But, was it like going to a therapist? You pour out your heart, vent emotions and concerns and the therapist listens. Did AAA or the board actually answer any real questions?????

Why does Lemmel Middle School always have to be referred to as the school where the child was fatally? No one ever mentions the young lady who created the great billboard near the Hanover street bridge. This is a game where no one is ever going to win, students or staff.

I attended the first Parents and School Community Members BCPSS FY 2010 BUDGET TRAININGS MEETING Thursday, April 16 6 to 7:30 p.m. @ City Schools Central Office (Cafeteria) 200 E. North Ave.

In my opinion based on my systemic secondary/primary school budget participation on actual school advisory budget teams, it was a sorry budget training meeting event experience. A formatted orientation activity style meeting is not a training process. Lead by a unexperienced executive officer school staff member who has never participated on a actual secondary/primary site school budget panel group, and it showed obviously at the meeting to an experience and seasoned person that has actually participated many times. The budget training meeting leader was The Office of Partnership, Communications, and Community Engagement and Partnerships executive director Michael Sarbanes. For parents more on scheduled meeting information call 410.545.1870 or visit www.baltimorecityschools.org look for the link *FY2010 Budget Training Schedule. Notice about the meeting schedule was finally posted on the BCPSS web page late yesterday, late PM after the meeting begain!

But if I were you citizens, parents, and school community members do not expect to engage in any real training at this meeting that will prepare you for the actual real practical experience of academics programmatic/financial budget planning and engaged participation with experienced school staff department heads and administrators. Again the City Schools is short changing citizens, parents and the district school community members with providing highly unqualified phantom school system budget process trainer. Also several parents, citizens, and community members in the low attendance count meeting complained about the last hour verbal meeting notification given from the community site schools administrators and no official public school system calander flyers or post to the home web page site.

@wise educator: I think Dr.A is more conscious and alert than some think. Ever watch a semi-comatose cat go from napping to fully awake in a nano second? He may not have said much, and may have appeared unaltered, but trust that the gears are grinding away.

I have always thoght the "gang" issue in Baltimore is overstated. Yes, they are here but "boundry lines" are blurred you rarely hear school violence directly attributed to gangs and colors. It's no more of an issue than other factors such as drugs, rumors, or neighborhood beefs. Did any of the concerned parents offer an alternative? The system cannot continue to operate half empty schools.

I hope that parents become more proactive and form Parent Groups BEFORE decisions are made and perhaps their efforts will not go in vain.

Ghost Blogger-

With all due respect, the gang issue in City Schools is NOT overrated. Issues of drugs, rumors, and neighborhood beefs are directly and inextricably linked to gang behavior-both in and out of schools. If we confront the gang issues in our schools, we will also confront the issues of drugs, rumors, and neighborhood beefs.

I invite you to come to my neighborhood high school and let me walk you around the building and see if you draw the same gang generalization. The kids involved in nefarious activities are usually (not always, but close to it) involved in gangs.

What evidence do you have that the gang issue, as you say, is "overstated"? Im real curious.

David - I think you're right, gang affiliations are a serious issue in the City. I don't think there's much evidence to suggest otherwise, especially when faced with 250+ murders a year of which over 80% are in some way related to narcotics distribution.

I say this, though, as a premise to my next point. We, as a society in Baltimore City, cannot let gangs decide how best to educate children. We must be mindful of the collateral issues involved, but gangs cannot dictate public education. Public education can be a vehicle to addressing the issue, and it should not be a road block to meaningful reform. Additionally, I believe there are plans in place to use this as an opportunity to create a corps of students who will serve as bridge ambassadors, working over the summer to create a culture of leadership and community so that the year starts with identified student leaders (from all neighborhoods) charged with confronting the issues head on.

The day gangs dictate what schools go where is the day we've lost civil society to a culture of fear. I know that sounds dramatic, but I honestly believe that this can be an opportunity rather than an excuse for failing schools.

Also, David, I think you teach at (a neighborhood high school), and lord knows that your first hand experience is better than most in terms of school-gang issues. I trust your judgment, and I'm wondering whether you think the merge can be an opportunity to confront the social issues that make their way into the schoolhouse doors?

Bill-
I think your assessment is spot on. We cannot make ourselves beholden to the gangs in our schools. That is an admission of defeat. A pernicious white flag if you will. Its akin to letting the inmates run the asylum or the prisoners the penitentiary (which appears to be the case in Maryland according to the Sun today, but thats for another blog). I think the school system does the most benefit in this circumstance by recognizing and acknowledging that gangs are a problem and confronting it with honesty and transparency. The idea of ambassadors is a good one. I would need to see results to be able to make a concrete judgment, but its a positive step for sure. At the very least, its pro-active, honest, and cognizant of the issue of gangs itself.

As for my thoughts on the merge(s), I think they present a lot of opportunity and potential for problems. Merge or no merge, the schoolhouse doors (great Supreme Court language) are always the frontline of social issue confrontation. It's great that Alonso has decided to close some schools and merge others for the sake of overall achievement, but I fear it will cause some turbulence as well. Some of the schools that are successful in their charters (NAF and Reach immediately come to mind) are still in their infancy. Moving them to buildings in different neighborhoods (gang issues/beefs entirely aside) and merging them into schools/complexes that are large and dont have histories of success seems a little premature to me. Cultures and schools of academic success take time and energy to nurture through their developmental stages and I fear ripping them from their early foundations may prove problematic. But time will tell.

I hope that answers some part of your question....

Well I guess the term "gang" becomes a matter of semantics. If you are speaking of a gang culture, then I completely agree that this is a huge problem. But just because someone acts like a thug does not mean they are in a gang. People throw the word gang around often and loosely. I am quite familiar with the Baltimore neighborhood schools as I have worked in the Human Service field all over the city and metropolitan area for 16 years. I am also in a neighborhood school regularly.

Again, I admit that there are gangs in the city and the schools but in this internet age we live in there are a lot of wanna be gang members who are getting their information off the internet. It has always been my assessment that "gangsters" don't go to school so I doubt that there are very many in your hallways......just thugs who are obviously coming there looking for something but are not being reached. Some of whom, with the right intervention, could be taught.

Ghost Blogger-

I appreciate your response. I agree wholeheartedly that "gangs" and "gang culture" are, from a linguistic standpoint, a matter of semantics. But the end result of both in the context of our schools is a troubled/chaotic/ learning environment and thats why I reacted to your earlier post.

I will also agree that many of our kids are wanna-be/fake/school "gangsters", but if they are creating chaos in the schools and disrupting the learning environment, it is a moot point. A disruption is a disruption whatever the real or imagined affiliation might be.

Whether it is gangs or the culture of gangs, "it" needs to be addressed in a pro-active and vigorous way by our schools. The culture that permits gangs to become embedded in a community and the resultant violence that occurs can most readily be addressed in our schools.

And I MOST whole-heartedly agree that those who show up are at least taking THAT step-unlike others lost to the streets. If we can provide interventions, we might be able to sway one or two. That said, we need to balance the need for intervention for those deemed highly at-risk for gang involvement with the instructional needs of our other students in our buildings who may be negatively affected by the constant disruptive behavior.

Therein lies the trickiest part-and the part I think Alonso has not fully grasped yet.