Mr. Sykes said. “A lot of these households don’t have the parental support these children need.”
TEACHERS UNION ENDORSES GOP SCHOOL BOARD HOPEFUL
October 20, 1999
The 3,300 member TFT has decided to throw its political support in the Nov. 2 Toledo board of education race to Jeffrey Greeno, a South Toledo Republican.
The endorsement, to be formally announced toda, drew fire from the other two major candidates in the race for two seats on the Toledo school board, incumbents Terry Glazer and Larry Sykes, both endorsed Democrats. The TFT’s endorsement means Mr. Greeno will get volunteer help and likely campaign funding during the few days remaining before the election, TFT President Francine Lawrence said. “He stands for high standards in student learning and conduct. He very much emphasizes school safety and security issues, which is very important to our members,” she said.
Mr. Greeno has criticized the board for failing to find money to pay for ppolice for all 16 senior and junior high schools, a program previously funded entirely by the city. Eleven police officers now cover 16 schools, and the school board pays $200,000 of the $539,000 cost.
A defeat for Mr. Sykes, who is black, would make the board all white in a district that is 45 percent black. Mr. Sykes, 50, ran unsuccessfully in November, 1997, and was appointed a month later to fill a vacant seat. He said the union endorsement of a political unknown means the race will become “hardball”.
“I don’t know if he’s ever served on a board in his life,” Mr. Sykes said. “It says something about the mentality of the union people. Here’s a woman [Mrs. Lawrence] who has criticized this sitting board because she didn’t think they were competent to pick a superintendent.”
SCHOOL ENDORSEMENT DRAWS FIRE, SYKES AND GLAZER DECRY GREENO’S BACKGROUND, REMARK ABOUT VOTING
October 21, 1999
Two incumbent Democratic Toledo school board members yesterday criticized their Republican opponent’s ties to the Toledo teachers’ union, his lack of experience, and his advocacy of “bullet voting.”
Yesterday’s dueling news conferences exposed the still raw nerve endings from last year’s bitter contract negotiations that nearly ended in a teacher strike.
Mr. Glazer, 49, the board president, and Mr. Sykes, 50, the only African-American on the board, touted their experience in community organizations compared to what they called Mr. Greeno’s lack of public involvement.
And the committed themselves to continuing an “agenda of change.”
“We are about change. The union is about the status quo,” Mr. Glazer said. “The union leadership has a stake in the status quo.”
They criticized Mr. Greeno’s advice to his fellow Republicans to cast only one ballot – for him – so as to increase his odds of winning. That strategy is known as “bullet voting”.
Mr. Greeno acknowledged that he recommended bullet voting to fellow Republicans at a party meeting, but said he has not advocated it to the general public or to the TFT membership.
“How in the hell can you as a candidate with a conscience mention bullets with education?” Mr. Sykes asked. “Do you know how ludicrous that is?”
Union President Francine Lawrence said Mr. Greeno is someone who would support collaboration rather than confrontation. She said the TFT rejects bullet-voting, and is not advising its members to cast only one vote.
She rejected criticisms of Mr. Greeno’s inexperience, saying “everyone starts somewhere.” And she said the union has asked for no commitments in collective bargaining from MR. Greeno.
She pointed out that Mr. Glazer asked for the TFT’s endorsement, but did not get it. She said Mr. Sykes did not ask for an endorsement.
Of the two Democratic incumbents, Mr. Sykes is seen as the most vulnerable because he failed in an election bid two years ago and was appointed to the board while Mr. Glazer won election to the board four years ago.
Mr. Sykes acknowledged he could be in trouble, especially if voter turnout is low on Nov. 2. Mr. Sykes’s loss would leave the board with no nonwhite members.
GLAZER, SYKES FOR SCHOOL BOARD
October 28, 1999
After years of mediocrity, the Toledo public school district is finally showing signs of improvement, however gradual. Finally, TPS has a board and an administration willing to stand up for quality and positive change, even if that means taking on the teachers’ union.
That’s why, at this juncture, consistency is critical for the district’s immediate and distant future. This year, two seats are open for election, and both incumbents, school board President Terry Glazer and Larry Sykes, deserve to be re-elected.
Both Mr. Glazer and Mr. Sykes proved last year during negotiations between the district and the TFT that they were willing to hang tough with Superintendent Merrill Grant. The district came within a whisker of a strike, but it was for a noble cause – an attempt to regain basic management rights forfeited over the years to the union.
It was an effort that was only partially successful, and both men recognize that the fight is not over.
Both the incumbents are Democrats, and both have been outspoken about recapturing management rights sacrificed by weak school boards of the past. When push nearly came to shove in the last negotiations, they showed courage, patience and stamina. Those are qualities that Mr. Glazer, executive director of the Lagrange Development Corp., and Mr. Sykes, vice president and community affairs officer for the Fifth Third Bank of Northwestern Ohio, will no doubt be called upon to display again.
READERS FORUM
November 23, 1999
“Bullying won’t work in schools”
Here are some facts to temper your opinion that Terry Glazer and Larry Sykes should confront the teachers union to regain management rights.
When teachers took a stand in our last negotiations for higher academic and discipline standards and school safety, Mr. Glazer and Mr. Sykes voted against a settlement. Mr. Glazer, with Mr. Sykes’ support, stood against seniority in transfers and placements and called that “reform”.
Serious students of school reform do not equate management rights with the reformation of American educations. In fact, most often they cite the need to reform management.
Mr. Glazer has tried to revisit these issues since the contract settlement. Only once has he described his view of reform..He says he wants all teachers to be evaluated by principals, a process reformers are trying to abandon.
Reform her in Toledo is not about improving educations. It’s about retreating to the days when teachers were treated as second-class citizens. That history is why American teachers unionized in the first place.
Threats, bulling, and disrespectful treatment from school board members haven’t won the hearts of the nations teachers, and I doubt they will here either.
Francine Lawrence
President TFT
Losing candidate has reason for pride
Ever wondered why the rooster crows in the morning? Is it because he is happy that the sun is coming up? Or is it because he foolishly believes his raucous song actually raises the golden orb?
The rooster was brought to mind in the last few weeks with the boastful rhetoric of the two victorious contestants in the Toledo board of education race. Less than gracious winners, they have bragged and clucked about how their victory reflects the city’s agreement with their authoritarian approach to aducation.
With just under 18,000 votes each, the two were the obvious winners. But it raises questions: How many in the city of Toledo were eligible to vote? How many of those who voted on Nov. 2 did not cast a vote for the school board ract? (Certainly a much larger number than the received ones.)
It would be foolish for these two members of the Toledo board of education to believe the sun rises over their mandate. Nor is their victory much to crow about. (name omitted by me)
TEACHER CHIEF CALLS GLAZER HOSTILE PARTNER
November 24, 1999
Mr. Glazer challenged Mrs. Lawrence on seven questions relating to the union contract, including what he said was the unions refusal to allow teacher to be appointed to schools based on merit and interest in the school’s philosophy rather than seniority.
After his remarks, Mr. Glazer refused to recognize Mrs. Lawrence. And fellow Democratic board member Larry Sykes, who also was elected Nov. 2 without the endorsement of the union, tried to make a motion to adjourn the meeting as Mrs. Lawrence continued demanding to be hard.
She spoke only after board member David Welch accused Mr. Glazer of being the one to personalize the labor-management dispute.
READERS FORUM
December 10, 1999
Board member displays arrogance
As a parent of two TPS students, as well as being a TPS teacher, I am appalled at the arrogance, ignorance and “all talk, no actions” attitude of Terry Glazer.
At the last school board meeting, Mr. Glazer said that our union leadership hasn’t changed in the last 30 years and during that time half the students have left our district. So is the public supposed to believe that the students left because of Dal and Francine Lawrence? Or could the actual reason be businesses leaving Toledo and taking families with them, either to the suburbs or to other metropolitan areas?
Mr. Glazer and Larry Sykes have talked about reform for the betterment of the students in TPS, but neither has come up with any ideas on how to do this. All they do is drum up bad publicity and instigate controversy about teachers to get the public on their side.
Mr. Glazer claims that Mrs. Lawrence is more worried about the power of the union than the welfare of the students, but it seems he’s more worried about the unions power and how to break it than anything else, including the levy. Mwy Doesn’t Mr. Glazer step into the classroom and work as hard as my students and I, while facing the challenges of growing up in the 1990’s and beyond? (name omitted by me)
1 comment:
I have questions about the grades student athletes should have to play sports. I don't know what that grade point average is. Can some one help me. I think the average should be 2.75
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