WHEN SCHOOLS FAIL

Union wrong to fight state takeover

Colorado schools have been on notice for a decade that if students in their care fall further behind their peers, year after year, the state will intervene to try and turn the school or district around.

For one school and one entire district, the time for state intervention has arrived.

The road ahead for the Adams County School District 14 in Commerce City and Pueblo’s Risley International Academy of Innovation in Pueblo City Schools is bumpy to be certain. These school turnaround efforts often fail to produce results or bring short-term gains only to find the school right back on the list of underperforming schools.

But the Colorado State Board of Education must do something.

That something is to give almost all management control to MGT, a for-profit consulting group, that works with the University of Virginia to help improve schools across the nation. It’s no surprise that teachers and parents have concerns about handing over the reins of their local school to an out-of-state company with a modest track record of work in this field.

We are however dismayed that the Pueblo Education Association, the local teachers’ union, has sued the state seeking a court injunction to stop the planned intervention in a failing school. According to the complaint, the union is particularly concerned about its contract and that the private management firm could recommend the termination of employees to the school board and, gasp, the school board will have to “give appropriate consideration to the recommendations of the manager and not unreasonably withhold its approval.”

We fail to see how that could possibly be a bad thing. If there are folks working at Risley who MGT determines are detrimental to the mission, then the board should consider their termination and be reasonable about the decision.

There are good teachers at Risley who need to be celebrated for their hard work at a school beset by challenges, particularly that 98 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch. Poverty and all of the hardships that come with it make learning and teaching a difficult endeavor.

But clearly, the school can do better. In the right environment, we know these students will begin to make gains academically and one day catch their peers.

The Pueblo teacher’s union also targets the $424,000 that MGT could be paid in the 2019 fiscal year for services, claiming Pueblo is obligated to “provide equitable funding to all of its schools.”

The situation at Risley is dire and they need special focus and, yes, additional funding. Students at the school have the very lowest test scores in the entire state in many categories, and at best score in the 5th percentile in a single category. That would be bad news for the school, but what tips the school into needing a state takeover is that test scores indicate the students are in the lowest categories for improvement as well. Taken together, the two metrics tell us students will leave more behind their peers than when they started. Interventions are necessary.

In 2009 Colorado lawmakers passed Senate Bill 163 which gave the State Board of Education the authority to step in when a school has failed for five consecutive years. This is the first time, since the law was passed, that the state has had to step in.

It’s good to have a healthy skepticism about these drastic improvement plans. There is one thing we know for certain, however: In 10 years, the school district in Pueblo and the teacher’s union have been unable to improve conditions for the 326 students at Risley middle school.