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Letter to the Editor

 

Peace Goes Unnoticed

Dear Editor:

Saturday (Nov. 5) was a loud day in Central City New Orleans but not a single shot was fired. Everyone was out watching the spectacle in the street, but there wasn’t a body in sight. Different “sets” and “crews” roamed the streets, but no one was harmed. It was the largest event of its kind to take place in one of the most violent neighborhoods in the city, but not a single news or camera crew present to document the experience.

Peace, apparently, is not good fodder for news coverage.

As the city gropes to recover from the shared trauma of Halloween and the violence that has only grown more brazen this past year, PeaceFest 2011 was an incredible opportunity for New Orleanians to see the best side of their communities. Local nonprofits, artists, musicians, DJ’s, dancers, activists, a Fruit Wizard, and hundreds of community members gathered across the street from the Melpomene Projects (Guste Apartments) to share resources and a good time. Unfortunately, the event went largely unnoticed outside of the neighborhood.

I watched as members of two “sets” maintained a respectful distance from each other and behaved just like the kids they really are. They smiled, they joked around with friends, they sang and danced a bit, and they quietly expressed thanks to the event’s organizers. We have turned these children into “thugs” and “monsters” in our discourse about them, but they are still our children, and now we know that they can still make good decisions. Programs like CeaseFire, which our city will be adopting, will work to promote this kind of culture-change through violence interrupters and outreach workers who will continue the work with our city’s young people. The peaceful event on Saturday proved that positive interventions can work and we must support any and all efforts that are able to achieve such results.

PeaceFest, a vision of Unified Nonprofits, United for Peace, the Orleans Public Defenders, and ReConnectNOLA, was supposed to bring attention to groups that serve the most at risk youth in our communities. It was wildly successful. Organizations like Apex, the Youth Empowerment Project, CASA New Orleans and the Independent Police Monitor were present, demonstrating and passing out information about their incredible programs. But PeaceFest did much more than that in Central City on Saturday. For five hours, a neighborhood that is the most violent and unsafe in our city was the very epitome of what we all want for New Orleans. There were children dancing in the park, positive music blasting in the streets, kids climbing in the playground, shooting basketball and tossing a football, lots of free food and soft drinks, and more safety for us all. Last Saturday showed there is hope in our city, and it is vital that we do not miss these moments when they come.

Sincerely,

Brian Opert
Vice Chairman
ReConnectNOLA
A Chance to Build Meaningful Connections

Dear Editor:

Webster’s Dictionary defines transformation as, a marked change, as in appearance or character, usually for the better.

Recovery School District Superintendent John White has announced the next phase of school reform and transformation. This announcement and the subsequent process of transitioning failing schools creates an important opportunity to either show a true commitment to authentic community engagement or repeat past mistakes circumventing stakeholders and discounting community wisdom. One path deepens the schism between schools and stakeholders. The other has an opportunity to set the foundation of school-community relationships that can yield long-term investment and partnership between schools and stakeholders in support of the success of students.

New Orleans now has a different opportunity. At the end of his first 100 days, Mr. White made commitments to us all. Among these was a commitment to “make critical decisions regarding school transformations, school locations, building usage, and school closure through public processes and public input.” Furthermore, the RSD administration agreed to work with community partners to implement a facilitated community engagement process at several failing public schools that will be transitioned to new charter school operators for the 2012-2013 school year.

For the past eight months, several diverse organizations (Black Alliance for Educational Options, Neighborhood Partnership Network, New Orleans East Charter Association, New Orleans Parent Organizing Network, Orleans Public Education Network and Urban League of Greater New Orleans) met to rethink school takeover and transformation. We envisioned a process where parents and community stakeholders would vision for their future school; learn more about the most effective practices in New Orleans and how such practices can inform the development of new or restructured schools. Superintendent White now has an opportunity to couple his commitment to community engagement with a transparent process for authentic community engagement.

A credible process must ensure the following:

1) All identified schools must have a consistent process for community engagement.
2) Criteria for how community voice will influence decisions and the criteria by which decisions will be made should be shared at the onset of the process.
3) The process must include a plan for all children. Parents and community members must have a clear understanding of how all children impacted by the plan will have access to a quality school/seat.
4) Charter operators and stakeholder groups must develop a mechanism for ensuring continued authentic collaboration between them to uphold its responsibility to support the collective vision of improving student achievement.

We look forward to seeing the district kick off its process in the coming weeks with clear communication to parents, school staffs and other stakeholders about the engagement process and timeframe as well as the criteria for how these critical decisions will be made.

Sincerely,

Deirdre Johnson Burel
Executive Director, Orleans Public
Education Network

Erika McConduit
Executive Vice President, Urban League
of Greater New Orleans