Aliyya Swaby Photo
Student rep Ortiz, at right, at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The Board of Education is figuring out the best way to control a Board of Alders “fact-finding” visit to Hillhouse High School planned for next week.
A group of alders is visiting the troubled school March 7 as a prelude to a public hearing about concerns raised by students, teachers and parents.
The matter has become another flashpoint in relations between the Board of Alders, the city’s legislative body; and the Board of Education, which oversees the schools.
Ed board members discussed how to define the parameters of the visit at a special public meeting Tuesday night at 54 Meadow St., and in a subsequent open meeting after losing quorum partway through the session.
Hillhouse student and Board of Ed student member Coral Ortiz said students are upset about the negative attention on their school this year and nervous for the upcoming alder actions.
Days before the new school year started, the district announced its decision to add a fourth mini-“academy” within Hillhouse and rearrange the administrators. The school is now divided into the four academies, including a new Social Media and Arts (SMART) Academy for freshmen starting this year and a College Career Readiness (CCR) Academy for seniors being phased out by next year.
Superintendent Garth Harries explained the history behind the alders’ decision to visit Hillhouse and hold a hearing about recent changes made at the school. The board will discuss the March 16 alder hearing at its next board meeting March 14.
The alders’ Education Committee scheduled a hearing the March 16 hearing to discuss administrative changes at Hillhouse, after a series of Independent articles showed students and staff were dissatisfied with the process to split the school into four academies this year.
Hillhouse’s coordinating Principal Zakiyyah Baker asked the alders to visit the school before they held a hearing about its status, Harries said. (Baker did not attend Tuesday’s ed board meeting.)
“With all this press attention … what’s getting lost is the accomplishments and good work of students day in and day out,” Harries said. “We control the Board of Education and the schools, but they’re important partners and we try to relate to them particularly on the Education Committee.”
He said he asked alders not to look at Hillhouse in isolation, but rather as a “case study of a range of other issues, school turnaround as we’ve done in other communities or other schools.”
The committee’s tour schedule will begin with a welcome by student representatives in the front lobby at 11:30 a.m., followed by a half hour of classroom visits. Alders will then debrief with selected students for a half hour and then with selected teachers for a half hour. In the last half hour between 1 and 1:30, they will visit professional learning sessions.
What action can the Board of Alders take after the hearing? Ortiz asked Tuesday night.
“At the end of the day, there’s not a lot of impact. They’re public governmental partners. They do not control the decisions we make …]The only thing the alders control for us is our bottom-line budget,” Harries said.
“And that’s important. What I think this is more than anything else is a public relations issue,” with constituents asking for alders to take action on a situation that upsets them, board member Darnell Goldson said. “If they’re doing this, we want to hear what the truth is also.”
Board member Edward Joyner said he wants to press the alders to follow national “visitation protocol standards” for their tour of the school, including the way they select interview subjects, questions and question formats, schedule and timeline and final publishing of the report.
“We ought to be assured that they’re not cherry picking people to talk to,” Joyner said. He said the Board of Ed should push to see the final report before it is released to the public.
Ortiz said the student council has discussed how to get a diverse sample of students represented in the visit. The student council is ensuring two students from each grade and two from each academy are represented, as well as students of different races, genders and academic standing.
What about students already quoted in past articles as having concerns with the structure? Goldson asked. “Are they going to be invited to participate?”
Ortiz said they want to include people who think the academies are working and those who do not. But there are so many students who want to speak that it would be hard to include all of those who spoke in the Independent, she said. Eight kids are better than 20 kids, so all can fully engage in the half-hour discussion with the alders, she said.
“I want to make sure I hear from those kids,” Goldson said.
Principal Baker is leaving the control in students’ hands, Ortiz said.
“She’s in control of student council. Let’s be real,” Goldson said.
Harries said Wooster Square Alder Aaron Greenberg, head of the Education Committee, has not yet set an agenda for the hearing and is open to talking with the Board of Ed about the agenda.
After about a half hour of discussion Tuesday night, Goldson left the meeting, leaving the board with four members — one short of a quorum. Joyner made the decision to continue the discussion as an open meeting, with members of the public present. Earlier that night, board members had made the opposite decision, heading into a private closed-door meeting with four voting members and two student members — not a public meeting, but also not executive session.
The main problem is that the Board of Ed has no policy to govern the parameters of the alders’ school visit, Joyner said. “What I think we have to do is that we have to develop a policy that will define the parameters of school site visitations,” beyond personal visits, he said.
Will alders need parent waivers in order to talk with students and include them in a report? Ortiz asked. No one was sure.
Harries said he will contact Alder Greenberg to get more clarity on the visit, which the ed board has more control over. “The stakes felt a little higher to me” around the hearing, he said. The ed board might need to speak with alders before and after the hearing.
How do students feel about the visit? board member Michael Nast asked Ortiz.
“They felt like nothing was communicated to them. They’re confused and they’re like, ‘Why are you picking on my school?’” Ortiz said. Students’ pride is diminishing “because we always end up on the front cover of the newspaper,” despite the fact that many issues at Hillhouse are happening at other schools in the district. Their fear is that alders will come in “make a statement that might be negative and people are going to take it really seriously,” Ortiz said. “They’re upset at the process and the methodology that the Board of Alders are using.”
Joyner reminded Ortiz and the rest of the board that some alders are Hillhouse graduates with personal feelings about the way the school has changed.
In the beginning of the year, students created a plan acknowledging specific flaws, including the fact that “counseling is a mess” and scheduling has only now been structured. Principals have communicated with students that they plan to improve the school by next year.
Alder Greenberg, who represents the Wooster Square neighborhood, said last week he organized the hearing and visit after hearing about concerns about the school from constituents and reading about it in the Independent.
“I’d like to learn more,” Greenberg said Monday. “We want to make sure there are students, administrators, parents, and alumni” all involved in the discussion.
He noted that the committee’s vice-chair, Upper Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen, Jr., is a Hillhouse grad.