I personally think the only hope Middletown has as a community of the funding of a program such as the Middletown/ Miami Promise. The problem is the schools are wrapped up in the dismal entitlement, "me go, not we go" mentality of the city leadership. When the city is Rome Burning, there goes the school district. As Vet said, I recall attending Manchester for two years, and the quality of instruction and caliber of student demographic was fantastic. Those were the days when the school district was terrific, and the middle-class strong and upper-class. The days are gone, so the intersection merges failure of a city with a school district. So, how to fund it? Well, there has to be some out of the box thinkers aound the town who know how to get some funds with all the other $Bb Obama is throwing around. Make Middketown a federal beta site, and pull in population and students. That's a start. It has a better chance at getting funded than Middletown getting a bullet train and being a 100 MB google backbone for high speed internet, when I doubt with >50% of the population in poverty, there are many desktops and laptops sitting around the homes.  

 

Perhaps the easiest strategy is to formulate a campaign that begins something as simple as this. There are more communities than Middletown that value the obtainment of an education. In those communities like Oakwood, where the students feel there is not only hope, but a mandate from their parents, to do well, reach for the next level. These parents had Mollie's and Joihnny's tuition paid for at Dartmouth by the time their kids were age 10. While in Middletown, the majority one assumes, helps keep the car running when it breaks down once a week, or can't find a job at a local Kroger's---and all the $$$ goes to paying gas just to get around town.    

 

In Middletown, because of changing demographics and other factors, that hope and motivation is not there for all of our students. We have to find ways which our students recognize there is a better quality of life and future, armed with a good education. That's a tougher task in Middletown than other communities where the family circumstace prevents that recognition. As for motivation, I can tell you, and lets assume MHS has a quality guidance counselor, an A student coming from poverty or middle-class, with a 28-30 ACT will get a full ride to a number of great schools, including your former at Williams, rated in top 5 liberal arts, Middleberry, Washington U, Vandy, Gettysburg, Swathmore, Wabash, and countless others. The reward is there, and you don't have to have rich parents to get there.

 

The key is motivation, not intellectual deficiencies necessarily. How do you motivate? Well, there is a whole surrounding infrastructure of mentors and others put in place. Not all parents aspire kids to achieve. Not all teachers do, nor administrators. Many privates are very rigorous and don't cuddle the student, they either perform or they don't, its an A or a D.  

 

As for V/M statements wasteful, both are indeed aspiration statements, but always tuned usually within 5 years, as Fortune 500's strategically plan no more forward than 5 years. They are constantly refreshed. If you haven't changd that goal, then its altered, mayve a new niche focus. But, no company, no school, no hospital, no governmnet entity, sticks to a V/M that is unobtainable after about 5 years of effort. That's like putting on a cv my goal is to be CEO of a company, for a 25 year middle manager.           

 

Vision Statement

A statement giving a broad, aspirational image of the future that an organization is aiming to achieve.

 

Mission statement

A formal short written statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a sense of direction, and guide decision-making. It provides "the framework or context within which the company's strategies are formulated.

 

Both the Mission and Vision statements above  follow the above definitions of each.

 

 

We are going to re-write our vision statement because we set our goals too high.  We are going to set a really low goal and then trumpet that we've met it. That will really fool people.  Then they will pass levies because we will have earned it.  Only kids who are already doing well in school should have the right to a good public education.

 

We are going to "re-engineer" and "drive down" change through leadership (wait, didn't we just hire a new leader??  Never mind, I'm sure it is still fair to criticize us for not doing something we just did) and the students who don't want to learn and the parents who don't care that their students don't want to learn will all jump on board, even though it will require them to work harder  (the ones who are open to change are not the problem, Vet).  If any of the changes would require additional manpower, we will just tap into the vast network of Middletown citizens eager to volunteer in our schools.  As for the teachers and other staff, if they don't like it we'll just fire them, and if we can't do that because of the union contract, we'll just lock the teachers out for over a year, following AK's model, because that really "broke" the union at AK.  The kids won't learn anything for the time of the lockout/strike, but due to our lowered expectations we will still exceed our achievement goals.

 

Gosh, it's hard to understand how our city and school district got into the difficult situations they are in with you guys willing to help with your advice.

 

(For the avoidance of any doubt, in response to the inevitable person who will take the above literally, this is SARCASM).

 

Good Night

Marcia Andrew

 

Recognizing the need to prepare students to become productive members of a democratic society, we envision that the Middletown City School District will:

• Raise achievement levels of all students
• Eliminate achievement gaps
• Earn a rating of "Excellent" on the school district's state report card

 

You are correct though, a good management team would alter this lofty but unachieveable goal. There are five assistant principals just at MHS, and yet, they are cut to the bone? Public education is so laden with wasted overhead. 

 

The new mission statement is:

 

Secondly, change takes time? It certainly does not. Its re-engineered, driven through leadership, and adopted. What's the paradigm which teachers and administrators can't relinguish---union seniority? The changes I recall were associated with racial culture clarities, discipline- or the lack thereof, and the elimination of homework. Granted, there may be other programs which have been added or eliminated, but to state it takes 7 years for the paradigm and cultural impediment to be altered is not only non sensical, respectfully stated, but unreasonable to expect such a period of time would be the norm for it to be accepted.

 

It would appear the state does an excellent job of coming in, thinning out a school district, and turning it around. Its quite obvious the rate of progress you and the Board feel reasonable are simply out of step with what I would call any reasonable and responsible individual provided such illustrious and lofty goals as MCSD set years ago. The state has the expertise to make that happen, and usually produce exceptional outcomes.

 

The reality is the district and city are caught in a trap; the proverbial "chicken or the egg", which comes first. The city has fallen asleep at the wheel on development and allowed an additionally high % of the "cast-aways" as some may call them, to migrate to Middletown. That has impacted school performance as some argue. But, would a solid school system with the stated mission/ vision statement, alter performance and raise standards to the school pulling residents like a magnet to Middletown. I realize that is quite a challenge, even if the school was rated EXCELLENT. So, which will perform against its stated standards forst- the district or the city of Middletown, although i don't believe they have standards or measures, and that Strat Plan they boast, well, its a little too "glittering generalities", no substance. Give credit for the MCSD at least having some meat in the plan, granted, an unrealistic and unobtainable goal state as its target which will not be met, without change and pruning.

 

The district set the bar too high, and is stuck. $$$$ just won't solve this problem. Its like a misbehaving child- it calls for tough love. But that's my opinion. I realize the unions will do a quid pro quo, pull in the MUM support, get organized, which the adversaries never will do, and its back to status quo. In other wods, the demographics which are your nemesis will stay at home, not vote, while others gather mass, and it will be another 55-45 win in May. Gosh, the city can't relinguish the golf course for its employees and retires, you don't seriously think the majority will give up Middie sports? And that's how it will play.