Vidrine: Schools do more than educate
Monroe City Schools Superintendent Brent Vidrine talked about the challenges facing the district Wednesday during a lunch hosted by the Monroe Chamber of Commerce.
Vidrine said schools have gained increasing responsibility for students in the past five decades. Now, schools make sure students are transported, fed, clothed, properly medicated and have adequate dental and eye care.
He said only about 20 percent of the time spent with students is related to education. The other 80 percent is tied up in overall care.
School Performance Scores, he said, do not account for the number of students who the district helps get adequate food or care.
Vidrine talked about four-year-olds showing up on the bus at schools. He said they don't all know their own name, or their mother's name or where they live. Some aren't even registered at the school, but they were put on the bus. Vidrine said the schools find out where the child lives, talk with the parents, visit their home and overall build a relationship with the child and the parent to build involvement in the child's future.
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He said one of the biggest challenges the district has faced in the past nine months is the desegregation order developed with the U.S. Department of Justice. Vidrine quipped that the "Devastation of Justice" is out of touch with the world.
The DOJ determined previously that Monroe City Schools's students are equitably distributed based on race. The teachers, administrators and principals at the school level, however, were determined not to be in line with the DOJ's requirements.
Vidrine said swapping principals around to avoid the appearance of a black or white school was moot if it doesn't affect the student ratios.
"The school behind them hasn't changed," he said. "I didn't change the school. I changed the face of two schools."
Meeting the staffing requirement for teachers, Vidrine said, is a "moving percentage." At elementary, middle and high school levels, the black-white ratio of hires is also tied to certification, experience and other factors. If one teacher in that grade level leaves, it creates a domino effect through the district.
"It's impossible," he said.
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Regarding recent controversy among Monroe City School Board members, Vidrine said, "there's nothing wrong with arguing."
Overall, he said he likes the direction the district is moving. He said last year the district raised its performance score from a D to a C. Scores look like the district will be a C again this year, but he said he's told his staff that he doesn't want to see any more D or F schools.
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