Fifteen miles west of Rochester, Minnesota, a town, Kasson, of roughly 6,000 people lies on Highway 14. Kasson is a bedroom community, Rochester’s suburb, and a place where there isn’t much going on in the town, but it’s known for its school and their sports, especially wrestling. The whole town is pretty much and always has been centered on the school, which is basis for all for the hot button issue of saving the old school in Kasson. There are two main players in this debacle: the Mayor, Tim Tjosaas, with the City Council, and a group of concerned citizens called KARE or Kasson Alliance for REstoration. They don’t always place nice, more like a cat and mouse games using legal tactics, like lawsuits for stalling techniques. I side with KARE’s stance and think that the solution to keeping the old school standing is fixing up the building, leasing space to the library and other community functions, and using the money to maintain the building and pay for renovations. In 1918, the Kasson Public School was constructed to house grades Kindergarten through twelfth grade, with one of the first ever gymnasiums ever built in a school. It served as Kasson’s only school until 1958 when Kasson and Mantorville merged, and it became Kasson-Mantorville’s Elementary School. It was used as that until the current elementary school was built, and it became the community education building, housing fun activities and classes, like speech classes I took there, and my older brother and sister went to elementary school in this building. It was used until 2005 when the city closed the old school and a new community education was built. At this time, the legal battles started arising because the city of Kasson now owned the building, and no one knew exactly how to use it. Kasson put out a referendum to increase taxes to pay the projected $3.9 million dollars it would cost to renovate the
Lightville Community School District decided to build a new middle school. The choice to build the school was controversial; the district growth rate remained moderate, but there was existing debate and other popular options were presented to the stakeholders. The final decision to build the new facility via a bond election passed with a slight majority of the voters in the community.
(Frugis v. Bracigliano, 2003). The judges in this case needed to determine of Elmwood Park Board of Education was at all responsible for this act due to lack of supervision of Bracigliano (Frugis v. Bracigliano, 2003). The facts of the case explain that Bracigliano obstructed views into his office as soon as he became the principal in 1982, which was against a New Jersey law that required every room used by school staff to have a view into it (Frugis v. Bracigliano, 2003). During his tenure as principal a state inspector ordered that the covering be removed, which it was, but only temporarily (Frugis v. Bracigliano, 2003). The School Board was aware that the covering was ordered to be removed by the state inspector, but they never verified that it had in fact been removed (Frugis v. Bracigliano, 2003). Staff members were also aware that students frequently visited Bracigliano’s office, the door was locked, and pictures were taken when the students were in there (Frugis v. Bracigliano, 2003). Several staff members also witnessed Bracigliano doing inappropriate things to students, but they were unaware of the procedure to report these acts and, therefore, the acts went unreported to Bracigliano’s superiors (Frugis v.
In the Case study of Reclaiming Rose Place there are several issues to think about. The first is the community in which the issues are occurring. This community has an extended history of racial discrimination and hate. There are several white supremacist leaders who lived in the area and have left family living in the area. This hate has been ingrained in the family members who still live in the community. The second issue is the district forcing integration on this community’s school which is causing multiple problems. The new principal being part of the minority that has been hated for so long is immediately met with distrust and disregard. The community does not want a minority in control of their school. The school currently employs only
In 1954, The Brown vs. The Board of Education decision made segregation in schools illegal. New York City’s attempt to integrate the schools was unsuccessful, leaving them more segregated than before.(Podair 30) By 1966, New York City’s black communities were unhappy with the Board of Education’s control of their school districts because of its repeated unsuccessful attempts at integration. Many white groups, like the Parents and Taxpayers Organization, were also frustrated with the current system and called for “The Neighborhood School.” It was their discontent that motivated the community control of the Ocean Hill Brownsville school district. Because of the city’s civil rights movement and their support from many influential people and groups, the district was granted control .(Podair 82)
The issue of purchasing the Reformed Church of Palos Heights exemplified that the citizens are the ones who run the city. The citizens made their presence known in the City Council meetings as well as in the media. The Aldermen attempted to first bribe the Al Salam Mosque Foundation of Chicago with $200,000, and then to purchase the Reformed Church of Palos Heights. The Mayor sided with the people and vetoed the idea of paying $200,000 to the Al Salam Mosque Foundation of Chicago. In the end, the democratic policies on which our country was founded prevailed. The voices of the citizens were heard with a vote AGAINST: 2,856.
When talking about a school that is mostly filled with African Americans, it is common to picture it as somewhere that has limited programs due to low funding from the government and located where poverty rate is high. Normally the thought of a brand new facility or more investment in schools is not associated with African American schools. The universal problem of mostly black schools is the fact that there is a lack of funding for the school and it...
The city’s budget crisis was not a surprise, the City Manager had forecasted the shortfall and brought it to the attention of the city council. Based on the organizational structure, the City Manager clearly had more knowledge and information about the city’s budget, which was his source of power. However, the city council actually controls the resources (money in this case) and how and where to distribute the resource. Both, the City Manager and city council possess authority and power that neither want to relinquish; as a result, the employees suffered. Smithville city leaders needed to come together at the onset of the budget crisis and work together in a direct democratic fashion. When leaders come together and synthesize facts and resources, organizational members can increase the power they exert within an organization (Morgan, 2006). The budget crisis could potentially have been avoided had city leaders made an appeal to the public, explained the situation and offered a reasonable solution to the problem. Moreover, the transparency would have relieved some tension between the City Manager, city council, and the three labor unions. Because the city was not transparent and forthcoming with union leaders, the city negotiators enter the negotiation process giving members false hope of receiving salary and benefit increases when there were none to give. In summary, given the current situation, the City Manager needed to exert his expert power on the budget issue, join alliance with the union leaders, and push the city council to change city charter to implement the sales tax, which would have potentially off-set the budget
While watching the Uniondale School Board of Education meeting this was something very interesting. The people that attended this meeting where the school board members, the superintendent, the student member, business affairs and people from the local community. The people the present was the student member, two school board members and a couple people from the community. There were a couple things that the board talked about and the members of the community. Something that was very interesting at this board meeting was that the members of the board had a student member by the name of Campbell present during the meeting. Campbell raised a concern about the segregation that is happening in Long Island. She mentioned how she and other people
Mayor Mike Duggan has recently added his voice to the many others in regards to asking for state help for Detroit Public Schools. While he observed some schools that were properly maintained, he noted that conditions in some schools would “break your heart” including issues with heating and severe water damage that prevented children from using the gymnasium. Duggan’s tour came to a quick and early end, however. Many schools were closed in early January due to teacher sick-outs as a form of protest to what teachers call “deplorable conditions for them as well as students.” These protests are in direct response to the building conditions, pay cuts, and the recent plan by Governor Snyder. In addition, the school system is projected to run out of funds in April. Duggan encouraged the state to help fix Detroit schools. Of the districts ninety-seven s...
Public and charter schools may look to be the same, but charter schools differ in many ways and have an interesting origin that is often overlooked. The concept of charter schools began in New York City around the late 1980s and early 1990s by a man name Albert Shanker. They were originally created to be teacher-run schools that would provide education and services to students struggling in the traditional school system (Karp, 2013). These schools had operated outside the administrative bureaucracy and the big city school board. Shanker initial concern was that these small charter schools were dividing the district by serving a different population with unequal access as well as weakening the power of teacher union in negotiation over district-wide policies and regulations (Karp, 2013). Because of this Shanker withdrew his support, but charters had continued to grow and states were ...
One of the most hotly debated issues in the United States today is the controversial topic of education reform. Since public schools are funded almost entirely by local property taxes and money at the state level, many parents feel that they deserve a greater say in what their children learn in school. However, sometimes the opinions of parents contradict the policies at the federal level, thus causing conflict. Dissatisfaction with the public school system in their districts has led many Americas to seek other options for their children’s educations. In 1992, the first charter school opened in Minnesota, giving parents the option to send their kids to a free public school of their choice (“Charter Schools”).
Essex, N. L. (2002). School Law and the Public School (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon
Public Schools can, undoubtedly, achieve great things by supplementing their budgets with money from corporate sponsorship; however, this activity is dangerous for public schools as it could put them in a position where they would be expected to support a corporation’s politics while possibly being made to forgo convictions for their own standards and ethics. Since the early 1900s, with the influx of immigrants and the increasing number of children enrolling in schools due to lack of employment opportunities, there has been great demand in education reform with regards to laws and funding (Grubb).
.... The burden rests upon the defendants to establish that such time is necessary in the public interest and is consistent with good faith compliance at the earliest practicable date. To that end, the courts may consider problems related to administration, arising from the physical condition of the school plant, the school transportation system, personnel, revision of school districts and attendance areas into compact units to achieve a system of determining admission to the public schools on a nonracial basis, and revision of local laws and regulations which may be necessary in solving the foregoing problems. They will also consider the adequacy of any plans the defendants may propose to meet these problems and to effectuate a transition to a racially nondiscriminatory school system. During this period of transition, the courts will retain jurisdiction of these cases
The superintendent and principal are stymied in their efforts to reach a compromise as Mrs. Durnitz refuses to change her position that the policy must be followed to the letter. She appealed to the teachers’ association for support when it appeared that the administration and board might not uphold her position. The local newspap...