Privatization of Public Education

White Female Domestic Terrorist Threatens Black Mother, Causing JCPS School Board Meeting to Be Abruptly Canceled

Posted by jcpswatch on October 7, 2021
Posted in: Police Free Schools, Privatization of Public Education, Racial Equity.

LOUISVILLE, KY  – There were over 30 individuals signed up as guest speakers at Tuesday night’s school board meeting, but only about six were able to be heard before the chaos erupted after a white women, who had come at the invitation of Beanie Geohegan, a known right-wing radical, changed her seat in order to more easily confront and ultimately threaten a Black mother. One of the speakers with their group, Dr. Frank Simon, spoke about his concerns for Black students, yet ironically, they not only refused to listen to what the Black parents and students had to say, they instead threatened and attempted to silence them. Further frustrations were expressed when one of the officers, who was Black, took the side of and protected the white woman who had instigated and escalated the situation, instead of the parents and children who were being berated by a racist.

Here’s a glimpse of some of the local news coverage:
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Jefferson County school board meeting abruptly ended early Tuesday night when security cleared the meeting room after a…
 
wdrb.com – JCPS board abruptly adjourns meeting amid tension over school resource officers
Supporters and opponents of school resource officers shared their views during Tuesday’s board meeting, often drawing cheers and jeers from…
 
Courier-Journal – Arguments, yelling disrupted a JCPS school board meeting — again. What happens now?
Bickering in the audience escalated to the point the school board went into recess, later adjourning the meeting altogether.
 
Board members adjourned Tuesday night’s meeting after a shouting match erupted between audience members at Central High School.
 
WAVE 3 – JCPS students, parents protest against SROs outside of school board meeting
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Jefferson County Public Schools students, parents and other community members gathered outside Central High School…
A JCPS board meeting was forced to adjourn as the issue of returning school resource officers to schools caused a disruption at Central High…
 
Courier-Journal – Debate on school resource officers gets heated at JCPS meeting
A JCPS school board meeting became heated as supporters and opponents of spoke about school resource officers returning to schools.
 
WLKY – Clash over school resource officers forces JCPS school board to end meeting early
The Jefferson County Board of Education’s meeting Tuesday was forced to adjourn early due to a disruption among several people in the…

NOW PLAYING: That time JCPS leaders cooperated to vote an ally to Black people off the district-wide Executive PTA Board.

Posted by jcpswatch on May 27, 2021
Posted in: Accountability, Privatization of Public Education, Racial Equity.

#PatternOrPracticeJCPS Series

Now playing on Soundcloud, this week’s episode of Save Our Schools With Dear JCPS is part of our new “Pattern or Practice” Series. This series features historical records from the Audio Archives tab. These podcasts attempt to tell the true stories of what really happened behind the scenes in JCPS as we continue the work to dismantle structural racism in the district.
 
My name is Gay Adelmann. I am the co-founder and president of Dear JCPS. In March of 2017, JCPS leaders conspired to vote me off the 15th District PTA board after I advocated for Maupin Elementary students and families. Don’t take my word for it, listen to excerpts from two of those meetings on this week’s program. The longer versions of these conversations and more can also be found there, with more being added regularly.
 
WHY IT MATTERS? These types of patterns and practices continue to harm West Louisville families and schools to this day. Sign our petition here.
 
Listen to the program below:

“Duty of Obedience” in JCPS Organizations’ Bylaws Promotes “Pattern or Practice” of Discrimination

Posted by jcpswatch on May 17, 2021
Posted in: Accountability, Privatization of Public Education, Racial Equity.

Dear JCPS is publishing this piece as part of a series dedicated to identifying patterns or practices of discrimination in JCPS. To sign our petition to encourage the US Department of Justice to investigate JCPS and its outside entities, please click here.

At this moment, JCTA PR’s (Professional Representatives, also known as “building representatives”) are expected to be voting to approve proposed bylaws changes that will make it possible for a handful of their officers to discriminate against members who advocate for minority populations, and even remove them from their elected roles on the organizations’ board.

Think it can’t happen here? It already has.

Recent controversy, including betrayals from endorsed elected officials, a botched political action committee (PAC) election and a challenge to JCTA’s General Election, and other things they’re not telling you, the incumbent JCTA officers have been feeling the heat more than usual. Having personally experienced a similar series of events when I was serving as a Vice President for the 15th District PTA in 2017, I recognized this latest maneuver to modify the bylaws as a means to force out anyone who the establishment leadership disagrees with as something similar that happened to me and several other JCPS moms who stood up for schools in West Louisville. In fact, in March of 2017, the 15th District PTA Board voted to remove me for speaking up for parents and students at Maupin Elementary, a high-poverty, high-minority population school in the district’s highly segregated “West End.” And in 2019, they conducted a closed-door emergency bylaws meeting in order to prevent me from serving, had I been elected when I and five other parents “ran from the floor” to serve on the 15th District PTA Board.

As you can hear from the short audiotape I made from that Emergency Board meeting that night, “duty of obedience” was cited as grounds for the motion for my removal. It will be interesting to watch as JCTA looks for ways to target anyone who is disloyal to their organization. The entire recording of the 2017 meeting, as well as follow-up meetings, can be found on our website under the Audio Archives tab. More will continue to be added.

https://twitter.com/GayAdelmann/status/1394442545753727059?s=20

Pattern or Practice of Discrimination in JCPS

Posted by jcpswatch on May 9, 2021
Posted in: Accountability, Privatization of Public Education, Racial Equity.

A new section of our website has been created to archive evidence and provide real-life examples of systemic or institutionalized racism within JCPS that have been documented by our group’s organizers.

Some of these patterns include:

  • Abuse of power. Such as blacklisting, or bullying, to maintain power and “send a message”/terrorize.
  • Retaliation. Such as causing harm to or making threats against those who report harmful behavior.
  • Setups. Such as assigning impossible/competing tasks so every possible outcome results in .
  • Fraud. Manufacturing or tampering with evidence.
  • Election Tampering. Rigged or heavily influenced elections, whether it be JCTA, PTAs or SBDM’s and other outside groups’ own internal elections, or them putting their thumbs on the scales of justice and politics by influencing everything from school board races and General Assembly elections, to the passage of a tax increase on the 2020 ballot.
  • Cover ups. Hiding “bad news” or honest mistakes, turning the inconvenient truth into fraud.
  • Waste of taxpayer dollars. High-priced attorneys and even higher-priced secret settlements are costing taxpayers unknown millions of wasted dollars. Dirty administrators, protected by poorly written laws, continue committing the same offenses. Internal investigations, of course, finds no wrongdoing, so nothing changes. The avoidable pattern repeats. The system’s downward spiral intensifies with each uncorrected punch.
  • Doubling down. Denied or delayed responses to claims of discrimination, even when we show them they are doing it, they refuse to see or acknowledge the disparities and the role they continue to play.

Where does it end? Many who see it or are victims of it themselves burn out or move out to keep themselves and their families safe and sane. Others clock out in unhealthy or self-destructive ways. Many succumb to it, by way of death, dysfunction, homelessness, bankruptcy, shame, job loss, physical or mental health, incarceration, the legal system, addiction or suicide. But the lucky ones simply get numb to it. They have tried and failed enough times to know that any continued efforts of speaking up against an injustice bring unwanted attention and negative outcomes to them and theirs. They are watching the clock and hoping they can keep their heads down and try to go about their lives and work unnoticed until retirement, even if it is less than what they were promised. This describes every teacher I know who has been doing this job more than 10 years. The rest of us, who refuse to participate in the nonsense, what’s left for us? We have reached the end of the road and the only solutions left seem to be a jury of their peers or pitchforks. And I’m not seeing any indication that the court of law is ready for this conversation. We are seeing how the repeated failure of leadership to address the needs and rights of the people eventually plays out in other countries’ wars right now.

We talk about how our problems are because the kids misbehave with no consequences, well, the worst offenders in JCPS think they are untouchable and they treat the deep Jefferson County taxpayer pockets as their personal legal slush fund.

Some of the specific events where discrimination took place that we’ve documented thus far, include:

  • Investigation into allegations against Manual Principal Jerry Mayes.
  • PTA, SBDM and JCTA elections, bylaws and practices favoring JCPS administration, not members/stakeholders.
    • (2023) Jacob Elementary (White principal finally giving in to requests from Black mother to start the PTA. When it’s time for elections, teachers are recruited to run against Black parents, Black mothers are forced to run against one another)
    • (2019) Crums Lane Elementary (White principal favored White teachers and forced out engaged Black parents, 15th District PTA participated in fraudulent election, employees violated Redbook policy)
    • (2019) 15th District PTA Board Elections – (White parent and non-parent leaders pitted Black parents against one another, gave favored candidates preferential treatment, violated their own policies, held controlled and illegal membership meeting to change policies to prevent “from the floor candidates” from being eligible to serve if elected, and so much more, even admitted to committing fraud in future meeting)
    • (2020) Better Schools Kentucky Botched Election – pitted Black teachers against one another for rare at-large openings instead of nominating them for one of a dozen standing seats controlled by the president, tried to explain away numerous anomalies for their botched election results before finally admitting error, manipulating their bylaws in the favor of their preferred candidate, ruling the previous election invalid so they could hold a new one in a scenario where they could have more control and influence over results, in order to ensure their preferred candidate was the ultimate winner.
    • (2016) Maupin Elementary (SBDM manipulated by district leaders into voting to approve the superintendent’s recommendation AFTER she had already notified the state the decision had been made)
    • And several other examples of a handful of white leaders misstating facts, changing rules, policies and bylaws to suit the agenda of those in power and favor continued power of their preferred candidates (or no one at all) over BIPOC and their allies.
  • Fraudulent discontinuation of board-approved programs in West Louisville schools
    • Academy @ Shawnee Grades K-12 (discontinued before it started) 
    • Academy @ Shawnee middle school magnet (corrupted within two years)
    • Waldorf-styled program at Maupin Elementary (SBDM told how to vote after state had been notified).
    • Challenger Center at Shawnee (out-of-date data used to justify outsourcing operations)
  • Wrongful retaliation against Maupin educators, parents/guardians, students, and their advocates.

Some of the discriminatory practices we’ve documented include:

  • Failure to oversee and curtail outside organizations’ role in perpetuating systemic racism, despite repeated requests.
  • Biased and dead-ended internal investigations process.
  • Shutting out, silencing or derailing voices of grassroots organizations demanding racial equity.
  • Retaliation against those who blow the whistle on civil rights violations as well as waste, fraud and abuse.
  • Fraudulent elections including giving an unfair advantage to white or white-favored candidates, declaring fair elections “invalid” so they can run them again more carefully controlled, changing rules if necessary, and declaring winners using secretive, proprietary tools that only they have full access to.
  • Flat out denial that they are doing anything wrong! Refusal to fix or acknowledge even the most glaring examples. Keep repeating the same harmful behaviors. No wonder things have gotten this bad.

Toxic, bully, racist administrators

  • Admins who back their direct reports, no matter what, including helping them avoid consequences for behaviors unbecoming of a JCPS employee.
  • Biased internal investigations, fraud, changing the rules, gaming the system.
  • Rigged internal elections of support organizations (PTA, SBDM, JCTA, AROS) and undemocratic decision-making.
  • Shutting down and out engaged parents and employees who bring solutions, good ideas, and raise concerns when necessary.
  • How can we blame parents when the district refuses to let them in?
  • Willful incompetence or obliviousness, refusing to acknowledge classic behaviors of organized crime, coverups and racism, therefore nothing ever improves.
  • Shit rolls downhill, so lowest ranking employees end up taking the brunt of leaders’ poor decision-making, decreasing recruitment and retention of new employees.
  • How can we expect our children exhibit behaviors when adults in charge refuse to model them?

Other reports of criminal behavior

  • Denial of due process, refusal to accept grievances
  • Altering transcripts
  • Disciplining/suspending students from bus or school without due process or proper record keeping
  • Election tampering, including changing school district boundaries to affect candidates’ eligibility and plotting and scheming to influence the outcome of the tax increase ballot measure on technicalities, without accountability.
  • Failing to provide students with disabilities their mandated instructional hours and support services, covering it up, retaliating.
  • Covering up sex, drugs and human trafficking rings involving minors.
  •  

We are working on a list of demands, which includes an outside audit of internal investigations, lawsuits and settlements, as well as an oversight committee that is similar to the one that was created by the legislature for oversight of LMPD. We need an equivalent of an Inspector General and Civilian Oversight Committee for JCPS. We, the people, demand an avenue for checks and balances to protect against abuses like these within our government. Dear JCPS welcomes the opportunity to continue to build and share our understanding of what the community’s vision of that looks like.

This post will be updated. If you have examples of these events occurring in JCPS that you wish to have us consider adding to this list, please email moderator@dearjcps.com or text 502-565-8397.

KPREP IS COMING!!!

Posted by jcpswatch on April 12, 2021
Posted in: Privatization of Public Education, Safe Return to School, Standardized Testing.

In Kentucky, you can’t technically “opt out” of state testing, but there are ways and good reasons to “refuse” them. We don’t have all the answers, but we’ll help you find them. Check out the content we are working on, not just for JCPS families, but across the state.  We are all in this together. 

Please copy moderator@dearjcps.com on the emails and replies to and from your principals and board members. Our experience tells us that not all parents receive the same responses from district leaders. This will help us keep up with any desperate treatment some schools and families may be receiving. There is also information about an upcoming virtual town hall and a survey so we can collect your input on a few matters. Identifying information will be kept anonymous upon request. Thank you so much!!

Opt-Out Toolkit

ON THE TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY: Sickouts vs. Sellouts

Posted by jcpswatch on March 28, 2021
Posted in: #Louminati, Accountability, Privatization of Public Education.
A behind the scenes look at Kentucky’s modern education reform history.

The day was March 28, 2019. It was the last day of a 30-day legislative session. Teachers in the state’s largest school district, Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) had just successfully “sicked out” six of the last seven days legislature was in session. I say “sickout” not strike, because it’s illegal for a union to call for a strike in Kentucky.

A number of predatory education bills, including HB205, the pension reform bill that put new teachers in a defined contribution plan, on the heals of 2018’s session, when a sewer bill was stripped in an effort to force a pension bill through in the dark of the night, kept JCPS teachers, and current and retired teachers across the state, on high alert.

By mid-March, district and union leaders were working out compromises, and failing at working out compromises, in an effort to get teachers to “settle down.” They also wanted “rouge groups” like Dear JCPS and other teacher-led groups like JCPS Leads and TRELF to stop encouraging it. They were going so far as to convince high-profile “pro-public education” JCTA-endorsed legislators from both political parties to write joint statements promising no more harmful legislation would be passed this legislative session, and then tagging us in their tweets.

After the last sickout on March 14th, there were no more days of session until March 28th. One lone day sitting on the horizon to cram as much garbage into the garbage disposal and see how much harm you can inflict on the unsuspecting before they are forced to gavel out at midnight. It’s like this every year. So why should teachers trust that a supermajority GOP-led legislature won’t mislead them this year?

For this reason, we decided to plan a rally in the Capitol Rotunda for the last day of session. We wanted to be prepared because we had every reason to believe that teachers and parents would be back.

But the gaslighting trying to keep coming out of JCTA leadership was strong. Emilie McKiernon Blanton wrote this opinion piece: JCPS teacher: We don’t need a sickout on Kentucky legislature’s last day

Meanwhile, Forward Kentucky wrote about how they were playing switcheroo with BOE appointments.

On the last day of session, the rally began at 10 AM. We had speakers and provided materials to make posters. The turnout was lower than we had anticipated. We learned that JCTA had called for a meeting with teachers in the Annex at the same time as our rally in order to compete with our event. In addition, they only had 300 teachers sign up to come to Frankfort as delegates, instead of the 500 that was part of the compromise. Although, very few were in the Capitol when it mattered.

Following the rally in the Rotunda, our group headed toward the Senate, where they were expected to gavel in at noon. At 11:55, I begin livestreaming from the Dear JCPS Facebook page, as we stand at the bottom of the Senate steps to encourage Senators to vote against the 9 resolutions that would confirm Governor Bevin’s anti-public education picks to the Kentucky Department of Education, a full year after he controversially appointed the remainder of them, (and who later sued the Governor after he removed them on his first day in office in 2019). One confirmation in particular that we had concerns about was Senate Resolution 240, which added another two years to pro-voucher EdChoice Director Gary Houchens‘ term.

Read more at saveourschoolsky.org: https://saveourschoolsky.org/2021/03/10/jcta-endorsed-senator-sells-out-jcps-teachers/

JCTA blocked transparency of private money (equity) contracts

Posted by jcpswatch on January 29, 2021
Posted in: Accountability, Privatization of Public Education.

In 2016, according to a post made by JCTA member and candidate for JCTA Vice President, Randy Wieck, 

JCTA blocked transparency of the private money (equity) contracts, so-called “proprietary”, in 2016 (see bottom of Action from 2016). The private money firms divulge what they choose, and charge what they like, and this cannot be revealed to JCTA/KEA members. (See Beau Barnes, open records request 2014)

According to the Feb. 2016 ACTION newsletter distributed by JCTA, SB2 would have required KTRS to publicly disclose information on secret, no bid private equity contracts. Claiming disclosure would prevent these types of investment opportunities in the future, JCTA supported keeping the information private, and applauded the removal of these transparency provisions in the revised legislation. (See bottom of newsletter.)


Are Teachers’ Pension Assets Tied to the Insurrection?

Posted by jcpswatch on January 29, 2021
Posted in: Accountability, Privatization of Public Education, Safe Return to School.

In a recent letter from ACRE, https://acrecampaigns.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Letter-to-Schwarzman.pdf

A Huge Wall Street Scandal Just Exploded In Kentucky

Jacobin Magazine, July 22, 2020

Kentucky sues Blackstone and KKR over fund performance

Financial Times, July 22, 2020

Lawmakers Push To Defund The Insurrection

Legislators request review of pension investments flowing to Wall Street firms whose execs funded groups boosting Republicans who tried to overturn the election.

The Daily Post, Jan. 15, 2021

Stephen Schwarzman defended Donald Trump at CEO meeting on election results

What About the Enablers?

Jan. 7, 2021

More links: 
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/01/mayberry-v-kkr-is-back-as-attorney-general-intervention-approved-beneficiaries-counsel-files-third-amended-complaint.html
https://youtu.be/Roh9MT43nDE
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/kentucky-stephen-schwarzman-private-equity

https://kycir.org/2020/07/23/attorney-general-revives-lawsuit-against-state-pension-officials-and-hedge-funds/

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/08/brawl-over-mayberry-v-kkr-big-hearing-monday-over-one-contested-issue-whether-attorney-general-can-intervene-in-kentucky-retirement-systems-case.html

Come Have Some Tea With Me

Posted by jcpswatch on December 12, 2020
Posted in: Accountability, Admin, Privatization of Public Education, Student Assignment, Teachable Moment, Teacher Shortage, Vision: 2020.

My friends call it “spilling the tea.” My family used to call it “spilling the beans.” Although I think the expressions came from two completely different origins, they mean roughly the same thing in this situation.

Not sure where the expression came from, but I can picture some well-dressed Southern ladies sitting together at their bridge table, and when one of them starts to tell a juicy story about one of their “friends,” it causes another to knock over her cup of tea, causing a commotion for all.

Welcome to my tea party. I’m about to spill some tea.

Let’s begin in the present, so I can show you what to look for while it’s still happening. Right now, JCPS teachers are in the midst of a silent coup by the current regime. The fewer teachers who even know this election is happening, the greater the chances they can keep their current dear leader in power. 

Up for grabs is the At-large BSK position. The election was held during a 3-day window: Nov. 30 – Dec. 2. What happened during that time could fill an entire season on Netflix, but we’ll sum it up here.

At first, Natalie Rashad was declared the winner. But when the election committee couldn’t explain the irregularities on their infallible software’s tabulation sheet, they went back to their programmer. He magically discovered an error and running tabulations a second time resulted in Kenyata Dean-Bacon becoming the winner. (Maybe they thought it would just be easier to give in than to explain the myriad of errors.)

However, when not a single one of them noticed there had not been a majority winner until Kenyata asked about it, the election committee held a séance, I mean special meeting, and decided that a run-,off would be necessary, putting Kenyata’s narrow victory at risk, and pitting both worthy candidates against one another at a future date.

Third time’s a charm, right?!

But why the mystery? Why wouldn’t the timeline they are organizing just follow the bylaws? Is it really that “unprecedented?” Or is it “going according to plan?”

Does this botched election remind anyone of the recent Bar Exam debacle? When several would-be lawyers had their joy stolen from them because after they had celebrated passing the BAR exam, they later learned they had failed? Many were saying “just give it to them.” After all, these tests are barriers; ways to discriminate. And judging by the makeup of the organization, it’s working just as it’s intended!

Tell JCTA to give BOTH of their BSK winners a seat at the table. Lord knows they’ve earned it! Take a look at the barriers and hurdles they’ve had to face to get to this moment to even be considered for the ONLY position on the BSK this election cycle that is put before the members. Could JCTA make it any less equitable and democratic? I don’t think so!

Kumar Rashad for President!

Come on, JCTA. Especially you, JCTA President Brent McKim. All eyes are on you. Do the right thing. Give up your seat that’s been controlled by mediocre white blood for decades. It’s time for new blood. Be the hero. Endorse Kumar Rashad for president. Allow members to bring back the term limits you removed, so this type of stagnation doesn’t continue to happen. It’s his time. If not now, when?

Let’s all get behind #KumarForJCTAPresident, and follow a path that will allow JCTA to award BOTH of these two fierce advocates for black, brown and poor JCPS students a seat at the BSK table. Let’s quit manipulating results and moving goal posts and get back to supporting our students and teachers. (Sorry for the shade toward McKim, but he’s been given every opportunity and we’ve reached this point where the members have some decisions to make. They deserve to finally see what’s been going on behind the curtain all these years.)

Teachers, get organized! They still plan to move forward with a run-off BSK election. So, unless they are planning to violate their own bylaws, it would happen this Wednesday (Dec. 16). Also, start preparing for the general election starting on January 27, where several key positions are up for grabs.