Stronger Academics Pull White Students into CCSD

The percentage of white students attending partial-magnet schools of Haut Gap Middle and Mitchell Elementary has risen. CCSD Superintendent Nancy McGinley credits the ability of students at Haut Gap to earn high school credits and the Montessori program at Mitchell. [See Some Partial Magnet Programs Succeed in Helping Integrate Schools in the online P&C.]

Gee, just maybe white parents were discouraged previously not by race but by sinkhole academics.

Dot Scott, eat your heart out!

Do You Believe in Coincidences? Dicenzo's Demise

As I pointed out in December in CCSD's Musical Chairs with Principals,

maybe it's just a coincidence that the first head to roll in McGinley's plan to shuffle principals once more belongs to the wife of a principal of a charter school.

Anne DiCenzo [fired principal of Mitchell Elementary]'s letter in her own defense that appears in Tuesday's P & C reveals why people simply do not trust what CCSD officials say. The abrupt removal of a principal just before the Christmas holidays suggests that somehow DiCenzo was ineffective. Well, as the letter states, if she was, her evaluations didn't reflect it.

In her own words,

Principal responds

For the past seven and a half years I have been the instructional leader (principal) at Mitchell Elementary School. I have been removed from Mitchell because I was an ineffective instructional leader. As the leader of the school, I am evaluated yearly. All of my ratings have been high.

In the 2006-2007 school year, all below average and unsatisfactory schools had to complete a plan for school growth for the six core strategies of the Plan for Excellence. The ratings are zero to five, with five being the highest. I scored between 4.83 and 5 in all strategies.

I also instituted new programs this year to help students and staff increase achievement. I hired two teacher interventionists to help with small-group instruction at the upper-grade levels. I hired two reading recovery/interventionist teachers for the lower-grade levels, and I hired a prevention specialist to minimize disruptions in the classroom.

Our PACT scores should increase this year, according to our winter MAP scores, which are the district's benchmark test. The MAP scores showed a vast improvement and indicated that the new programs were successful.

PACT scores reflect only a few days out of the school year and are only a snapshot of a part of the school. I am proud to say the teachers and staff at Mitchell are there for the students and go above and beyond every day. We do things for students that are not measured on a test. Mitchell is a family community. I will miss my family very much.

Anne DiCenzo

In other words, what more could she have done? What warnings did she have to improve?

It's politics, folks, CYA that uses principals as pawns. Superintendent McGinley has to look like she's creating progress, so musical principals is the current answer.

We can expect more of the same.