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Another new principal at MLK this year…
08/22/2017 7:57 AM by John M
Students at Martin Luther King Middle School will soon have their fifth principal in seven years.
Interim Superintendent Tommy Kranz confirmed Principal Jeryl Scott abruptly left the role due to a family situation, which left the school system scrambling to replace her before school starts.
RPS needs more money!
That is the constant rallying cry, despite spending more per pupil than any other system in the Commonwealth and yet having absolutely horrible education outcomes. MLK is a beautiful, new school plagued by constant problems. It is key evidence of the fallacy that money is the solution.
New school but same students.
New principal named at Martin Luther King Middle School
http://www.richmond.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/new-principal-named-at-martin-luther-king-middle-school/article_b90f9ceb-04c5-5b75-aea3-a011610ef3ae.html
“[Inett Dabney], a longtime division employee who was assistant principal of Lucille Brown Middle for seven years, will be King’s fifth principal in seven years.”
If MLK had additional funds to help transform the culture and reality of the school then there needs to be a committee of knowledgeable and skilled professionals who can make sure that the money is allocated in the most efficient and effective way possible.
The data from this past year’s SOL exams clearly shows that what the school has been doing does not work. There are many students with disabilities at the school but not enough highly qualified exceptional education teachers to ensure that the student’s individualized needs are met.
In addition, there is not enough time for the teachers in the building to plan horizontally, vertically, and with their content and grade level teams to develop interdisciplinary lessons that would help increase moral, academic achievement, and teacher retention.
The division must begin writing grants for the teacher/educational leadership incentive grant so that high-quality teachers want to stay at the school.
The class sizes are too big and must be reduced to approximately 10-15 students per class and particularly for the core content areas.
The trainers at the school may even need to have personalized training to ensure that they are providing high-quality professional development with accurate information to ALL stakeholders.
The students at the school are treated as if they are in a correctional facility at times which only promotes the school to prison pipeline. They are talked and yelled at in between class changes because they have less than one minute or approximately 20 seconds to get to class. The bathrooms are locked and they are not allowed to have lockers to store their belongings. How will they ever learn responsibility if they are given no chances to practice?
The school needs to incorporate more data-driven decisions particularly for their positive behavior interventions supports systems. Hopefully, the newly hired principal will not be transferred out of this school and is given the time to make the changes needed to ensure another generation of children do not endure the same systemic and cyclical conditions that their parents did which will only plague this community for years to come.
Remember, the schools are owned by the citizens, parents, and taxpayers. The community must rise up and demand that the school has more equitable means of ensuring their students have the same opportunities as the best schools in the nation.