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Nichijew
Fifty Cents is a better poet than Ikeda. I like Thug Love far better than To My Young American Friends.
Well, maybe some day there will be a monument with Ikeda and Fifty Cent. Sadly, Ikeda is doing no better at running a charter school than he's done at being a poet. SGI's Spirit of Knowledge Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts, has had a very rocky first year. Oh, silly me! The Spirit of Knowledge Academy says it's NOT affiliated with SGI in any way, despite its charter application's statement that the Spirit of Knowledge's educational philosophy is based on the philosophy of Josei Toda and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi. Yeah, right. Nothing to do with SGI. And if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you.
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www.telegram.com]
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Friday, June 17, 2011
Clive McFarlane
cmcfarlane@telegram.comOn paper, the Spirit of Knowledge Charter School, whose mission is to
“create value in the lives of students and others through high-standards academic learning,” seems to represent great promise for the present and future of public education.
The school’s board of trustees is ethnically diverse, with white, black, Latino and Asian members.
The board is also professionally diverse, with members boasting experience as educators, engineers, businessmen and lawyers.
But as we have seen before with the state’s controversial charter school law, what is put on paper is not always what is put in practice.
And according to some parents, students and staff members, Spirit of Knowledge, at 10 Irving St., is not living up to its charter.
Parents have accused the school of abandoning its commitment to educate all students. Criticism of the school was aired Wednesday night at a board of trustees meeting, and at two previous board meetings.
Individual Education Plans, which are meant for children with learning disabilities and special needs, are not being followed, according to parents.
In addition, parents have accused administrators of allowing staff members to verbally abuse or demean students. One parent, whose daughter has since left the school, complained that her child was bullied by a teacher, who told her she “wouldn’t amount to nothing.”
Another parent, whose child is also leaving the school, told the board Wednesday night that her daughter was told by a teacher that she wouldn’t succeed because she didn’t have a backbone.
Parents also level allegations of sexual harassment incidents that were not investigated, of the school using a teaching consultant who had alleged sexual-harassment issues at another school, and of another consultant who taught a class while inebriated. The storm of allegations led to the resignation of the school’s founder and executive director, Julia Sigalovsky.
Antonio de la Serna, a trustee who was very critical of Ms. Sigalovsky, also resigned.
“I could no longer lend my credibility to the school,” Mr. de la Serna said, while noting that
49 of the 156 students who started the school year are no longer there. Richard Langevin, chairman of the school’s board of trustees, told the newspaper recently that the total loss of students over the year has been about 30.
“There are individual children that have been adversely impacted by what has happened, and as the information began coming in, I was overwhelmed,” he said. “It was like a building on fire, and the inertia in responding was troubling.”
According to Mr. de la Serna, the school was witnessing a “mutiny” to administrative leadership.
Of the 13 staff members surveyed, 11 said they would not return if Ms Sigalovsky was kept on the staff, he said.
Ms. Sigalovsky said, however, that the parents’ allegations were predicated on misinformation, and that her decision to abruptly resign last Friday was due to the “extreme pressure” she experienced from Mr. de la Serna.
“Problems were turned into war, and miscommunication into hysteria,” she said, adding that in emails to the staff Mr. de la Serna “sabotaged” her efforts to reorganize her administration.
Ms. Sigalovsky had asked the board to revoke her resignation, following the departure of Mr. de la Serna, but the board declined, opting to replace her on an interim basis with board member Eileen Milton, an attorney and a member of the Massachusetts Justice Project.
Ms. Milton worked collaboratively with Ms. Sigalovsky on the Spirit of Knowledge charter application, as well as the application for the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in Marlboro, which was also founded by Ms. Sigalovsky.
In 2009, the AMSA’s board of directors voted not to renew her contract based on performance issues.
On Wednesday night, Ms. Milton reaffirmed her belief that the school’s educational philosophy is sound and attainable.
However, she acknowledged, the school’s educational philosophy “wasn’t being experienced by some kids.”
I hope Ms. Milton is able to turn things around at the school. I found her and the rest of the trustees to be well meaning. It was also heartening to see so many parents involved with and passionate about their children’s education.
But I can’t get over the feeling that in its first year, the school played Russian roulette with some kids’ educations, and I am not convinced next year will be any better.
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One former Young Women's Division member, earlier in this thread, posted about the abuse she experienced in YWD -- doing activities and drills out in the hot sun for hours, without breaks for food or water, and being verbally abused by her leader for fainting. Sounds like that was the philosophy of this charter school also -- and if you pay taxes in Massachusetts, YOUR money funded this so-called education.