Citizens group still fighting for Anderson schools to pursue up to $18 million in grants

Jun. 23—ANDERSON — The deadline passed in April for Anderson Community Schools to apply for federal grants of up to $18 million across four years.

But a local committee of concerned citizens hasn't given up its battle to get ACS officials to change their minds and apply for the Next Generation School Improvement Grant next year. The federal money is administered by the Indiana Department of Education.

Members of the committee include Mary Baker-Boudissa, Lindsay Brown, Perry Washington, Terasha Webb and Annie Wood-Bell.

Brown, a frequent critic of the district, sent an email to the school board, superintendent and others June 14 after the ACS board's regular monthly meeting, to discuss a plan for the next round of grants expected to open in February 2023.

"I am proposing that we all meet, this includes the administration, school board members, Teacher's Union Reps, and any educator that would like to attend," he wrote.

"To make sure that all of the information is factual I will ask the Indiana Department of Education Grant representative to be present as well as we will provide a copy of the grant application to anyone that will attend."

ACS Superintendent Joe Cronk has declined requests from The Herald Bulletin for an interview about the grant.

However, in his March 16 written response to emails from the committee, he said while the board is not interested in pursuing the Next Generation School Improvement Grant, the board and the administration are committed to working with the committee or any other individual or organization wishing to support the schools.

"With that being said, any partnership or grant program we apply for or participate in must align with the mission, vision, strategic direction, and timeline of the corporation. And, unfortunately, as I outlined in my previous message and above, there are several critical issues that prevent us from participating," Cronk wrote.

Among those issues, he said, are the expected use of grant funds, governance and authority, and the transfer of regular state funding from ACS to an educational transformation team.

ACS Board President Patrick Hill did not respond to a request for comment from The Herald Bulletin but offered a short statement at the June 14 board meeting, underscoring the reasons given by Cronk.

"We shared these concerns with Mr. Brown in our meeting. At this time, it (the federal school improvement grant) doesn't seem to be a good fit for us," he said.

Cronk and other ACS administrators met with the citizens committee earlier this year.

In his reply June 16 to Brown's most recent email, ACS attorney Charles R. Rubright said the board's decision not to apply for the school improvement grant doesn't mean it won't consider applying in the future.

"As you alluded to, there are different interpretations of this grant program shared by your group and ACSC that has caused confusion publicly," Rubright wrote. "That is why, should we decide to apply, we will continue working directly with representatives at IDOE to ensure the information we have to base our decision on whether or not to apply is both accurate and complete."

According to Rubright, ACS officials heard the committee's recommendations and took them into consideration.

"And, should we decide to apply, we will use them as part of our decision making process to identify our intervention model, schools, and expert partner(s) to work with," he wrote.

But Brown and other citizens committee members contend the reasons not to pursue the grant given by district officials are invalid and misleading.

WHAT IT ENTAILS

Brown, who also is president of the Indiana Democratic African American Caucus, became aware of the grant in 2020 when, he said, he was approached by Ron Sandlin, the IDOE's senior director of performance and transformation. Sandlin was not made available by the state education department to comment for this article.

Frustrated by Cronk's decision and believing that ACS is leaving on the table millions of dollars that could benefit students in struggling schools, Brown went public with the discussion. ACS schools that would qualify, according to department of education metrics, include Anderson, Eastside, Edgewood and Erskine elementaries, Highland Middle School and Compass, the alternative school.

For at least three years in a row, each of those schools, other than Compass, graded at a D or an F under the state department of education's accountability system. Schools were not graded during the pandemic.

Schools selected for inclusion would be placed into a "transformation empowerment zone" governed jointly by the district's board of trustees and a transformation board composed of parents, teachers, students and community members.

The process would start with a planning grant of as much as $300,000 per participating school. However, Holly Lawson, deputy director of communication for the state department of education, said when multiple schools within a district are involved, economies of scale would reduce the overall amount of planning funds granted.

The application would require Cronk's signature before being approved by the ACS board.

The plan developed from the grant could then be used to secure an implementation grant worth millions. ACS could receive up to $3 million for each participating school, according to Lawson.

That amount could total as much as $18 million for six schools over four years.

Lawson said the grant is intended to give schools the means to think unconventionally in an effort to improve student achievement.

"It focuses first on setting an intervention priority (for example, literacy development, career pathways support, etc.), and then developing a model to support implementation of that priority," she wrote in an email.

After their proposal was rejected earlier in the year by Cronk, the citizens committee on March 11 sent an email to him, the ACS board, the Anderson Federation of Teachers and other stakeholders asking that his decision be reconsidered.

The grant deadline passed April 15.

"When we look at the data, our students are consistently being left behind compared to their peers across the state in the very areas that will set them up for success later in life," the email from the citizens committee reads.

"Whether its growth, proficiency or even attendance, it is obvious that our students are not receiving the education they deserve and that is ultimately why so many parents have chosen to remove their students from the district which has caused a dramatic enrollment decline over the past decade or so."

In addition to the group email, Baker-Boudissa sent a personal plea through email to Cronk, the board and others March 14.

"Before our advisory group plans our next steps for how we will support those schools that continue to perform far below their peers around the state, we would like to have additional conversation with you and the ACS school board," she wrote. "We realize that may require a special meeting for convening the entire board or separate meetings with two or three members."

WHY NOT APPLY?

Among the reasons Cronk gave for his decision not to apply for the state grant is a perception that the board must give up much of its decision-making authority over key issues, such as staffing, funding and programs.

But according to a frequently asked questions sheet developed by the state department of education, transformation zones actually are a model of shared governance that take advantage of the best of district leadership combined with community voice. Teachers, for instance, remain employees of the district, though they would be under the guidance of a transformation zone board.

The members of the committee encouraging ACS to apply for the grant said they would not expect to be included on the transformation zone board.

"Zone schools are still district schools," the FAQ explains. "Through a contract, they remain accountable to the publicly elected school board — the Zone structure only remains in place if the schools within the Zone are meeting shared performance expectations set by the district and the Zone."

Cronk also contends that acceptance of the grant would remove as much as 75% of overall state funding from the district and give it to the new transformation team.

"This results in millions in loss to ACS as a whole," he wrote in his email to the committee.

However, IDOE's Lawson said there would be no loss of funding to the district if it accepted the grant.

"As federal funding, this grant has no impact on schools' state funding in alignment with their average daily membership," she explained.

UNION OBJECTIONS

The Anderson Federation of Teachers on June 2 released a statement opposing ACS' participation in the grant process based on a perceived requirement that the district spend some of the potential money working with Empower Schools.

According to its website, Empower Schools is a not-for-profit that partners with communities to reorganize schools to empower educators and facilitate innovation that leads to improvement.

However, Lawson said schools in transformation zones can use either district programs or those developed by an outside vendor.

"As part of the grant, schools are encouraged to work with an expert partner that has a unique skill set and experience in navigating the complexities of this work. The grant does not require a specific partner or intervention model," she said. "Responsibility for these decisions ultimately rests with the locally elected school board."

Of the six Indiana school districts that have received the school improvement grants, only two — Randolph Eastern School Corp. and Whitley County Consolidated Schools — have partnered with Empower Schools.

Brown said his committee has been working with Empower Schools at the recommendation of IDOE officials to help with preparing the presentation for the ACS administration and board. There is no stipulation that Empower Schools would partner with the district for either the planning or implementation grants, he said.

In fact, Brown said, the plan could include any intervention by any partner or be built from the ground up by the district with no partner at all.

"I must say it was a little surprising to hear some of the continued false statements be presented to the community and staff of ACSC, especially after the meeting that Dr. Cronk and Mr. Harrison had with Empower Schools," he wrote in his June 14 email to the board.

Cronk and AFT President Randy Harrison met with Empower Schools officials June 13.

At June 14's meeting, Harrison advised the board to follow the money and see who would benefit from the grant application.

Brown said the application would be of no financial benefit to him or the other members of the citizens committee.

"The group of citizens and I are not and will not benefit monetarily in any way shape or fashion from this grant or anything associated with this grant," Brown wrote in an email to the board later on June 14.

"We just want to help improve our school corporation."

Brown said he's heard unfounded rumors that the school improvement grant can be used to break up unions and could cost teachers their jobs.

"Unions play a key role in the design of a Transformation Zone," the department of education's FAQ notes. "Collaborating with these unions helps ensure that educator empowerment remains a key feature of the Zone."

Marisa Little, a 22-year veteran of ACS who is dean at Erskine Elementary, told the board at its June 14 meeting that she was frustrated by not having adequate details about the grant, adding that neither she nor her colleagues have been involved in the development of the preliminary presentation by the citizens committee.

"I heard it's been planned for a year, but we haven't been invited to the table for discussions. I do think it sounds like a takeover" of the school system by people outside of ACS, Little said.

But Brown said educators have been consulted in the planning. In fact, committee member Webb is a principal in ACS.

Though she did not directly say that she opposes applying for the school improvement grant, former state Rep. Melanie Wright, D-Yorktown, a 1984 ACS graduate and music teacher in Daleville Community Schools, offered a warning to the board at June 14's meeting.

"I felt like the needs of educators were overlooked. It's very stifling," she said of the grant program. "When people come in and don't understand the total picture, you lose a lot of autonomy. We have got to keep local control here. Please, please, proceed with caution."

Follow Rebecca R. Bibbs on Twitter at @RebeccaB_THB, or call 765-640-4883.