BY KYM LIEBLER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The president of the local NAACP chapter blamed the Cincinnati Board of Education Saturday for putting its students, most of whom are black, on "academic life support."
Dr. Milton Hinton equated the distressed state of city schools with the 1995 beating of Pharon Crosby and the shooting death of Lorenzo Collins last year as issues affecting the black community that must be tackled by the civil rights group.
"We must hold the school board accountable," Dr. Hinton told about 150 people who gathered at West Cincinnati Presbyterian Church for a community forum on schools.
"We have protested the severe beating of Pharon Crosby and the death of Lorenzo Collins, but by far the most important meeting we have called is this one, to discuss the situation in our schools."
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called the forum last week after state proficiency tests showed students in all grades continue to do poorly.
Chief among the group's concerns is collaboration with the board of education in its search for a superintendent to replace J. Michael Brandt, who will retire in July.
"We should demand the highest academic qualifications, as high as possible," former Cincinnati school board member Charles Hughes told the crowd. He said the board should consider someone with "the same ethnicity as the majority of the students and parents in the district."
About 70 percent of the estimated 50,000 students in Cincinnati Public Schools are African-American. About 30 percent of its teachers are African-American, according to district statistics.
The NAACP plans to approach the school board at its April 27 meeting with a list of its concerns, and its proposed solutions.
Chanda Monroe, president of the Avondale Community Council, said the chasm between the school board and community was obvious in March, when she and other parents asked board members to explain why they did not renew the contract of Eugenia Bobb, principal at Burton Elementary.
She said parents never got an answer.
"To have the arrogance to not tell voters why a principal is not removed from schools is disrespectful," Ms. Monroe said. Jana Perry, 27, a history teacher at Bloom Middle School in the West End, and Marla Taylor, a teacher at Taft High School, said the NAACP and parents need to act, not just make speeches.
"This is the last NAACP meeting I'm coming to," said Ms. Taylor, who teaches learning disabled students. "I'm tired of coming and hearing speakers. I am in room 209-B. Come to the schools, say, "I am here to visit class.' See what is going on."
Ms. Perry, in her first year teaching, said supplies and support from veteran teachers are scarce. Her brother left the Cincinnati Public Schools to teach in Indian Hill.
"It's amazing the difference between our experiences. He has e-mail," she said incredulously. "I have nothing."
