ENOUGH New Albany and NAFC Superintendent Brad Snyder offer perspectives on Wednesday's #NationalSchoolWalkout.

When I was in high school at Floyd Central, there was a walkout once. If an eroded memory properly serves, some upperclassmen (and women) were protesting tightened rules v.v. the outdoor smoking area.

What's going down these days strikes me as a great deal more principled.

First, the forthcoming protest as described on electronic media, which didn't exist in 1975, when all we had were ... that's right, smoke signals.

Sorry about that. I'm very much in favor of these protests.

ENOUGH New Albany

New Albany Senior High School• 1020 Vincennes Street , New Albany, IN 47150

Women’s March Youth EMPOWER is calling for students, teachers, school administrators, parents and allies to take part in a #NationalSchoolWalkout for 17 minutes at 10am across every time zone on March 14, 2018 to protest Congress’ inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods. We need action. Students and allies are organizing the national school walkout to demand Congress pass legislation to keep us safe from gun violence at our schools, on our streets and in our homes and places of worship.

Students and staff have the right to teach and learn in an environment free from the worry of being gunned down in their classrooms or on their way home from school.

Parents have the right to send their kids to school in the mornings and see them home alive at the end of the day.

We are not safe at school. We are not safe in our cities and towns. Congress must take meaningful action to keep us safe and pass federal gun reform legislation that address the public health crisis of gun violence. We want Congress to pay attention and take note: many of us will vote this November and many others will join in 2020.

Join us in saying #ENOUGH!

Superintendent Brad Snyder's perspective from atop the tightrope.

STUDENT PROTESTS

Dear Parents,

This letter provides information regarding school “walk-outs” organized by students.

Many of you may already know that in the aftermath of the Parkland Florida shootings, students have started to raise their voice and others have joined in. At present, certain organizations from around the country are encouraging students to take part in multiple scheduled school “walk-outs.” The walk-outs are being presented as “student led protests” to bring more awareness to current events and societal issues.

We anticipate that some of our students will be interested in participating in these events, and others will not. Thus, we need to remain mindful of the needs of everyone who comes to school ready to learn. We do not plan to interrupt our normal instruction for these protests. Students who wish to protest may do so provided their individual actions do not materially interfere with the function and operation of their school. Students who do not wish to protest will be able to focus on their individual academic pursuits.

Student safety and instruction remain our ultimate concerns.

Sincerely,

Dr. Brad Snyder
Superintendent
NAFC Schools

Q1: Are students legally allowed to protest during the school day?

A1: Yes, as long as their actions and their words do not materially or substantially interfere with the function and operation of their school. The US Supreme Court has ruled in Tinker vs. Des Moines, that students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech at the schoolhouse gate. Thus, students do have a constitutional right to protest / free speech. However, at the same time, the same ruling also provides that students do not have a constitutional right to materially and substantially interfere with the function and operation of their school or school activities. Students have both rights and limits.

Q2: Does the School Corporation support these student protests?

A2. The School Corporation is neutral to all student led political protests. As a government institution, we do not endorse student led protests nor do we discourage student freedom of speech.

Q3: Will teachers help the students organize the protest?

A3: No. All forms of student protest must be student led.

Q4: Can teachers participate in the protest?

A4: No. An individual teacher’s action could violate state law and local policy. Unlike students, the court has ruled that teachers and school employees are not protected by the Free Speech clause while they are on duty and working for the public school. While in the line of duty, employees have a requirement of neutrality.

Q5: Can parents protest with their student?

A5: No. A parent may sign their child out of the building at any time.

Q6: What will a protest day look like?

A6: We will provide a safe internal environment for students who desire to protest while maintaining a routine for those who wish to focus on academics. We will provide our expected and routine orderly environment for all students and staff.

Q7: Will my student be safe if they walk-out?

A7: Students will be in the safest position if they remain inside of their school building. We have notified local law enforcement regarding the potential of these walk-out situations in the event some students decide to venture outside on their own.

Q8: Will students be disciplined if they participant in the walk-out?

A8: If an event occurs, it will be a normal school day, and as such, routine attendance practices and policy remain in force. All polices within the student handbook will be our guide to assess acceptable behavior.

Q9: Why is the school “protest neutral” and not willing to help the kids more?

A9: Policy directs school administration to avoid all situations in which personal interests, activities, and associations that conflict with the interests of the Corporation. The Corporation will not support outside non-school activities which threaten the effectiveness or the integrity of its staff or the regular school day. Our goal is to be protest neutral and remain safety vigilant. Student safety is a full time and serious matter. Finally, we do not know how many groups may want to conduct similar civil protests in the future and for what political or societal cause.

Q10: As a parent, what can I do?

A10: Talk with your developing teen. Help them think through and discuss the relevant issues and emotions, emphasize personal decision making, and clarify appropriate behavior.

Our big fat Hibbardendum (3): City voters, take note, because just as in 2015, the NA-FC bond referendum is a "driving oriented, suburban school model."

Originally published on April 6, 2015. 

The "yes" arguments favoring the 2016 variant of the school corporation's bond referendum are essentially the same as before, when it was defeated by voters during the 2015 primary election. Perhaps unsurprisingly, so are the "no" arguments. Here is one of them. See also:

Our big fat Hibbardendum (1): Follow the PAC-besotted usual suspects' beak wetting in the $87 million schools referendum. 

Our big fat Hibbardendum (2): The more things stay the same, or our school bond referendum, 2016.

ON THE AVENUES: It’s our big fat Hibbardendum, and Jeff Gahan is carrying the superintendent across the threshold as Metro United Way tosses rice and One Southern Indiana steals all the liquor.

---

Unctuous, thy name is Bruce Hibbard.

Back in February, when the reigning superintendent of the NA-FC schools appeared at a city council work session along with Brad "Actually Earns HIS Pay" Snyder to tout the May referendum, at-large councilman John Gonder cut straight to the chase and said aloud what everyone in the room should have been thinking.

Gonder said school officials didn’t actively lobby the public in support of Silver Street Elementary School when it was on the chopping block.

Now the system is wanting to build larger facilities while a school that children once could walk to has been closed, Gonder added.

“I do think that the school corporation has a strong responsibility to neighborhoods in the city,” he said.

Of course, "neighborhoods in the city" have tended to be the last thing on the school corporation's mind, apart from demolishing houses near existing schools (does Dan Coffey get a cut of that CCE action, too?), but if we were expecting introspection from Hibbard, it wasn't happening.

The decision to close those schools — which was made almost five years ago — was in reaction to state funding cuts and other issues facing the system at the time, Hibbard said.

“When we closed those four schools, we didn’t need those four schools,” Hibbard said. “It was really about efficiency for the district so we could survive.”

In short: The school corporation, without which Hibbard's pay packet is rerouted to a tar paper-lined sewer ditch on West 9th Street, must live even if our neighborhoods die.

A subsequent suggestion that "efficiencies" in school administration might include periodic examinations of past policy failures and current golden parachutes was greeted with disingenuousness in the form of Hibbard's gurgling sounds and palpable condescension; apparently Snyder is quite accustomed to dual duty as primary plan presenter and bucket o'sawdust-bearing cleaner of his boss's puke piles.

As the referendum's primary slot draws nearer, let's fast forward to last week's NAC post about the built-in lies of America's transportation system.

Marohn on transportation funding: "Facing the Unknown with Courage."

... We’re locked into a transportation system that requires us to lie to ourselves about what we can know about the future and then spend huge amounts to support that lie. When we underestimate our needs, it confirms our bias for building more. When we overestimate, we can explain it away – if we are ever asked to, which we hardly ever are – by citing factors beyond our control (oil price, recession, fickle humans, etc…). This is a dumb system.

JeffG, from whom the link was borrowed, then used Marohn's main point as a mirror, and held it up to the school corporation.

(Marohn's point) pretty well sums up the upcoming school referendum, too, in which the school corporation seeks to solidify its commitment to a driving oriented, suburban school model for the foreseeable future.

NA-FC buses already drive enough to circle the globe multiple times in less than a week. We know that's extremely costly and not sustainable. We know that children, neighborhoods, and our biosphere do better with walkable, neighborhood schools. But, when I suggest refocusing efforts on such walkable schools, I'm told I'm rehashing previous decisions.

The truth is, the current $120 million plan is the one looking backward, extending and exacerbating the misguided trends of the 50s and 60s while ignoring current and future reality. We can't afford the vehicles, roads, and fuel usage we have now, so what's the school plan? To use what's being called a rare financial opportunity to make sure we keep it that way for as long as possible.

We've often made the argument that the single worst aspect of New Albany's archaic one-way street grid is the way it incessantly rows in the opposite direction, 24 hours each day, negating all expenditures and well-intentioned efforts to revitalize urban neighborhoods. The school corporation often functions in similar fashion. It would be easier to support this referendum if it might somehow be a part of a deal to bring Hibbard to the table, to improve the school corporation as a participating stakeholder in the process of civic improvement, rather than an entity seemingly always pursuing autonomous agendas. Pie in the sky, perhaps.

Meanwhile ...

From what can be seen on-line and in social media, pending corrections, the only two May primary candidates to make public their views on the referendum are Al Knable (at-large council) and Cliff Staten (6th district council), both in favor.

There doesn't seem to be an organized anti-referendum effort, although the comments appended to two posts from January in the Floyd County IN, GOP group at Facebook, most of them by former Floyd County Republican Party chairman Dave Matthews, amply summarize the opposition from a "no new taxes" perspective.

First one
Second one

The pro-referendum case is made on Facebook at Families for Floyd County (the group's web site is here).

A final link: Referendum tax rate slightly higher than estimated for NA-FC Schools (Jerod Clapp, News and Tribune).

 ... (Snyder) said the district’s reasoning with the .1937 rate was to anticipate some growth in the assessed valuation of properties across the county.

The DLGF came back and told them to avoid assuming any growth in the values and keep them essentially flat, slightly raising the estimated rate.

Let's avoid the TIF discussion for now, shall we? It's only Monday morning, and we're already exhausted.

Snyder screws up and mentions Hibbard's name. That'll cost 'em 1%.

Earlier: The NA-FC school corporation's latest bond referendum debuts ... but if Trump wins, aren't we all moving to Canada anyway?

Hospital sale meetings are held in secret. Street reversion meetings are held in secret. The school corporation's community meetings ... but of course, there might be classified notices in the print edition.

MC wrote:

I probably just missed any notices but did you all see public notices about the community meetings held by the school system, according to the News and Tribune?

BG answered:

No, I didn't. It's especially funny seeing Snyder not explain what they supposedly explained at those gatherings. The new video doesn't explain anything, either. A lot has changed. They've learned. We just don't know how or what.

The newspaper took a break from Clark County coverage to proffer this explanation. It's nice to see that the concept of "pep rally" still exists in our area's institutions of learning.

NA-FC referendum shows push and pull; Groups set to support, oppose, by Jerod Clapp (Clark County News Source)

Gearing up for round two on a referendum, the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. has held community meetings to try to engage supporters.

Brad Snyder, deputy superintendent, said it's held some community meetings at the district's Education Support Center on Grant Line Road and has seen some growth in participation.

"Dr. [Bruce] Hibbard, [superintendent] has a goal of trying to get 100 people there," Snyder said. "We kind of started with 20, then it went to 30 or 40. At our last meeting, we probably had 50 people there. The energy and the enthusiasm has clearly grown. We’ve got a couple more set up, but we’re headed in the right direction."

NA-FC referendum: "A driving oriented, suburban school model."

Unctuous, thy name is Bruce Hibbard.

Back in February, when the reigning superintendent of the NA-FC schools appeared at a city council work session along with Brad "Actually Earns HIS Pay" Snyder to tout the May referendum, at-large councilman John Gonder cut straight to the chase and said aloud what everyone in the room should have been thinking.

Gonder said school officials didn’t actively lobby the public in support of Silver Street Elementary School when it was on the chopping block.

Now the system is wanting to build larger facilities while a school that children once could walk to has been closed, Gonder added.

“I do think that the school corporation has a strong responsibility to neighborhoods in the city,” he said.

Of course, "neighborhoods in the city" have tended to be the last thing on the school corporation's mind, apart from demolishing houses near existing schools (does Dan Coffey get a cut of that CCE action, too?), but if we were expecting introspection from Hibbard, it wasn't happening.

The decision to close those schools — which was made almost five years ago — was in reaction to state funding cuts and other issues facing the system at the time, Hibbard said.

“When we closed those four schools, we didn’t need those four schools,” Hibbard said. “It was really about efficiency for the district so we could survive.”

In short: The school corporation, without which Hibbard's pay packet is rerouted to a tar paper-lined sewer ditch on West 9th Street, must live even if our neighborhoods die.

A subsequent suggestion that "efficiencies" in school administration might include periodic examinations of past policy failures and current golden parachutes was greeted with disingenuousness in the form of Hibbard's gurgling sounds and palpable condescension; apparently Snyder is quite accustomed to dual duty as primary plan presenter and bucket o'sawdust-bearing cleaner of his boss's puke piles.

As the referendum's primary slot draws nearer, let's fast forward to last week's NAC post about the built-in lies of America's transportation system.

Marohn on transportation funding: "Facing the Unknown with Courage."

... We’re locked into a transportation system that requires us to lie to ourselves about what we can know about the future and then spend huge amounts to support that lie. When we underestimate our needs, it confirms our bias for building more. When we overestimate, we can explain it away – if we are ever asked to, which we hardly ever are – by citing factors beyond our control (oil price, recession, fickle humans, etc…). This is a dumb system.

JeffG, from whom the link was borrowed, then used Marohn's main point as a mirror, and held it up to the school corporation.

(Marohn's point) pretty well sums up the upcoming school referendum, too, in which the school corporation seeks to solidify its commitment to a driving oriented, suburban school model for the foreseeable future.

NA-FC buses already drive enough to circle the globe multiple times in less than a week. We know that's extremely costly and not sustainable. We know that children, neighborhoods, and our biosphere do better with walkable, neighborhood schools. But, when I suggest refocusing efforts on such walkable schools, I'm told I'm rehashing previous decisions.

The truth is, the current $120 million plan is the one looking backward, extending and exacerbating the misguided trends of the 50s and 60s while ignoring current and future reality. We can't afford the vehicles, roads, and fuel usage we have now, so what's the school plan? To use what's being called a rare financial opportunity to make sure we keep it that way for as long as possible.

We've often made the argument that the single worst aspect of New Albany's archaic one-way street grid is the way it incessantly rows in the opposite direction, 24 hours each day, negating all expenditures and well-intentioned efforts to revitalize urban neighborhoods. The school corporation often functions in similar fashion. It would be easier to support this referendum if it might somehow be a part of a deal to bring Hibbard to the table, to improve the school corporation as a participating stakeholder in the process of civic improvement, rather than an entity seemingly always pursuing autonomous agendas. Pie in the sky, perhaps.

Meanwhile ...

From what can be seen on-line and in social media, pending corrections, the only two May primary candidates to make public their views on the referendum are Al Knable (at-large council) and Cliff Staten (6th district council), both in favor.

There doesn't seem to be an organized anti-referendum effort, although the comments appended to two posts from January in the Floyd County IN, GOP group at Facebook, most of them by former Floyd County Republican Party chairman Dave Matthews, amply summarize the opposition from a "no new taxes" perspective.

First one
Second one

The pro-referendum case is made on Facebook at Families for Floyd County (the group's web site is here).

A final link: Referendum tax rate slightly higher than estimated for NA-FC Schools (Jerod Clapp, News and Tribune).

 ... (Snyder) said the district’s reasoning with the .1937 rate was to anticipate some growth in the assessed valuation of properties across the county.

The DLGF came back and told them to avoid assuming any growth in the values and keep them essentially flat, slightly raising the estimated rate.

Let's avoid the TIF discussion for now, shall we? It's only Monday morning, and we're already exhausted.

Silver Street School + Sojourn = Cults on the River.

It's quite possible that this is the single most depressing development in New Albany in the past decade. The school that never should have been closed, Silver Street, now will adaptively house yet another wacko religious institution, Sojourn: We’ve Found A Home For Sojourn New Albany! Learn About Our New Campus Site

Back in 2008, LEO observed that Sojourn definitely Smells Like Holy Spirit:

Sojourn is a Southern Baptist church, and the message here is not a particularly progressive one. Pastors counsel a strict adherence to scripture, which means abortion is murder, men are the natural-order leaders and homosexuality is a sin from which gays need to be converted and redeemed.

So how does the school corporation enabling such a regressive subtraction to the community spin it? Like this:

Brad Snyder, deputy superintendent for New Albany-Floyd County schools, said the sale is "a huge win-win for the community” because the church intends to use it for "advancing community outreach."

Groan.

This is civil society? Really, Brad? How soon before we're taking money away from public education for Sojourn to re-educate gays?