Our hopes, goals and rationale

What we want: A thriving City College, a school that is a model around the country of what a large urban public high school can be. And not just in name only, like the Newsweek article, in which we were honored because of advanced classes. Instead, we want a school that is truly a great school for all students. We want a school that has a strong academic reputation and enviornment, and prepares all students for the best colleges in the country.

Do not mistake our dissent for dislike or hidden agendas. We are here because we love the school, and we feel it to be our right - and our responsibility - to speak up about the state of Baltimore City College. We just want City to be the best it can be. It's not even close right now, and in fact has degenerated markedly in the last two years - and the current administration has shown no indication that it has the skills, tenacity, or planning necessary to right its course.

Our goals:

1. To draw attention to the bullying culture that BCC teachers and students operate under.

2. To draw attention to the negligent and ineffective current administration.

3. To draw attention to and discover more information about administrative missteps and blunders.

4. To draw attention to the need for independent oversight of BCC, as both North Avenue and the current BCC Alumni group are preoccupied with other issues.

5. To draw attention to the dearth of BCC alumni participation.

6. To draw attention to the need for a new school website for various reasons.

7. To draw attention to a growing lack of discipline among BCC students.

8. To draw attention to the seeming lack of power among class administrations and the SGA.

Rationale: With the growing heap of [at least] stories coming out of City, it's good enough cause to call for oversight of the school by an independent, stakeholder board with some teeth (and we'd still like to see more alumni participation, and if it means an organization other than the current Alumni Association being on the forefront, we're all for it). We think it's good for students who want to roam the halls and curse. We think it's good for a negligent administration that can't decide whether Senior Farewell should happen as planned (or was it even planned? That we have to ask that question shows how pathetic the situation is). We think it's just good all around. We think it can happen by having attention called to this environment and culture of fear.

Baltimore City College has been lauded nationally. Out of over 20,000+ public high schools, City is at the pinnacle. But yet, when we hear stories like the one about the student whose teacher-parent won't allow his sibling to attend, we have to take pause and say "why the heck is this?" A BCPSS teacher not wanting his or her child to attend City College? That's just not supposed to be said, let alone even contemplated. So, we want to know why. And we want others to know why. We want powerful alumni to know why. If necessary, we want the media to know why.

We will do whatever we can with this website to help City College thrive and be the school we know it can be.

(Special thanks to Anonymous City Alum for much of the mission statement above.

The mis-handling of senior farewell

This is yet another embarassing stain on the 2005-2006 City College school year - the handling and mis-handling of Senior Farewell:

The Record of Senior Farewell 2006:

1) 4th Period Lunch, May 18, 2006:
Cancelled due to Senior Pranks (Note: by Dawson)

2) 7th Period, same day:
"Farewell is in jeopardy..." (Note: by Dawson)

3) May 22, 2006:
Farewell is on track

4) May 26, 2006, circa 2:30PM:
Farewell is cancelled due to faulty planning, etc. (Note: Via a phone message sent to all 300 seniors.)

5) "Sometime that weekend"
Farewell "may still happen"

6) Tuesday, May 30, around 9:30:
"Oh, it's cancelled. End of story."
-Dale Aberle, assistant principal

7) Tuesday, May 30, around 2:30PM:
Myspace bulletin is posted by students in 06, not to mention Joyner calls to inform students that the Farewell is back on, but by this point, most people just don't even care anymore.

8) June 1, 2006:
Farewell, Graduation Practice, and Senior Checkouts...all in one day? Isn't City College grand?

(Posted by a student. Let us know if you want a link/credit.)

Retiring

From a current teacher:

"Thanks for setting this up. Good stuff so far. Next year will be the third year in a row without a real principal, and we're hurting for something like this. Thanks. I think if people know what's become of our school, they might do something.

Your stuff is good, but one interesting detail that I believe reflects the disconnectedness, disorganization, and ineffectiveness of the current administration. Teachers at the school have received two memos mentionining that two staff members would be retiring at the end of the school year, and to please donate $5 for the cause. Neither of the two memos had either person's name on it, which was strange - but I figured it was because they were planning a surprise party or something.

No such luck. When one of the retirees - a retiree who has spent years (probably two decades or so) at the school - asked for five minutes at the last department meeting to say goodbye to her colleagues, the response to her from administration was, 'Oh, okay. But you know you have to collect money from all your peers for your gift, right?'

What a slap in the face."

Cancellation of Senior Farewell

From a student's blog, regarding the cancellation of Senior Farewell. It's the first time the traditional event has been cancelled in years:

"But, let's not leave our beloved principal out of the equation just yet. Because of the fact that a City student would have better luck finding a clean bathroom stall than finding Dawson on a regular school day, it was made almost impossible to even confront and consult with Dawson, therefore adding to the confusion about whether or not something was going to occur, or who was going to do what."

Speaking of invisibility, who didn't show up at Senior Prom?

Why?

Zak Murray's comment on Anonalum's blog has prompted a self-reflection from those behind City Forever?. Why is this anonymous blog here? Why was it started? Why not just go to more conventional forums to bring about change?

The backstory: At the beginning of this school year, we were all behind the new administrative team. After the unrest of 2004-2005, we were happy to have Mr. Dawson in the Principal's office. We were happy, because it seemed like we would finally have some consistency and direction from that office.

However, as the year went one, we began to hear of several incidents that Mr. Dawson was directly involved in that seemed more in place out on the streets, or in a zone school. He was bullying and beliggerant to teachers and students. He treated some staff and teachers very badly, many who had served for years and years at the school. Some of these were rumors (rumors of him jacking up kids in the hallways, the rumor that he told a student he would beat him so far that blood would be spurting around his office, the rumor that he told a staff member that she was as replaceable as a contractor, the rumor that he tried to bait a kid into getting in a fight with him), and some of them were facts (Ms. Covington's dismissal, for example, or his lack of handling of the halls situation).

Collectively - and we are teachers, staff, and parents - we thought we were the only ones who had heard these rumors or felt this way. But in talking with the staff and students throughout the school year, we discovered that the man is a source of great contention. And, yes, we know that everyone isn't supposed to like people in the position of power. But the inappropriateness and lack of professionalism seemed rampant from many spots and people. And because of the several teachers and staff he has threatened to fire this year - plus some that he apparently already has - he is unapproachable.

Our positiion is that in his less than a year at City College, Mr. Dawson has demonstrated the following:

1. Unprofessionalism (job threats, jacking kids up)
2. Invisibility (rarely is he seen in the halls, students know he's not going to be around much and the halls show it)
3. Ineffectiveness (the same problems with the halls, lack of organization, and poor planning from previous years abound)
4. A "Yes Man" for North Avenue (one reason why going above Dawson's head won't work)

Do we want Mr. Dawson fired? No. We wish in the hiring stages that more time was spent looking at his background; a simple google search (see left) reveals the man has been a bully in his past schools. But now that he is here, we simply want a check on his power. If things he does will be published on the Internet, maybe he'll be less likely to jack kids up or threaten staff members' jobs. In addition, we hope to get the Baltimore City Public Schools in check; City has again recently been named one of the best schools in the nation, yet problems abound - many of them generated at the ivory towers at North Avenue.

And why don't we come forward with these concerns in more traditional ways? We have, and will continue to do so. Some of us are students, and we've done the best we can. Others of us fear for our jobs, so we do what we can on the surface and work other ways underneath. We love this school, but are deeply troubled by much of what has occurred this year.

City College isn't a great school. It makes the Top 200 in the Newsweek poll because it's a special school, and a lot of kids take advanced classes. But it's not a great school. Great schools have leaders who rule by fear and an iron fist. Great schools have tardy policies. Great schools have visible administration. Great schools have attendance monitors. Great schools have acceptable websites. However, City College is a good school, and could be a great school, so we're doing what we think is right to help get it there.

Please contribute stories and concerns to cityforever06@hotmail.com.

Alumni Association Rant

From an alum and former teacher:

First of all, I want to congratulate you on the establishment of this site. I think it’s a great idea, and hopefully it’s an opportunity to bring about some change. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to forward a link to the blog to policy makers, politicians, media folks, parents (if possible), alumni (if you can find them – more on that in a moment), etc. Rarely do people outside of a school get the opportunity to read about what is REALLY going on inside the school – they get the PR, they get the test scores, but they don’t really know what’s going on in there.

Anyway, as a graduate and former teacher at City, here’s a funny story for you. I’m sorry that I don’t have any great stories to share about Mr. Dawson or the current state of the school, but I left the school (as a teacher) before he came on board as principal. My story relates to the Baltimore City College Alumni Association, or lack thereof. Oh, I’m sure there is one, but how effective is it in keeping track of the school’s many graduates, keeping those graduates connected with the school, organizing events for alums and inviting them to participate and soliciting support and assistance from them? Well, maybe this story will serve as an example of how ineffective this group currently is.

About two years ago I moved out of state, about 2400 miles to be exact. I came back to visit Baltimore in the fall 0f 2005, intentionally on the weekend of the City-Poly game. Much to my chagrin, at the game I found out from some fellow alums from my graduating class that I had missed my 15-year reunion by one weekend. I brushed it off, thinking it must have been too hard for fellow alumni, or the alumni association, to locate me since I was out of state and everything.

But Poly’s alumni association sure didn’t have any problem finding me. That’s right, our rival school, which I NEVER attended (although I was originally signed up to go there but got transferred over to City prior to my freshman year) and I certainly never graduated from sent me a postcard a few months back addressed to ME at my current address 2400 FREAKING MILES AWAY FROM BALTIMORE requesting some biographical information from me for the BALTIMORE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE’S alumni directory. There it was, my name, class of ’90, my address – I’m still trying to figure out how they found me way the hell out here in the Southwestern United States, especially with a name that is not especially unique – and a toll-free number to call so I could update my personal information in the BPI Alumni Directory. Well, guess what, boys and girls, I called them and gave them all the information that they asked for. I chose not to purchase a copy of the directory, but if you look me up in there you’ll find all the basic info on me, the proud Poly grad who cheered against Poly every Thanksgiving (or early November Saturday after we left the MSA and joined the MPSSA or whatever) for 18 straight years, from 1986 through 2003, when I moved away. And don’t forget 2005, the year I traveled 2400 miles to cheer City to victory on the gridiron, but missed my 15-year reunion because I didn’t know about it.

Hey, maybe I shouldn’t feel so bad. I missed my 10-year reunion as well, and I was even teaching at City at the time – you’d think somebody could’ve found me then to let me know. And to be fair, Poly has been sending me alumni information for years – somehow I ended up on their mailing list and I’ve been receiving mailings from them off and on ever since I graduated back in 1990. I even attended a BCC (NOT BPI) alumni association meeting back in 1999 to bring it to their attention that, while I had received many mailings from the BPI alumni association, I had never received a single mailing from the BCC alumni association, and have yet to this date. Baltimore, do we have a problem? Yes, we do.

And, since this is a forum, hey, maybe somebody can help me out, here. I found the BCC Alumni Association website at http://www.cityforevery.org, but there’s no place to join, there’s no link to any kind of directory, there’s no interactive aspect to the website at all – just a couple phone numbers (at least one is toll-free) to call and a P.O. Box to mail stuff to. And then Mr. Phillip Bass, the current president, has the nerve to say, " We look forward to seeing you at some alumni events soon and hope that you enjoy your trip through this web site. Please let us know if there is anything else that we can do to make the Association work for you." And the only event listed is the 2005 City-Poly game (I was there!) and there’s no really clear way to contact the Association to let them know how they can really work for us. (By the way, it looks like the Class of 1957, gearing up for their 50-year reunion next year, has a GREAT website – check it out at http://www.bcc57.org/index.htm)
And just for kicks, I tried to find the Poly Alumni Association website – no luck. But have no fear, fellow Engineers, you can just go to the school’s website at www.bpi.edu and you’ll feel more than welcome as an alum. There’s all kinds of news, reunion updates and links, a list of giving opportunities and even an online alumni directory. And guess what, boys and girls? Guess whose name is there for everyone to see? That’s right, and if my entry is approved, why don’t you head over to the site and check out the entry for Dr. Jason White, class of 1990?

Anyway, I’m all for being an active alum, at least as active as I can be from many miles away, but we need an organization that is set up to facilitate alumni participation. Right now, such an organization is just not in place. And maybe then, if the principal knew that the eyes of men and women of REAL power were on him, he’d be a little more careful in his words and actions. You know the Baltimore City Public School System isn’t going to provide the needed oversight – the folks at North Avenue can barely keep track of what’s going on at North Avenue. A real active alumni association could do a lot for the school. It might not solve all of the current problems, but at least it would be a start.

And I agree with Anon City Alum at anonalum.blogspot.com – we could at least start with a REAL website for the school. Come on, some alum out there has to have some website-designing experience – or at least know someone who has some. We’ve got to be able to do better than what we’ve got!

Well, that’s my two-cents worth. I was there when City hit the 150-year mark – hopefully it will make it to its Bicentennial. And I have no reason to remain anonymous. My name is (Dr.) Jason White, and feel free to email me at jwhitecityx@yahoo.com if you have any questions or concerns.

From a teacher via e-mail:

I spoke with a graduating senior today - a great kid - who was finishing up an essay for his last class.

His little brother is an 8th grader. His mother is a teacher in another city school.

I asked him, "So, should we expect your little brother here next year?"

The look on his face was one of alarm, then disappointment.

"My mother," he says, "won't send him here.

"She says she's in the system, so she's heard things from faculty and staff about the direction of this school. And she said she walked in the front door one afternoon, and could just tell that the whole atmosphere had changed. The school is a different place now."

Another fire was started in the building today, so that's not a hard thing to argue with. This school needs a heavy hand and it's just not getting it.

A current SGA member left this comment:

This is ridiculous use this energy to make improvements to the school on face. The idea that u waste energy complaining on a blog and not work to make improvements shows that there appears to be an agenda behind this. If you all truly cared for CITY you would be working with the SIT, PTSA, SGA, Dawson to make improvements. But you dont in my opinion so honestly what is your agenda?

First of all, thanks for visiting.

On the outset, we like what you have to say. However, we care a great deal about City. Believe us, we have worked with the rubber-stamped SIT, PTSA, and Dawson to make improvements. However, read through the posts below from all sorts of members of the City community. He has created an atmosphere of fear at the school. Threatening jobs, threatening suspensions, threatening expulsions... we have completely lost faith in him as a leader. It's really sad, because we had such high hopes for him, but he's totally let us down. City is an amazing school, but if the leader is jacking kids up in the hallway, or if kids don't care about getting to class, then there is a serious problem.

City College is losing nine teaching positions next year.

Many classes already are stretched to 32+. This will only increase dramatically next year.

According to Dawson, it's because North Avenue has figured out that the teacher:student ratio should be 32:1. Most districts are 28:1, so one of the problems is right there. But North Avenue's policy did not change any this year. However, City's response to this news did change. City's response was basically, "Oh, you need us to eliminate nine positions? Go ahead. Take as many as you need." (This is hopefully not how it went down, but it's how it appears from the outside.)

There is no way that previous principals would have allowed for this to happen, because previous principals understood that City needed to maintain as much independence as possible from the incompetence at North Avenue.

Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that Joe Wilson would have fought this loss of nine teachers with every fiber of his being? Say what you want about the guy, he would have fought this tooth and nail.

This guy isn't doing it. Every piece of research states that students work better with more personalized instruction. North Avenue should know that. Absent that, though, the principal of City College should know that and do everything in his power to prevent loss of 10% of the teaching staff in his first year in office.

Another site has been created to discuss the current state of City College:

http://anonalum.blogspot.com/.

Please visit. Lots of good stuff there.

From an alum:

I wish I knew more about Scofield aside from the fact that he wasn't principal there that long. And the lady that came after him and before Dawson. Come to think of it, I wish I knew more about all of them. At least when Joe Wilson came to City, we got to know about his background like where he went to school and where he'd taught. Things you might want to know about the person set to run the school.

Actually, what I'd really like to know is were the students and teachers even involved in bringing Dawson or either of the other two to City? Does the School Improvement Team (SIT) even exist anymore? Or was that stamped out during some action to consolidate power?

Answer: A committee was formed with the SIT team, two teachers, alumni, and a student when Joe Wilson left. However, North Avenue hired the committee fourth choice (Scofield). That led many to believe that Scofield was just a patsy, who North Avenue never intended to be successful. He certainly never got the support that others had. Not that he was that great.

Back to alum: Anyway, I did a web search and found this:

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/Issues/1998-05-21/news/metro.html

Thanks, we'll add it to the links.

... I like the City Forever blog idea. If it really is on the level, then it should be gathering statements from students and teachers whenever crazy incidents take place. Eventually, they should be put into a report and presented to the school system. And if they don't want to make any changes, then they should be reported to the media.

Did you know that City was recently ranked as the #203 best high school in the country in a Washington Post/Newsweek poll of schools? The reporter has email. If the CF blog is on the level and what they wrote earlier today is true, then this is just the sort of news story that might get some attention drawn to all the mess at the school. That and send it to the Abell Foundation. Bob Embry has been an alumnus supporter of City (at least in the past) and he has considerable influence within Baltimore's power structure to get stuff done (assuming he'd be willing to help, that is).

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/education/2853447/detail.html

Back in the day, I think that the Alumni Association used to be able to be used as a resource for grievances. I think they used to give more money to the school. These days, I'm not so sure, either. Maybe one of these days, somebody else (or maybe me) will start a new alumni organization. Who knows? What I do know, though, is that even if the school is good enough to be ranked #203 in the nation, then if the principal wasn't out jacking folks up, it might be even better.

Note: Dawson seems to have the alumni in his back pocket, probably because of his emphasis on sports. However, it is unknown what other strengths, if any, he brings to the school. Discipline has been dismal this year and the building is very dirty. Events are run haphazardly and dissent is high.

I think the school needs an independent board, made up of student leaders, teachers, former teachers and administrators, other educational experts, and alumni (and alumnae) to oversee the running of the school.

Great idea.

Anonymous commenters now allowed. That was an error in the setup.

Nothing new to report, except...

HSA testing has been a typically disasterous week. While the state does not really offer much leeway to the school into how and when it must be done, surely the school can do better than the following:

1. On Monday, students took the HSA from 8-12, then reported to their afternoon classes.

2. On Monday afternoon, an announcement was made during regular afternoon announcements - alongside such announcements as "Congratulations to the badminton girls", and without informing staff, teachers, or students - that the next day, students may just go home after they take their HSA. This was in direct contrast to everything that had been stated previously.

3. On Tuesday, there was no way for teachers to know which students took the HSA, so it was a free for all. Not good news when there are two more HSAs this week and the prep time was needed - not to mention the time before finals.

Of course, Mr. Invisible was nowhere to be found in any of the mess.

Word on the street is that the principal "jacked up" a kid on the first floor in front of students and teachers on Friday, threatening him and leaping over the line of acceptable behavior. As one witness said, it was clear that he was not acting in the favor of the well-being of the school or the student in that instance.

These emotional, spur-of-the-moment reactions by the principal have become commonplace. He does not handle crisis well. In fact, he tends to make it worse and do things that you'd do out on the streets rather than as principal of an illustrious high school. One of my favorite examples occured during baseball season after practice. According to students there, long story short, our "beloved" principal challenged a player that had just had money stolen, and had fought to get it back, to a fight. Now, this is something that you would expect from another school with another ignorant principal, not City, but no one is exempt from the screwed up reality that is life with an incompetent administration.

This would be an amazing school with competent leadership. An amazing school.

Would you like to write for City Forever? ? E-mail cityforever06@hotmail.com. We're looking for more stories and entries about things that are of concern at City.

Two websites of note:

An article detailing an incident between the principal and a teacher at his former school. Judging by the behavior exhibited by Dawson so far at City College, we believe every word of the teacher, Mr. Chalres Boldwyn.

An article about Dawson having students arrested for printing an anti-racist pamphlet. We've not seen any incidents of censorship yet by this guy, but it may not be far off.

Since we last updated, the principal has made more threats about jobs of staff at City, but that's pretty much a regular thing so there is not much new to report. More surprisingly, he has been seen roaming the building. He was seen on the third floor for the first time in months, and likewise was on the second floor during senior prank day.

It's not surprising that senior prank day was so volatile this year. Students had gotten used to the fact that there is no discipline in the school over the last few months, and it erupted, unsurprisingly, on senior prank day. Mr. Invisible needs to be more visible for this sort of thing not to happen. Kids and teachers both know that he's rarely around and, when he is, he's holed up in his office.

What's become of the school in the last few months is pretty sad:

1. Loud, unruly, cursing groups in the hallways, particularly the back hallways on the 2nd and 3rd floor, several times throughout the day.

2. Students' use of the parking lot. Mr. Invisible's response? Teachers need to get to school on time. It doesn't matter that students are parking there at 7:15 or 7:30 am, or that they simply don't care that they're taking a student spot. S imple mirror hanging system would cure this. We'll see if it's corrected next year.

3. Poorly run assemblies.

4. The building is dirty, dirty, dirty.

5. Rumor has it that the school is faced with losing 9 teaching spots next year, and, while previous principals have fought North Avenue on this, it doesn't appear that Mr. Invisible is. Class size will increase dramatically next year.

6. A colosolly mismanaged fire in the building.

This website has been created because so many students, teachers, and even administrators have stories about the principal that need to be told.

We love City College and are gravely worried that it is headed to dark days. As one City College blogger put it, "I prophesize that City College will be a zone school by 2008." And all signs point to the conference room fancy new principal's office for the blame.

Whether talking about his invisibility in the halls, his lack of participation in important events in the school, his lack of leadership on academic issues, or his bullying, we are interested in gathering together these stories in hopes that it might do some good.

We will start:

1. There is no way that the "election" results for school uniforms were not fixed. Finding even one student who is in support of uniforms is nearly impossible, and finding 51% is ridiculous.

2. Several teachers, staff members (one of whom was told by him, "You're just like a contractor, easily replaceable"), and even an administrator have had their job threatened. No one has actually lost it - except possibly the one administrator who has callen in sick since the first semester (we'd love to hear her story) - but the fact that this man is throwing around his weight in this manner shows what a poor leader he is.

3. His lack of presence in the building - both because he's out all the time and because, when he's in, he is shut up in his office - is astounding. Kids know it and act accordingly.

Please add your story in the comments. We'll go from there.

Purpose

This blog has been created to serve as a gathering point for alumni, teachers, students, and staff who are concerned about the current state of Baltimore City College, led by Mr. Timothy Dawson.