Franklin Schargel’s Blog

• What are the plans for the new school year?
• How will my child be accessed for this past school year?
• Will my child be promoted to the next higher grade?
• How will my child make up for the work they have missed?
• Will my child be penalized for the work they missed through no fault of their own? (Unstable internet, lack of Chromebooks or Ipads, etc.)
• Will there be a sufficient number qualified, licensed teachers especially teaching science, math, technology, Special Education)
• Will there be enough substitute teachers?
• How will students be introduced to kindergarten, first grade or students entering a new middle and high school?

Approximately 7 children die every day due to gun related violence. Almost 20,000 students are shot each year. Gun violence doesn’t discriminate by zip code. While there is greater gun violence in lower-income, minority, inner-city neighborhoods, there is gun related violence in rural, suburban, white, higher-income neighborhoods as well. No community is exempt.

How do we stop violence from even starting? In many schools, we have missed signs and signals along the way to prevent gun violence related incidents. Most incidents are not spur of the minute but have been planned for at least 6 months. At least 1 person knew about it in advance. Unfortunately, in most cases, that person was not an adult. We need to know the signs, we need to recognize them when they are in place and we need to act by, at the very least, having a safety assessment in place. What do most school shooters have in common? They are socially isolated.

We have the knowledge and know the signs to prevent heart attacks, chocking, and drownings, Now, we muster our resources and knowledge to prevent school violence.

I am in the final stages of writing a new book, Preventing School Violence. It should be on sale early in the school year. Look for it.

When the Covid-19 tide rolled in, it covered a great many flaws in our educational system including:

• A poor state of repairs (crumbling floor tiles, leaky roofs, etc.)
• A lack of air conditioning and adequate heating
• Lack of nurses, psychologists, and social workers in schools According to the National Association of School Nurses, 25 percent of schools do not employ a nurse, while 35 percent employ part-time nurses .  Aug 26, 2020
• Multi-tiered funding of schools (low-income versus high income schools, staffing inner-city versus suburban, rural versus suburban)
• Access to mental health professionals and programs
• Availability of electronics (computers, Ipads, Chrome Books)
• Age of school buildings (The National Center for Educational Statistics has written: 
  • In 1998, the average public school building in the United States was 42 years old. The mean age ranged from 46 years in the Northeast and Central states to 37 years in the Southeast. About one-fourth (28 percent) of all public schools were built before 1950, and 45 percent of all public schools were built between 1950 and 1969 (table 1).Seventeen percent of public schools were built between 1970 and 1984, and 10 percent were built after 1985. The increase in the construction of schools between 1950 and 1969 corresponds to the years during which the Baby Boom generation was going to school. America’s oldest schools have a higher proportion of children in poverty). Of schools with less than 20 percent of children eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch, 20 percent were built before 1950. In contrast, of schools with 20 to 49 percent and 50 percent or more children eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch, 29 percent and 34 percent were built before 1950. The age of a school and its size are also related. While 40 percent of small schools (enrollments of less than 300) were built before 1950, 23 percent of large schools (enrollments of 1,000 or more) were built before 1950.

If you have children or grandchildren in schools, you may know about this. When the virus recedes, what will be revealed?

We have the capacity to fix this, what we lack is the will.

The National Center For Educational Statistics reported that public school enrollment in 2020-2021 fell by 3% marking the largest decline since the start of the century.

As anticipated, the declines were mostly concentrated in pre-k, which saw a 22% decrease, and kindergarten, which experienced a 9% dip. Changes included a 3% decrease in grades 1-8, and a slight increase of 0.4% in grades 9-12. Until now, K-12 enrollment had been slowly increasing almost every year since the start of the century, 

NCES Acting Commissioner Peggy Carr called the numbers “preliminary but concerning,” noting the enrollment decreases were “widespread and affected almost every single state and every region of the country.” Mississippi and Vermont had the largest declines at 5%, according to the NCES analysis, with Washington, New Mexico, Kentucky, New Hampshire and Maine trailing not far behind at 4% or more. The District of Columbia, South Dakota and Utah saw the smallest enrollment drops, at less than 1%. Illinois was the only state to not submit data. 

What are the implications of this preliminary data? 

• We already know that children who have not attended pre-school and kindergarten will lack the foundation of learning, necessary to build a successful educational career.  
• The youngest students are also the most difficult, if not impossible, to track, considering pre-K students are not yet in districts’ systems. 
• Poor and children of color are the most vulnerable.
• The pipeline for new teachers graduating from schools of education has narrowed.
• Where will schools obtain the necessary funds for additional teachers, school counselors and principals?
• How will new staff be brought up to speed to deal with local conditions?
• Will states be able to fund these additional positions?
• How will states help students academically and socially?

NCES plans to release its final findings in spring 2022.

John Woodrow Cox, a reporter for the Washington Post, has written a new book, Children Under Fire: An American Crisis. The book deals with children who have witnessed school shootings or lost a loved one to gun violence. These children suffer from depression, nightmares, angry outbursts and have difficulty concentrating. They frequently need years of therapy and heavy medication.

According to  Mr. Cox, gun trauma has affected nearly 250,000 children since the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Between 2010 and 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) almost 30,000 children and teens were killed with firearms. Gun violence – including gun suicide – is  the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 20. These statistics do not include children who weren’t shot or physically harmed but were traumatized

Meanwhile we have created a nearly $3 billion school security industry selling bullet-proof book bags, metal detectors and bullet-proof windows which prevent students from escaping the school building. In order to aid these children, we need more well-trained school counselors, good mentors and child therapists. 

I am currently revising my Creating Safe Schools Book: A Guide for School Leaders, Teachers, Counselors and Parents” to include new sections dealing with Child Anxiety, Stress, Trauma and Mass School Shootings. The working title for the new book is Preventing School Violence: A Guide for School Leaders, Teachers, Counselors,  Parents and Students. The book will be available on Amazon in October 2021.

The growth of minority-majority schools has led to a discussion of employing more educators of color. Research indicates that minorities have greater success when they are in schools where there are more adults (educators, principals and other personnel) that look like them. 

As a new report from AASA, The School Superintendents Association, suggest the nation’s superintendents are still overwhelmingly white and male despite gradual shifts in demographics. The percentage of female superintendents increased slightly in the past decade, from 24.1% in 2010 to 26.68% in 2020 — more than double the percentage of female superintendents documented in 2000 (13.1%). The number of superintendents of color is increasing much more slowly, with 8.6% of respondents identifying as superintendents of color in 2020, compared to 6% in 2010 and 5% in 2000. Of the relatively small percentage who are African American, Latinx or other minority group, nearly 42% are women. ​

Chris Tienken. the lead investigator of the study, pointed out the position of superintendent is much more diverse than its counterpart in the business world: The percentage of women and leaders of color in the top education leadership position is “well above” the 5.4% of S&P 500 companies led by a woman, the 5% of the Russell 3000 companies that have a woman in the top position, and the only four black CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies in 2019. Principal leadership remains comparatively much more diverse in contrast, with women holding a majority of principal positions during the 2015-16 school year, according to the National Teacher and Principal Survey. The same survey found​ 22.2% of public-school principal positions were held by people of color.

In 2017 our nation’s school systems became “minority-Majority” – minority dominated. Both superintendent and principal leadership lags behind the public-school student population, which has become increasingly diverse. While the last decade was expected to bring a substantial turnover of superintendents, with about half of survey respondents saying they planned to leave the profession, more superintendents (nearly 60%) said they plan to stay in the profession in the future.

The ultimate question then becomes how do schools recruit people of color to come to work in a school environment when salaries are low and working conditions are not the best?

Unlike the Federal Government which doesn’t have to balance its budget and has the ability to print money, state governments must balance their budgets every year.  

“The art of taxation is like plucking a goose so as to provide the largest quantity of feathers with the least amount of hissing.” Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the Minister of Finances in France, 1665-1683 

The Covid-19 crisis forced states and countries to spend money they hadn’t planned on and made them go into “rainy day” funds or go into deficit spending. Many states will have to make up that money or hope that the federal government will bail them out. It appears that politicians feel that cutting educational services like K-12 education and libraries will cause the least amount of squawking. There isn’t talk of cutting the police, fire services, public hospitals or municipal construction which are viewed as “essential services”.

Teacher layoffs have already started.

According to CBS News in Sacramento, California (March 5, 2021) Sacramento City Unified is considering cutting more than 130 teachers after the school board approved that many pink slips ahead of possible lay-offs. In Placer County, those slips are already going out to staff. The budget cuts are being blamed on the virus and the possibility that large numbers of children will not reappear for in person learning when schools reopen. Layoffs are now being considered in Gilbert, Arizona and Issaquah, Washington.

How will the layoffs take place?

The youngest and most vulnerable young people will be the first affected – that includes minority teachers of color and beginning teachers.

Teachers in Alberta, Canada have already received layoff notices. Even though there will be an additional 2,400 students, the Edmonton Public Schools will lay off over 2,100 support staff. Despite 6,000 substitute teachers will be dismissed.  as well as 178 teachers – that’s 3% of their teaching staff.  Despite that there will be an additional 2,400 students. That represents the philosophy of “doing more with less.

Schools have endured one of the most tumultuous years in their history. Actions taken by governors, state legislatures, Secretaries or Ministers of Education, and school superintendents will determine if that tumult continues or was simply an anomaly.