June 11, 2002 - Baltimore City Public Schools

Board Meeting Minutes
MS. WELCH: I'm impressed. We're all impressed.
MR. STOOTS: Well, thank you so very much.
Page 11 of 41
MS. WELCH: Thank you. We'll now move into the period of comments from the community. We'd
like to remind you that each person is asked to speak no more than three minutes. And also to remind
you that we generally don't engage in dialogue at this time. And we're asking members who've signed up
to come and present or share information that you want to share with us in three minutes. We're going to
ask Ms. Marietta English to come. Marietta English is the newly-elected President of the Baltimore
Teachers Union. Is Brian Dale coming up behind you?
MS. ENGLISH: In the name of the spirit that woke us this morning, that brings the sunshine, the rain,
and early dismissal, and it will bring peace to this meeting, and all others, I say good evening. Good
evening. I'm an elementary school teacher, I have to have that response. I'd like to just take this
opportunity to congratulate the students that are completing their year's work of activities, from grades
pre-K through 12. And commend those that are graduating and will be going to college. And, especially,
applaud those that received scholarships. I belong to an organization that did award two scholarships
this week to two students, one from Lake Clifton and one from Carver, who, hopefully, will go on to
become teachers. Ms. Russo, Dr. Welch, Members of the New Board of Commissioners, I thank you for
this opportunity to speak to you tonight. I am Marietta English, President of the Baltimore Teachers
Union. I represent nearly 8,000 members of the Teachers Union, both teachers and peer professionals.
Having spent the last two years working closely with the members of the Union in the classrooms, there
is several issues that have caused low morale, teacher burnout, and undue stress to the employees. These
issues include, but are not limited to, the following : The Child Study Team; the increased assaults on
teachers; the tremendous amount of paperwork; the discipline; the nonrenewal of new teachers, and
others. But today my focus is on the student performance-based evaluations, or the portfolio. The
student performance-based evaluation or portfolio is stealing the faith of this School System faster than
any previous negative cognitive factor that can be recalled. As the School Board, you have the duty to
the parents in this community to sustain its stable, professional workforce that looks forward to the
challenge of teaching children, even while working in the midst of the community, a School System that
has witnessed significant social and economic deterioration. You have an obligation to provide working
conditions that are safe and conducive to learning for both students and teachers. You should have the
courage to ask your colleagues at the State level and elected State legislators to walk a day in the shoes
of a teacher in Baltimore City before they make decisions about the careers of the professionals in
Baltimore City, without the benefit of firsthand knowledge of a teacher's struggle to achieve academic
success. A politician's solution to Baltimore's education woes is to respond to a politically correct
poplar, and satisfy the platitudes of educational reform that will, in short-term, only benefit their own
careers. Politicians are quick to create laws or requirements that penalize a teacher for a child's efforts.
Why do they not make laws that require parents to be more responsible for their child's efforts? The
implied insult and blame for State law and agreements, coupled with the lack of support for a teacher's
authority and respect in the classrooms, has left such damage that the moral authority of our educational
leaders has been compromised. There's no point in asking for more money and generating new
programs, that the support and enthusiasm of teachers have been lost. School Board Members should
say, as we do, enough is enough. The vast majority of teachers in this School System are here because
they want to provide the best education they can to their students under the present circumstances. To
deny this altruism to the teachers is to deny reality. When the truth about positive assumption of
teachers' intentions are recognized, there will be no justification for imposing further nontraditional,
overkill, stressful, and unfair evaluation methods of teachers. It has been a terrible mistake to trade off
the unnecessary termination of teachers' careers in this City, because of the imposition of
unconscionable evaluation methods in order to receive State funding. Teachers place little hope in the
State's Superintendent and MSDE to provide the leadership to improve the quality of education in
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9/23/2002