Robert Bobb has been meeting nonstop with community groups, parents, legislators and the media to explain how much work is needed to fix the Detroit Public Schools. I’ve heard him make his case.
But Thursday night, ad dressing the Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Black Jour nalists, Bobb said something I hadn’t heard.
“When I leave, I want to leave the school district with five plans,” he said, outlining a master plan for learning and teaching, as well as plans to ensure safety and security; parental and community involvement; improved aca demics and curriculum, and that DPS facilities meet the needs of students and staff, not contractors.
It was those first three words that stopped me: “When I leave. …” Bobb hasn’t talked much about that.
“My deadline is the end of my contract,” the DPS emergency financial manager confirmed Friday morning in a follow-up conversation.
“That’s March 2011. It’s a lot of work, and much of it we’ve begun. But it means that we have to escalate and go faster than we’ve been going before. We have a defined time line. That’s when my contract ends. I’m being realistic.”
Problems and solutions
It is possible that Bobb’s contract could get extended. A Republican governor would be even more likely than a Democrat to keep him on the job.
But that isn’t a sure thing. The only sure things are the problems and solutions — and what children need.
Bobb talked about them Thursday:
■ Half of DPS students grad uate from high school com pared with 80% of students nationally. Before he leaves, Bobb wants DPS to match the national average.
■ Few DPS schools have advanced placement classes. Before he leaves, Bobb wants to create a way for every student in the district to take at least one AP class — even if they have to take them online.
■ Ten percent of the dis trict’s students, or 8,761 children, are overage for their grade and have too few credits to graduate on time; 2,616 of them are ninth-grad ers who weren’t ready for high school and were not promoted. At Mumford High, for instance, that pop ulation is nearly 500, or a quarter of the students in the school.
“Those kids will never graduate from that high school unless we do some thing,” Bobb said. “We can not turn these kids back to the streets.”
His team is working on a plan to place those students in special classes to ensure that they catch up and get their diplomas. That’s the difference between them learning to take care of themselves and us taking care of — uh, oh. If Bobb creates those special classes, is that an academic decision? Will the school board sue?
Please. It took years for those kids to get behind.
And nobody cared.
“If we follow Malcolm X,” Bobb said, “we have to edu cate them ‘by any means necessary.’ We won’t get 100%, but by God, we have to try. It’s so easy to give up on them.”
Joy and genius
Oh, there’s one other thing that Bobb pointed out to journalists Thursday night.
In the midst of great chal lenges, there is great joy and there is sheer genius among DPS students. At a recent career day, Bobb said he met some routine miracles.
“There was a kid with seven acceptance letters to college,” he said. “One lady with her mom was invited to study photography and jour nalism in London.”
“There are some kids tonight who may not have a meal,” he said. “They may come to school with their uniforms torn and tattered.
But their minds are brilliant. These kids’ minds are so powerful that they will learn under a rock. There are some remarkable children in the Detroit Public Schools.
“Yesterday at the University of Michigan, we had sixth-graders from three of our schools who have been working with a U of M science professor for the last three years. It brings tears to your eyes to see these kids explain the ecology of the Detroit River. I didn’t know that an eagle flew at a hundred miles an hour.”
And many of us in this community had lost hope that this school district could be saved. Now that we can see it, feel it, believe it, we better fight for it.
Or we’ll be right back where we were.
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