Dot-to-dot

“Police raid suspected gambling houses”  says front of section B of the Tuscaloosa News this morning.  The photo shows the people already arrested and those for whom warrants are outstanding.

One of them is named Henry Lee Taggart. That name is familiar…

Flashback to 2007:  “Local game room shut down” was the article that day in the Tuscaloosa News:

A local game room has been shut down by the Tuscaloosa Police Department because of gambling allegations.
Henry Lee Taggart, owner of the Tiger Game Room, was arrested around 10:30 Thursday morning. Tuscaloosa police say the game room has been operating as a bookie business, and Taggart is charged with taking bets on sporting games. Police say they found dozens of bookie sheets where clients placed bets.

(emphasis added). Old habits die hard.

But that name has come up somewhere else…

Oh, I’ve got it: August 9, 2013 Campaign Finance Report filed by Lee Garrison candidate for At-Large position (“The Chair”) of the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education. There it is, under campaign expenditures (page 3 of attached report):

Henry Lee Taggart, 1000 County Road 35, Carrollton, AL 35447, $1,000.00 on 8/8/13 for “consultants/polling.”

The Taggart named on the campaign finance report had a Carrollton address. Today’s paper says the Taggart with a warrant is of Tuscaloosa. Same guy? Spokeo.com has a Henry Taggart of both Carrollton and Tuscalosa. Likewise, Advancedbackgroundchecks.com.

Or, it could be a coincidence.

 

 

 

 

James Minyard’s HOPE should be our reality.

James Minyard died yesterday.

I became acquainted with James when my friend Virginia Powell joined the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education in 2005, but it wasn’t until Virginia left the board that I really got to know him. When Virginia left, she advised me that James Minyard would be an invaluable resource. She said, “Laurie, if you need background information or you want to understand an issue or the politics around it, ask James; he knows everything.” She added, “James is not beholden to anyone; his only interest is the children.”

Over the years I took her advice and can attest to its veracity. Ask anyone who has covered school board for any length of time and you will be told that James Minyard held a laser-like focus on student achievement, particularly the achievement of students of color and those without privilege. One thing that didn’t come often from James was any expression of hope in the future of our schools. He had witnessed too many years of empty promises and failed initiatives.

Then, on May 27, there seemed to be something of a breakthrough. That night there was a big meeting of the school board, the public, the consulting firm, DeJong-Richter, and the steering committee about the ongoing demographics study and facilities analysis that the system has undertaken.

During the public comment period a group of three men, white men, approached the microphone. One-by-one they talked about how they live almost within seeing distance of Central High School, but that children in their neighborhood are zoned to attend high school across the river. One of them, Jamey Richardson, had an opinion piece in the Tuscaloosa News soon afterward. Here is part of what he had to say:

Ours is a city with many deep wounds due to past racism and its current vestiges. We should reconsider our policy of singling out affluent, primarily white neighborhoods for perceived preferential zoning to Rock Quarry and Verner and patterns that direct those neighborhoods to Northridge High School, when Central High School is less than 2 miles from these neighborhoods. I live in one of these neighborhoods, and I speak for my four children when I say now is the time to end this preferential zoning for the sake of our city. Now is an opportunity to make positive steps forward.

That night in May Mr. Richardson and the other men said this and much more. After them several more white people came to the microphone to say, “me too!”

When the individual board members spoke, James Minyard said that for the first time in, well, in a long time, he was HOPEFUL. He praised the three white men who spoke out. He said they and their message was just what he had been waiting for all these years.

After the meeting adjourned, James and I talked a while. His smiling face was full of light. His eyes were twinkly and he went on about how those three men had restored his faith. I told James that this was a Red Letter Day and I was going to make an entry on my desk planner that today, May 27, 2015, James Minyard said he was hopeful.

I did: 

Now James is gone.

Let’s keep his hope alive. Let’s tend to the matters so eloquently expressed in Mr. Richardson’s editorial and let’s do them with the memory of our friend James’ happy and hopeful face shining in our minds.

Don’t whine; Participate!

I’ve been offline for a while.  Like everyone, I’ve had a lot going on.  A few folks have been asking me to weigh in on the upcoming opportunity to improve Tuscaloosa through its schools though, so here goes…

I have been participating in city planning and city school things for about a decade now and over the years I, like so many others across the country, have realized that citizen apathy is our greatest enemy. But I’ve also come to understand how apathy strikes. Apathy is what happens when there is no meaningful – REAL – opportunity to participate.  When there is no real opportunity to participate why not be apathetic? What kind of fool wastes her time sitting through meetings and providing input that will be deep-sixed as soon as she leaves the room?  (Sometimes a fool like me, as it has turned out, but that’s not the point.)

When apathy reigns, the boy-who-cried-wolf thing happens: we expect the situation to be par for the course and don’t recognize the real deal when it’s before us. So, I’m here to tell you:

This is different!

It’s the REAL DEAL!

 

How do I know it’s different?  I was there in 2006-2007 the last time a major “restructuring” of our city school system was done.  I was there when, when, when.  Which detail should I add?  Which meeting should I recount?  Which people weren’t invited?  Which were?  There’s not room here.  (A lot of that has been recounted in earlier entries in this blog so you can review if you are inclined.)

So, do this:  Come to one of the two Community Dialogues being held tomorrow.  One is at 9:30 a.m. and the other is at 6:00 p.m.  They both are being held at TCTA, 2800 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

The consulting firm (with whom I, personally, have been extremely impressed – and, remember, I was there in 2007; I have a basis for comparison) has developed 4 facilities options to present to the community for feedback. Your feedback will be incorporated into the final recommendation for eventual vote by the Tuscaloosa City Schools Board of Education. 

One last thing I want to add is that you and I, the community, should not expect that our opinion will rule the day. This is something we are being asked to comment on, critique and criticize, but the Board of Education gets the vote. Since the firm’s first presentation back in June 2014, the public’s role has been consistently described as being one of four legs which together will result in the final plan.  Think about it; as a whole, we are not a community of demographers, educators, facilities experts, bus route planners, etc.  We may decide to have brain surgery, but we wouldn’t perform it on ourselves, would we?  It would be crazy to put this out for majority vote without the balancing input of true experts.

We have to give them our best guidance and indicate to them what our priorities are as a community.  I believe that it really comes down to one question for us:  do we want to stay in the same socioeconomically inequitable rut or do we want to commit to the future of our community by providing all children an education befitting Tuscaloosa’s status as a championship town?  As you will learn, getting out of the rut costs money – lots of it. In answering the question we must be sincere and realize that climbing out of the rut will require sacrifice and strong, steady political will.  The other answer, the “we can’t afford it” answer, puts us right back into our old worn rut albeit with smoother edges.

Finally, once the answer is given, we should step back and let the professionals handle the details.  We make the decision to proceed with surgery; let the surgeons repair the heart.

more information: calendar of events; Tuscaloosa Education Network; awesomely-helpful “scorecard” of the four options put together by Dianna Shaw.

Tuscaloosa International Baccalaureate programs – stuck in the middle

Last week I attended a presentation at the Tuscaloosa Magnet School about the International Baccalaureate (IB) program.  Parents of Magnet School children and Magnet School faculty and staff made this presentation to Tuscaloosa City School Board members.  (Since all board members were invited and the topic was one which will certainly come before the Board, the Sunshine Law had to be followed.  Thus, it was announced as a public meeting and I attended.  Board members present were Lee Garrison (at large), Cason Kirby (District 4), Harry Lee (District 5) and Marvin Lucas (District 6).)

For a thumbnail primer in case you aren’t caught up on what IB is and how it is implemented in Tuscaloosa, here are some bullet points:

• International Baccalaureate is an educational program designed and administered by The International Baccalaureate Organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.  There are IB programs in 147 different countries.  (http://www.ibo.org/who/)
• The first IB program in the Tuscaloosa City Schools System was the IB Diploma Program which was first implemented at Central High School in 1994.  (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ukogAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UKYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4455%2C9013908)
• The IB Diploma Program is designed for students age 16-19 (http://www.ibo.org/diploma/) which translates in Tuscaloosa to grades 11 and 12.
• In 2008 it was decided that the magnet schools (elementary and middle) which were opening in 2009 would adopt the IB curriculum.  (http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20081124/NEWS/811249993/0/search?p=all&tc=pgall)
• The IB Primary Years Program is designed for students age 3-12 and the Middle Years Program is for students 11-16. (http://www.ibo.org/programmes/)
• The Tuscaloosa Magnet Elementary serves grades 1-5 and the Middle serves grades 6-8.

Because the IB programs do not align age and grade-wise with the grade levels at our local elementary, middle and high schools and because certification is site-specific there is a bad gap:  no IB offering for grades 9 and 10.  While the Magnet Middle School apparently has certification to offer the 9th and 10th grade curriculum, there are no 9th or 10th grades at that site because those are considered high school grades.  Central only has certification for the IB Diploma Years program, thus the program is only available for 11th and 12th grades.

Obviously this is a problem for those students who have been immersed in the fabulous programming at the Magnet Schools and would benefit from a continuation of that curriculum and teaching method (as would all students in the system), but who are now facing two gap-years.  These students have several options, none of them ideal.  (1) They can go to the high school for which they are zoned for 9th and 10th grade and then transfer to Central High School and attend the IB Diploma Program for 11th and 12th; (2) they can forgo the IB Diploma Program and stay at their zone school for all of their high school years and; (3) they can transfer out of the public school system and attend private school or be home-schooled.  There may be a 4th option of attending Central all four years but I’m not sure about that.  It involves some kind of waiver from the school board.  At any rate there would still be a gap with no IB in 9th and 10th grades.

Parents at the presentation described another scenario as well:  some families are pulling out of the Magnet School at the end of elementary school presumably so that their children can become immersed in the different culture and circle of peers at their zoned middle school prior to high school.  At least one of the parents present said that her child who has already completed 8th grade will be staying at Northridge and foregoing IB.

[I should note that there was no one present from the Diploma Program (grades 11-12) present at this meeting.  No information was given on how that program is operating.]

The parent committee wants the 9th grade IB program added to the Magnet School next year – and presumably, the 10th grade the next year – resulting in a school containing grades 1-10.  There was mention as well of adding kindergarten.  After 10th grade, the students are reportedly willing to move to the IB program at Central High School as a cohort.  The parents pointed out that the Magnet School’s IB certification already includes grades 9 and 10; that the faculty is already trained in the programming and that after the Alberta Elementary School students return to their home school in January, there will be enough extra space in the building to accommodate the extra grades.

The parent committee wanted to know from the Board members what information they would like to have or they thought Superintendent McKendrick would need in helping move their request forward.

At-large member, Lee Garrison was the first to respond by reminding the parents that the Board does not have the authority to initiate proposals, but must await a proposal from the Superintendent.  This is a matter of Alabama law and not within the discretion of local lawmakers.  There ensued a bit of dialogue between board members and parents present.

Lee Garrison reminded the group that this does involve additional expenditure, but, at first, seemed to minimize the significance of that expenditure.  He also pointed out the critical absence from this discussion of the Diploma Years coordinator and faculty and emphasized the importance of having the entire IB range united in this effort.  As for what the Superintendent and the Board needed to see, he specified budget, number of additional hires and timeline all of which a parent in the audience assured him was prepared already.  Lee Garrison acknowledged that there is a Demographic Study/Facilities Analysis underway now, but he thought that it would not have much impact on this particular school.  He did say that there needed to be an “open discussion” about where the permanent home of IB will be, at the Magnet School or at Central.

Cason Kirby then said that it seems like the easiest solution would be to continue the 9th and 10th grades in the Magnet School.  He asked the audience though, if they were designing an ideal program from scratch would they want 9th and 10th grade housed at the Magnet School because the other years of the middle years program and there or did they think it would be more appropriate at Central because the students would be there with other students their own age.

A parent answered that it should be at the Magnet School because it is a 5-year program so if you have the first 3 years at the Magnet School and the last 2 years “somewhere else” you have to have two separate certifications, faculties, administrators, etc.  It would double the cost to the system whereas if they complete the 5 years at the Magnet School, many more students will be likely to go “over there” and do 11th and 12th with their peers.  She continued that if the students and families are told they have to go “somewhere else, that’s a lot of questions because a lot of us took a lot of risks by leaving schools that were great to come here.”

At several points during the presentation/discussion it was mentioned by a parent that it had been her understanding that it was always the intention of the school board that grades would be added to the magnet school/IB both higher grades and kindergarten, but that it was the tornado events that had halted those additions.  (Note:  I reviewed the 2010 and 2011 school board minutes available on the system’s website and saw no mention of this in any of those minutes.)  She emphasized that in January the Alberta students temporarily housed at the Magnet School would be moving to the new Alberta School and that the space would then be available.

Marvin Lucas addressed the group last and his remarks left the room in something of a deflated silence.  He started by assuring everyone that he and the entire school board support this school and have no intention of allowing it to go the way of so many other wildly successful magnet programs that this system has abandoned – specifically naming the Central Primary Magnet School which closed in 2003 after Federal funding ended.  All that being said, he reminded the Magnet Middle Principal Kristi Thomson and the IB Coordinator Lavanda Wagenheim that when they were hired, they were specifically tasked with working with the IB Coordinator and staff at Central High School to plan for continuity between programs.  He asked them both directly if that was true and Ms. Thomson responded verbally both times that it was true.  (I couldn’t see Ms. Wagenheim so I cannot report her response, but there was no verbal disagreement.)  I assume, based on the fact that no coordinated effort or joint proposal was reported in this meeting, this has not happened.

Mr. Lucas then reported to the group the discouraging state of finances for the school system.  State and federal funding is dwindling.  The state government is talking about diverting more from the education trust fund.  The local sales tax income is not what it was projected to be by this time in the fiscal year and now is projected to be even lower next year.  Mr. Lucas reminded the group of parents and board members that state law requires that board members act with the best interests of the entire system in mind and that while he is as passionate about his daughter’s school as they are about the magnet school, the entire board has to look at the big picture.  He talked about how they have had to shuffle and move things around in the budget almost every time they’ve created new units.  The other school board members expressed understanding and glum agreement with Mr. Lucas.  Mr. Garrison said that this community is fixing to have to have a serious discussion about education funding if we expect to continue and improve and, with that, the meeting was adjourned.

So, what was the outcome?  Views were aired and hopes were expressed.  Dr. McKendrick was not present and so he couldn’t say what he will propose to the full board for a vote.  The hard, cold reality of the financial situation was expressed.  Was it understood – fully comprehended?  Probably not.

The elephant in the room was not discussed – being attitudes toward Central High School, race, integration, etc.

I have heard that there has been talk among Magnet School parents of a centralized full-campus location for the Magnet School/IB program grades K-12.  It has even been suggested that Central High School be converted to that use and that students attending Central High School be reassigned to either Northridge or Bryant thus having two primary city high schools and a magnet/IB high school.

Clearly, this is a mess.  The only solution I see involves either a duplicate certification of the Middle Years program and a splitting of it between campuses or a non-traditional combination of grades – 6th grade through 10th grade- on some campus:  Magnet, Central or somewhere else.  Hopefully, the IB governing body will be engaged in this conversation at some point and help craft a workable solution.

As a final note, they say IB is not for every learner and maybe it isn’t but it is an outstanding program and it’s a shame that more of our children, our future productive citizens, do not have access to it.

 

Can we fix this thing? Can we make ALL our schools great? Will we feel good about it when it’s done?

Tonight the Tuscaloosa City School system hosted its first meeting of the large Demographic-Facility Advisory Committee which is intended to provide input and disseminate information about the upcoming system-wide demographic study (where are all our students now and where do we expect them to be in the future?) and facilities analysis (are these buildings serving their best purpose and if not what is the solution?).

I will do my best to update this blog with information about this process as it moves forward and I encourage everyone out there to get involved.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t have children in the system.  Is your name on a deed filed down at the court house?  Do you pay property tax?  If you answer yes to those questions, you do have “a dog in the fight” and you should pay attention and get involved.

The meeting was very introductory.  The Superintendent had everyone in the room introduce themselves.  I couldn’t write down all the names, but I will list those that I did get at the end of this entry and, if I happen to know or have noted their connection I will note that as well.  I counted 67 people in the room.  Many were teachers and principals at the various city schools.  Many were parents.  Many were businessmen.

The Superintendent gave a PowerPoint presentation which you can review by clicking here.  It primarily covered what the consulting firm is being asked to do, how that firm is being chosen and what the roles of the Advisory Committee and the Select Committee will be.

Of note to me was the point where Dr. McKendrick discussed the rubric used to analyze the firms that submitted proposals.  He emphasized that they were not looking simply at the lowest price and, interestingly, he pointed out that sometimes when a firm presents a low price it “may indicate that the company is looking at something else, like work to come later.”  Indeed.

The firms that submitted proposals were Volkert, Akribos and DeJong-Richter.  Apparently the two Alabama companies, Volkert and Akribos do not do this specific kind of work and their proposals were to involve local “experts” as a team.  The other firm, DeJong-Richter, does this specific type of work and reportedly blew the competition out of the water.  Tomorrow night the Superintendent is recommending that the School Board hire DeJong-Richter.  Here is a tidbit about each of the firms that applied:

• Volkert’s web site describes itself thus:  “Volkert, Inc., founded in 1925, is a multi-disciplinary, full-service engineering and environmental firm that provides services to state departments of transportation, federal agencies, local and municipal governments, as well as private industry.”  Their website doesn’t mention school-related work in the list of services.  From a Wikipedia entry I learned that Volkert constructed the Shelton State campus.  They are headquartered in Mobile.
• Akribos, based in Spanish Fort, describes itself thus:  “The Akribos Group is a professional consulting practice specializing in accurate and precise research-based solutions through strategic planning applications, innovative organizational design, expert leadership training and highly effective professional development services. The Akribos team of consultants are both recognized and highly respected in their designated areas of professional expertise and practice and The Akribos Group has an unwavering commitment to integrity, excellence, and service.”  I’m sure they are very nice people but other than some pithy sayings and cute pictures, I really couldn’t gather any substance from their website.
• DeJong-Richter’s mission statement reads:  “The mission of DeJONG-RICHTER is to position and empower communities and organizations throughout the world to develop quality learning environments for the future.”  Their website is extremely large and very informative.  They seem to specialize in doing this very specific kind of work.

Throughout the presentation, Dr. McKendrick emphasized that the role of our school system is not to build buildings just to build buildings but to look at every decision “through the lens of teaching and learning.”  He did not rule out building something new, but made it clear that is not a certainty.  He said it is a certainty that some facilities will be remodeled/added onto and it was implicit that others may be closed and sold.  In a brief statement, the system’s CFO, Ed LeVigne, echoed Dr. McKendrick, saying that the “intent here is to drive curriculum and to have curriculum drive facilities.”

There was a bullet in the power point that all committee members will adhere to conflict of interest and ethics policy.  Well, good.

Finally, there was a brief discussion of the upcoming tax referendum (current millage expires in 2016) and how the work of this committee will go a long way toward educating the voting public about the issues to be considered in renewing this tax.  (NOTE:  the tax is a renewal of an existing tax.  It is NOT NOT NOT a tax increase.)

In addition to the power point, committee members were given printed copies of several articles about the integration/segregation/resegregation of public schools.  I found these online and you can follow the links to read them:  Separate and Unequal, ASBJ June 2014; The Resegregation of America’s Public Schools, School Administrator, December 2013, and Resegregation in the Heartland, School Administrator December 2013.

Incomplete listing of people in attendance/committee members:

• Paul McKendrick, Superintendent
• Walt Maddox, Mayor
• Ed LeVigne, City Schools CFO
• Elizabeth House, City Schools Administrative Assistant
• Jeff Johnson, City Schools, Facilities Director
• James Minyard, School Board
• Harry Lee, School Board
• Norman Crow, School Board
• Earnestine Tucker, School Board
• Mike Daria, Assistant Superintendent
• Joan King, parent
• Jerry Carter, NAACP
• Frank Kennedy, Ministerial Alliance
• James Pryor, parent
• Sammy Watson, DCH
• Byron Abston, Shelton State
• Ninette Cannon, past school board member
• Rebecca Rothman, parent
• Gary Nichols, McAbee
• Brenda Parker, Alberta School principal
• Bill Foster, community member
• Mark Byers
• Lauren Wilson, parent
• Kelly Horwitz, parent
• Janice Filer, parent and PTA
• Denise Hills, parent and PTA
• John England, Circuit Judge
• John McConnell, City Planner
• Shelly Jones, past school board member
• Heather Pleasants, parent
• Joyce Stallworth
• John Murdock, parent
• Laurie Johns, parent
• Tammy Barkey, parent
• Mary Elizabeth Harper, Tuscaloosa library
• Leah Ozment, parent
• Michelle Crouse, parent
• Linda Ingram, principal of UPES
• Janet Sherrod, principal of MLK
• Vertis Giles-Brown, principal of WMS
• Clay Tindol, UA System and parent

 

I am sure this is purely coincidence, but…

Last month at a meeting of the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education (1/21/14) three people, including myself, availed themselves of the public comment period.  One individual addressed the Board on the subject of textbooks.  Two of us used that time to address the interesting land deal that was revealed at the board’s retreat on January 18.  A local University student, Adam Seale, made a powerful statement about trust and how this shadowy deal does not serve to bolster public trust in our elected officials.  I used the time to ask the Board Chairman, Lee Garrison, a direct question.  It went like this:

Laurie Johns: I’m trying … to track down the chronology of what happened with this land deal that was revealed to [the board] Saturday at your work meeting. Some of … you already knew about it. … So, I read in the paper today … that Mr. Garrison only knew about the land deal as a “rumor” until recently. What confuses me about that is that the deal was signed in December 2012 but you served on the board at Ol’ Colony until May 1, 2013. So, my question to you specifically is whether you attended any meetings prior to the election where the deal was discussed either in your role as a, I believe Vice Chairman of the Ol’ Colony Board of Governors or as a city councilman?

Lee Garrison: It’s a fair question. No, I did not attend any negotiations between what happened with the Chairman and the Governor and Mental Health or Mayor.

[I might discuss this non-answer in a separate post.]

So, anyway, like I said, I’m sure it had nothing to do with those specific comments and questions, but last night at the board meeting, Mr. Garrison presented a new idea.  

To all those pesky members of the public who care enough to leave home at night and sit all the way through the meeting waiting for their small, little time to address elected representatives:  Sit down.  Shut up.

 

He read out a statement that he proposes to have printed and given to anyone who has the audacity to sign up to speak.  Here’s what he says to those hapless souls:

“At this time we want to entertain public comment relating to Board policies, curriculum, finance, facilities, or achievement data as they pertain to the system as a whole. The Board will not respond to comments or inquiries and no action will be taken at this meeting.  Instead, the Superintendent and/or his designee will provide (?) response to the speaker, if necessary, following the appropriate review and investigation a copy of the response will be provided for them.

 “Public comment will not be allowed in matters pertaining to day-to-day operations of the school systems, individual statements or staff members, specific personnel matters, and/or student disciplinary issues.

“Matters such as these are the purview of the Superintendent and the staff require a thorough review and consideration impossible in this forum.

“These concerns should be directed to the Superintendent or appropriate staff members during school operation hours.

 “All public comment will be limited to five minutes.”

Back a few years ago a similar tactic was proposed by a previous member of the Tuscaloosa City Council to try to get rid of the ever-present Ethel Whitt.  http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20110817/NEWS/110819794/0/search?p=all&tc=pgall.  Mr. Garrison sat on the Council then, but the Mayor’s sage advice seems to have passed him by.  “I understand the frustration at times,” Maddox said. “But I think what makes local government so great is the access to your local officials.  I’d be very wary about going down this road.”

Interestingly, Mr. Garrison has started a new FaceBook page apparently for the purpose of keeping us informed of the goings-on of our school system.  He announced Monday on that page that he plans to start issuing a newsletter because “I strongly believe that the more information we relay to the community, the more the community will trust our Board and the TCS System.”

Right.  So long as he doesn’t have to listen to us.

UPDATE: PARA waives fee for inspection of minutes

I received word late Friday afternoon that PARA has decided not to charge me to look at the minutes of Ol’ Colony’s Board of Governors or the Board of PARA.

Mayor, Governor, PARA and Golf Club Board pick location for new school

On Thursday morning (January 16) I learned that – at that moment – a meeting was taking place between Mayor Maddox, Tuscaloosa City Board of Education Chair, Lee Garrison and Superintendent Paul McKendrick.   The subject of their meeting was indicated to be the grant from the Governor of land on which to build a new school north of the river.  There was said to be a string attached:  The land would be “free” so long as construction was initiated by a certain date and completed by a certain date.  After receiving this news, I started a flurry of phone calls to various school board members and was surprised to be told by most that they had no idea what I was talking about.

This morning at the Board of Education retreat, the details were revealed by Board attorney Dave Ryan.  (It strikes me as curious that the Board Attorney knew of this deal before the Board.  Who works for whom?)

Here is a transcript of his remarks up to the beginning of discussion among the board and staff.  (It’s late; I will try to finish the transcript tomorrow.)

Transcription by Laurie Johns of video tape taken at Tuscaloosa City Board of Education Board Retreat January 18, 2014. North River Yacht Club.

Regarding Thursday, January 16, 2014 meeting between at least Mayor Maddox, Lee Garrison, Dave Ryan and Paul McKendrick.

Earnestine Tucker (via Skype): What are y’all on now?

Lee Garrison: We will talk about the meeting with the mayor. Dave’s going to inform everybody about what we discussed. We are not going to do it in executive session. We’re not going to do it in executive session because press already knows about it…

Dave Ryan: Well because you can’t.

Lee Garrison: yeah

Dave Ryan: You can’t. Um, to discuss, to discuss property in executive session you’ve got to be discussing an acquisition of that property and what consideration you’d give. You don’t want to be coming up with a price in open session. So we’re not acquiring this property. It’s, it’s and you’ll understand (movement around the room) so we were asked; Lee wanted me to talk about this property that’s been…

Lee Garrison: the biggest public secret that…

Dave Ryan: … floating around in the ether for about 18 months and frankly I didn’t – I mean I know what the amendment of the lease says but I have no idea how we got there. City school board is not a party to it at all and it just appeared. So we sat down. We needed to hear from the Mayor, who was involved in acquiring – making this piece of property available. We needed to hear from the Ol’ Colony Board of Directors who was also involved. That’s separate – it’s important to understand the Ol’ Colony Board of Directors is separate from the PARA Board Members. That’s going to be important to talk about later on. So let me pass around…I’ll show you. This is the amendment. Let me pass this around. (Gave to Jeff Johnson to pass around.) The Department of Mental Health – and how they acquired this property I have no idea – the Department of Mental Health owns 600 acres…

Harry Lee: That’s where Ol’ Colony is.

Dave Ryan: … where Ol’ Colony sits and the surrounding Sokol park and a lot of that undeveloped land that you see in that area. That is owned; that real estate is appraising between $50,000 and $100,000 an acre is owned by the Department of Mental Health. Um, it’s some of the most valuable real estate inside the city limits and it’s owned by the Department of Mental Health.
In ‘99 they leased that property – the Department of Mental Health leased that property to PARA. OK? And that was when University Golf Course was closing; PARA was going to build Ol’ Colony. I even think the additional plan was … to build a second 18 holes across Northridge Drive right there where you see PARA building and new facility north of the Oaks but south of Sokol Park. I think that was originally intended for an additional 18 hole golf course. So they build Ol’ Colony – public golf course – PARA owns it. City and County each paid ½ of the construction costs. The lease payment is $150,000/year from PARA to the Department of Mental Health until – this is the impetus of what got us where we are today – until January 1, 2014. On January 1, 2014 the rent starts increasing gradually because PARA has to start including 2% of its gross revenue generated from this course. … 2% of gross revenue started going to Department of Mental Health in addition to the $150,000/year.

So Ol’ Colony’s Board of Directors starts looking in 2012 and saying, “hey, …” Ol’ Colony’s Board’s goals – and we learned this – we wanted operational costs including that $150,000 rent to be paid out of revenue generated by the golf course. … City and County already split construction costs. PARA’s money comes primarily from the City and County so if they have a $150, 000 deficit to pay the rent, if their operations costs are not paying their rent then they have to take money from other PARA activities and put it over there which means they have to get additional funds from the City and County to replace what had to be moved to pay the rent on Ol’ Colony.

So their goal is: “we’re going to be self-sustaining. … Now they’re looking at their lease and going, “in 2014 (describing original lease terms for increase of annual rent to an ultimate point 20 years later the rent will be $450,000).

So they knew, “we gotta get out of that…can’t keep going to the City and the county asking for additional funding. So it started conversations. The Ol’ Colony board started looking at all these 600 acres “now under lease to us; what are we not using? We can we… We gotta give something to the Department of Mental Health to get relief… So they had all 600 acres divided into parcels. There are 4 parcels that are adjacent to Watermelon Road. (Describes current surrounding developments.) They had them appraised – divided into parcels and appraised. The 4 parcels adjacent to Watermelon Road were the most valuable and they were never going to use it. There was nothing that Ol’ Colony could do with those 4 parcels.

The second most valuable were the parcels on Northridge Drive adjacent to – you’ve got Northridge High School you’re going North down Northridge Drive toward Sokol Park. You have Northridge High School. You have the entrance to the Oaks that sits back off from the road. Then you have some undeveloped property from there til you get to Rice Mine Road. That was the second; those parcels were the second parcels in value.

So they went to the Governor and they said, “we want to give you these four parcels adjacent to Watermelon Road and we want to be able to use these other parcels that are adjacent to Northridge Drive for any public purpose (emphasis in Mr. Ryan’s speech). Any public purpose – not just a park. I really couldn’t figure out what PARA would do. Any public purpose – and we want you to forgive the rent.

Well there starts a tussle. The PARA Board separate from the Ol’ Colony Board – they want to require a park use. So the PARA Board is going to Ol’ Colony: “if you don’t need those 4 parcels next to Watermelon Road, we’ll use them. Don’t give that back to the Department of Mental Health. The Department of Mental Health wants it all back: “if y’all aren’t using our 600 acres then give it back to us.” Now Walt and the City have had their battles with the Department of Mental Health (expounds a bit). You’ve got Department of Mental Health saying give us back all our acres. You’ve got PARA saying don’t give anything back. You’ve got Ol’ Colony Board saying “we can’t pay $150,000/year and in a few years it’s gonna be 4.” So they sit down with the Governor and the Governor says, “you are not using these 4 parcels; let the Department of Mental Health sell them.” And that’s where the City of Tuscaloosa is involved. They want development on those 4 parcels to generate ad valorem taxes and sales taxes. [Ambient noise blocks speaker]…and that will replace what they’re going to lose in the rent. They’ve been made whole. Now, something I should have mentioned earlier, and some of you know this, maybe all of you know this: when Northridge High School was built in 2001there was not enough land to include athletic facilities so if you’re standing facing Northridge High School from the tennis courts north to the end of the baseball field where you run into The Oaks, the City school system does not own that. That is Department of Mental Health property leased to PARA and then subleased to the city schools because they were being used for a PARA-type purpose – recreational activities – and a use agreement was signed in 2001 – still in force today between the City schools and PARA which says ok, because we’re letting you have all this prime real estate to do your athletics on, whenever you’re not using it for athletics – anywhere in the city of Tuscaloosa – not just Northridge – PARA gets to use it. And if you remember – I remember – I used to play in these leagues 10 years and 60 pounds ago – this was before PARA had those community centers … PARA’s basketball leagues played at Central and Westlawn. So that was the deal. They needed the City Schools’ basketball courts. The other end of the agreement is that city schools get to use PARA facilities whenever they’re not using them. That use agreement has been in place since 2001 and the athletic facilities at Northridge are part of this Department of Mental Health lease to PARA.

So the agreement hammered out in ‘99 not only started January 1 of 2014 but PARA started kicking 2% of its gross revenue over to the Department of Mental Health and Tuscaloosa City Schools we’re about to have to start giving 2% of the revenues generated by the Northridge Athletic Facilities to the Department of Mental Health. That is you gate. That is your concession sales…

[LG speaks over and I can’t understand either of them.]

Northridge Tennis Team; Northridge Football Team; soccer; baseball; girl’s softball. [talks about how little funding there is already for athletics and what all the booster clubs do and how this will impact that.]

LG: that woulda’ started this year?

Dave Ryan: we’d be going right now. So that’s background. Department of Mental Health wants it all back. PARA doesn’t want to give any of it. And the board of Ol’ Colony wants to be self-sustaining and not have to pay $450,000 rent in a few years.

So the Governor and Walt – City of Tuscaloosa- want some of these parcels that are next-to-most-valuable to be able to use them for whatever they want to use them for. Governor comes back and he says ok give us these 4 parcels so the Department of Mental Health can sell them and give all the rent (?) And that’s part of this agreement; I think it’s actually [ambient noise interfering]

Earnestine Tucker via Skype: can I get a copy of that faxed to me?

Dave Ryan: So the new deal … signed in 2012 – recorded in the courthouse since January 2013. New deal is Ol’ Colony only pays $1 year in rent; Department of Mental Health gets its 4 parcels back. These parcels on Northridge Drive have been released – now the Governor didn’t want to release it for “any public purpose.” That’s what the City wanted, not what Governor Bentley did. Governor Bentley said, “I’ll give you parcel 5 … but not for “any public purpose” and it’s not gonna sit there unused for 100 years like the other 600 acres we gave you back in ‘99. If we’re going to surrender that parcel away you’re gonna use it. So it is at Governor Bentley’s insistence that parcel must be used for the construction of a public school facility. Public School Facility. Construction must be complete by 2018. If not that parcel reverts back to PARA and then back to the Department of Mental Health. They get their parcel back. (Again describes location of property.)

Rest of conversation. So. So. I knew what the agreement said. I knew that’s what we had. For the life of me I didn’t understand how we got there especially without the Tuscaloosa City Schools being involved but if you look at the agreement. The agreement is not between – the City Board is not involved in any way. The Mayor and the Governor has released this parcel to the City of Tuscaloosa for the construction of public schools or its designee so they can hand it to us and say, “go build a school on it if you need it or we will go hand it to somebody else.” So, we finished that and let me touch briefly on something – let me say this: there is a 36 acre tract of land sitting adjacent to your high school and … very close to a middle and elementary school that you can have free. According to the appraisal from the Ol’ Colony Board it’s worth $3.6 million dollars.

Norman Crow: For the record I want to say this: that is the totality of what was discussed in this meeting. That meeting was only put together – there’s been a lot of misinformation out there – that meeting was only put together to gather facts to bring to this board. It does not force us to build the school. We do our due diligence. We decide if there is a need to be a school. We need to make a decision as a board. There was nothing else discussed in that meeting. That was it.

Elisabeth Davis: In a layman’s term question – are we saying this is free land?

Norman Crow: Free land…. It will be free land if the board through our due diligence deems that we need to build a school to remove overcrowding let’s say at Tuscaloosa Middle – at Rock Quarry Middle – if we decide as a board that we need that, this is an option. We may decide something different. We may decide that if we want to build a school, we don’t want to build it there so we aren’t being forced to do anything. So that’s – for the record I just want to throw that out there and that is all that was discussed in that meeting.

Earnestine Tucker…

[to be continued tape minute 21:03:12]

–Original 1999 Lease between the Department of Mental Health and PARA

–December 27, 2012 Amendment between the Department of Mental Health and PARA

The Chamber of Education?

The Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce has its sights set on the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education.  This is not a secret; they have published their intentions.  On their website you can find a document titled 2013 Business Plan Priorities

The following are 2013 business plan priority strategies as identified through the strategic planning process of The Chamber, listed in no particular order:

– Recruit seasoned business leaders to seek elected office on local boards of education to significantly improve the policy-making, financial management and operations of local public school districts. (Education Development and Government Affairs)

Their multi-page, glossy campaign brochure takes on our schools as its first topic:

Education and Workforce Readiness

Outcomes

The Chamber will recruit seasoned business leaders to seek elected office on local boards of education, beginning in 2013, to significantly improve the policy-making, financial management and operations of local public school districts.

They are  making good on their plan.  To date, three Chamber-related men have qualified to challenge current members of the City Board of Education:

Lee Garrison, running for Member at Large position

Back in April Lee Garrison announced his challenge to incumbent member-at-large and Board Chair, Dan Meissner.  (Tonight at the school board meeting Mr. Meissner let it be known that he will NOT be running for re-election after all leaving no opposition as of yet for Mr. Garrison.)

Lee Garrison’s LinkedIn page shows that he has been Vice President of Wells Fargo Insurance Services for 15 years and he belongs to the Chamber of Commerce’s LinkedIn group.  Wells Fargo Insurance Services is a member of the Chamber.  Mr. Garrison’s father, the late Howard Garrison was active in the Chamber of Commerce, serving as its Chairman.  

Norman Crow, running for District 3

Mr. Crow announced his challenge to Sena Stewart, the current District 3 board member back in June.  Mr. Crow is the owner of D T & Freight Co. Inc., a trucking and freight enterprise.  He is also the incorporator of Innovative Energy Services Company, Inc. and Tanglewood Properties, LLC.

Mr. Crow sits on the Chamber’s Board of Directors.   According to the Tuscaloosa News, Mr. Crow was elected to the Chamber’s board in 2010 for a three-year term that would start January 1, 2011 and run through 2013.

Renwick Jones, running for District 7

Last week Mr. Jones announced his challenge to Erskine Simmons, the current Board of Education member from District 7.  Like Mr. Crow, Jones sits on the Chamber’s Board of Directors.  (refer to link in paragraph above).  Mr. Jones’ term on the Chamber’s board is listed as until 2014.  Like the other two challengers, Mr. Jones is also a business owner, having recently started a consulting firm, VelBess Consulting, LLC.

There are other men who have let it be known that they are running, but since they have not officially qualified yet, I’m not going to name them here.

What does this mean?

Today I asked a teacher friend what she thought about this.  “Why are they doing this?” she asked.  Hmmm.  Good question.  My friend continued,  “in the last two years things have really turned around in our schools.  We are making progress.  Why do they want to change that?”  Another good question.  Alas, I am not in the Chamber and, therefore cannot answer them.

Stay tuned.

Opportunity Knocks: Possible money source for textbooks

I recently got an email newsletter from a Tuscaloosa City School Board member regarding an opportunity for financial assistance to purchase text books for our schools.

Members of the Tuscaloosa City School Board will be attending the Tuscaloosa County Commission Meeting on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 to discuss funding for textbooks. The meeting is 9:00 am at the Courthouse Annex in the Cooperative Extension Auditorium on 7th Street.

Apparently this funding does not involve money being taken away from the school system or reducing funds already being received from Tuscaloosa County; these are additional funds just for textbooks.

Show the Commissioners and the Board that you care about this issue by being there!