|
 Michigan
State Board of Education Pushes MEAP Participation
Gongwer News Service, March 10, 2004
For more articles like this
visit
https://www.bridges4kids.org.
The Department
of Education has taken steps to ensure the delays and lost
answer sheets of last year's Michigan Educational Assessment
Program tests do no recur, but the State Board of Education said
Tuesday that schools now need to work on getting students to
take the test.
The board adopted a resolution calling on all schools in the
state to ensure that all students in the building take the test
the next time it is administered. The resolution noted that the
federal No Child Left Behind Act requires that at least 95
percent of students take the state's standardized assessment for
the school to achieve adequate yearly progress and avoid federal
sanctions.
It also notes a policy adopted by the board in 2001 on the
importance of assessing students.
"With the implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind law
that requires schools to test 95 percent of their students, we
see this as an important message to send schools, students, and
parents," said board Vice President Herbert Moyer
(D-Temperance).
"Having every student take the state assessment test will not
only help the school make AYP, but helps identify academic areas
that may need improving in those schools and, of course, assess
what our students have learned - especially by high school,"
said board Vice President Carolyn Curtin (R-Evart).
Ed Roeber, Senior Executive Director of the MEAP, told the board
that the program is on schedule to report test results this
spring and summer as planned. The program has also put in more
tracking documents with the answer sheets to allow missing
answer sheets to be more quickly noticed and traced at various
points in the scoring process.
back to the top ~
back to Breaking News
~ back to
What's New
Fixing Wayne County's Mental Health System
MIRS, March 10, 2004
The chair of the Senate Health Policy Committee today said today
that she wants to add state representation to the board
governing the "broken" Detroit/Wayne County mental health system
out of genuine concern for the area's patients, not as an attack
on anyone personally.
Sen. Bev HAMMERSTROM (R-Temperence) did not move a series of
five bills designed to create a Detroit/Wayne County Mental
Health Authority out of the committee, but she indicated that
some type of action on the issue could be expected soon.
That's bad news for Wayne County officials, who are basically
fighting the bills by themselves. Neither Detroit nor the
Department of Community Health (DCH) are opposed to state
action.
Hammerstrom and Sen. Shirley JOHNSON (R-Troy) are proposing to
ditch the current 12-member board structure, which consists of
six Detroit representatives and six Wayne County representatives
in favor of a nine-member autonomous authority, which would
include three members each from the state, city and Wayne
County.
The proposal is in response to years of problems with the mental
health system, which were publicized last year in a series of
articles published by the Detroit Free Press. Johnson, for one,
is concerned that unless the bureaucratic mess is straightened
out, the entire state could lose Medicaid money.
But the Hammerstrom-Johnson pitch is a unique concept. None of
the state's other 45 community mental health systems have needed
state interventions. Of course, it could be argued that none of
the other 45 systems are as messed up as Wayne County's.
"We don't have an ax to grind," Hammerstrom said. "Even the
governor has admitted that the government structure that exists
is broken and needs to be fixed."
"We want to look at fixing that structure so we can move from a
more bureaucratic system to an autonomous system so the board
can act quickly."
Under SBs 1076-1080 and 591, the 12-member board would be
trimmed to nine members -- two Detroit mayoral picks, a Detroit
City Council pick, two Wayne County executive selections, one
Wayne County Board selection, two gubernatorial selections and a
DCH Director.
The bills create a mechanism to have any member removed and
would give DCH more ability to go after problems within the
Detroit/Wayne County district. The main problem, as far as Wayne
County Executive Bob FICANO is concerned, is the additional
state appointments at a time when he's in the midst of fixing
the system.
A new authority would limit Ficano and Detroit Mayor Kwame
KILPATRICK's power over the authority, which is kind of the
point.
In theory, these appointments would be a voice of reason that
could break the 6-6 territorial deadlocks this "dysfunctional"
body often finds itself in.
An unintentional example of the body's ineptness was brought out
during the hearing when Hammerstrom asked a Detroit member of
the current board if their duties involved approved a budget.
The member testified that she didn't know.
Ficano said he's only been on the job 14 months and the promises
of reform made in prior years are now implemented.
"So today, I can assure you that Wayne County has made the
commitment to improving Mental Health services, that we have
made structural reforms, which make the agency operate better,"
Ficano said.
So is Wayne County a mess? Sen. Bruce PATTERSON (R-Canton) asked
DCH Director Janet OLSZEWSKI.
In a very diplomatic answer, Olszewski said neither yes or no,
rather "we believe that we can improve things and there are some
operational issues we can work through."
Patterson then asked if this new board structure would solve the
problem. Olszewski again didn't give a direct answer, saying the
government structure is "problematic" and that the
administration is willing to work with the committee to
establish a structure that could work better.
Patterson, of Wayne County, is a key vote on the Health Policy
Committee since the panel's two Democrats appeared less than
enthusiastic about supporting the bill today.
"I want to fix it and my concern is that what we do could be
swept into a situation of fixing the organization structure
without addressing the real mess," Patterson said.
The panel took testimony from a pair of citizens who claimed the
organization structure is indeed a mess and needs fixing. Wayne
County citizen Roberta DAVIS said that "we need to make some
type of change, anything has to be better than what is going on
now because they can't do anything. Their hands are tied.
Everybody is afraid of repercussion. Nobody is willing to do
anything."
back to the top ~
back to Breaking News
~ back to
What's New
ISD Panel Looking For Answers
MIRS, March 10, 2004
Today, the House Subcommittee To Review Intermediate School
Districts (ISDs) began taking testimony from persons it had
subpoenaed in connection with the Oakland ISD scandals that came
to light in the autumn of 2002 and the summer of 2003.
The primary scandal, which became public in the fall of 2002,
was over the use of funds from a voter-approved tax levy that
were supposed to be earmarked for special education, but were
used for a multi-million dollar building. The district fired
former Oakland ISD Superintendent James REDMOND a few months
later. The initial information that brought the misuse of funds
to light came from ISD employees who took their complaints to
the ISD board.
The primary witnesses today were Chris WHALL, director of the
Whall Group, a firm that the Oakland ISD hired to investigate
the scandals, and Bill KEANE, currant interim Superintendent of
the Oakland ISD.
Ostensibly, the panel is seeking to discover the reasons the
scandals took place, to determine what, if any, new legislation
may be needed to prevent a recurrence of the problem at Oakland
or other ISDs.
In addition, however, the panel appears to be recapping the
background of the scandals and probing for fresh information
that might indicate further investigations (possibly criminal)
would be warranted, or that more resources allotted for such a
probe may be justified.
In December, Subcommittee Chair Ruth JOHNSON (R-Holly) announced
that the panel would not attempt to pursue criminal
investigation of ISDs; instead it would turn that portion of its
probe over to the Attorney General's office.
The House allocated $660,000 in funding to the Attorney General
to use for the probe. However, Gov. Jennifer GRANHOLM vetoed the
special appropriation, arguing that the Attorney General
shouldn't need special funding to carry out such an
investigation.
Keane told MIRS today that an Attorney General investigator has
recently become more active at the ISD. Johnson then confirmed
that the panel has recently turned over some new findings to
Attorney General Mike COX, which may account for the new
activity.
Following the veto, Johnson began moving ahead aggressively with
her panel's investigation. The subcommittee subpoenaed 16
persons (See MIRS Feb. 12) arguing that by compelling each
witness to testify would camouflage the potential whistleblowers
who preferred to conceal their cooperation.
The political subtext on the panel has featured the Democrats,
particularly Rep. Andy MEISNER (D-Ferndale), fishing for
evidence that problems at Oakland ISD were primarily caused by
the Redmond regime, and, along with some legislation already
moving through the legislature, the problems are well on their
way to being resolved.
Whall had testified that one of the procedures under Redmond
that had led to the scandal was the practice of using a consent
agenda, by which several items were 'bundled " together for the
board to pass with one vote. He said there might be $10 million
in spending, representing about 100 separate contracts approved
with one vote of the board under the procedure.
Whall explained that the board had absolute trust in Redmond's
administration and was willing to vote for these bundled agenda
items without asking too many questions.
"The ISD did not want to communicate with the board," Whall
said.
"Has the ISD board stopped using the consent agenda and
implemented the other 14 steps you made in your report?" Meisner
asked Whall.
Whall replied that, "yes" the ISD had done that.
Under questioning by Rep. Ken BRADSTREET (R-Gaylord), Whall
praised the ISD board for its performance once the scandal had
started to break.
"We got the board's full cooperation," Whall said. "When there
were people who were reluctant to cooperate with us, the board
would get them to do so."
Bradstreet questioned Whall about a not for profit company
called MINDS, which was created under Redmond, with ISD funds.
MINDS LLC, which was a linked to for profit companies (MINDS.com
and MINDS.org) would create supposedly "super lesson plans" and
sell them to schools.
These MINDS companies, which we apparently not successful, were
staffed by relatives of members of the Oakland ISD
administration.
Bradstreet also questioned Whall about contracts the ISD had
with companies under circumstances that gave the appearance of
nepotism and cronyism.
All of these issues had been brought out in the Whall report and
reported by the news media. However, Bradstreet followed up by
asking Whall if at some point in the investigation concerns had
arisen that some of the improprieties they were being uncovered
might be criminal.
Whall said it had.
Bradstreet also asked Whall if some of the people involved were
still employed at the ISD.
Whall said yes.
However, later when Bradstreet asked Whall if he believed the
situation warrants an investigation by the Attorney General or
the Oakland County Prosecutor, Whall said he was not qualified
to make that judgment.
Meisner attempted to get Whall to indicate there wasn't much
left to be investigated, in regard to the ISD. But Whall didn't
bite on that lead-in either.
"Do you think there is anything they might uncover that would
tend to surprise you?" Meisner asked.
"Absolutely," Whall said. "It would be a fool's folly to say
they couldn't find anything."
The primary focus of Keane's testimony appeared to be the lack
of records pertaining to stipends awarded to ISD employees for
job performance and records pertaining to lobbying and public
relations work paid for by the Oakland ISD.
"As I've looked through these documents, there are stipends, of
up to $30,000 but there are no W2 amounts included," Johnson
said.
Later, Bradstreet questioned Keane directly about the stipends.
"We can find no 1099s connected with those stipends, or any
record of the performance standards that were supposed to be
met," Bradstreet said.
Keane said that such stipends were inconsistent with ISD policy,
but that they might be related to a brief period, under Redmond,
when the school started to implement some performance based
incentives.
The panel had also subpoenaed invoices pertaining to $100,000
the district had paid Winning Strategies, a public relations
firm it had hired to help get the special education millage
passed, other invoices pertaining to multi-client firms, and the
cost of direct student services provided by the ISD.
Keane said he believed the ISD had already turned over some of
that information, but promised to produce it to the subcommittee
as soon as possible.
The House created the ISD subcommittee in early 2003. Rep. Ruth
JOHNSON (R-Holly), who had been working on the ISD issue in
response to the scandal, was named chair of the panel. The
subcommittee was granted subpoena power about a year ago in a
party-line vote.
Outside of the Oakland County delegation, the issue didn't gain
much momentum in the Legislature until the summer of 2003. At
that time, newspapers reported that ISD employees had traveled
to pleasure designations at taxpayer expense. These accounts led
to the resignation of two Oakland ISD board members, and an
increased interest in the ISD issue by Republican leaders.
back to the top ~
back to Breaking News
~ back to
What's New
12-Year-Old Speaks Out On Hazing
MIRS, March 9, 2004
A Senate panel moved a pair of bills today that puts in place
the legal framework for prosecutors to go after people who haze
fellow members of a sports team or organization as a rite of
passage.
Under current law, authorities can charge "hazers" with assault
and other legal tools. But SBs 783 and 784 make it easier for
the legal community to pursue hazing cases because it doesn't
allow hazers to use the defense that the victim voluntarily
agreed to be hazed.
The day's most compelling testimony came from 12-year-old Garet
Drogosch, a seventh grader at Meads Mill Middle School in
Northville, who was hospitalized after being knocked unconscious
on the football field as part of a hazing "drill."
The 80-pound Drogosch was told to participate in a drill in
which eighth-grade players picked a seventh grader to "hit"
after a five-yard running head start. He was picked three times.
The seventh grader told the Senate Judiciary Committee he was
told to stand with his hands behind his back and to "suck it up"
as the larger eighth grader barreled into him. The third hit by
a kid 50 pounds heavier than Drogosch sent him to the hospital,
where he underwent two surgeries and had a metal plate stuck in
his leg. He moved around with a wheelchair for a couple months.
The football coach who called for the "hit a 7th grader" drill
lost his job, but still coaches at the school. The family is
suing in civil court.
Committee members were appalled when Drogosch said several
school officials felt that he was blowing the incident out of
proportion when he went public with his story.
To that, Sen. Alan SANBORN (R-Richmond) said, "To the coaches
who are about to see this bill passed, 'suck it up.'"
The original bills, SBs 783 and 784, sponsored by Sen. Michelle
McMANUS (R-Lake Leelanau) and Sen. Nancy CASSIS (R-Novi), called
for a three-year, $2,500 misdemeanor against those who hurt
another through hazing and a 20-year, $10,000 felony against
those who kill another through hazing.
The bills that unanimously moved out of the Judiciary Committee
create one-year, $2,500 misdemeanor and a 15-year, $10,000
felony. If the bills are signed into law, Michigan will no
longer be one of seven states without anti-hazing laws.
"We need to send a strong message in that we will not tolerate
these practices in our society," Cassis said.
SBs 783-784 were penned in response to increased hazing
incidents across America, including one within the Sigma Phi at
the University of Michigan that resulted in a student being
hospitalized with kidney failure. Also, Ferris State University
residence hall director, Todd PRICE, called McManus' office
after Michigan's lack of anti-hazing laws was used at a national
conference as a negative example.
The school social workers and psychiatrists association and the
Michigan State Police both support the bills.
back to the top ~
back to Breaking News
~ back to
What's New
Senate Panel Approves Anti-hazing, Drug Court Bills
Gongwer News Service, March 9, 2004
Humbled by the testimony of a 12-year old boy put into a
wheelchair for three months by a football hazing incident, the
Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved two bills that
would hazing at Michigan schools and universities.
The committee also approved three bills that would create drug
treatment courts in state statute. A number of such
courts-designed to deal with non-violent addicts who are caught
in violation of drug laws-have already been created in local
court districts. SB 998, SB 999 and SB 1000 went to the full
Senate.
The anti-hazing measures, SB 783 and SB 784, would define the
practice of hazing as any intentional, knowing or reckless act
by a person or group of people designed to endanger the mental
or physical health of another person, and is considered part of
an initiation right.
Hazing incidents that resulted in injuries would be misdemeanors
and an incident that resulted in a death would be a 15-year
felony.
Michigan is just one of seven states that does not have
anti-hazing laws said Sen. Michelle McManus (R-Lake Leelanau),
sponsor of SB 783, and Sen. Nancy Cassis (R-Novi) said it is
hard to imagine that the pranks that constituted hazing decades
ago had risen to the point where people were injured or killed.
But it was the testimony of Garet Drogosch of Northville that
captured the committee's attention.
Describing a football hazing incident that involved eighth grade
boys hitting seventh graders like himself, Mr. Drogosch said
some of the younger boys were so worried about the expected
hazing that one offered the players money and candy not to hit
him.
Eighth grade players were allowed to choose a seventh grade boy,
take a five yard-running start and knock the other boy down.
Once they had hit the other player, the eighth grader could go
off to the showers, but the seventh grader had to get back up in
order to be available to get hit again by another player.
When the boys complained to their coach, Mr. Drogosch said, they
were told to "suck it up" and that they would face this through
their athletic careers. In fact, players were told they had to
hit the boys hard enough to knock them to ground.
While many of the boys were hit twice, Mr. Drogosch said he was
hit three times, the last time by the brother of one his best
friends, a boy much taller and heavier than he.
On the third hit, "I heard bones crunch and I heard the coaches
laugh. They only stopped when I couldn't get up," he said.
Mr. Drogosch has already undergone two surgeries from his
injuries and will have a third. He spent three months in a
wheelchair and another on crutches. It is unlikely he will be
able to play contact sports, he said.
"I looked up the word 'coach,' and it means to teach," Mr.
Drogosch told the committee. "What they were doing was not
teaching."
Sen. Alan Sanborn (R-Richmond), recalling an incident that left
his son unwilling to play football again, said, "To the coaches
who are worried about this law about to come down, I say, 'Suck
it up.'"
back to the top ~
back to Breaking News
~ back to
What's New
|
