Showing posts with label Nikolai Vitti. Show all posts

Monday, July 13, 2020

Tales Of The New Crown: Detroit Does Not Want Schools To Open Even Though Betsy DeVos Needs That Medicaid Targeted Case Management Money Badly

If Betsy DeVos, et. al, does not get that school money, then what is going to happen with all those Social Impact Bonds?

Dare I say a global collapse in the bond markets?

She has got her teachers, staff, administration, policy think tanks, hedge fund managers, and any other financial creature hissing and grimacing behind her back if she does not get that money, as they have already advanced predictive modeling crapping generated Medicaid cost reimbursements under COVID 19 Post Traumatic Stress Training CARES Act.

Just go ask my favorite Maltese K-nig-hit!

Oops, did I just say that!?!

If there is no more schools, then, that means there is no more Medicaid Targeted Case Management, which means the Archdiocese of Detroit is going to have to start dissolving its privatized foster care and adoption agencies, unless they got that PPP, but that has nothing to do with the revenue maximization schemes which target populations... like Black Lives Matter does..which is how they make their money....through Medicaid Fraud in Child Welfare...

Oh, heck, just watch the video.

#labrats

#maytheheavensfall

BAMN vows to stop summer school in Detroit, blocks buses

Demonstrators block the driveways of the Detroit Public Schools West Side Bus Terminal to keep school buses from running on the first day of summer school, in Detroit, July 13, 2020. Concerns about COVID-19 and a lack of safety measures prompted the protesters to demand that schools close.

"Our children are not guinea pigs!!"
#labrats

Detroit — An attorney for a national civil rights organization will seek a court order to shut down summer school in Detroit's public schools, alleging the district is unprepared to mitigate COVID-19 dangers and is putting students and staff at risk.

Shanta Driver, national chairwoman of By Any Means Necessary and a civil rights attorney, said she will be filing a request for a preliminary injunction in the Court of Claims on Tuesday to stop the Detroit Public Schools Community District from opening 23 school buildings for its first week of in-person summer school.

DPSCD did open buildings on Monday for the first day of summer school for about 500 students, according to a Twitter post by superintendent Nikolai Vitti, marking the first time since mid-March that students entered schools for face-to-face instruction.

"COVID is not going away," Vitti tweeted. "Many of our children need face-to-face, direct engagement. We should not make that requirement for all children and families. Parents should be able to choose face-to-face or online."

Earlier Monday, BAMN demonstrators picketed in front of the district's westside bus terminal on Greenfield Road, blocking any buses from leaving to pick up students who needed transportation to summer school.

Driver said the bus drivers her organization spoke to said they were not given COVID-19 safety training for themselves or the children they are picking up.

"They have no hand sanitizers on board. They were not told of social distance measures. They have no masks themselves and have no masks for students," Driver said.

Kenshawn Siebert said he will not return to work as a contract DPSCD bus driver until safety measures are in place for himself and students on the bus. Siebert reported for work Monday with his own mask but was not provided training for COVID-19 safety measures, masks for students or sanitzers for riders.

Siebert, who works for Trinity Transportation/National Express, said he was not tested for COVID-19 before attempting to drive the school bus Monday and was not asked to seek a test on his own before reporting for work.

"My company has nothing in place for the safety of the students. None of us have been tested for COVID and they are starting the school bus system," Siebert said. "They are not prepared for it, and there is nothing in place to keep the drivers safe or students safe."

Teachers have contacted BAMN, Driver said, saying they were told by the district if they see a sick student, they are to remove him or her from the classroom, yet they are not being told where to place that student.

"Teachers have been given 10-minute video to watch on how to deal with reopening schools. That is so inadequate," Driver said. "It's so dangerous, and it's so irresponsible. We want to prevent them from opening schools until they can show it is something that can do safely."

Vitti was not immediately available for comment Monday. On Monday, he posted on Twitter a photograph of students inside a classroom wearing masks and sitting at desks that were spaced out.

"DPSCD serving 500 students face to face today. Thank you to all of our employees who made this happen for our students and families. Good to see students in schools this morning," Vitti said on Twitter.

Monday was the first day of summer school classes held in 26 different schools. According to the district's website, students can choose between in-person classes or virtual classes for summer learning.

Precautions the district said it will take include the requirement of masks for students and teachers, self-assessments and temperature checks for everyone who enters the buildings, and negative COVID-19 test results needed to be submitted by all adults working in summer schools.

The district is also requiring a ratio of 10-15 students per 1 adult for each classroom.

Summer classes are scheduled for four hours on Monday through Thursday. The summer semester will end Aug. 6. The district has said that summer learning is on a voluntary basis for students and teachers. DPSCD spokeswoman Chrystal Wilson could not be immediately reached for comment.

On Sunday, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist echoed recent statements by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, saying schools won't reopen in the fall if coronavirus cases have not been controlled.

"The politicization of schools during the coronavirus, it really disgusts me. I mean as a parent of twin 6-year-olds who will be entering the second grade in the fall, I want my kids to be safe, I want every child in the state of Michigan, and frankly, the country to be safe," Gilchrist said.

Monday's bus demonstration, which started at 5 a.m. and lasted until 9 a.m., was organized with By Any Means Necessary, an organization that has held other recent protests.

"There's a reason they're only opening these schools in Detroit and Detroit has had the worst of COVID-19," said Kate Stenvig, one of the BAMN organizers. "We're not going to allow our kids to be guinea pigs in this experiment."

Along with forming a picket line in front of the two exit driveways at the terminal, protesters dug up plants and tree branches and placed them as a barricade in front of the open gates.

BAMN organizers said no buses left the terminal during the protest and at least two school bus drivers publicly quit during the demonstration, saying it was on Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Vitti.

"We've made so many sacrifices as teachers, to ask us to sacrifice our lives and even our children that we love and care about, it's just not right. We have to draw the line somewhere," said Tracy Brown, a teacher at Mackenzie Elementary and Middle School.

Around 100 people came out for the protest, and at one point, about 10 city police and school police vehicles were present.

"I'm not going back until this pandemic is defeated. There is no safe way to return to school while this virus is spreading uncontained," said Benjamin Royal, a teacher at Maybury Elementary School in Detroit.

"I'm not going to risk my life, and I'm not going to help create a situation where my students would have to risk their lives."

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Monday, March 23, 2020

Michigan Schools Should Close Because The Emergency Managers Sucked All The Money From The Students

It really does not matter because Detroit Public Schools suck.

Just ask Betsy DeVos or me.

People always forget about the Detroit Public Schools Emergency Managers.

https://beverlytran.blogspot.com/search?q=detroit+public+schools

Vitti: State K-12 schools should close for rest of school year

Nikolai Vitti

Detroit — The superintendent of state's largest school district is proposing that K-12 schools in Michigan be closed for the rest of the school year, that online learning continue at home and that measures are taken to ensure that high school seniors can graduate this spring.

In an open letter to education leaders in Michigan, Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District, says K-12 school should be declared closed and districts should be required to develop an online learning platform within a reasonable amount of time in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Vitti says school districts need guidance to determine how to best leverage limited resources to support students.

Educators are asking how to make up lost instructional days, whether the extended closure means an extended year into the summer, or if the district should salvage the rest of the school year by shifting all resources to an online learning platform.

"If we project our future based on trends in other countries that have been battling COVID-19 for a longer period of time, then we must come to realize that we will be fortunate if degrees of societal normalcy return by June," Vitti said in the letter. "With that said, it is best to officially close schools until next school year. Other states have already made this decision. How can we possibly justify opening earlier if other states have closed schools? "

Continuing education at home, Vitti said, would need to include distributing laptops with internet access to families.

"(This will require the flexibility to use federal and state education funds differently and support from the business and philanthropic community.) Lessons can be prerecorded via video and posted online by grade level and subject area," he said.

Districts should continue to get full funding from the state for the rest of the school year to allow them to develop and implement online learning platforms and to feed students, Vitti said.

Current seniors should be able to graduate based on the number of credits that are required minus their last semester, he said.

"School districts, through teachers and parents, should decide which students are promoted to the next grade based on their academic status prior to closure," Vitti said.

The Detroit superintendent says school districts should be required to offer courses through summer school in subsequent years if a student or parents would like to make up credits or courses that were planned to be taken during this past semester.

"I appreciate the time you have taken to read this open letter. It is written to offer you practical solutions to real problems that we are all responsible for solving," Vitti said. "Our State is facing unprecedented challenges, and our students, teachers and families are looking for decisive answers."

DPSCD educates more than 50,000 students. Last week the district began handing out food, school supplies and other supports to families after the schools were ordered shut down through April 5. That order has been extended to April 13 by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who issued a statewide stay-at-home directive effective at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

Michigan is one of more than 45 states that have closed schools temporarily in response to the coronavirus. Only two states have shuttered schools through the end of the school year: Kansas and Virginia.

According to the American Federation of Teachers, 53 million of the nation's 57 million schoolchildren are shut out of their schools for the next several weeks.

Last week the Michigan Department of Education issued a memo stating that online learning done at home will not be counted as instructional time. Whitmer said she was "dismayed" by the decision, which got mixed reviews from superintendents and other education stakeholders.

The governor also said the MDE memo does not mean that school work done during the mandatory school closure won’t "count" toward grades, credits, or graduation.

Whitmer added that she "will be working in the coming days to ensure our seniors graduate and that no child is held back" as a result of the COVID-19 school closures.

Meanwhile on Monday two members of the Michigan State Board of Education urged state superintendent Michael Rice to issue waivers from the state's seat time requirements — that each district provide at least 1,098 hours and 180 days of pupil instruction — to all districts that submit a plan to continue educating their students with online learning.

Tom McMillin and Nikki Snyder, both Republican members of the board, said the Michigan Department of Education’s instruction that online classes will not count is the wrong approach during this crisis.

"We need to have a 'can-do attitude' and right now so many teachers and administrators are stepping up to the plate and figuring out how to continue providing instruction to their students," Snyder said. "That needs to be encouraged, not squashed.”

McMillin said state law allows seat-time waivers to be issued by Rice for innovative programs for up to one year.

McMillin and Snyder said they both understand there are equity concerns for districts where internet connectivity is a problem, but districts that can continue educating with distance learning should be able to do so.

"Why would we stop educating 80% of public school students, just because 20% can’t connect to the internet? That doesn’t make any sense," McMillin said. "For those who can’t get instruction during this time, for whatever reason, we trust there will either be innovative ways developed in the coming weeks or months or there will be ways to compensate when this crisis is over, through summer education or other forms of additional instruction."

MDE officials issued a statement from Rice in response to the call for him to issue seat time waivers.

“Teachers, support staff, and administrators are doing a terrific job of supporting our children and families during this crisis. I applaud their efforts. To the extent possible, they should continue to support the education of all children from a distance," Rice said.

"That said, the legislature needs to consider these days as instructional days so that local school districts know that they will have the funding to pay all school employees,” he said.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Monday, February 18, 2019

Did Detroit Public Schools Exclude John Conyers In Its New Curriculum?

Detroit Public Schools is focusing on teaching Detroit history for Black History Month.

Wonderful.

Having not seen the curriculum, I am going to say that anything dealing with John Conyers, Jr. was wiped.

How can I come to this speculative conclusion?

Well, in the local CVS by the pharmacy counter, you have a series of these primers and they are rewriting civil rights history by excluding Detroit.

There was not one mention of Coretta Scott King's work with John Conyers, Jr. in one of their most historic endeavors as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, and what went on behind the scenes.

WhoHQ.com is parked to http://www.whowasbookseries.com/ which is part of Penquin Random House which brings me to its foundation.

Yes, it seems http://foundation.penguinrandomhouse.com/ is a child welfare NGO that does not seem to have any IRS filings, which comes across as a Delaware, foreign corporation, not in good standing, File #2416321 but quite active being what I like to term as a Corporate Shape Shifter.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/about-us/social-responsibility/

I just thought I would raise a few issues in likely omissions considering the fact that we are about to enter an unprecedented legal history that would just have to make all these lovely crafters of Detroit history to have to go back to the drawing board and pull all these books off the shelves.

The wiping out of legacies is why I do what I do.

Like I always say, propaganda always starts with the children because no one cares and trafficking tiny humans is a multi-quadrillion dollar industry, or rather the residual of the peculiar institution.

You only know what you are told so someone needs to answer about the ethical component of being selective with Detroit's history.

I do not know if Penguin Random House is part of this Detroit Public Schools contract, but I know how to spot those transposable models because there is a strong possibility there are Social Impact Bonds and this is a foreign educational model that has failed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. https://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/

Black history amplified in updated Detroit schools curriculum

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A new history curriculum is being rolled out at the Detroit Public Schools Community Districts for grades K through 5 focused on the City of Detroit.

"It relates to who they are," said Dana Thomas. Golightly Education Center teacher. "It is a part of their identity. Some of the students have seen these buildings before, they have been to these places.

And it is just that much more meaningful.

This new Detroit history curriculum is being rolled out at Detroit Public Schools Community District - first in grades k through 5. But it signals a continuing shift in what is taught in DPSCD.

"This isn't really about being supplemental," Vitti said. "It is about trying to change the way we teach and the materials that we use."

For kindergarteners analyzing a street car on Congress being pulled by horses transports them to the past. For older kids, the people of the city and the untold stories of early Detroit, might be the focus instead.

The curriculum will be different for students in each grade. For example, children in the fifth grade will learn about free and enslaved Africans in early Detroit.

BEVERLY TRAN ®

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