Take Back Perry Schools
Introduction
We are a group of concerned parents, educators, teachers, students and taxpayers that are committed to taking back control of the Metropolitan School District of Perry Township from a divided school board. This division started from the actions of four individual board members with personal agendas and whose actions have put our schools in a downward spiral. Their ongoing disregard for board by-laws and state laws, as well as the flippant waste of taxpayer's dollars must be opposed in an effort to Take Back Perry Schools.Teachers
This site consists of a three-prong approach to improving our schools. It will take a combination of informing and educating parents, teachers and students to what’s going on in the schools in our township.
This section will focus on resources specifically for teachers in our township.
Posted by Admin on Nov 28 2006 under Administrative
January 24th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
The following are statistics that I shared at the school board meeting Monday night. I am again saddened by the false numbers that are written in the papers and quoted by some uninformed people at school board meetings. You do not have to believe my statistics. You may go to the Indiana DOE website and look them up for yourself.
Perry Township Graduation Breakdown
All of the information below (and more), can be obtained from the Indiana Department of Education website.
Southport High School - 75.2% Graduate
Perry Meridian - 73.8% Graduate
What about the 24.8% and 26.2% that are not included in the graduation rate?
SHS Breakdown PMHS Breakdown
Still in school 6% 8.4%
GED 5.1% 6.4%
Special Ed. Certificate 2.2% 5.3%
The top two categories, (still in school, and GED), are included in the % of the students that do not graduate. However, even though not by traditional means, these students will receive a diploma. The last category is beyond a school’s control if the student is not mentally capable of passing the mandatory state requirements.
That leaves the percentage of students that actually dropout or are undetermined, (which generally means that they either left the state or did not officially withdraw).
Dropout/Undermined 11.5% 6.2%
Also included in the % of students that do not graduate is a category that is not included in Perry Township’s breakdown. That category represents the number of students that did receive all of their credits but because they could not pass the ISTEP because of either GPA, attendance or some other factor, that received a certificate of completion and not a diploma. The State’s statistic on this category is 3.2% of students.
As a teacher, I am pleading for the people who want to share statistics about our township to PLEASE do your homework first. I take these statistics very personally.
Sincerely,
Janet Pernell
Southport High School
January 24th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Challenge to Mrs. Susan Adams,
Mrs. Adams, at Monday’s nights school board meeting you said, “This is just one more thing wrong with Perry Township”. Could you please at the next school board meeting find SOMETHING, ANYTHING that you think is right about Perry Township and state that?
Janet Pernell
January 26th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Dear Janet Pernell,
Thank you for the updated and correct information on graduation rates.
It is apparent that it was not a matter of Ms. Adams not knowing or where to look up this information. It is a matter of falsely using figures to her own advantage.
It is sad when one has to resort to such behavior. What message is this sending to our children?
B. McLaughlin
February 7th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Take Back Perry School? Save Perry Schools?
Having worked in Perry Township schools for a long time and seeing what they can do and what they fail to do, I think the whole administration needs to be fired and replaced so that true education can take place. This includes the principals and the administration of each school. They are here for one purpose - They wwork to keep their job tomorrow. Look at who made AYP and who did not. What a joke! Take a tour of Southport high school and see who runs the show - THE STUDENTS! It is a very disrespectful place. Cussing and fighting daily is the norm and these kids get away with it. Parenting? Forget it. Schooling? Forget it. There is little education happening there. Right now, the township is merely processing students through. Prnmotion by attrition with no real skills. Look at the appalling statistics! Why are we patting ourselves on the back for: Southport High School - 75.2% Graduate
Perry Meridian - 73.8% Graduate??????????
February 27th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Wow! Have you walked the halls of SHS? Have you been in the classrooms to witness what goes on? I know you haven’t because I know that what you are saying is untrue! I spent 34 years of my life there.
Certainly there are students who curse - same in most any school! Do staff members try to keep this from happening? Absolutely! Ask the deans! Fighting on a daily basis? You are wrong!
Also, facts are facts, but you obviously aren’t interested in them. Had you read Janet Pernell’s entire post, you would have seen that the real dropout rate is 11.5%. My guess is that some of that figure is due to illness of student or family member, a need for support of family, or perhaps even more transience than we know of. Also, SHS, as well as other schools, receives students who cannot speak even a bit of English, so what do you think their interest level might be? There is a myriad of reasons why students drop out of school, many of which have nothing to do with the school.
Unfortunately, I will say this for you –your logic is right in line with that of the gang of 4!
March 1st, 2007 at 10:03 am
To whomever responded to my original post. Yes! I have walked the halls of SHS. I work there. I am in the classroom every day. Learning is a joke there. The kids get away with whatever they want to by an apathetic administration.
And yes, in my WORKING THERE CURRENTLY I do see fights every day. Maybe you are not as involved as you think you might be but I see hundreds of students DAILY telling each other to F&*^K off and to go to hell. Solid citizens?
Also, I did not mention a drop out rate. I mentioned graduation rates. Those are published by the DoE. So, to those reading this, do not be fooled by the deflection tactic of this writer. He is discrediting me on something I did not say. I say that my questions still stand then. Why are we celebrating that only 3/4 of our students graduate. Sounds like we and the board of perry township (of which I am not a part nor do I support) are doing a very poor job. SHS is the only school I have worked in where a knife has been pulled on me. Not in Chicago, not in IPS, not in Los Angeles. So, I would say to you and all of the other people with blinders on, it is TIME TO WAKE UP!
By the way, the student who pulled a knife on me was suspended for 3 days and was back at school in regular classes as if nothing happened. Oh yeah, the administrators are doing a great job!
As for facts, or facts as you may see them, do not listen to the people who support this side or that side. Go to the Department of Education directly and see the facts.
For example, not meeting annual yearly progress: http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/AP/aypbutton.cfm?schl=5309&year=2005
The graduation rates cited cen be found at: http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/SEARCH/s3gradrt.cfm?county=49
So, as I said in my previous post: We must fire all the asminstrators and start fresh. The board too is a joke obviously as is the person who replied to me.
YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT. WE EXIST TO EDUCATE! WE ARE NOT DOING THAT FOR OVER 1/4 OF THE STUDENTS! WHY SHOULD THAT BE CELEBRATED??????
Also, you say facts are facts but back that up with:
“My guess is that some of that figure is due to illness of student or family member, a need for support of family, or perhaps even more transience than we know of.”
You have been teaching for 34 years that facts are facts even if it is your “GUESS”. Great job once again.
March 1st, 2007 at 11:22 am
For the record, I currently work at SHS so save your critique for someone who really does not know. I live it. WE AS A TOWNSHIP meaning administrators, teachers and parents are all failing!
March 1st, 2007 at 11:52 am
Wow, John Smith, if I had a child in your classroom, I’d request a different teacher. You are openly hostile, and that isn’t going to help the situation at all. I mean, you don’t really think that firing the entire administration is the answer, do you? That kind of extreme thinking is dangerous and only makes you look foolish. How about we all try and come up with a realistic solution?
March 2nd, 2007 at 9:28 am
A realistic solution? Ok. Replace the entire administration of each school with people who are trained and perhaps think a little more progressively so that we can actually teach children rather than process them through. We are graduating people out of school who do not possess the skills to keep a job flipping hamburgers. Seriously.
As for my apparant hostility, you are perhaps right. Maybe that comes from an administration that fails to discipline a knife wielding student who is as big as any grown man and is who is also pushing 20 years old. Maybe it is being told to “Go to hell” one too many times and having the same students come back and do it the next day to myself and my colleagues. Maybe it is a complete breakdown of parental involvement in terms of punishment, follow-through or even a remote interest in what their children are doing at school. No wonder there is such a turnover of teachers. Who wants to be treated like dirt, make next to nothing for it and rarely even get a thank you from parents, administration or students?
Since the administration of most schools seems more interested in making the numbers look good and keeping their jobs rather than discipline or teaching. I actually heard a school principal remarking how proud he was that the ISTEP scores improved by .72%. That is something else. That is .72 not 72. I still say they all need to be replaced.
I think this is realistic. Thanks for your analysis of how foolish I look. You know who else looked foolish to contemporaries? Henry David Thoreau, Ben Franklin, Ray Bradbury, Einstein.
I am not saying I am any where near the genius of this group but to really change anything one needs to be unafraid of looking foolish and move outside the realm of “normal thinking”. Something drastic has to be done and apparantly, may on this posting board do not see that or wish to admit it.
So, my question is this: Is it only the board that is failing or do you think any part of this falls on the administration or teachers and staff or at the school level? (God forbid if the parents were to become more involved.) And yes, many parents are great but many are NOT!
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:23 am
Making sure I can still post here.
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Why wouldn’t you be able to post here?
March 3rd, 2007 at 1:43 pm
To John Smith:
I also work at Southport High School and you are not describing my school or my classroom. Do I sometimes have disrespectful students? Of course I do. In most cases, it only takes a phone call home to find out why the child is like he/she is. In those instances, you just have to teach the child the best that you can and hope to reach something inside them. There isn’t a John Smith that teaches at Southport High School. However, you have provided me with enough information to go to my deans and my principals to find out if anything that you said happened, actually did. I will find out the real truth and post later.
March 4th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Janet,
Thank you for clarifying and verifying!!
March 5th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Verify all you want to Janet. Obviously John Smith is not my name. Fear of reprisals is the reason for my pseudonym. Also, this pre-dated the current deans and telling you would violate not only confidentiality but break the “code”. If they told you anything about a student discipline issue and then posted it here you would all be in violation which proves my point further. Thank You.
March 6th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
To John Smith:
Obviously your name isn’t John Smith and obviously you do not work at SHS. I have not yet had time to contact the current and former deans and administrators at my school but I assure you I will. And yes, they can speak of occurrences that have or have not happened as long as the child’s name is not mentioned. Since I am sure that none of your claims happened, I am not worried about confidentiality. I sure you thought you could claim anything that you wanted if you indeed thought they would be breaking some code of ethics by verifying, but you are wrong.
March 7th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
I went way back checking with previous deans and administrators and never has a knife been pulled on any teacher or any staff personnel at Southport High School. Please stick to the truth when you are writing things about our schools. Some people who are not involved in our schools will read those things and believe them. Southport High School is an excellent school. If you are a parent, please come visit your child’s classroom and see for yourself what an excellent school we have.
John Smith, if you truly are involved in education somewhere, I hope you are very close to retirement.
March 12th, 2007 at 10:00 am
My child will be a student next year at Southport High. I WILL sit in his classrooms from time to time to make sure things are running smoothly. If I don’t like what I see, I WILL be talking with the priciple/dean/board members. I WILL NOT sit back and let things go on that shouldn’t. The teachers are the adults and need to remind the students that!! If for some reason my child gets hurt over anything that shouldn’t be, you can GUARANTEE that there will be charges and someone WILL be punished. If not, I WILL have a lawyer be in contact with the school and the school board. So I hope by next August Southport High has everything under control. Watch out…here comes an involved parent!!!
March 12th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Good luck with that. (lawyer)
Been there, done that, Hope you have about 10,000.00 to invest for about 5 or 6 years, with no guarantee that you’ll get any of it back. Oh yeah, It’s a lot better now that Terry Thompson is gone. The new principal is 200% better.
March 13th, 2007 at 10:05 am
seems john smith has conveniently left the building. perhaps a lurker with an agenda?
March 15th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Thanks for the info!! I support Dr. Williams and all that he has done for Perry Township schools. I really wish the board would just grow up and learn how to get along!! I hope Southport High is a lot better than what I have heard of over the past few years.
March 16th, 2007 at 1:15 am
How about the fire today in the men’s restroom? A student was smoking in the restroom, so it is said. But to hear some say, SHS is perfect, and all the students get along and never fight.
BEWARE! Some one is in la la land.
March 16th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
in responce to John Smith:
I can’t see why people are always putting the blame on our teachers and principals, they do their best with what they have. Tell me what can they do about the grades, weapons, fights, and cussing, morally or legally, if kids just don’t care. It should all go back onto the parents or lack there of. Where are their responsibilities,(which stems back to when they made the ultimate decision to be a parent or not, we all know where babies come from). Teachers are NOT babysitters for these messed up kids and it interupts the TEACHING of those kids who are there to learn. These trouble makers know what is right and wrong, they choose to be how they are and most parents seem to support the childs behavior. If weapons and fights are happening so much these kids need to charged at a higher judicial level as adults and not to our school system. They gave up their rights and should not be allowed back into the schools for the good kids sake. Maybe John should have pressed charges against the kid that pulled the knife on him outside of the school system and seen how far he would have gotten. Maybe our government should supply a militant public school for these kids where the teachers are trained to deal with defiant, undisciplined children, since they have a so called right to a public education.
I could put on my holier than thou hat, but that gets people nowhere and you unfortunately can’t legislate moral, common sense and simple, nice, responsible behavior.
As for the other issue at hand. If the 4 have a legitimate legal reason to fire Dr. Williams it should have been delt with and over by now. If their stories keep changing and they don’t have a leg to stand on and the publics not allowed know or speak, than its a personal mater. If a $700 per person was spent then maybe we should stop feeding people at meetings and spend our tax dollars on the schools and children (that is who it really is about). That was also a hint to the 4 to stop wasting our tax dollars on their personal problems and use their on money. When I have seen Dr. Williams, he was doing what he should be doing for the schools. If the 4 want him fired because they don’t like him then that is not a good answer. It also must be personal, when over 90% of the teachers and what I can see a large majority of parents and kids feel Dr. Williams should come back and the 4 should step down. The 4 are obviously not representing those that they should be representing. I’m tired of a minority of squeaky wheels getting everything they want both locally and nationally. It is sad to see a very good school system be pulled through the mud because of these 4 and the very few that support them.
If you can could you please post this on the parents and students section.
March 17th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I had a recent conversation with a Perry Township teacher. We discussed a possible adminstrative opening in an area in which I have some experience. My response was, “Are you crazy?!?!” Perry Township is now the “black plague” of central Indiana. What qualified person, who with any other option, would willing choose to enter into a school community with such an acidic environment? The long-term impact on the COST and QUALITY of education in this township will not be measurable by any standard.
March 17th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
to I’ll never…
you are exactly right!! we will never see qualified people come to this township as long as the “four” are here. I dread to see how many “great” people we already have here leave. Enough is enough!!!!! we need our township back!!
March 18th, 2007 at 8:38 am
In response to another involved parent:
No one ever said SHS or any other school was perfect. There isn’t a school anywhere where all of the students get along. Maybe the parent of the student who started the fire should be held responsible for the instructional time that the other 2000 students lost out on as well as the cost to the fire department, the damage, etc. Where do schools stop receiving the blame for everything and the students and parents start taking responsibility?
March 27th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
ok~ I may be in the wrong section…but I am offended by John Smiths comments. I am parent that is very involved, make sure my children learn and respect teachers and other students. Maybe you are too negative to see any good and I believe that you are in the wrong profession.
April 1st, 2007 at 12:01 pm
as former student of SHS, i have one thing to say, although i hated high school, like most teenagers, southport did their job, they held the students best interest always, no school is perfect but at least they try, and i had the wonderful experience of some their best teachers, who pushed me to do my best with their zero tolerance policies for violence, foul language, and bad grades. thank you to all of the teachers you helped me be a better person and parent john smith is obviously misinformed
April 25th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I am appalled by some of the comments on this page. I have had the great priveledge of working closely with several teachers and the former principal Mr. Thompson and I staunchly support their efforts and cannot express my gratitude for their contribution to my education. Southport High School has had an outstanding reputation and while it may be struggling, it is worth the fight! As a college student, when the policies and educational programs of my highschool are discussed the professors are greatly impressed. Many have commented that I am fortunate to have come from such a flourishing and rare educational environment.
Fighting was almost inexistant and cursing was minimal compared to other schools.
Teachers were ALWAYS concerned, prepared, and open to students.
The administration was present, active, and focused on the interests of the students.
School programming provided a varietey and wealth of reasources for students.
The students of Southport High School are some of the most educated and involved youth that I know.
THANK YOU SHS!
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Thank you to everyone involved with Take Back Perry Schools. It is people like you that keep the teachers going in this difficult time. After every board meeting, I feel better after talking with you. I made a huge mistake last May. Hopefully that will be changed next year!!
May 4th, 2007 at 10:37 am
What a relief it will be to hear the reasons for this fiasco. Or alleged reasons, I guess. So much of the frustration has been because of the lack of facts. Whatever they are, I hope the TBPS supporters remembers that their work is not over. Whether Dr. Williams stays or goes, these four will remain on the board and will need to be monitored until the end of their tenures. PT cannot afford to have another situation handled in this manner.