PUBLIC WANTS TO RETAIN 5-MINUTE SCHOOL INPUT
May 18, 2001
Members of three community groups and others last night urged the Toledo board of educations policy committee to keep a five-minute time limit for public participation at meetings.
Board members Larry Sykes and Terry Glazer heard demands from citizens to change the district’s policy of allowing only people who sign up before noon on the days of meetings to address the boards. More than half of the 40 people who attended the forum in the Thurgood Marshall Building, 420 East Manhattan Blvd., spoke against a board proposal to change the five-minute public participation time limit to three minutes.
Mr. Sykes said the pace of recent board meetings has been slowed by numerous people talking during the public participation period, causing the meetings to last late into the night.
About 13 members of ACOR – Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – attended the forum. Some of the association’s members went into the meeting holding signs, which Mr. Sykes said they could not display.
Jamie Kaufman, who is co-chairman of the groups, said he believes the district should provide more opportunities for parents to participate in the decision-making process that affects their children’s education.
“I am wondering if school board members are limited to talking three minutes on a particular issue,” he said. “We don’t want to be shut out.”
Representatives of the Lagrange Village Council and the watchdog group Parents for Public Schools also spoke against reducing the time allotted for public participation.
Jennifer Blakemore was among the people who urged the committee to eliminate advance registrations to speak before board members at the meeting. “You would get more community involvement if you could sign in at the door,” Ms. Blakemore said.
Patricia Hurtado, a member of ACORN, suggested forming a task force of parents, teachers and administrators to address public participation at the meetings and issues in the district.
After listening to the comments, Mr. Glazer said he was willing to recommend to the board that it retain the five-minute limit and adopt two other suggestions offered during the forum.
He said he would recommend that the board discontinue the policy that people must sign up before noon on the day of the meeting.
He was willing to recommend that the board consider Ms. Hurtado’s suggestion to implement a task force.
Mr. Sykes said he was agreeable to keeping the five-minute time limit for public participation. However, he said he was not ready to commit himself to MR. Glazer’s recommendation for eliminating advance sign-up and forming the task force.
“I have a problem at this particular time with people walking through the door and the board not knowing the subject matter,” he said.
TOLEDO SCHOOL BOARD NAMES FORMER MEMBER TO VACANCY
August 16, 2001
Changing its own selection procedure - again - the Toledo board of education yesterday chose a former board member and former Democratic Party official to fill a four-month vacancy.
And the action immediately drew criticism from some of those who applied for the appointment.Keith Wilkowski, 45, a lawyer, will replace Patricia Kennedy, the board's only woman and only Republican. She resigned last month, citing health reasons. The seat is open in the November election.
Mr. Wilkowski served two four-year terms on the board, beginning in 1983. A former Toledo law director, he was Lucas County Democratic Party chairman for nearly four years, ending in 1997. He works as the Rossford law director and is legal counsel for the struggling Rossford Arena Amphitheater Authority. His two daughters graduated from Start High School; and his two sons attend private schools.
Republican candidate Jeffrey Greeno, who applied for the vacancy, called Mr. Wilkowski's selection "typical party politics: appoint someone they want to the position rather than somebody who applied."
Darlene Fisher, president of the district-wide organization, Parents for Public Schools, applied for the vacancy.
She said she was disappointed in the board changing the selection procedure as it went along.
"I feel like they wasted people's time. They should have been up front about what the process was going to be and stuck to it," she said.
In July, the board set an Aug. 12 deadline to receive applications for the vacancy, and eight people applied by that date. Then, the board accepted applications from two more people before its meeting Tuesday.
Mr. Wilkowski, who did not apply, said he agreed to serve after board President Peter Silverman called him Tuesday to ask if he would be interested in being appointed. Earlier that day, the board met to hear statements from the most of the nine applicants for the vacancy.
One applicant withdrew at the meeting.
Anita Lopez, general counsel and director of enforcement at the Toledo Fair Housing Center, is a candidate for the open seat in the November election. In July, she said the board should consider appointing a candidate for the vacancy, but Tuesday said the board should choose someone who wasn't running and withdrew from consideration.
Mr. Silverman said in July the board would consider candidates in the November election for the vacancy.
Yesterday, he said the board decided not to.
"We agreed it should be someone who is not running so as not to give them an unfair advantage in November," he said.
Mr. Silverman said he wanted board consensus on who would serve the remainder of Ms. Kennedy's term, but the four board members could not agree on any of the applicants. "We all had our candidates. We all debated about who we wanted. We didn't come to any consensus," board member David Welch said.
Board member Larry Sykes said he would have preferred a minority woman to fill the vacancy. "There's five with testosterone on the board now," he said.
Six candidates are running for three open seats on the board this fall, including Mr. Silverman and Mr. Welch, who are up for re-election.
In addition to Mr. Greeno and Ms. Lopez, Becky Berry, who like Mr. Greeno is endorsed by the Lucas County Republican Party, and Steven Steel, a Green Party candidate, are seeking a seat.
Board members elected in November begin their terms in January, but Mr. Wilkowski said he would resign immediately after the election to allow for the winner's immediate appointment.
Mr. Wilkowski said he would not run for the position.
KEST IRKS MEMBERS OF SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE REITERATES INTERVENTION IDEA
August 24, 2001
Mayoral hopeful Ray Kest yesterday reiterated the possibility of the city's intervention in Toledo Public Schools as board of education members spoke angrily about his criticism of the district during a candidates' debate Wednesday.
"What Toledo Public Schools needs is a helping hand and not political grandstanding," Peter Silverman, the president of the Toledo board of education, said. "Ray Kest should first try to pitch in and help before condemning the whole system just to score political points."Mr. Silverman, a Democrat, is seeking re-election to the school board in November. A former city councilman and mayoral candidate, Mr. Silverman is supporting Mr. Kest's opponent, House Minority Leader Jack Ford in this year's mayoral race.
During the debate, Mr. Kest, an unendorsed Democrat in the Sept. 11 primary, called Toledo's school system a "failure," charging that many of its graduates are unprepared for college or the workforce.
"We need the school system to improve. The mayor has to take that leadership. If it means some legislative changes to do that, that's what has to happen," Mr. Kest said. "We have a new superintendent; we're going to give him a chance. We're going to give the school board a chance, but the school board has to improve."
Mr. Ford said takeovers of districts in Chicago and Detroit offer some ideas for improvement for public schools, but he was not excited about a municipal takeover of Toledo's 38,000-student district.
"Dr. [Eugene] Sanders is in there. We've got to give him some time to do what he can," said Mr. Ford, who is endorsed in the mayoral election by the Lucas County Democratic Party.
Mr. Kest, Lucas County treasurer and a former city councilman and county commissioner, said yesterday he thinks the district should be given three years to show improvement. That would be an appropriate time, he said, to evaluate the efforts of Dr. Sanders, hired last year, and to reap the benefits of the passage last fall of the district's three-year, 6.5-mill levy.
"I think the superintendent and the school board should be given a chance to produce," he said. "I'm fully supportive of what they're trying to do. But I'm saying if they don't succeed, then some drastic measures have to be considered."
He refused to elaborate on details of such a plan, but said as mayor he would seek input from business and education leaders.
"We would sit down and we would come to a consensus of what needs to be done to improve the Toledo Public Schools system," Mr. Kest said.
School board member Larry Sykes called Mr. Kest's comments "inappropriate" and said he doesn't consider the district to be a failure. "The majority of our kids pass the proficiency tests. When [Mr. Kest] talks about failure, I have no idea what he's talking about, nor does he, obviously," Mr. Sykes, a Democrat and former school board president, said. Mr. Sykes is supporting Mr. Ford.
Mr. Ford said he considers Mr. Sykes a "good friend," speaking with him at least weekly about school issues.
Francine Lawrence, president of the Toledo Federal of Teachers union, with about 3,300 members, said she thought Mr. Kest made his comments because he did not receive the union's endorsement, which went to Mr. Ford. "We don't take his comments too seriously," she said.
The quality of public schools is considered integral for cities to attract and keep residents and businesses. Candidates and school board members have said Toledo's governmental agencies, businesses, and schools should form a partnership to improve education.
Dr. Sanders said public education and debates about how to improve it are on voters' minds.
"It makes sense to add education as a main concern for all the elected officials," he said.
Board member David Welch agreed that debate about school improvement is a necessary and important discussion in Toledo.
"It's good for the school board. It's bringing the school issue out front," Mr. Welch said. "The more attention we get, the more people get concerned."
Mr. Welch, a city employee and a Democrat, is seeking re-election in November to the nonpartisan school board. City employees are not allowed to engage in partisan politics. The two other board members, Terry Glazer and Keith Wilkowski, did not return calls.
(not sure what happened here, I can't find my other articles from 2001, sorry)
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