Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Anne Sharp on KZRG: I support Common Core

When it comes to Common Core Standards, you won't find a bigger supporter in Joplin than R-8 Board of Education President Anne Sharp.

During an interview this morning on KZRG's Morning News Watch, Sharp praised Common Core, though she made it a point to follow the practice that has been used in recent R-8 Board meetings of referring to Common Core as Missouri Learning Standards.

"Missouri Learning Standards is something that will benefit our Joplin Schools," Sharp said, noting that Joplin, being in the far southwest corner of the state often receives children from Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, and it is a big help when they go from state to state and be learning the same things.

Sharp also said she had never heard anything specific from those who are opposed to Common Core.

"(The opponents) need to be more specific about what the issues are."

 Sharp, her fellow board members, and members of the C. J. Huff Administration have been noticeably absent from Common Core informational meetings that have been held in Joplin. The administration, in fact, warned teachers not to attend. Specific objections to Common Core were presented then and have been widely publicized.

Toward the end of the interview, KZRG asked Sharp about the dangerously low fund balances that were mentioned in the recently issued state audit. "The reason the fund balance was so low was because of the natural disaster and our rebuilding projects," she said.

Sharp added that she did not expect the fund balance to remain low, though just as in her earlier interview with the Joplin Globe, the board president offered no ideas of how the balance would be brought up to 25 percent, as she and C. J. Huff have predicted.

KZRG also did not press Sharp on why millions in questionable spending decisions were made at a time when Sharp and Huff were predicting the low fund balance.

"The School Board and Central office put out statistics in 2011 that our fund balance would be going down to eight percent. 2016 will be the bottom out year,"

Sharp is the longest serving board member, having first been elected to the board in 2000. She said she initially ran for the school board because the district had been receiving "negative press," and that she thought at the time that Joplin schools were "a diamond in the rough.

"Our students are so awesome and our staff is wonderful," Sharp said. "We weren't getting the good news out there." She said it has become her mission "to tell people what Joplin Schools really are."

Asked to think of the board's greatest accomplishment, Sharp sounded as if she had been caught off guard by the question and after a long, uncomfortable pause, finally mentioned the improved graduation rates.

Sharp has her course mapped out for after the election and it includes "getting the word out that Joplin Schools is the place to be."

She also praised the current Huff Administration initiative of "self-regulated visual learning," in which students chart the course of their own education with teachers serving more in the role of  facilitator than the ones who are providing the information.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you would like to be enlightened on the plethora of problems with Common Core, visit usagainstcommoncore. Com. It really isn't difficult to understand why it is destroying public education with the way it is being implemented. Please vote this woman out in April.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, usagainstcommoncore. Blogspot, not. Com

Anonymous said...

You mean the millions and millions we have poured into the schools is not her crowning achievement?

Anonymous said...

Anne Sharp for Ex-Joplin school board member

Anonymous said...

Is this the same staff you would have begrudged a spirit day every Friday, even when you've watched their salaries stagnate and their morale plummet for years? And how many of your "awesome" staff have given up on the Good Ship R8 in your tenure?

Your praise is empty. We reject it. It is way too little, way too late, kind of like your silly water bottle and cookie give away, along with your attempt to make us feel like you cared by running around the gym doing the wave. You can't make up for all those years of allowing abuse with empty praise and baubles. Voter her out, people, or expect more of the same for three more years.

Anonymous said...

Once again, Miss Born Wealthy, if you knew for that long that you would run out of money, why did you support wasteful spending? Why did you not recommend trimming back nonessential staff and unnecessary trips and programs? Because you've never had to work for, or worry about, money. Your taxpayers who are picking up the tab for your wastefulness are not independently wealthy. Please, step aside. Your time is up.

Anonymous said...

Self-regulated visual learning is the latest band-aid that the Huff administration is trying to use to stop a hemorrhage. It will be implemented as poorly as all of the other programs and will fail just like all the rest of them. In the meantime they will have hired or contracted a "trainer" and will have spent thousands that could have gone to support the staff and students. This is what they are doing this semester. There will be something else next year. They all fail because they don't address what the problems really are and because the staff overseeing the programs are inexperienced and ineffectual. That's all CJ Huff can attract anymore. No one experienced wants his/her name connected with R8 administration. That's why we left, and why staff will continue to leave.

Anonymous said...

Seems like the district is receiving plenty of negative press now, President Sharp. Apparently, you have been ineffective in stopping that.

Open mouth, shoot foot.

Anonymous said...

The system will never improve until the people actively demand a complete change of crooked leadership.

Anonymous said...

As long as Koch, Martucci, and Roberts win elections on April 7th there is a good chance to have a changing of the guard at the good Ole R8.

Anonymous said...

If she is really telling the world what "Joplin schools really are" the private schools are laughing all the way to the bank as they see their enrollments increase.

Anonymous said...

I bet if she were presented with a common core math problem she would not be able to get all the steps correct to get to the answer. And of course there will be more money in the reserves soon....they are getting a LOAN!!! Is that not how you make monet? Haha. All I can say is that I am so thankful for private education!

Anonymous said...

I've heard that the JNEA may be endorsing, Roberts, Martucci and Koch for School Board and the JTA may be endorsing Sharp. If this is true, JTA leadership didn't poll the members.

Anonymous said...

@7:18 so true. Not only are private school enrollments up, but people are finding ways to send their kids to Webb or CJ. Move, borrow an address, give temporary custody to someone in the district, etc. People are going to extraordinary lengths to get their kids out of Joplin schools. And who could blame them?

Anonymous said...

I used to think this person really cared about the schools, but I've come to realize that is not true. If she did, she would have insisted that Dr. Huff leave by now. What she is running for is that she has nothing better to do and needs to keep some sort of place in society. In other words, her ego boost is coming at the expense of our tax dollars. Surely she could volunteer for some other good cause for awhile and let us have a break. We can't afford three more years of this kind of "leadership." Vote her out, people, and let her go home and destroy the family business instead of our schools.

Anonymous said...

Correction: Joplin Schools USED to be the place to be. I'm sure that's what she meant. Anyone with any sense at all can see the data indicating that the school district is failing in every sense.

For our kids,
Anon

Anonymous said...

Do u have any prof of this.....or is this word of mouth.......