Mamie Till Mobley

"There was an important mission for me, to shape so many...young minds as a teacher. God took away one child but...(gave) me thousands. And I have been grateful for the blessing." Mamie Till Mobley

Thursday, June 23, 2011

School board continues to debate the future of superintendent James Williams

 The Buffalo Board of Education scheduled a meeting on Wednesday to address the issue of whether to terminate the contract of Superintendent James Williams once again after he agreed to a buy-out agreement deal with out-going deputy superintendent Dr. Folasade Oladele two weeks ago that had the community in an uproar.
 And Darius Pridgen,  a popular preacher elected to the Buffalo Common Council sent a message out on his Facebook website sounding the alarm about the impending discussion to fire Williams yesterday and today  polled his friends on the site asking if Williams should be  fired, allowed to stay or undecided though he wrote, "stop it BOE and let the man finish up his time and complete his agenda."
However, it appeared to be another shilly-shallied affair with School Board President Ralph Hernandez calling for a special meeting on Tuesday that by Wednesday he cancelled as quickly as he called for it while the excuse issued in the local media was "conflicting problems of  Board Members."
Yet after two hours in executive session yesterday,  Hernandez acknowledged the School Board discussed Williams but would not discuss the matter any further telling the media it was a "very sensitive situation they are dealing with."
With graduation rates down from two years ago" 50 percent of black students in Buffalo graduated in four years, compared to 60 percent of white students" today it is 45% to 58% respectively.   And,  English Language Learners 23% have the lowest graduation rates  followed by Puerto Ricans 40% in the district. During the same period the graduation rate of Asian students  plummeted as well as  district-wide attendance rates. Nevertheless, talks about terminating  the contract of Superintendent Williams has daunted the School Board. Why?

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Whitney Tilson (3rd background)

Whitney Tilson (3rd background)
"Let’s be honest: we need a lot more well-off, well-educated white folks with a personal stake in both charter schools and education reform in general if we’re going to take reform to the next level, both politically and operationally.Whitney Tilson, hedge fund manager and major funding angel for the school privatizing Democrats for Education Reform, thinks there’s not enough rich, educated white folks.( Preaprez) click photo to his blog.

Arne Duncan

Arne Duncan
U.S. Secretary of Education, click photo