Monday, January 10, 2011

Is Courtney Sales Ross More Evil Than Eva?

Public Education defenders have been rolling with laughter over Ross Global Charter's fight to remain open despite being rated as one of the worst schools in the city, even filing suit and asking for a year to get things in order. How pathetic.

I am going to do a bunch of stuff on Ross this week, mostly commentary by parent activists Lisa Donlan and Mona Davids who are really in touch with the situation.

But for this post, just a note about Courtney Ross. She is the mult-millionaire widow of famed Steve Ross who went from running a funeral home to Time Warner. Some bios call Courtney his "trophy" wife. That she has so much money and wants to start a school for disadvantaged kids would not be so bad, but that she wants it to be a charter school so she could suck at the tit of public money is what makes her so outrageous. Also her relationships to Joel Klein and other people of note. More on the situation later as the decision will be made tomorrow by the Regents.

In the meantime, I've been putting up articles and some commentary over at Norm's Notes - just type in "Ross" in the search panel on the righthand panel and there must be 20 items over the years. Here are just a few blasts from the past.

Jun 03, 2008
c) Ross siting at Physical City : given that reality, the Ross siting is an incubation, to take advantage of the remaining years on the lease and to allow Ross and us to continue to push for an appropriate site in D1. ...
Feb 22, 2010
This school year alone, 91 of 410 students of those enrolled at Ross Global Academy have left, according to the Department of Education. It continues an unprecedented trend in which the East Village elementary and middle school has shed ...


Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your article is very pathetic and sad. Yes, the school did have its problems, like having at least 4 physical moves in the near 5 years of its existence. Have you thought of writing about the problems that RGA has had since 2006?

Have you considered at least some of the positive aspects attempted by Courtney Ross? For example, the investment of $3.5 million to update a dilapidated school facility (the last home to RGA)? What about the $25 million that was donated by the father-in-law of Girl's Prep founder to the Department of Education? FYI, Girls Prep will be given RGA's updated facility this September, despite the fact they also had a failing grade in the DOE's skewed report card. That $25 million sure went a long way. The Girl's Prep founder is surely setting an ethical example for her students by showing that you can step on people, on the way up.

Were you aware that RGA partnered with both Fordham University and NYU? Surely institutions of such magnitude would not invest their time and efforts with a failing institution. And let's not forget the success of the Ross Institute and Ross School.

I'm a parent of an RGA student. My child has progressed in her studies. I'm in close contact with my child's teachers and we have worked together to ensure that my child is on the right path. At this time, my child has progressed well above her grade level, thanks to RGA's curriculum and reinforcement by her teachers.

At least have the courtesy to respect the grief experienced by the RGA community. After all, despite your cynicism and mockery, its about the children...you Ass!

Anonymous said...

8 principals in 5 years - who's the ass for leaving their child in such a school?

Anonymous said...

Nice comeback...put some meat into your response. Why don't you speak to some of the RGA parents and staff.

And yes, 8 principals in 5 years...And? Have you considered the Ross Institute and Ross School curriculum, their success? RGA offered a private school education for free. And if Courtney Ross deemed that the 8 principals were unfit for the students, then I'm pretty grateful for having someone with the guts to get rid of them as opposed to some of the public school principles who held down their job because of tenure and other bureaucratic crap that puts students at risk.

Anonymous said...

who do you think hired those 9 principals all with buyouts that take money from your kids? you're a bigger ass than i thought.