While George Cook’s piece in African American Reports provides an interesting perspective on the Kelley Williams-Bolar case. (Kelley Williams-Bolar: The mother who was jailed for sending her children to a school outside of her zoned district.) It is more interesting that it is unique. It is the only one of its kind. It is the only written reaction I’ve found online from someone who sits on a school board or holds a position in a school district outside of Copley-Fairlawn.
Google, Yahoo!, Bing. I searched “other school districts on Kelley Williams-Bolar,” “school boards on Kelley Williams-Bolar,” “districts, Kelley, Williams-Bolar,” “boards, Kelley, Williams, Bolar,” and so on. Nothing.
So far Cook’s post is the only one of its kind. While other posts have provided simplified cost analysis of Williams-Bolar’s actions, none so far have been from other school board members or district officers. Why? Is there some unwritten law that dictates that school districts shall not be critical of one another? Is there a slate green “Chalkboard Wall” similar to law enforcement’s “Blue Wall” or the securities industry’s “Chinese Wall”?
How does the Akron school district feel about Kelley Williams-Bolar’s opinion that it is not as good as Copley-Fairlawn? I was unable to find a press release or a statement from Akron. Is there one? Or is it the Chalkboard Wall?
A Google search turned up healthy results for the terms “school districts work together” and “school districts partner.” Last year, superintendents from South Hampton school districts met to learn ways to share resources as a way to save on money and taxes. In Salem, school districts partnered to hold a job fair for hard to fill teaching positions. Again, the purpose was to save costs by pooling resources as they did in Michigan.
While I found articles about districts working together to save money. I could not find an article about school districts working together to promote academic achievement (which would save money over the long term). Do districts work together when there is no immediate payoff? Do they work to help each other’s students succeed?
Odd Times Signatures provides this brief profile of the schools Kelley Williams-Bolar’s children attended and the ones her children would have attended. One of the Akron schools is on “Academic Watch” and the other only met two out of eight state education indicators. The schools Williams-Bolar went to jail to send her children to met all 11 out of 11 state indicators and designated “Excellent” on its state report card.
What might happen if Akron and Copley-Fairlawn worked together? Place the burdens of cost aside for a moment and examine the potential for academic and civic advancement for students in both districts. While superficially it may seem that Akron would not be able to offer Copley-Fairlawn anything, I am positive if those involved examined their situations carefully they would find opportunities to share resources and save each other money in the end.
I am not suggesting the solution is that simple (Otherwise someone would have attempted it and we may have never heard of Kelley Williams-Bolar and the Copley-Fairlawn School District). I am, however, suggesting districts need to work harder to save “academically” as well as financially. Cooperatively working towards saving the former will lead to greater savings in the latter.
