Comments on: On condos, schools, and social engineering

By: mary

mary — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:02:09 +0000

Allowing schools to use grant money for FTE would be a step toward fairness. Money could also be given to schools without a foundation in the form of need based scholarships vs. grants. There could be a fixed amouont of money given to schools, perhaps as seed money to build a PTA program, site council or foundation. Private fundraising will never bring about perfect fairness but the current system could be improved.

By: mneloa

mneloa — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:16:23 +0000

And, what kind of equity can we even think of having, when our public schools are vying for
students who come with fundraising- or wealthy-and-willing to pay- parents to fill in the gaps. Faulty as the current lottery system may be, it was, in part,
designed to prevent the old interview system where the principal was more interested in parent income and connection than the child’s “fit” in the school.
I cannot see any way that this private fundraising can be used fairly for ALL the children in PPS.

By: PPSexpatriate

PPSexpatriate — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:07:36 +0000

hey, marcia I worked hard to get that dog groomer spa day/doggie day care gift certificate for the auction!

:::giggles::::::::

By: marcia

marcia — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:58:43 +0000

That’s right, Susan. The Foundation is totally messed up in my opinion, and always has been. When one school can afford to auction off mansions and trips to Paris, and others auction off gift certificates to the dog groomer, what kind of equity can you have?

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:27:23 +0000

Individual school foundations contribute 1/3 to the equity fund after their first $10,000 raised. When comparing a school that can raise $10,000 to one that regularly raises $100,000, that seems to make sense. What doesn’t make sense is fundraising schools being able to buy FTE and grant-writing schools only able to use grants for training and community building, if they are able to find staff or volunteers to write the grants in the first place.

By: Anne T.

Anne T. — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:17:38 +0000

Many of the PSF grants do go to more affluent schools, who have foundations also. When we began to document this in 2003, PSF pulled the data from their site.

Neighborhood Schools Alliance has started some equity studies, as has Steve Rawley of this blog, Jefferson PTSA published an extensive comparison of High School Curriculums across the city.
We believe that the books should be open and clear about every schools’ offerings. It becomes very clear when you go to PPS’s website that the data is being obscured on the glaring inequities in this district.

By: lauralye

lauralye — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:48:07 +0000

Marcia, how sad that anyone would feel the way your friend does.

Can schools have parent volunteers write the grants?

By: marcia

marcia — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:33:19 +0000

Yes, I have a friend who complains about their school having to kick in that extra 1/3 to our less fortunate schools. And as far as cramming people into the k-8’s…At our K-8 we have a portable for the added 8th grades. We also have a sp.ed teacher who is teaching in the hallway…right next to my door. The noise from my class annoys her and vice versa. We have an ELL teacher who is no having to teach in the teachers lounge..That is no fun for her either. As far as the grant writing goes for the foundation…what a joke …it’s like another full time job just to make the application…then..you will probably be turned down..Forget it.

By: Zarwen

Zarwen — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:05:40 +0000

Last week, I had a conversation with a parent whose children used to attend a Foundation school. She told me that, at their Foundation meetings, one of the agenda items was how to AVOID paying the 1/3 to the central Foundation. If that’s an agenda item at one Foundation school, I bet it’s an agenda item at every Foundation school.

By: Rita

Rita — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:46:45 +0000

In addition, last time I looked at the numbers, I believe much of the grant money actually went to the relatively wealthy schools.

Grantwriting skills — which are fairly specialized –are presumably a bit less available in Title I schools. The Portland Schools Foundation has offered grantwriting assistance at best only fitfully over the years.