Tuesday, January 11, 2000
He sees schools as central to community
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Rick Williams, new president of the Cincinnati Board of Education, at Douglass Elementary School.
(Tony Jones photo)
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As a community planner, Rick Williams knows the recipe for a healthy community — a strong economy, good housing and successful schools.
Concerns about the last two ingredients drew him into school politics. Elected to the Cincinnati Board of Education in November and appointed board president last week, he sees his service as an extension of his advocacy for community revitalization.
Education is one of the biggest factors families weigh when considering where to set tle, so failing schools hurt a community's housing market and economy, Mr. Williams said.
For instance, Cincinnati's home ownership rate is 38 percent, compared with 65 percent nationally.
Good schools also hold families and children, he added.
With 1,600 students leaving city schools last year, Mr. Williams said, district officials must step up reforms to boost sagging achievement and erase the public's perception that the 45,600-student district is failing.
The Cincinnati Enquirer interviewed Mr. Williams last week on some of the biggest issues facing the district.
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RICK WILLIAMS
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• Residence: North Avondale.
• Family: Single.
• Age: 45.
• Career: Management consultant with Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp.
• Education: Graduated from Woodward High School in 1972; earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a master's degree in community planning from the University of Cincinnati.
• Politics: Appointed last May to fill the unexpired term of Virgin ia Griffin, who resigned. Elected in November to a four-year term and appointed board president Jan. 3. The board seat is the first elected office for Mr. Williams, a Democrat.
• Volunteer: Cincinnati Public Schools' Facilities Advisory Committee, which recommended improvements to the district's buildings; Local School Decision-Making Committee at Douglass Elementary in Walnut Hills; Cincinnati's Zoning Board of Appeals; Walnut Hills Area Council
• Proudest accomplishment: “Ask me in a year.”
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Q: Regarding the levy the district will seek in March, how do you convince voters to invest more money in a school system the public perceives as failing?
A: The first thing we have to do is educate the public that this is not a system that is failing.
We need to do a better job about putting the positives out there as well as the negatives. Even though there are negatives, we have the checks in place to change them.
We've seen significant positive results from the failing schools that were redesigned. We have a lot of schools that might not have a positive reputation, but there are good things happening in pockets — like teaming (in which teams of teachers stay with the same students for several years). In our team-based schools, academic achievement is rising, classroom by classroom.
Q: With many deep budget cuts over the past year, administrators say there's not enough money to go around. What are your budget priorities?
A: That's not a question the board should have an answer to because of our new site-based decision-making plan, under which we give as many dollars as we can to schools so they (teachers, principals and other school-based management) can make the decisions themselves. They make priorities of whatever they believe should be their priorities.
We want to make sure we get the money as close to the child as possible, as close to the people who know the child's needs best. That policy was adopted last year, and this is the first year schools are living under that process.
Q: Everyone talks about the need to boost state aid. What programs/district needs do you intend to demand that the state pay for and why?
A: This board does not have the authority to demand that the state do anything. But what the board does have the responsibility to do is educate the public on the limitations of funding public education in this state; the burden of school funding is on local taxpayers.
It is the public who votes on legislators who make decisions about education funding, so it's the public who should demand — by voting — that legislators step to the plate and make sure the state educates its residents.
Q: How will you apply your experience as an urban renewal advocate to addressing the problems of Cincinnati Public Schools? What do you bring to the board presidency that no one else could?
A: A lot of my work is creating communities with neighborhoods of choice. A community without a strong public school system is not a community of choice. Housing, economic development and education are the main ingredients in a healthy community.
Neighborhood strength comes from a high home-ownership rate and Cincinnati has one of the lowest home-ownership rates of many urban areas in this country. Young families are one of the biggest demographics of home buyers, so the success of a school system is absolutely a factor in the decision of whether families buy homes in a city. ... We all have an economic and social link to the strength of the public school system. When employers are looking for good employees, the public school system should be creating them. We have a responsibility to create good graduates who will make good life choices.
Q: CPS teachers' salaries are the highest biggest among Ohio's eight big-city districts. What are your marching orders to Supt. Steven Adamowski and attorneys as they sit down with teachers at the negotiating table?
A: Economics are not the only factor or even the main issue in contract negotiations. We are in the middle of negotiations, and I'm not going to open that up to the press right now. We sort of are respecting each other on that, the board and the different unions.
Q: Historically, parents have not felt included in district decisions. For example, the recent redistricting and facilities plans drew intense community outcry. Beyond the committee you started last spring to spark more public engagement, what must the district do to involve the community in decisions?
A: I enjoy the meetings when we have so many people come we have to put them in other (overflow) rooms (outside the 250-seat auditorium in which school board meetings are held). That indicates to me that the interest level is so high in the city, and there's a real comfort in that.
It also indicates that the dialogue we could have is huge. But usually when we have that many people, they're angry, because they think the decisions are already made, that it's a done deal. But they're not; it's a draft.
We want a partnership with the public; as that starts to happen, more and more, we will have discussions with the public rather than reactions. That will happen through a bunch of changes, like getting rid of the CPS vernacular and using more everyday words that all people can understand.
Q: Parents continue to flee the district for private and parochial schools, suburban districts and untested charter schools, with hundreds of students leaving yearly. What steps will you take to convince parents to choose Cincinnati Public Schools and boost falling enrollment?
A: Parents change their children's schools for all kinds of reasons: They know the person running a new charter school, they're enamored by the title of the program, they like the location. Newness always has a greener-grass-pasture allure.
But why don't people talk about all the parents who come running back to the district because they didn't like the new charter school? The public school/charter school phenomenon is a turnstile, with students going back and forth. There's all this panic that 14 new charter schools could be coming to Cincinnati. But this new education environment is competitive for the charter schools, as well as the public schools.
The bottom line is that all these school choices pouring into Cincinnati is not good for any of us. The state has to turn off the faucet at some point, because they're undoing their own goals in providing choice. Reversing our enrollment decline also will require us to spend more time on educating the public about what we're doing. We did not get into this situation overnight, and it will not improve overnight. But we need to restore public confidence by letting the public know about the positives.
Q: Why are you the guy to lead the district out of this mess?
A: That question makes me feel like ... Atlas holding up the world, but in this case, the world is circled with a ribbon that says “CPS.”
(By joining the school board), I'm not doing anything different that I haven't done for years. I am an advocate for community revitalization and public schools are key to the community. The board made the decision that I'm the guy to lead the leaders out of failure. But it is going to take all of us to take this district out of failure, and by us, I mean all community leaders. I'm just one of a whole list of people who will lead this district out of failure, and all of these people are as important as I am.
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