“World
of Good” Social-Impact Report 2006, http://www.worldofgood.com/impact/index.shtml
A
“social-impact report”? We
have heard of “environmental-impact report”;
for example, one has to be filed with regard to the disposition of
our Montebello Hills before a decision be made about the hills.
A social-impact report would talk about the probable and possible
social consequences of a planned or existing activity.
A Sob and a Sigh for Hip Hop High?
The story below ties closely to the story in this
issue’s "Beware and Share", namely, that we should depend less
on government and more on ourselves. Beyond
that, consider this: is the date
for charter renewal more important than having a welcome learning
environment for at-risk teenagers? How
do you think a social-impact report would have affected the decision not to
renew the school’s charter? What
would you have done?
...Officials in
the Centinela Valley Union High School District, which operates the school,
said Media Arts Academy, known as "Hip-Hop High," failed to renew
its charter that expired July 1. Without a new contract, the school's 160
students cannot return in the fall.
"I have no
idea why they failed to file for renewal of the charter,"
Superintendent Jose Fernandez said.
School director
Jenn Murphy said the Hawthorne
school has closed its doors over a technicality, adding that the school's
five-year charter should not have expired until 2009.
Though the
charter was first approved in June 2003, the school did not open until 2004.
The contract was meant to extend for five years after that date, and not the
2003 one, Murphy said.
Unlike the
district's traditional high schools, Hip-Hop High teaches English, math and
science using technology and "culturally relevant" activities like
rap and spoken word.
The
problem,[School Director Jenn] Murphy said, lies with officials, who have
been hostile to the school. She also said the district never warned that the
charter was expiring.
"I don't
think there's ever going to be a clear answer to why they've been so
oppositional," Murphy said. "The truth is, they want to shut us
down, when they've already failed these kids."
But school board President Gloria Ramos said she and the board had
only recently learned of the problem, and that the financially strapped
district was shouldering unfair blame.
"I was kind
of shocked that we were so villainized at (Tuesday's) board meeting,"
Ramos said. "I'm so sorry that whoever didn't do what they needed to
do, but I can say it wasn't our district. We're not even on our own two
feet, so the timing could not be worse." ...
But Murphy said
many of her brightest and most talented students would not thrive at another
school. Some probably wouldn't attend at all.
"A fair percentage of those students would not go back to
school," she said. "There is no other school that would take
them."
by Sonja Sharp, July 10, 2008, http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_9846579?source=email
August 28, 2008