Education

District News Roundup

October 11, 1989 9 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The New York City Board of Education is increasing the number of day-care centers based in city schools and is introducing several new programs to keep teenage parents from dropping out of school.

A study by a board working group found that pregnant adolescents and teenage mothers account for more than half of all female dropouts and one-fourth of the city’s total dropout population.

The board announced last month that it would expand from 21 to 29 the number of day-care centers it operates for students with children age 2 months to 33 months.

In addition, the district will place caseworkers in 25 high schools to coordinate services for pregnant and parenting teenagers and will station school personnel at two hospitals to maintain “educational ties” with mothers and children.

The school district will also send “babygrams” to new mothers containing information on child development and community resources, and is introducing a parenting curriculum in 20 high schools “to prepare students for the rigors of raising a family.”

The Philadelphia school district has also announced plans to open new child-care centers at three high schools and a middle school later this month.

Although the plan will not increase the 1,461 child-care slots now provided by the city, it will make the children of student-parents a priority, said William C. Thompson, the district’s spokesman.

The plan will redistribute the city’s child-care slots by expanding the number of daycare centers from 17 to 21, increasing the number of spaces for before- and after-school day care for school-aged children, and reducing the number of full-day slots for preschoolers.

A 1986 study by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 76 of every 1,000 15- to 19-year-old Philadephia girls gave birth that year.

More than 100 students watched last week as a custodian at Killearn Lakes Elementary School in Tallahassee, Fla., was shot and killed in the school cafeteria.

The gunman, Sylvester R. Mitchell, a fellow custodian, allegedly shot Harley J. Colvin in the head, killing him instantly, and then threatened the life of a teacher during lunch in the school’s cafeteria.

Mr. Mitchell, who had submitted his resignation moments before the shooting began, then went to the playground where he allegedly fired two shots before leaving the school grounds. He was arrested shortly afterward.

School officials said they had no reason to suspect that Mr. Mitchell, an employee for more than a year, could be dangerous. Although the custodian had been heard to say that he was angry and that someone was going to get hurt, the remarks, said Larry Campbell, undersheriff of Leon County, were not thought to have any bearing on his job at the school.

Mr. Mitchell, who has been charged with murder, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest, is being held in police custody until a grand jury returns an indictment.

The Fort Worth, Tex., public schools have complied with court orders in a 30-year-old desegregation case and are now unitary, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Eldon B. Mahon granted unitary status to the district late last month, but said he would continue to monitor the district for the next three years before dismissing the case.

Some black community leaders denounced the ruling as premature, noting that test scores of black students continue to lag behind those of their white peers.

Programs to prevent compulsive gambling are being established in Iowa public schools at the recommendation of the state’s department of human services.

The Iowa department has instructed 11 gambling-treatment centers that receive state funds to develop gambling-prevention programs geared toward high-school students, paying particular attention to students who wager on sports and on card games.

Forty-six percent of the pathological gamblers who responded to a recent survey taken in the state said they began gambling before they were 17 years old, according to the department.

The Schuylerville (N.Y.) Central School District is fighting a lawsuit filed by two parents who object to a 12-foot-by-16-foot painting of a crucified Jesus hanging in a high-school auditorium.

The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on Sept. 20 in U.S. District Court on behalf of Robert and Susan Joki, who said they feel “discomfort” when they enter the auditorium. One parent is Jewish, and they are raising their two children in the Jewish faith, according to the suit.

The display of the painting “is likely to be perceived by adherents of Christianity as an endorsement of their religious views and by non-adherents as a disapproval of their independent religious choice,” the suit states.

School officials at Schuylerville Central High School, about 45 miles north of Albany, have said that the painting was displayed as an example of student artwork, and that religious content played no part in their decision. It was donated to the school in 1965 and has been on display since then.

The school board voted on Sept. 28 to keep the painting on display and to fight the suit.

Atlanta public schools violated state education regulations 58 times last year, according to the state department of education.

Thirty of the infractions were directly related to educational programs. Twenty-two elementary schools with more than 500 students each were cited for not having an assistant principal, as required by state law. The state department of education also faulted the district’s procedure for handling teacher complaints.

Most of the other violations involved athletics or other extracurricular activities. Many centered on the schools’ failure to enforce the state’s “no-pass, no-play” rule, which prohibits students from playing sports unless they pass five classes, and also requires students to pass a physical exam.

Murdell McFarlin, a spokesman for the district said officials have corrected many of the problems and will soon rectify the rest.

Statewide, 126 of Georgia’s 186 school districts had at least one rule violation. Schools are cited if they fail to correct a problem identified by the state department of education within 30 days.

The number of elementary-school students held back a grade in the District of Columbia last year doubled over the year before, according to recently released figures.

About 4,000 students were held back in the 1988-89 school year, about 14 percent of the city’s elementary-school population.

School officials attributed the increase to a change in policy that calls for students to pass both reading and math courses to progress to the next grade. Last year, students needed only to pass one of the two subjects to move on.

“I think it’s extremely important for us to make sure a student has certain skills before moving him or her along in the system,” said Linda W. Cropp, president of the Washington board of education.

But the D.C. Public Education Committee, a study group formed last year, concluded in a report released in June that the standards “will exacerbate the dropout problem without achieving the desired objective of promoting learning.”

Last week, however, one member of the committee acknowledged that school officials were “on the horns of a dilemma.” He said the balance between proper encouragement and necessary instruction is a hard one to strike.

Six Arlington County, Va., residents have been indicted for allegedly selling crack cocaine near Drew Model Elementary School in South Arlington. The ring is charged with using at least six children, some of whom were as young as 11, to sell the drugs.

None of the children involved was a pupil at Drew, a magnet school that attracts students from throughout the county, according to William P. Young, the school’s principal.

“We’ve never had a drug case here, and we’re very fortunate,” Mr. Young said, adding that the school stepped up its security precautions last year.

Prosecutors said after the indictments were returned on Sept. 27 that the drug ring operated within 200 feet of the school, and that the children were “neighborhood kids.”

The Oklahoma City School District enlisted the help of area parent-teacher associations last month in enrolling school-age children who had failed to make it to class by the second week of the school year.

The district turned area pta members into part-time bounty hunters, paying each chapter $25 for participating in the student roundup. The ptas were also paid $10 for each high-school student and $5 for each middle-school or elementary-school student located.

The roundup succeeded in enrolling 53 students, at a cost of $937 to the district. But it was money well spent, observed Mike Carrier, the district’s administrator of public relations, noting that because the district receives $8.63 a day for each enrolled student, the program paid for itself--and then some.

The Dallas Independent School District last month suspended without pay two bus drivers when it discovered they had been indicted on charges of committing sexual indecency with a child.

The two men drove small, lift-equipped minibuses operated by the district for disabled students. A Dallas County grand jury indicted Gerald Y. David, who is also a teacher in the district, six months ago on three counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of indecency with a child. Thomas W. Park was indicted in late August on one count of indecency with a child. The children involved were passengers on the buses.

The indictments came to the attention of school district officials last month when a Dallas County commissioner wrote the district attorney to ask for an investigation of alleged criminal behavior in the Dallas County schools garage. The commissioner mistakenly identified the two men as employees of the Dallas County schools.

More than 100 students watched last week as a custodian at Killearn Lakes Elementary School in Tallahassee, Fla., was shot and killed in the school cafeteria.

The gunman, Sylvester R. Mitchell, a fellow custodian, allegedly shot Harley J. Colvin in the head, killing him instantly, and then threatened the life of a teacher during lunch in the school’s cafeteria.

Mr. Mitchell, who had submitted his resignation moments before the shooting began, then went to the playground where he allegedly fired two shots before leaving the school grounds. He was arrested shortly afterward.

School officials said they had no reason to suspect that Mr. Mitchell, an employee for more than a year, could be dangerous. Although the custodian had been heard to say that he was angry and that someone was going to get hurt, the remarks, said Larry Campbell, undersheriff of Leon County, were not thought to have any bearing on his job at the school.

Mr. Mitchell, who has been charged with murder, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest, is being held in police custody until a grand jury returns an indictment.

A 15-year-old boy faces attempted homicide charges after taking an Anaheim, Calif., high-school classroom hostage last week, shooting one student in the face, according to police.

An Anaheim police spokesman said the armed youth, who reportedly had family problems, held the Loara High School drama class at gunpoint Oct. 5 for about 40 minutes.

A student identified in press accounts as 15-year-old Tony Lopez challenged the youth, and was shot. Late last week, he was in good condition with a bullet lodged in his jaw.

A version of this article appeared in the October 11, 1989 edition of Education Week as District News Roundup

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: March 13, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 21, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 7, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read