Thanks for the update Sara,

Well, what can we say? It was rumored and now it's actually going to happen.Yes, our students most certainly do deserve better. However, moving them in the middle of the school year will certainly lead to even more maladjusted behaviors and increased academic failures. Our students simply dont do well with transition. By the time the paperwork is completed, they wont realistically have settled into their new schools, until mid-March, maybe early April. By then, the school year will be coming to a close and these kids never really "catch-up". By moving kids this late in the school year, we will lose more to the streets, and to the judicial system, than we will ever gain to another "stable" academic institution. Baltimore kids are very territorial. East stays east and west stays west; even more now with the growing gang population. I just truly hope that transition plans have been worked out in detail to minimize losing kids in the "system".

Clearly Homeland Security has been troubled for a long time. For weeks I've been hearing rumors that it would close. How unfortunate it is for the 450 students who are just being told to transfer for the second semester, when the second semester begins in 4 days. I can't begin to imagine how difficult the transition will be for these students and for the students, teachers and administrators at the receiving schools.

Unfortunately, this is not the only school having difficulties this year. I fear that much has been made of the shining stars, but other schools like Homeland Security, Thurgood Marshall, Doris M. Johnson, etc. have been floundering. Students are being short-changed and teachers are reaching their breaking points. Dr. Alonso needs to turn his attention to helping these other schools rather than letting them fall apart.

Wow! I didn't know AAA had a SWAGGER like that! He is nothing if not amazingly ambitious with this recommendation. It will be heavily criticized but those of us who have experienced Walbrook's culture and ambience know that closure may be the only option to salvage students. This is a gutsy and potentially highly unpopular move.
I know effective and ineffective people who work in the school. I am saddened that some who worked there and did their best will find it hard to be thrown in with others who had long lost their zest and passion for serving children. But sometimes you just have to start from scratch.

The last time I visited Walbrook I couldn't get out of the building fast enough and actually panicked when I found myself in a chain-locked stairwell with several students who smelled strongly of marijuana. When I got outside I started to cry at the plight of our schools and our children. It was all so depressing and seemingly hopeless. I have, on many occasions on this blog, publicly struggled to understand Dr.A's motives but this is one is incredibly clear to me: he thinks about and acts with the interest of children always in mind.

The dumping ground quote could apply to all "zone schools" in the system. Ahh, it shall be interesting since the Homeland students were given choice in citywide programs. Can't wait to see how those programs hold up with the influx of Homeland students. I guess they will feel what the zone schools felt when all the dropouts came back. If these students don't transition well, will the citywide programs be able to send the kids back to zone?

AAA forshadowed this move at the principal's meeting two weeks ago. Except then he said he was going to "prove a point." Guess he did it... Avalon said it right, there are a whole stack of schools, all zone, who are in this situation.

Alrighty Then:

I cried when I read your post, for two reasons:

1) The situation that we, as adults, allow to exist when it comes to children boggles my mind. I have worked in 5 different schools in this city and they range from one of the worst to a few of the best. I knew in 1994 that one of the schools I worked in should have been closed - the culture had been set, one of an adversarial relationship between adults and children, one of expected failure and one that valued nothing positive including the hard work of some of the staff. And yet, this school continues to exist and continues in the same way 14 years later. When do we as adults say enough? When do we demand better for children. Some of those kids managed to escape the predetermined life that was before them, I am still in touch with a few of the "kids" who are now in their 20's and working hard to be productive members of this city. I pray (and that's a major statement for those of you who know me) that the students at Homeland and the other schools mentioned find places where adults will care for and nurture them.

2) Part of my tears are from reading the last sentence and I cry because this should have been everyone motivation, should have been the motivation of all of the former CEO's, CAO's, Principals, administrators, and staff as well as the parents and other community members. Yet, I am guessing like you, that Dr. A does in fact make decisions in exactly the way that you describe, I find to be the exception to past leaders. Maybe that is why so many accuse me, and I fully accept, that I have drunk the AAA Kool-Aid. Faith in his motivations for me is never in question.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. If he can make a believer out of you, maybe, just maybe, he's the real deal:-)

Thank you Dr. Alonso for recognizing that students who are trapped in these unsafe, outrageously terrible schools deserve the opportunity to have an education. I think the saddest thing I witnessed while teaching at Canton Middle was the look on the faces of the kids who wanted to learn and had to deal with violence, intimidation, and constant disruption all day because they had no where else to go. I hope as many students transfer out as possible.

Yes, Avalon is correct about at least one thing--teachers are at the breaking point also. We are having more and more issues with teacher absenteeism than I have had in years--a day here; a day there. Teachers are tired--of having to be police officers, of having to make students want to take HSA tests and do Bridge projects, of making phone calls to disconnected numbers that never get connected, of sending letters to parents about seniors in need of assistance who we won't hear from until the student gets a letter saying they won't graduate, of having to deal with violence and disrespect on a daily basis from students and administration. AAA needs to address all of these issues too but so far--nada. Maybe when a student gets killed during school hours inside a school or another teacher gets severely injured, then we will get some action. Threatening teachers with dismissal if their certification lapses is no way to build loyalty which is something sorely lacking in the BCPSS now.

To be honest, we allow the thugs to run the schools because we're afraid to hold students accountable. We let the kids run the show. If you screw up at Poly, you're gone, screw up at a zone and your back in 45 days. Homeland and the other zone schools survive with the students the other schools don't want. Someone has to try and teach the kids that can't get into a citywide, or whose parents are apathetic and won't sign them up for a "transformation school". I'm happy to be at a zone, just hate the judgement from folks who don't deal with the reality. The kids at Homeland have been shafted, but reality is the ones who were complete jerks also just got moved to more "privledged" placements that they never would have been allowed in after middle school.

why the myopia? do any of you--particularly those who declaim Alonso's righteousness--live in west Bmore? Because its a permeable membrane between street and so-called institutional space. check this: its the good kids who go to school. And now they put out, like adults do when they say they making change-- for the kids.

Its a public school dawgz. public. do you get it? public. and yall claiming your own righteousness for closing it down!?

why aren't you running in there and fixing it yourself? huh? Your kid ain't there?

f-this. democracy's sad day. you do something like shut this down and make yourself feel good.

please

yous lost.

cause the street is still here. and you don't live here.

The membrane between street and institutional space is more like semi- or selectively permeable because "street" is constructed to provide parameters for socialization. The polar opposite of street to me is 'affluence' which is also a construct but it will serve my example. If you are from supremely affluent circumstances you can recognize a fellow lady just by where she crosses her legs- knees=no, ankles=yes.

Now, since 'street' is socially constructed it can ALTER with the circumstances and the people involved. This is the reason why extraordinary teachers are able to create a safe classroom space within a school of chaos. This is how determined administrators are able to create a school climate of high achievement and hope in an economically depressed community.
There are good public schools and public teachers. There are excellent public schools and public teachers. There are BAD public schools and public teachers. The data says Walbrook-whether West, East, North or South of Baltimore- is not a good school. The kids deserve a chance at something else...something better. I am not so cyclopian in my view to forget that the streets may always be there BUT you must realize that the kids don't have to stay in them or carry the weight of them around. Think of this as an opportunity for them to escape to the possibilities of something better, brighter, ...

I am still not sure of the logic to close the school down rather than spend the time/energy to fix it - the message that this sends is that your school is beyond the skills of even the best people in our system? I was startled by the quote in the article that "maintaining control requires a disproportionate share of resources" - so rather than do this, the system passes the buck to the other neighborhood schools because we all know that City, Poly, Western and probably even Dunbar are not going to accept any of Homeland's kids mid-year, even if their enrollments are down.

IMHO, a big piece of the solution is clear - the system needs to truly provide alternative placements for ALL of the students who administrators spend 90% of their time disciplining. So the system doesn't expel - fine, but then savvy kids at zoned schools know there is no ultimate consequence and keep doing whatever they want. Have a place to send them that is not with their friends and where they will have no choice but to focus on learning. And let the hard working people in zoned schools get back to the kids who are there for the right reasons.

Anyone who wants to tout AAA's brilliance and praise how balsy he is by making the big moves is formally invited to come spend a day with me. You'll see no street culture in my classroom, because I hold it down... But you'll see a school that is (and has been) falling apart at the seems for the past four years. A school that has chased off it's best teachers to charter schools, and fought to maintain staff who believe teaching is sitting at a desk for 90 minutes and yelling at students.

So many schools are like mine. Mismanaged by inexperienced administrators who turn a blind eye to problems and a stuck up nose to teachers like me. Teachers who love their kids, and force them into an education by any means necessary. Teachers who don't drink the cool aid. You think AAA's working? Take me up on this, I'll open your eyes.

Thank you vetern teacher and Brandon! Like you, I too face these issues in my classroom (as do most in my school) every day and wonder how can I keep a positive attitude and want to help these students when I am cussed out hourly, emotionally abused by students daily, spend the passing periods trying to get students out of the hallways to go to class, spending class time dealing with the same students who are being disruptive in the hallways, calling parents on my own cell phone because teachers don't have access to the school phones, dealing with students who smoke/deal drugs in school, creating creative seating charts to ensure that rival gang members aren't sitting by each other, and having no supplies (no copy paper and not enough working computers for a class of students)?

Because of mid-year budget cuts, we had teachers relased from our school and I now have 35 kids per class in an HSA tested area. If I am to get even 3-4 kids in each new class from Homeland, how can I really teach? I'd like to talk to my Principal about our issues, but I've only seen that person once since Thanksgiving....and even then, they were on the phone in their office with the door barely cracked open.

I agree with Brandon--there are a lot of great teachers that want the children to succeed and would give anything for them to be successful, but how much more can we take? We are all falling apart! We all need help....when will someone hear our cries and actually listen and help us?

Don't give AAA too much credit. These schools have been out of control for years and he doesn't give administrators the free reign to do what needs to be done to seriously correct the problems. What will happen to the next school where these students transfer both themselves and their behaviors? Will these students magically change overnight? What about the teachers who were not reporting to work? What will be done with them? Will they take that same no-caring attitude toward students and student achievement with them? It's more than just shutting down the school, you've got to look deeper than that. This is a systemic problem that has to be addressed at the source and not band-aided for public perception of being "ahead" of the curve.

"Out of the mouths of babes." This morning I listened to a Homeland Security student who was interviewed by a TV reporter. She really hit the nail on the head when she said that the problem is that the troublemakers aren't being dealt with appropriately. They're allowed to remain and make mayhem, disrupting the learning environment. The system needs to have an effective way of dealing with the disruptive students. The supposed alternative settings for these students are filled with the "easier" cases who have the best chance to be successful and, thus, make the program and its administrator appear more successful. The most difficult students are allowed to remain in schools where they do as they please with no consequences. Nothing will really get better for the system until something is put into place to help the most troubled students get the help they need in a setting that doesn't disrupt the education process for the other students AND there is attention and support given to the schools that are currently floundering.

Avalon, I'm curious about this comment,

The supposed alternative settings for these students are filled with the "easier" cases who have the best chance to be successful and, thus, make the program and its administrator appear more successful. The most difficult students are allowed to remain in schools where they do as they please with no consequences.

Do you have experience in these alternative learning schools? Are you basing your comment on what has happened at the school you teach at? I'm genuinely curious. One of the "Alternative Learning Centers" is placed in our complex but we never see them since they're on the other side of the building. I'm going to send the Principal of that program an e-mail.

Many comments have been made about teachers and administrators failing. With the high turnover at these "neighborhood schools" (I know from experience, I was the only stable person in a department for 9 years), and administrators changing each year, is that really the cause of ALL the problems? Teachers and administrators get tired, doing everything that is necessary to be successful. Coming in at 6, leaving at 8, and still have to buy all your own supplies? The system needs to support the MANY teachers who do this without complaint! I am tired of hearing the "be dedicated" argument from people who get upset when their 9 to 5 job asks them to work til 5:30. Teachers leave the building and go home and plan and grade. Some life. Low pay, long hours, treated poorly by everyone (parents, students, administration), its a wonder ANYONE wants to work in these conditions. Give these people the proper support and see what happens within these schools!

Corey,

I believe that Avalon is referring to the students who can be referred to AOP at North Avenue. They don't take the more difficult special education students, students who are on probation and respect no one or students who are overage and more than one year behind in credits. The students who have been sent there are only a few credits behind, basically have had attendance issues and some of them have already passed their HSAs. Of course, they will be successful in a school where they get almost one-to-one attention. The really hardcore problems--firestarters, fighters, chronic hallwalkers, drug dealers get sent back to the original school with a slap on the wrist. We had a student who pulled the fire alarms and assaulted a teacher who was returned because of paperwork issues and a mother who knew politicians who intervened on her behalf. What message does that send? We may be able to suspend students but it doesn't stick so why bother?

I agree with Avalon, students who require a new kind of attention aren't recieving it. Students who are regularly assaulting people, starting fires, or blowing up at teachers over minor statements are not being helped by suspensions from their neighborhood schools.

What BCPSS needs is a Bonnie Brae (http://www.bonnie-brae.org) or a McKinley (http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/node/487) school. A school that uses strong administration & a proven working program to help these kids turn around. The students at Bonnie Brae are ex sex-offenders, assaulters, and many other criminals... yet you can see on their website a group of young men in a marching band at Obama's inauguration... in the parade. Lets find programs that work and invite them into BCPSS!

Yes, vetern teacher, that's exactly what I was referring to.

I wanted to double check Avalon's comments because I've heard them from multiple teachers at neighborhood schools. While I certainly sympathize with their positions, I think they're in the most difficult environments to succeed perhaps in the whole country, I think their frustrations are often misdirected.

I spoke with the Principal of the Alternative Learning Center in our complex and he said the assertion that these programs are only taking on the problematic but not the worst students is completely false. He has the kids coming straight from jail, he has the chronic fire starters, the special needs, the whole she-bang.

Now do we need more alternative programs and spots for troubled youth? Absolutely. Should thrice suspended students be returned to their zone schools? Absolutely not. These are legitimate issues to advocate for. However, to claim that the alternative programs aren't taking the worst of the worst is dead wrong.

Corey, There are several of the Alt Schools doing the "work." In fact it's those alt schools that have middle school age/under 15 taking the brunt of the work. The HS placements are dismal and non-functioning. I can tell you about one student who was sent back from a program because he couldn't comply. It's a sad state at the HS level. If I'm not mistaken the middle school AOP sites are packed.