2-News
2A — Thursday, February 25, 2016
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THREE THINGS YOU
SHOULD KNOW TODAY
In
today’s
B-Side,
Natalie Zak grapples
with the dark side
of her once-favorite
YouTube stars, and Jacob
Rich chronicles how one
chachannel is improving the
platform.
>>SEE B-SIDE, PAGE 1B
2
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
CFE Workshop
WHAT: Learn about what
an entrepreneur is and
what it takes to become an
entrepreneur as a female
engineer or scientist.
Refreshments will be served.
RSVP required for this
workshop.
WHO: Maize Pages Student
Organizations and Center for
Entrepreneurship
WHEN: 4 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.
WHERE: Johnson Rooms
SMTD Violin
WHAT: A concert featur-
ing solo strings perfor-
mances from students from
the School of Music, The-
atre & Dance. They will
perform pieces by Bruch,
Bach, Paganini and Mozart.
WHO: U-M String
Students, Presented
by Gifts of Art
WHEN: 12:10 p.m. to 1 p.m.
WHERE: University
Hospitals Main Lobby
Gendered
Robots
WHAT: A lecture
about the socio-cultural
implications of gender.
The speaker will address te
question: Why are robots
gendered?
WHO: Jennifer Robertson
WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
WHERE: Lurie Robert H.
Engin. Ctr. - Third Floor
President
Obama
said
it
would
be
challenging for Senate
Majority
Leader
Mitch McConnell to
give reason for his decision
not to consider a Supreme
Court
nominee
without
appearing to be motivated
by politics, according to
CNN.
1
Texas
courts
dismissed charges
against
former
Gov. Rick Perry,
who
was
being
accused of abuse of power,
according to The New York
Times. He was the first
Texas governor in about
100 years to face criminal
charges of any kind.
3
Mochas &
Masterpieces
WHAT: Instructors from
the Ann Arbor Art Center
will instruct guests on
how to create zentangle
artwork on canvas.
Refreshments will be
served. RSVP required.
Fee of $5 per person.
WHO: Maize Pages
Student Organizatios
WHEN: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
WHERE: Michigan
League - Kalamazoo Room
Sang-Yong
Nam Memorial
Lecture
WHAT: Listen to an
ambassador of the Republic
of Korea to the United States
speak about a security
alliance.
WHO: Ho-Young Ahn
WHEN: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
WHERE: Michigan League
- Vandenberg Room
Detroiters
Speak
WHAT: A session to reflect in
the different perspectives and
narratives of Detroit, taking
into account the history of the
city. Free bus transportation
will be provided for this class
via the MDetroit Connector
Bus.
WHO: Semester in Detroit
WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Cass Corridor
Commons, 4605 Cass Avenue,
Detroit
Cochlear
Implants Lecture
WHAT: The second in a
six-part series, this lecture
will address how cochlear
implants are engineered, how
the technology has improved
over time and how they’ve
changed the lives of many.
WHO: H. Alexander Arts,
professor of Medicine
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
WHERE: Rave Theater,
4100 Carpenter Road
Music class
WHAT: An early music
class by Nevermind,
a young ensemble
specializing in ancient
music, comprised of
four musicians from the
Conservatoire National
Superieur de Musique de
Paris.
WHO: Nevermind
WHEN: 5 p.m.
WHERE: Walgreen
Drama Center - Stamps
Auditorium
ON THE DAILY
MARINA ROSS/Daily
Ann Arbor resident Devon Coasen makes a coffee at Comet
Coffee on Wednesday.
E YE ON ART
The cold
temperatures weren’t the
only thing freezing the
diag today.
The sixth annual Diag
Freeze took place today,
from 11:32 a.m. to 11:37
a.m.
Participants were
asked to come to the
diag and set two alarms
on their phones, one for
11:32 and one for 11:37.
When the first alarm
buzzes, they must freeze
like statues in a position
of their choosing. Then,
when the second alarm
buzzes, they are to
unfreeze and carry on as
if nothing happened.
This event is put on
every year by DoRAK
at the University of
Michigan. The students
organizing this event
hoped that it would be
bigger and better than in
years past.
“This year we’re
looking for more people,
more creative poses, and
a great time all around. It
takes YOU to make this
the best FREEZE this
campus, or any campus,
has ever seen!” reads
a post on the event’s
Facebook page.
Colleen Doran, a
sophomore studying
dental hygiene, attended
the Diag Freeze with
four of her friends.
She said she admired
the creativity of the
event and appreciated
how different people
expressed their
individuality.
“It was cool!” she
said. “A lot of people had
good ideas such as the
light sabers, building a
snowman, etc. We were
wishing we got more
creative. It would’ve been
nice for a bigger turnout
but I think the snow may
have deterred people.
But students were taking
videos and smiling which
is nice especially around
midterms.”
According to the
Facebook page, 73 people
were planning to attend
the Diag Freeze, with an
additional 278 interested
in the event.
-MARLEE
BREAKSTONE
into the classroom.
“It’s a really, really tough
environment,”
Drabik
said.
“Three or four of the students
in the classroom I work in
should’ve been held back, but
they didn’t have the money to
support that. You come into this
classroom and there are kids at
such different levels.”
That disparity in ability, she
added, is often extreme.
“Some kids can’t even read,”
she said. “I had one kid that just
moved from Mexico, should not
have been in the third grade
classroom, does not speak a
word of English.”
Drabik
said
her
school,
however,
has
fared
well
compared to others in the area.
Some schools have reported
rodents running around the
classrooms,
cockroaches,
ceilings falling down and water
leakages.
Conditions like those, that
Drabik and many other involved
with the school system have
noted, didn’t form overnight.
For many, the deterioration
is largely tied to the district’s
now-crippling
accumulation
of debt, which has resulted in
a number of efforts to reduce
costs and boost the struggling
district over the years.
In
October
2015,
Gov.
Rick Snyder announced his
overhaul of DPS. The initiative
aimed to create a new school
system, transition the board
and students to the new school
district and require the existing
district to pay off its debt.
The overhaul is estimated
to cost the state $715 million
dollars by its completion, or
about $70 million dollars a year
for the next 10 years.
Synder’s
plan
garnered
negative reactions from multiple
units within DPS. Beginning in
November, seven instructional
days were cancelled in select
schools shortly after Snyder’s
announcement.
The
reason:
too many teachers called in
sick and refused to come to
work. These types of protests,
called a “sickout,” were in
direct response to the building
conditions, pay cuts — teachers
have faced multiple cuts over
the last five years, including 10
percent cuts in both 2011 and
2014 — and Snyder’s plans.
Drabik, who only volunteers
on
Friday
afternoons,
said
though none of the sickouts
were on a Friday, her school,
Bennett Elementary was one of
the many schools affected by the
sickouts. She added that though
she was not directly impacted by
the protest, she was saddened by
the worsening conditions at the
school.
“It worries me to see these
teachers
taking
sick
days,”
Drabik said. “These students
need to be in school, they need
to be there.”
On Jan. 19, 2016, following
the
most
recent
sickouts,
Snyder called on legislature to
relieve the school district of
$515 million of its debt. He said
by April, DPS was in danger of
running out of money.
For teachers, students and
others invested in DPS, the
problems Snyder has identified
aren’t new, and stretch back
much further than that January
call to action or the sickouts,
back through the past decades
of the district’s history.
A teacher working for Detroit
Public Schools, who requested
anonymity due to fear of losing
his job, said the conditions
within his school have declined
drastically over the decade he
has worked for the district. He
said his school participated in
one of the district-wide sickouts
in protest of the pay cuts and
conditions of other schools.
“We didn’t want to get our
principal in trouble for having
a sickout, but we wanted to call
attention to everything else and
those people who have these
chronic problems with lack of
textbooks, lack of supplies and
deterioration of buildings,” he
said.
The teacher said his students
don’t get a recess during the day
due to understaffing. Instead,
they have lunch in the cafeteria
and have 20 minutes to play in
the gym.
“Usually it’s chaos because
you have so many children in
there and there’s only one or
two adults so it’s easier for
them to have the kids sit in lines
than it is for them to play,” the
teacher said.
A lack of recess or recreational
time is not abnormal for DPS
students.
According
to
the
teacher,
students
are
often
given time inside a gym or a
walk around the building in
replacement.
He said he loves teaching and
considers being in the classroom
a passion of his, but he worries
for the future of his students and
others at DPS.
“My fear is that students
aren’t going to get that good of
an education,” he said. “My own
children get a great education
in another district. The kids in
Detroit are just as smart, but
they have a bad (reputation).
The schools aren’t that great.
The teachers are good, but they
don’t have the other stuff. The
last 10 years I’ve taught, none
of my children have had art,
music or gym. The children get
computers two times a week.”
Overall, the numbers bear
the teacher’s concern out —
DPS falls far below national
averages on many metrics of
student performance. According
to the National Assessment of
Educational Progress, Detroit
students rank last in all U.S.
cities. Most notably, only 27
percent of fourth graders in
the NEAP were found to be
proficient in reading and only 36
percent proficient in math.
The DPS teacher said working
every day against the harsh
conditions and seeing numbers
like that dishearten teachers in
Detroit.
“It’s hard for Detroit teachers,
seeing that we tap out our
salaries at $55,000,” he said.
“Out of that we have to pay 1.25
percent to the city of Detroit, we
have other things that come out.
A Utica teacher makes almost
$90,000, a Farmington teacher
makes $82,000, Walled Lake
makes $88,000. It’s difficult
to say that we are so poor
and Detroit teachers are the
ones who are bankrupting the
district, when we make $20,000
less than suburban schools.
We constantly see how we’re
failing.”
At the University, which has
multiple partnerships, programs
and
internships
in
Detroit
for students, some linked to
teaching, the overall impact of
the current climate has been
mixed.
Elizabeth Moje, associate dean
for research and community
engagement for the School of
Education, said the University
hasn’t
had
many
problems
with
the
sickouts
affecting
interns.
However,
she
said
allowing interns to experience
these conditions is a learning
opportunity for students in the
School of Education.
“It’s
really
had
quite
a
minimal direct effect on their
experience,” Moje said. “We’re
able to discuss the action both of
the district and of the teachers as
a teaching moment. It becomes
a conversation with our interns
about both the challenges and
conditions
that
they
might
face and the decisions that
teachers often have to make
about how they’re going to work
within those challenges and
conditions.”
For some students, the impact
is more personal. LSA junior
Micah Griggs, who graduated
from DPS Renaissance High
School before enrolling at the
University, said she thought the
conditions in her old school were
unacceptable.
“It’s really unfortunate that
some of the schools have mold
and a lack of supplies,” Griggs
said.
“That’s
not
conducive
to
learning
at
all
so
it’s
unfortunate, students can’t go
to those schools. Teachers have
to have a sickout because they’re
beginning to protest about the
state. It’s not as if (just) the
power went out. There’s rodents,
there’s mold on the walls, there’s
no heat.”
Griggs said she was fortunate
to have attended one of DPS’
newer schools, so there was
little decay or deterioration
at the time. Renaissance High
School,
however,closed
on
multiple occasions for sickouts
in January.
“It makes me feel as if the
students
are
abandoned,”
Griggs said. “I really think that
education is so important and
it’s key to a lot of success. It’s just
being ripped away from them.”
Griggs’s
siblings
currently
attend
a
private
school
in
Detroit. Her brother will be
starting
Renaissance
High
School in the fall, and she said
she worries about the quality of
education he could receive.
“I’m concerned about the
substance of programs for him,”
Griggs said. “I’m hoping that the
band, dance and arts aren’t cut.
Those things are important for a
holistic education.”
She added that it’s important
for University students to know
what is happening in Detroit,
Ann Arbor’s neighboring city.
“A lot of people don’t know.
Just being aware that these
things happen — and they
happen because we don’t have
funding and our funding is used
for other sectors.” She said.
“This is our neighboring city 30
minutes away.”
LSA junior Tishanna Taylor,
a DPS Renaissance High School
alum, echoed Griggs’ concerns.
Taylor’s mother was a teacher at
DPS and moved out of the district
because of the conditions.
“It’s sad to see that teachers are
not getting as much recognition
they deserve,” Taylor said. “They
do such hard work for those
who do quality work and they
care for their students. To not
get compensated appropriately
is kind of sad and they resort
to leaving the district that they
want to help.”
She said she hopes people
don’t give up on DPS and the
many assets and capabilities it
still has.
“Right now, it just looks
very bad with the schools and
sickouts and the showcasing of
the buildings, things like that,”
she said. “I guess sometimes
throughout that, we lose sight of
what’s important, which is the
education for the children.”
She said the future of DPS lies
in the hands of more than just
the people on top.
“People
should
just
pay
attention or even try to learn
more, or watch and see what’s
happening
with
the
school
system,” Taylor said. “It’s more
than just the administration that
has to be changed.”
DPS
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