The Michigan Citizen

Calloway: Charter schools "suicide."

Connie Calloway speaks at board meeting July 12.

First board meeting with new Superintendent

By Diane Bukowski
The Michigan Citizen

DETROIT: During her first board meeting, Detroit Public Schools (DPS) Superintendent Connie Calloway called charter schools "suicide" for the public school system. At the same time, she endorsed plans for theme-based schools partnering with private companies, part of the district's "re-alignment" plan which includes the closing of 42 schools over the next two years.

Calloway said she is a "Christian" and will conduct an open administration, listening to complaints from all parents and students.

Those complaints included testimony at the beginning of the meeting by two young sisters. The young women said they were brutalized by DPS police during a rally May 1 against school closings outside Northern High School, and now face serious charges in court.

"I was pepper sprayed and dragged across the street by my hair," said 13-year-old Veola Williams, whose lawyers have also said the police slammed her on the ground, pulled out her earrings, making her ears bleed, and tore out her hair.

Her 14-year-old sister Barbara Williams said, "I feel I was violated as a child." She said police slammed her against a wall, and then under a bench, where she was handcuffed to a pole. Her lawyers said she was also pepper sprayed directly in the eyes and had her glasses broken.

The sisters face charges in juvenile court of disturbing the peace and assault and battery against police officers, to be heard July 25 at 8 a.m.

In a separate incident, parent Kimberly Bishop said she had been assaulted by DPS police and arrested in an incident July 3 where she went to her daughter�s school to ask why she had to be in uniform for summer school.

In contrast to Calloway�s statements that she would conduct an open administration, DPS police at first barred students demonstrating against school closings from entering the meeting, they were eventually allowed to enter after pat-down searches. The protesters had already emptied their pockets and passed through a metal detector. No other audience members were similarly treated.

Another protester, Morris Mays, was barred because former interim superintendent Lamont Satchel allegedly filed a police complaint against him claiming he threatened to "assassinate" Satchel during a court hearing on school closings July 9. Satchel was not available for comment, and DPS chief of communications Lekan Oguntoyinbo had not returned a call about the police complaint before press time.

An audience member, Warren Bryant, was evicted from the meeting at board president Jimmy Womack's order for making comments, although Womack did not evict Rev. Loyce Lester, who continued his usual practice of making loud remarks, this time during Calloway's report.

In that report, Calloway said, "I want to use this time not to just bring good news, but to talk about issues. On the issue of charter schools, I want to be extremely clear that Connie Calloway does not support charter schools. They mean suicide for public schools. Charter schools are for profit, while public schools have existed since the 1800�s and 1900�s for the sole purpose of providing a free education for the public."

Calloway endorsed the concept of theme-based schools, saying for instance that she would like to see a school devoted to health allied professions, in partnership with the Health Alliance Plan (HAP). She noted that 45 percent of medical assistants employed in Detroit come from Canada.

"We need to find industries and careers for our students to attract families into DPS," she said.

In other business at the meeting, the board voted to allow Miller High School alumni a chance to present a plan to reopen the historic school in two years. The vote, taken under Womack�s report, supplanted a motion proposed at the human resources committee by chair Jonathan Kinloch and supported by board members Marie Thornton and Paula Johnson, to keep Miller open. The majority of the board earlier boycotted two special board meetings on the matter called by the three members.

The board also voted to lease the now closed Millennium High School and sell another DPS location at 7811 South Street. Facilities department vice-chair Mark Schrupp said the district has leased two closed schools to DPS-sponsored charter schools, although sales or leases to non-DPS charter schools are not planned.