Closing the Catherine Ferguson Academy for girls

[gnome]

ORD is exactly correct. The BAMN people will surely cause trouble and divert precious resources from areas of real need.

This my take on the CFA situation:

you are being played. Bobb is waving the closure of CFA and you folk are reacting like a bull to a red cape; meanwhile, he's fucking with your program somewhere else. If you really what to fuck with Bobb, you would support his threat to close CFA.

[socks_mahoney]

If you really what to fuck with Bobb, you would support his threat to close CFA.

So to keep Bobb from closing CFA, we should support closing CFA?

Maybe I'm just not smart enough to understand this logic. Gnome, I understand that CFA may be a red herring put out there to distract folks and end up staying up [[kind of like Bing's "we're going to close all the parks! proposition). But how is supporting the closure going to help keep CFA alive?

Besides, CFA is the only school where actions are being planned, just the first.

[Melocoton]

There is all manner of fight back being planned for CFA, but letter writing and that form of agitating surely cannot harm. Supporting the actions of BAMN, that will cause harm.

True that letter-writing won't hurt, but by this logic sitting back and twiddling thumbs doesn't hurt--the question is what will help.

I'm suspicious of BAMN too but I would point out the reason we're talking about this at all is because of their direct action and the attention it has drawn to the CFA closure. What else is planned on other fronts by other organizations?

[oldredfordette]

There are fundraisers [[one this evening in Grosse Pointe), a Workers Rights Board [[in May, TBD) and another demo [[which I cannot find the info for). Count on the WRB to be sane and reasoned. Hopefully successful.

[mauser]

Here are photos from Catherine Ferguson Academy this week:

http://www.detroitfunk.com/?p=5257

[mauser]

Photos of Catherine Ferguson Academy this week:
http://www.detroitfunk.com/?p=5257

[13074Glenfield]

Defend democracy. firericksnyder.org =)

Spamming this site is not likely to win people over to your side.

[mauser]

Spamming this site is not likely to win people over to your side.

This is not spam, and is directly related to the topic, and is an opinion expressed within the boundaries of the thread topic.

Now, speaking directly to a poster rather than the topic, or the posters opinion on that topic - THAT is trolling.

[oldredfordette]

Getting rid of Snyder is a lovely endeavor that I support, but that won't save CFA or the other schools right now.

[mauser]

The supercharged EFM policy is Snyder's [[Mackinac Center to be specific) and needs to be challenged all the way to the Gates of Hell. The addition of "academic" authority for Bob Bobb was simply outrageous, and should not be allowed to stand - nor should any of the politicians who allowed it to occur. Accountants hold no degrees in academia.

From the DPS website:

"Robert C. Bobb earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana and a Master of Science in Business from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He also completed the certificate program for Senior Executives in State and Local Governments from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served as a member of the Executive Alumni Council."

[Jimaz]

Thom Hartmann: Republicans close Detroit school with a 90% graduation rate...

[HistoryNotHisStory]

The old adage of follow the money trail is true.

Closing a sucessful school with a 90% graduation rate and with 100% of the students go to a 4-year institution while failing schools remains open boggles the mind. Follow the money trail.

It is no surprise that Bobb convinced uninformed voters to increase their property taxes to build new schools for a District whose population is declining. The only ones to gain from this is contractors who continually fund political campaigns.

Follow the Money Trail!

My instincts were right!

Insider info has that Robb Bobb want to sell the school to the as an Charter School to the Rev. Horace Sheffield.

Follow the Money Trail.

[gnome]

quoting yourself? What? omg. hopeless.

[kathy2trips]

It was Cheney Elementary or was that Brady? ... .

I was trying to locate the school in an old directory and couldn't find where Selden matched up with the cross streets. The street that does, however, is called Linden in the 1920s. Can anyone confirm that Selden was once called Linden?

[socks_mahoney]

This came in my inbox this morning. All out to CFA tomorrow to keep it open. This is it folks, all or nothin.

"Dear friends and supporters of Catherine Ferguson Academy,

Okay, so you have probably either talked with me a bunch of times or heard my messages about the rally this Thursday, June 16 beginning at noon in front of Catherine Ferguson but wanted to send an email out with flyer so that people can forward it out and use next 24 hours to spread the news like wildfire. I also wanted to get a chance to update people on where we are in the fight to keep CFA open and defend public education. Some of you probably have heard of this information either through me, each other, or some combination of both. But I want to email everyone so they can forward the flier and spread the word about the rally. We need a really big last minute push so that we are building the rally as big as possible.

I will make this report as short as possible, but REALLY encourage for those who can to come to the BAMN meeting Wednesday [[today) at 5pm in our office in the Penobscot Building [[645 Griswold) suite 1817. This is a preparatory meeting for Thursday because we want to be prepared for all situations and take every action possible to further the possibility of keeping CFA open. We will cover both the practical and political steps we will need to take at the rally Thursday and beyond. Call me if you want to come. And if you are out of town maybe you can skype in. You can always call me for updates.

In short, we are kicking some serious ass in Detroit! We have been able to get a lot of media coverage for the rally and have been able to create a buzz throughout the city about Thursday. It kind of started last week with a Free Press columnist Jeff Gerritt entitled If DPS wants more successes, keep Catherine Ferguson Open where in the first paragraph of the article he advertises the rally and even gives the address for CFA. This was written I believe shortly after the Principle of CFA was on the Maddow Show announcing the news of CFA being closed, and her asked to give her keys to the building over to the district on June 17th. We got more media for the rally [[Channel 2, Channel 7, Detroit News and Free Press, WWJ Newsradio, etc) when on Monday two CFA students and one teacher had to go to court on their arraignment on misdemeanor trespassing charges for occupying the school. We have gotten contacts from a number of community groups in Detroit promising to help mobilize people, and have even gotten a call from a group of people coming all the way from Traverse City to be a part of the rally. We have been able to do announcements in a number of churches in Detroit, and got one prominent pastor to give us money to bring the marching band from Henry Ford High School to come perform at the rally, and enthusiastically called on his congregation to come to the rally, and declared that if necessary, he would charter CFA and maintain all the programs in the school. Him and another prominent pastor made it clear that they were going to talk with Roy Roberts on why CFA should stay open. We also just received word that Danny Glover was planning to attend the rally on Thursday.

We also have relatively small, but extremely important groups of students building for and attending the rally from Southeastern, Cody High School, Renaissance High School, and Denby High School. And [[this may make you laugh or smile in joy) we just heard Danny Glover is coming to the rally on Thursday. The pastors defending CFA and the media publicizing the rally is significant because it expresses our ability to shift the balances of power. It means that we have been able to arouse the anger and indignation of sections of Detroit who have been both outraged, yet determined to fight upon hearing the news of CFA closing. We did this through our occupation of CFA and huge and lively march from CFA to the New Center Area, where Robert Bobb's [[and now Roy Roberts) office is located. Of course the 3 consecutive walkouts of students at Southeastern to maintain their music programs and fight to participate in the Choral competition, and our March 2 rally from WSU to the Detroit City County building were crucial to those efforts. Through all these efforts we have been able to make clear the determination of the youth, along with teachers and the community in defending public education and make it known that there existed a leadership [[BAMN and the young people a part of BAMN like the CFA and Southeastern students) with the political perspective and will that could maintain and expand the struggle to defend public education and take every step necessary in expressing the anger, aspirations, and power of the youth and community of Detroit and supporters of public education.

We are going to have to make sure that we control the character of the rally on Thursday and take the actions necessary to win against the apprehensions and discouragement of some of the older people and officials who will be at the rally on Thursday. BAMN knows that if we are giving our leadership to the rally we can get people to take actions that are necessary, and win the active support of an even wider section of the population of Detroit. To make this point, I want to tell a story: there was a woman at a prominent church [[Little Rock Baptist) I fliered on Sunday who use to be a teacher at CFA who said that when she saw the students get arrested she wanted to rush down to the school, but her friend told her there will be another opportunity to rally and show her support. She took the flyer and said "I guess this is that moment". I thought to myself, if we could have had 300 people outside CFA, let alone a thousand, and prevented the cops from entering for even a couple of hours, we could have gotten people to drive down to CFA. Thursday is looking to be much, much bigger than the previous actions because it is "that moment" a lot of people have been waiting for.

So spread the word and how ever you have to do it make sure you are there at CFA, and bring every man, woman, and beast you can with you"

Solidarity is the only way.

[DetroitTeacher]

Just received this in an email from DPS!

The Detroit Public Schools has entered into an agreement with the Detroit-headquartered Blanche Kelso Bruce Academy to continue the educational programs for students enrolled at Catherine Ferguson Academy for Young Women, the Gladys Barsamian Preparatory Center and the Hancock Center.
For Ferguson, Blanche Kelso Bruce will continuing the program under their existing charter with Wayne RESA and retain same senior leadership and core staff. The principal who has 27 years of experience will remain as principal of the new charter school.
Blanche Kelso Bruce has operated alternative education programs in the City of Detroit for more than 10 years at 8 sites, currently servicing 345 students. And, they have already worked with Catherine Ferguson students, most recently travelling jointly to South Africa and conducted programs for the Ferguson students in skills development and capacity building.
The district has an agreement with Blanche Kelso Bruce to educate the students currently enrolled at two Strict Discipline Academies-Barsamian and Hancock-at current locations operated by this charter in the City of Detroit. Students in the expulsion track will be referred under a cooperative agreement to receive services for the period of their expulsion and to be referred back to a DPS school upon their return.
“This morning, are doing two things: First, changing the storyline,” said Emergency Manager Roy S. Roberts. “Detroit Public Schools is in crisis. This crisis is one of finances and academics. My responsibility as Emergency Manager appointed by Governor Rick Snyder is to educate 73,000 youth across the City of Detroit and to ensure that we create programs of educational excellence for every one of them. We have to make the hard decisions to make sure that, for every $1.00 we bring in, we don’t spend $1.50, but that we spend $1. Secondly, we are pleased to announce that we have found a solution to the issue of retaining services for students at three of our schools while at the same time removing the operational costs to Detroit Public Schools. And, as we have with the recent awarding of charters to three operators to run five schools, we have worked with the highest quality service provider to achieve this.”