Monday, August 2, 2010

Sam Houston Alumni

Okay, time for "real talk"... I need for my fellow Sam Houston alumni to start showing up at Sam Houston and its feeder schools this upcoming school year. Not just 2001 alumni, all alumni in the San Antonio area. I didn't do a good enough job encouraging everyone as much as I should have done last school year, but I won't do that again this year. I witnessed too many young minds being lost due to simple neglect last year at Sam Houston for me to allow this to continue to happen.

Your presence is DESPERATELY needed in the lives of many of our Eastside students. I've seen plenty of people "repping Sam" in the past years. I ask that as you continue to "rep Sam", that you also rep the students at Sam by visiting the school and mentoring and/or tutoring. It doesn't matter if you have retained calculus for the past 10+ years, or have forgotten how to count to five. I need your presence and positive influence around these students to encourage them to do more than what is expected of them currently. I need tutors, mentors, role models. You don't have to be all three...I just need you to be one of them for one student.

You may not consider yourself to be a "role model" or "mentor" per se, but I ask you to come out and I will prove to you that there is at least one student who will look at you as such. I need you to come out and be yourself. For those of you that stay smoked out, I'm gonna need you to come in sober and leave any discussion of that at home. lol But I still want you to come out, because you may be able to relate to some of our students better than any of the rest of us.

I visited Sam Houston on a weekly basis last year and I know if I had my alumni behind me keeping a constant connection with these students, we can assist greatly in improving the education system for these students. Let's make the situation at Sam Houston and its feeder schools better for those behind us. We all can admit that we could have been provided a much better education had we been provided adequate guidance and support. Let's be that guidance and support beginning this year.

If you have any questions about what I'm referring to when I say that the students need us in the halls, then please check out the rest of my blog entries. I think you'll gather a better understanding of how things have fallen by the wayside at Sam Houston and how it's going to take us and the current Eastside community to institute a brighter future for those students.

Please feel free to post comments and remarks. If you are willing and motivated enough to help, then your notice of participation may encourage our other classmates to participate as well. I'll send everyone that is willing to participate more information and guidance on how to get involved this upcoming school year.

Thank You,
Brian C. Dillard
Cherokee 2001

Sunday, February 28, 2010

"That's Not My Job"

A few weeks ago I addressed a matter of tutors not being allowed to recruit students at Sam Houston high school. (ref blog from Feb 17 entitled "Is Anyone home?") I finally received a response from the principal of Sam Houston, Mr. White. He tried to blame it on the district policy, after which I notified him that Mr. Howard (District Board Pres) had never heard of such a policy. Mr. White then told me that it was HIS policy. I told him that I thought the policy was unnecessary and that I think it should be changed. I asked to sit down and discuss the matter, along with a few other items, with him at another time. He refused to meet with me. He said that I could come to the monthly Principal's Coffee, which is where he speaks in an open forum, and he would answer any questions that I may have.

(SIDENOTE: Since that conversation I decided to call the Dept of Education and track this policy down. I made it all the way to the TEA (Texas Ed Agency). They sent me a policy about SES (Supplemental Education Service) providers which stated, "SES providers shall not compensate school district employees personally in exchange for access to facilities, to obtain student lists, to assist with marketing or student recruitment, to promote enrollment in a provider’s program at the exclusion of other providers, to obtain other similar benefits for their SES program, or for any illegal purpose." Someone please tell me where in that statement it is said that SES providers can not encourage students to come to tutoring.)

Last Friday I arrived at the Sam Houston H.S. Principal's Coffee at 8.30AM. There were about 10 people in attendance. The first hour was dedicated to talking about the new scholarship/mentoring program being implemented, which offers freshman the opportunity to receive a mentor for the next 3 years. When the freshmen graduate they receive $3,000 towards college. After an hour of Q&A regarding that topic, Mr. White opened the floor to any other questions.

My first question to him was, "How many of your SENIOR are failing TAKS?" He replied, "Six are failing Social Studies and 16 are failing English." He continued, in what seemed to be a reluctant manner, by saying "45 are failing Science and 55 to 57 are failing Math." (This is out of approximately 105 standard education students) I made sure to reconfirm that he was referring to SENIORS to which he concurred. At this point I heard everyone in the room go "Oooh" and "Ahhh" in surprise. I then asked him why mandatory tutoring just began three weeks ago and he had no legitimate excuse. He prattled for about 10 minutes about how students learn differently and how he isn't responsible for last year, yada, yada... The whole time I was thinking to myself, "If you know all this stuff, then why haven't you been acting on it?!" Excuses, excuses...

My next question was regarding college preparation. I asked him "Why is performance on the ACT/SAT and the Accuplacer so atrocious here at Sam Houston? You had 91 Seniors take the Accuplacer this year. Out of those 91 students, 89 will be taking at least one remedial course in their Freshman year in college. What are you doing to address this issue?" His response was, "That's not my job." (Yes, that is a QUOTE) I paused and asked him what did he mean by that, to which he responded, "It's not my job to make sure these students are successful in college. My job is to make sure they graduate high school." At this point three or four of the people in attendance began to praise him and give a small applause. Needless to say, I was stunned. Not only did this guy just tell me that it "isn't his job" to prepare students for college, but people actually commended him for making that statement. What do I say after that?

My next question for Mr. White was, "What is the mission statement for the school district?" I already knew the answer to this question, but I wanted to see what Mr. White's explanation was. He responded, "To graduate all of our students and prepare them for success in higher education". After a pause he then said, "That's the DISTRICT'S mission statement, not mine." Wow.

Sitting next to me was the PTA President. She was obviously bothered by all of this. She told Mr. White that she does not settle for mediocrity and that we need to be holding our students to a higher standard. She continued by saying that "we are trying to prepare our students to be productive members of a global society". Mr. White responded by saying that he didn't care about a "global society" and reaffirmed his statement of "My job is to make sure they graduate high school".

I know that I should have thrown a fit at this point. I know that I should have called the NAACP, Jesse Jackson, or someone and alerted them of this matter...but I remained calm and continued on with my questions.

I asked him what the meaning of his motto "Recognize The Skills" was. This motto has been the only thing on the marquee outside of the school for the past 6 months. I asked someone else the meaning of it and they gave me a deeper explanation than the obvious. They said that it was to tell the students to recognize THEIR skills and to use them in reaching their goals. Mr. White's response was, "It's telling the community members, city officials, district, etc to recognize our skills here at Sam Houston". *sigh* So, the meaning of it was as obvious as I thought it was. I wonder how many people drive by Sam Houston and ask themselves the same question, "What skills?". Mr. White then told me that the motto would be the only thing on the marquee for this year until the district or board or TEA themselves forced him to put something else up. I then asked him why no one was notified about the Black History program that was scheduled for that evening. The PTA PRESDIENT wasn't even notified until the day before, which is the same time I was made aware of it. District coucil didn't know about it. The people in attendance even stated that they knew nothing about it until they were given a flyer prior to the meeting. His response was "Mr. Cade's (VP) in charge of that program".

At about this point it was obvious to me that the problems at Sam Houston were as fundamental as I had perceived. There was a slight thought in my mind that the problems at Sam Houston went further than complacency and neglect, but it turns out that those two factors are exactly why Sam Houston is the lowest of low performers in San Antonio.

I had a list of 20 questions. I made it through three before I realized the problem was apparent. It wasn't hidden behind the numbers or in policy or in the environment. It wasn't a lack of money or a lack of books or a lack of technology. It was created and maintained by the carelessness of administration, exceedingly low standards and a flawed vision of education.

Extra Stats:
Out of the 91 Seniors that too the Accuplacer, only TWO (2%) will be able to go to college and NOT have to take a remedial class in their Freshman year. Out of those 91 students, 64 (70%) tested into remedial courses in ALL FOUR COMPONENTS of the Accuplacer test (Algebra, Reading Comprehension, Sentence Skills, and Writing).

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Time to train a new generation of parents...

Yesterday I blogged about my experience at a PTSA (Parent, Teacher, Student Association) meeting which had six attendees. While I was at the meeting I thought back to when I was at Sam Houston and could not remember a mention of any PTA/PTSA meetings.

Times haven't changed much in regards to parental involvement at the school. Thank God I had adequate parental involvement at home. Most children now a days don't even have that to benefit from. Let's face the facts, our children are deteriorating more and more due to lack of parental involvement in all aspects of life. Now, before I get a bunch of negative replies, I DO understand that there are the exceptions to the usual. There are single mothers and single fathers out there that are doing what they need to do for their children. They go the extra mile that they need to go in order to lead their children to success. HOWEVER, that is the EXCEPTION, not the STANDARD.

We have lowered our standards and have learned to accept the bare minimum from our youth. We have learned to make excuses for our students regarding any circumstance. We accept mediocre and label it outstanding. I remember when graduating high school back in the 50's and 60's was a HUGE accomplishment. Why are we in the 21st century still praying that we get higher than a 75% graduation rate? (In 2010 only 57% of Sam Houston H.S. seniors graduated) We must raise our expectations and our standard to a level of EXCELLENCE as opposed to "that'll do".

Although I can't speak on the generation of students who are in high school now, I must implore that we catch the next cycle of children before it is too late. Let's begin molding the next generation into the parents we need them to be. There is no better time for minorities to start over. First we had slavery, then we had Reconstruction, then Jim Crow, the we had the Civil Rights struggle, then we had Reagan ;) , then we had the to recover from the drug epidemic. Now that we are finally on stable ground and the field is finally level enough for us to play on, let's rebuild and recover.

We need mentors and tutors to start showing up and stop neglecting our youth. All the successful professionals, businessmen and "ballers" need to stop hiding behind your garage and come back to save those left behind. I don't knock you for being successful, moving out of the neighborhood and getting a nice house. I DO criticize you for not coming back to bring the youth of today up to where you are now.

We need the "church folk" to step outside of the church. Chill out on dismissing the youth because they aren't as righteous as you would like them to be. If they don't want to accept the Lord as their savior then fine. Move on and try to convince them that education and civility is a MUST. Jesus is MY savior, but if you don't want to accept him, I am still going to cram this general education down your throat.

We need the youth center's to step back and look at their own actions when the youth are in their presence. If a child is misbehaving, the last thing you should do is yell. I have been to way too many youth centers and seen the administrators yelling at the kids to "GO OVER THERE", "BE QUIET", "DO THIS", "DO THAT". After I leave I go to the high school and witness the same behavior from the students. We are trained that yelling is the appropriate measure to get our way. I don't expect the youth centers to educate our kids, but I DO expect them to instill a certain level of civility and respect for others.

Last but definitely not least, who is the most influential person in a child's life, outside of their parent? It should be the people that they spend eight hours a day, five days a week with. Teachers and school administrators need to become more involved and passionate about their jobs. There are too many teachers that don't care about their students' success. There are even more teachers that set the standard too low for our students. Teachers are the best mentors in students' lives. I understand that teachers aren't paid nearly as much as they should be paid for the job that they do, but that is something that needs to be addressed as well. Administration needs to make sure that teachers are properly compensated so that they have no reason to execute their duties to the fullest extent and further. Administration also needs to open a clear path of coordination with teachers.

My point of this post is that I am fed up with the line "I blame the parents". OKAY! FINE! I blame them too! Now, let's figure out what the hell we are going to do to fix the problem! If we have to circumvent the parental involvement altogether then so be it, but I don't want my children to have to grow up in a community in which we are still "blaming the parents".

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

PTSA Meeting @ Sam Houston High School

I attended a PTSA (Parent, Teacher, Student Association) meeting last night at Sam Houston H.S. and I was very disappointed in what I saw. Six people including myself were in attendance. The other five individuals included the PTSA president, a French teacher from the school, the "community liaison" of the high school, a community member, and a one parent who was mandated by the courts to attend due to excessive truancy by her daughter.

I asked the French teacher why she was the only teacher in attendance. She responded by telling me that a lot of the other teachers were busy leading extracurricular activities and there was also a girls athletic event that night. I asked her how many teachers worked at Sam Houston. She told me 60, and the "community liaison" mentioned 100. I then asked if they found it acceptable ad believable that out of 60 teachers there was only ONE at the meeting? She understood my point and agreed that there was no excuse for it.

Why isn't it mandated that teachers attend PTSA meetings for their own schools? It's not like they have to stay EVERY night. The meetings are once a month. I'm sure the time of the meeting could be easily adjusted to make it easier for them to attend.

I can complain about the teachers not being there and expect a difference to be made. I unfortunately can NOT expect the parents to show up. We can beg and plead for them to come, but just as they neglect their child's education in all other aspects, I expect them to neglect something as extraneous as an after hours meeting. Yes, I have lowered my expectations of parents.

I will elaborate further tomorrow in a post on what I think the solution for the black/hispanic community must consist of. It will contain my thoughts on the lack of parental involvement among minorities and the most effective way to change it.

I am going to try my best to keep the blog updated. I have been ranting to my girlfriend, friends, co-workers and parents for the past few months. They haven't gotten sick of my ranting, but I need another outlet...so here I am, back in the blogosphere. ;)

Stay tuned to my blog, as I will be addressing the performance of not only Sam Houston, but also the middle schools and elementary schools that feed into Sam Houston. I will also be addressing my thoughts on what the Eastside community needs in order to improve its current situation. These and more thoughts will be presented in several blogs throughout the next few months.

Defunct

Defunct - no longer living, existing, or functioning.

San Antonio's Eastside is defunct. There is no longer LIFE in the community. The word community exists, but the spirit is NONEXISTENT. The system failed the Eastside a long time ago and we have never been able to become FUNCTIONAL again.

I grew up on 1815 Lamar. From birth to the age of eighteen I was a resident of the Eastside of San Antonio. My grandparents owned and lived in the house across the street at 422 Hudson. Their previous house was on S Mesquite St. My father and all of his siblings were born on S Mesquite St and grew up at 422 Hudson. I attended day care on Rice Road. I went to Pre-K at the Church of the Nazarene on Rigsby. I went to private school (K-7) in Dellcrest. I began public school at Wheatley Middle School. I graduated from Sam Houston High School. My grandparents were pioneers of Coliseum Church of Christ and I grew up attending Dellcrest Church of Christ. I AM THE EASTSIDE. Throughout my frustration and anger over the constant plummet of the Eastside, I am still PROUD to be an Eastsider.

This pride encouraged me to move back to San Antonio and make a difference in my community. I came into it thinking that I could take several routes at making that difference, but they all led back to one component...EDUCATION. Turns out that EDUCATION on the Eastside has been defunct for a long time. I'm the oxygen, caffeine, and the defibrillator. I am the inspiration and the spark for a new beginning. I am The Eastside.

Is anyone home?

It's been a while since I have posted a blog. That doesn't mean that I haven't been working...just means I haven't blogged about any of it.

Just an update on what has occurred in the past few months...NOTHING. I went to Germany on a two month stint, thank to the US Air Force. I returned last week and got right back to work.

I visited Sam Houston for a total of 10 hours during my first week back. I found out that tutors/mentors from UT@Austin were being allowed to sit in the cafeteria after school, but were NOT allowed to recruit students and encourage them to come to the tutoring sessions. According to the high school administration, this was due to a school board policy. I spoke with the school board president and he was unaware of any policy that would restrict them from recruiting students. I then went back to Sam Houston and spoke with the VP who was all for allowing the tutors to recruit students, as long as it was in compliance with district policy.

As I spoke with the VP a young man from the school staff stopped by and gave me his insight on the matter. He said that the tutors were federally funded and that for every kid they recruited, the program received more money. Therefore, he was opposed to the program because the tutors looked at all the students as dollar signs. I asked him if the money was coming out of our pockets. He said no. I asked him if the money was coming from the district. He said no. "So, if the money isn't coming out of our funds....then WHO CARES?". He replied with a head nod.

I have contacted the school board president five times in the past two weeks and have left messages with the Principal, yet I have received no answer. I bet if I told them that I had basketball or football players from UTAustin that wanted to run a clinic at Sam I would have gotten a call back.