Collect all six of participating Skyline restaurants while supplies last addiction will charge the supply
by Billy Cunningham, the Great American and read Spaceball off tonight, thank god,
and they're going to rest today. Got the Pirates in town Friday,
Saturday and Sunday, then off on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Cleveland,
off on Thursday. Last three games in Saint Louis. One game out of
the playoffs. We'll see what happens. But plus Bengals on Monday night against
the Rams. All kind of good stuff going on. And as you know,
the governor is with us yesterday and I had some reports he's doing much
better today. So this is the second time the governor has had COVID and
he seems to be in pretty good shape and we wish him the best.
And in the studio with me now is Ironetta Wright, who's the superintendent,
the head person at the Cincinnati Public Schools. And Ironetta Wright, good to
have you in the studio, and welcome to the Bill Cunningham Show. Thank
you for having me, glad to be here. Let's talk about some of
the issues. Number one, the test scores and Cincinnati Public Schools we're not
good. I don't know if they've been up and down a little bit.
What do you attribute to the fact that, over a number of years,
test scores in Cincinnati, not just under your administration, you've been here about
a year and a half or two years, but they tend to be in
the f category or below failing. Why is that well? I think that
there are a lot of different factors that we look at as we think about
the accountability system. I think it's important that we are looking at how our
students are truly assessed and what we're assessing our students on on the accountability system
has changed quite a bit over the last several years. And then we know,
just as the district was really beginning to see some pretty good strides and
progress, COVID happened. And from there it's really trying to get back now
to that pre COVID work so that we can make sure that we're seeing the
outcomes that we want to see for our students. Now goal, of course,
to everybody to pass everybody's happy long periods of time. Urban districts,
a lot of poor whites, a lot of poor black kids have more difficulties
in education than other isn't it true that parents, mothers and fathers are the
first teachers, the last teachers, and the best teachers. And in a
sense, no one can be blamed for failing schools if the kids shows up
not able to read, not able to come to school. What part the
bad parents play in this? Well, I think that you know, when
you're talking about the specific populations that you're talking about, you're talking about norms
that are outside of just what's happening in a day to day basis. Many
of the challenges that we see with students, especially when you're talking about urban
students, are talking about rural students as well, is that there is a
difference in terms of how families and some of the challenges that they're dealing with
in terms of the family, and so thinking about that, it looks different
when you start to work with school many of the students. You're right,
there are many students that don't come to school already on great levels. So
it causes teachers and additional staff members that are working with them to really have
to work even more specifically with the students to try to get them to the
level that they need to be during the time that they have with them.
So I think that parents parents. You know, I often say that parents
they do the best that they can, and they do the best that they
know how to do. So it's not necessarily my responsibility to say that a
parent is a bad parent or not a bad parent. What I want all
parents to do is make sure that when they send their kids to us,
they share with them, do what you should do while you're there, They
find a place for them to do their homework in the afternoon, They give
them the necessary support that they can, and that's a part of our be
Present initiative. That's one of the reasons that we're talking about be present because
for years, especially when you look at just the poverty rate in Cincinnati as
a whole, when you're thinking about that and then you're looking at how that
looks in school buildings, we have many families that are working two or three
jobs, trying to make ends meet, and they don't necessarily know what they
can do to be present. Now, that's not all of our families,
and I don't want to say that there is that's all of the families that
are in the district, but a vast majority of them, they are working,
doing the best that they can, and so we want to make sure
that we're partners with them and their children's education. All Ronata, did I
read that forty seven percent of the students are chronically absent? Forty seven percent
this year? I think actually the number. I think the number this year
is forty two, but that's accurate, and believe it or not, that
is an improvement over last year. That's a seven percentage point improvement over where
we were last year. Across the state, the goal is about twenty percent,
and so we have all of the urban school issues that urban school districts
and urban communities have, and that's one of the reasons that this year we're
really taking a concerted focus around chronic absenteeism. And we also believe that it's
important that we do that in partnership with the community because that's not just a
school based issue, it's a community issue as well. How is a community
how is the city of Cincinnati going to support us to make sure that if
students are not in school, that we're doing what's necessary to get them to
the school building. If you overt chronically absent, I can't imagine when they
do show up for school, how far behind they are and the behavioral issues.
And to me, that's a family that's a cultural problem more than an
education. If they don't show up to be educated, they got little chance.
And so what what can you do as a leader in Cincinnati to say
this is unacceptable. We can't have forty two forty five percent not showing up.
We can't have these kind of results. And so is there's something as
superintendent can do with parents? And if you're sixteen years old, that's different
than a six year old. You've got a six or seven year old in
the first second grade, they're not showing up, that's on the parent.
If the sixteen year old's not showing up, that's on the kid. So
what can you do to motivate them to actually come to school? I think
before we get to motivation, I think we can actually define what it means
to be chronically absent and chronic absenteeism is defined as being out of school ten
percent of the school year, so for us, that's about eighteen days.
I think it's important that we share with students and we share with families that
any absence, whether it's an excuse absence or an unexcused absence, counts against
them being chronically absent, and so making sure that they understand. You know,
if you take off a day a month, or if you take off
two days a month, by the end of the year you're not feeling well,
you have a headache, you have a running nose, you have a
stomach ache. By the end of the year, you will be chronically absent.
That does not mean that every student that has been chronically absent has not
been successful. When you think about just the example that I just use,
two days a month gets you to chronic absenteeism, but it doesn't put you
necessarily in a place where you can't be academically successful. So I think that's
the first. We want to educate our parents, our students, the community
around what it means to be chronically absent. I think the second is we
want to make sure that we are communicating with parents early and often about attendance,
making sure that they understand that students need to be in school, but
not only do they need to be in school. If you're planning a vacation,
we publicize our calendar much earlier. The calendar is online for two years.
Make sure you're reviewing the calendar before you plan vacation in the middle of
the school year. If a student is working and they're a working student,
there is a period of time that they should not work because they have school.
The other thing is making sure that when there is an issue and we
see it starting, because as the school year progresses, it's when we also
see that the numbers begin to increase in terms of the attendance. We want
to make sure that we're doing attendance intervention meetings and planning with families, really
trying to get to the root cause of what's causing the attendance, what's causing
the challenge. Even with the challenges that we had last year with transportation,
some would have thought that our chronic absenteeism would have been higher. We actually
had a decline. So it's not where we want to be, but it's
moving in the right direction, and I believe it's because we're really taking an
intensive focus on it all. Right, another right, superintendent of schools in
Cincinnati yesterday Children's Hospital, which is a great facility run by my good friend,
doctor Michael Fisher, said that all the staff have got to wear masks.
Do you see a time when once again, even though masks don't work,
even though masks are irrelevant, even though masks are harmful to children,
that you may require staff to wear masks. I think it would be difficult
for me to answer that right off, just with me and you, because
that's a decision that I would do in partnership with the school board. I
will share based on what I understand that did happen at Children's It's not just
about the expectations of the concerns around COVID, but there are a lot of
different issues in terms of medical issues that they were looking to cover and prepare
for as well. I'm hopeful that we don't go back to that space because
I think that we want our students to have an opportunity to interact and to
engage without them currier against them. Basically, well, I think it depends
on the situation. It depends on whether or not if there is an increase,
if someone has actually had a virus and they feel like they would be
more comfortable wearing a mask, I feel like they should have the opportunity to
do that, absolutely, but not mandatory. It depends on the situation.
Now, what about tuition? Right now, my friends and Columbus have put
together that anyone and Cincinnati or elsewhere can get about eight thousand dollars to send
their kid to a private school. Many times it's a Catholic school that's a
first, second, or third grader, or go to LaSalle or go to
Mall or whatever it might be. What impact has the tuition program had and
attendance at CPS, Well, Billy, you know that I am definitely a
public school educator, so I support all funding going to public school students,
to support the funding to support the overall work that's happening with children. When
parents are selecting to go to a private institution, that's their choice to do
that. But I don't think that public dollars should be used to do that.
But it is. It is. That's correct. But you ask me
what I think, and that is actually what I think. Is it hurting
the schools? I haven't seen it yet. It's just started. In terms
of our enrollment right now, our enrollment is pretty steady with where it was
last year, So we would have to really go through this year spend some
more time looking at whether or not it has had a great impact on us.
But do you understand that from a Columbus perspective, most of the people
that run state government are from like Bucyrus and Aida, and they look at
Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland is not necessarily in a positive fashion, and they
say that if parents can get a tuition voucher and take that to Saint Susannah
or take that to our Lady of Victory and get eight thousand dollars of taxpayer
money, that do you have a concern that may I use the term the
cream of the crop of schools and Cincinnati are gonna lose the top twenty percent
because you can go into a more functional environment, which is a Catholic grade
school. I have a concern about it across the board because as the budget
happened for us this year, the House budget and the Senate budget were not
the same, and in order for us to get an addition the additional funding
that we did receive, which was about twelve million dollars, the way that
that was done was to agree to this universal vouchers. So ultimately, it's
taking money from public school students, is taking money from students in the greatest
need. So there is not a time that I would agree with public dollars
going to fund a child going to a private school, whether that is a
child that those that anyone would consider to be the highest performing child, or
whether that's a child that's more challenged. I don't support it. Thirty five
hundred kids or so I read that report, are homeless. I can't imagine
educational achievement of a seven, eight, nine, ten year old who's homeless,
living on the streets. What special programs do you have in CPS to
help an eight year old girl who's homeless. So we do. We do
our work through a program called Project Connect, and through Project Connect, it
allows us to really work with families, to work with our agencies that are
within the city to make sure that we're working to help our families get sheltered.
Just recently, we had a presentation at a joint meeting that we had
with the city Council and our school board, and one of the things that
we're shared is that we see more students right now that are unsheltered. Over
a hundred students in our district right now sheltered. So essentially that means that
these would be students that would be living in a car, or they may
be living on the streets, and so we do intensive work with them.
Do follow up with the families. We provide vouchers for them in terms of
clothing vouchers, in terms of food vouchers through working with our partners, we
work with the Free Store Food Bank to make sure that there's food that's provided
for them. We provide what they need in terms of uniforms, and then
we also want to make sure that academically everything that we can provide for them.
All of our schools our community learning centers, so that gives opportunity for
students to be at school longer sometimes so they're getting additional services that way as
well. And one of the things that we notice is with our students,
our homeless students, and this was just shared last week in that meeting,
that we see a higher percentage of our homeless students that are graduating than the
national average, and so that really says that we are doing some intensive work.
That work is lit by one of our team members, Rebecca Beach,
and she's been doing it for a long time and has a heart for the
population. I think one of the things that we want to address in the
city is there is a need for affordable housing and so as we think about
even our homeless families, that are able to get vouchers for a property,
They're not able to necessarily find a property where they're able to use the voucher
for that to happen, right right, correct now. Issue one's coming up
in about five or six weeks, and many on the Republican conservative side,
I think it's evil if the school systems are making referrals to plan parenthood or
transgender rights. What is if I'm at went through high school, and I'm
a sixteen year old girl, and women have babies, men do not have
babies, and a girl comes and she's pregnant. Would you notify the parents
of that sixteen year old girl that she's pregnant. So, I think we
have policies and processes that are in place for what we can share what we
cannot share. A part of this information came up because the concern was not
necessarily about students that were pregnant as much as it was about students that were
identifying with an alternative lifestyle. And there is a responsibility that educators have if
there's something that's harmful in the Code of Ethics, they have to report that.
However, in terms of looking at this particular scenario, it's not one
that's been determined harmful. So if a child is in trouble in any way,
if they're looking at self harm or any of those kinds of things,
then we are required to do follow up and follow up with the parents.
Outside of that, not so much if a child shows up and says I'm
a boy and I want to be a girl, and there's a clinic inside
the high school, or would you notify the parent that a student of tender
years wants to become a transgender? Would you notify parents' guardians? Even with
our clinics that are in our high schools, they have to have parent permission
to go to the clinic, So that child wouldn't be able to go to
the clinic and start any services or any of those things without their being parent
noticed and parent permission. But once they get there, would you make a
referral to planned parenthood for an abortion without notifying the parent? In terms of
thinking about what needs to happen next for the child, I think that collectively
their privacy expectations around working with children and working with families as well, and
so it would really be important to make sure that we acknowledge what's in our
policy for that and we follow the policies in the guide Lives. Yes or
no, I know that's your question. I know that's your question. Yes
or no, I know that's your question. So you can't say yes or
no in terms of thinking about the specific question that you're asking. You know,
it depends on the circumstances. It depends on the situation. I don't
have enough information to know that answer. I don't know whether or not that
child is a child that has been a product of incests, if they have
had a challenge, if they have been a victim of some sort. So
I can't just say yes, I would do this, or know that I
wouldn't, because it very much depends on the circumstance. Now we have a
terrible situation on the southern border, and millions and millions of illegals are pouring
across the southern border, and Governor Abbot is declared in an invasion. We
don't know what's happening. I imagine CPS is not like New York or Los
Angeles, but I would assume there's hundreds or many individuals who may show up
for education at the age of ten or twelve without educational achievement. In the
background to give them the opportunity to be able to read and to think critically.
Do you have special if we have a duty legally to educate everyone that
shows up your respective of status, because that's the law. How good or
bad is it if you have to educate a thousand kids from Nicaragua who show
up in the public schools without any educational background, what do you do with
them? I think that's one of the examples, a very specific example.
I'm glad you shared that because that's one of the examples of what makes an
urban school district very different than a suburban school district because everyone that comes you
know, when we think about Cincinnati, there has been an increase since COVID
of families that are coming into sin Sinnati that are from different places. And
so even in our own school district, we've seen about a forty percent increase
in our English language learning families. And that's what we call them, our
families that are bilingual or multi lingual families. And you're right, we have
an expectation and a requirement to make sure that the children are served, and
so we work with them in a variety of ways. We bring them in.
We do as required by the state as well. There is a language
testing that goes along with it, so that we really can try to get
an idea of where the students are, where they were performing in their own
language, so that we can get them the level of support that they need
and work to get them to proficiency. Social promotion, let's say you're twelve
years old and you're performing at a second or third grade level. You can't
put a twelve year old and the third grade. So is social promotion a
fact at CPS. By know what I mean, you promote the kid to
the next grade level even though educationally they're not there. So last year we
actually had an update in our policy because during the time of COVID there was
a change in the policy. The goal was to promote as many students as
possible through COVID. Last year we had an update in our policy where we've
gone back to really looking at the requirements that students need to meet in order
for them to be promoted. I think that there are some outlying situations like
the one that you're talking about, and so in those kinds of examples,
we would work with students, we would work with families get a really good
idea of where the students are, do individualized planning for them so that we're
able to get them on track. I mean, there are a lot of
different reasons that you wouldn't want a twelve year old is that should be in
the sixth or seventh grade in a class with a third grader, And so
it's important that we think through that and that we're working with the students and
the families and the teachers to get that done well astly. What's the ats
So our graduation rate right now, it's about eighty five percent across the district
and a slight improvement we do expect moving into next year. I do think
it's important that we clarify what graduation rate means because our students that come to
school every day. To your earlier question about attendance, our students that come
to school every day. Our schools do a great job of making sure that
those students are promoted. They work with them. If they're students that are
behind, they work with those students as well. But when you think about
graduation rate, this is an area of education for our community as well.
It's not just the students that are in the building. It depends on when
students started in ninth grade. So if a child starts in the ninth grade
and they move away, and they move outside of Ohio and we don't know
where they are, those students count against that school and the district's graduation rate.
So it's really important for families to know and for the community to know.
Most of the students that we have challenges with our students that move away,
that they move, they don't give us any information. We don't know
where they are. We have not been able to find them, so they
count against us. As long as we can't say that this child went from
location X to location why then they count against that particular school. And that
is that's the national way that it's done. And so it's important that families
understand that. A right gam many questions for me about sports, politics,
world capitals, something else confused you over the years. I just want to
make sure the next time you go to Sawgrass you hit the ball from me.
I've played there once or twice, and that's your kind of your home
airy Jacksonville, Duval right, I know how much you love Duvall I do
really, And then you went to Detroit. Don't you like Cincinnati? And
Cincinnati better than Jacksonville. Listen, I love Cincinnati, but Jacksonville is home
for me. There there are many things that remind me very much of Jacksonville
and Cincinnati, but I love it here, but Jacksonville is home. I
run out, all right. Thank you very much for coming on the Bill
Cunningham Show. Thank you for having me. Let's continue. Bill Cunningham News
Radio seven hundred w l W join the reddits for the final homes.