by Steve Reinbrecht
The new Reading School District superintendent told me the reasons he thinks he will succeed when his predecessors have failed to improve student achievement, manage finances or keep the public informed.
Hired in June, Khalid Mumin has already taken some action – he’s replaced the principal at the Citadel intermediate high school, a school he calls a “hotspot.”
Mumin has three advantages – a truly different school board, a finance department rebuilt by independent professionals, and, he says, the knowledge of how to change uninspired students’ attitudes because he made the change himself.
The district serves about 17,600 students, employs about 2,000 people and has a budget approaching a quarter of a billion dollars.
It has had a string of ineffective leaders. The latest, Carlinda Purcell, was hired in March 2012 for five years with a starting salary of $175,000 and was fired in November, with never a clear explanation of the reasons or how her contract was resolved. Mumin’s salary has not been set, at least that I could find publicly.
Of course, all the recent superintendents also said they had their board’s support. But there is a difference with this board. Of the nine members who hired Carlinda Purcell as superintendent in March 2012, six have been replaced. The school board is rid of its biggest troublemakers. Yvonne Stroman, newly elected in November, resigned at the beginning of the year. Karen McCree ended her 14-year tenure on the board when she submitted her resignation. I wonder if Stroman and McCree were “counseled out,” to use the term educators use when ineffective teachers are pressured to leave.
For the first time in decades, perhaps, sensible technocrats such as BCIU leader John George and small-government guru John Kramer, now on the school board, are calling some shots at Berks County’s most important institution.
Mumin acknowledges that the district has been closed off to the public and vows to change that. He wants to connect better with families, despite the cost such face-to-face efforts to help city students require. Perhaps public-service organizations can add bodies to the job, he said. In Syracuse, N.Y., he noted, administrators hand-deliver disciplinary notices to students’ homes after school. They quickly become known in the community.
Mumin knows many parents are uncomfortable or even intimidated entering district buildings.
“800 Washington is a scary place.”
He wants to set up tables during the annual Salsa Fest and at events at places like the Hispanic Center, the YMCA, and the Olivet buildings, to help get his message out.
Mumin said he can relate to the students and parents in Reading because he grew up in Philadelphia. Mumin told me he was often truant, missing 75 days in high school. He turned himself around, began his higher education at a junior college and finished with a doctorate at the highly selective University of Pennsylvania.
And he comes in after the Berks County Intermediate Unit, an education service, spent months transforming the district’s organizational nightmare, which included stacks of unopened mail in the finance office, which oversees the budget of $227 million.
The BCIU identified all the district’s important operations and fixed them, especially finances, which now has state-of-the-art software, he said. The IU also began work on curriculum and also hired him as a superintendent.
I have to say, you can’t beat Mumin for charisma, which has to help in a job like his. He seems about eight feet tall and is lanky and animated, with a bow tie and cuff links and an English teacher’s tendency to elaborate. He complimented me on my hat, pegging it as a Bailey with a glance at it across the room. He’s the type of man who gripped my hand a little longer than I like, but when I let go, he didn’t keep holding it as some Masters of the Universe are wont. He’s young, 42, and handsome, and I’d swear his big brown eyes got a bit moist once or twice when he discussed topics that move him.
Mumin said he’ll measure students’ academic progress by their performance on standardized tests, of course. But he mentioned some other metrics – how many children are taking tests, such as SATS, that are necessary for higher education. How many advanced placement (AP) scholars the district has. Attendance and truancy. The raw number of graduates. This year, 753 graduated. A short-term goal is 1,000.
Unlike at other poor urban districts, Reading has good attendance, Mumin said, but the achievement scores are still low. That shows him the teachers need more support in how to reach the children, he said.
Mumin has put Alex Brown, who was principal of Southwest Middle School, in the Intermediate High School, also known as the Citadel. Mumin called the school the “hot spot” of the district. Dennis Campbell, who had been Citadel principal, will be principal of Southwest.
Mumin is also looking for a principal for 13th and Green Elementary School to replace Chasity Cooper, who recently resigned.
With a week until school starts Aug. 25, he needs to fill other important positions, listed on a whiteboard in his office. Two positions oversee the district’s principals: the chief instructional services officer and the literacy and humanities director.
The district needs to find a director of equity, concerned with diversity and race relations, a position required by the state Human Relations Commission.
And he needs a director of English as a second language, in a city where a third of the residents lives in homes where no one speaks English very well.
He wants to set realistic goals for students. He knows many are likely to go to 2-year schools and certificate programs. Reading High School could be a prime source for future technicians that manufacturing and health sciences will need around here.
Mumin confirmed that county educators and leaders have had trouble working with the district on projects such as a “career in two years” and Reading Area Community College’s technical academy.
“There’s been a perception that we close our doors on our partners. … Our partners want to help.”
Mumin said he has met with leaders of RACC, Greater Reading Economic Partnership [a development agency], Penn State Berks, the YMCA, Olivets children’s clubs, Berks Women in Crisis, and other groups who have also pledged support. He said he hopes to use their energy to address problems in the districts that need direct human attention.
Those leaders said, Mumin reported, “We’re here to help, but for years we haven’t been able to get into this building.”
Mumin said every hire goes through his office or the office of Assistant Superintendent Juliette Pennyman.
He said he hired a nurse just before he talked to me, and read some notes about why she got the job:
She was born and raised in Reading. She had worked in a hospice setting. Her mother had been a nurse. She sees her job as more than being a nurse but helping students “holistically.” She’s not afraid of different people. She is student centered. “These kids need us.”
from Redesign Reading
The public is invited to visit an open house to introduce the Reading Bike Hub on Friday, Aug. 15, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the former Franklin Street train station at 720 Cherry St.
“This is a great day for Reading,” said Eron Lloyd, a city administrator. “Bicycle infrastructure and amenities are a critical component of a 21st-century city. We are excited to see the different bike communities in the city galvanize around this bike hub.”
Organizers want to make bicycling safer and more enjoyable while building an active bike culture in the city.
The hub will offer affordable bike maintenance and repair services and training, bike recycling and refurbishing, bike safety training, and organized group rides.
“I'm pumped. I wish there was something like that when I was growing up in the city. Biking is what kept me out of a lot of trouble,” said resident and hub volunteer Jason Orth.
The hub is accepting donations of bikes, bike parts, and bike accessories. These will be refurbished and sold at cost. If people are interested in donating, please contact Jason at 610-750-6401 to coordinate.
The Reading Bike Hub will develop bike educational programming.
“I still remember the sense of freedom that I felt the first time I took my bike apart and put it all back together. This bike hub is about giving that opportunity to a new generation of kids,” added Gary Spalding, another bike enthusiast and committed bike hub supporter.
The Reading Police Department bike patrol will assist with public safety and bike education training, and AAA Reading-Berks will provide bike helmets at bike safety events and safety inspections.
This initiative grows out of the Bike Advocates of Reading team, a sub-task force of the Reading Trails Initiative coordinated through the Berks County Conservancy.
Interested Reading residents and commuters joined together to assess the bike needs inside the city. The group outlined these focus areas:
- Promote increased bike access, education, and services in Reading to all riders.
- Connect city residents to the extensive trail system, and promote trail system visitors to come into the city by improving urban bike infrastructure.
- Investigate a Reading bike-share initiative.
- Create a committee to support bike-related comprehensive plan efforts.
by Steve Reinbrecht
Giant machines are tearing up ground around an old stone house as work starts on a 107-home development in Lower Heidelberg Township near Wilson West Middle School.
Even though I live a mile away, I almost never drive on Gaul Road and hadn’t noticed the work, just north of the Toyota place on Route 422. To me, a new housing development is big news. A whole new neighborhood. Dust and noise. Road, water and sewer construction.
Will the taxes the new residents will pay cover the costs of the new services they’ll require – road maintenance, mail service, police and fire protection, and seats in Wilson schools?
Housing starts are a closely watched metric of the economy. Builders pay workers pretty well. When people move in, they buy a lot of expensive stuff.
By building on open space in the suburbs, Grande Development Corp. is bucking the housing trend in America and the world toward refitting urban spaces so people can drive less and meet more people.
To me, the images of the “development” are ugly, green fields churned to mud, giant trees ground up, wetlands disturbed, woods and cropland turned into uninspired housing units where residents will likely douse their yards with pesticides and petroleum salts and ensure no pollinators nor amphibians will ever live there again.
The property’s stone farmhouse looks naked and slightly obscene, stripped of its landscaping and surrounded by debris and porto-potties.
Many people share my impulse – halt the bulldozing [as soon as we move in]! Preservation is a top concern for many voters. The state and county pay landowners to give up their rights to develop. Strict laws control new construction on steep slopes and in swamps and places with rare organisms. A zoning map shows about 90 percent of Lower Heidelberg is zoned “agricultural preservation.” Grande’s project is in “suburban residential.”
But land rights are also a strong passion for Americans. How far should the state go in telling us where to build and live? Preserving land drives its value up, making it harder for poor people to move out of cities and instead benefitting more-likely-to-be-rich owners. Just the idea of owning land astonished native Americans.
Grande bought the 49-acre property for $1.35 million from another developer, Greth Development Group, which has been selling land.
County records show Greth owns 85 acres north and west of Wilson Middle School.
The new houses will be on both sides of Gaul Road. Most of the houses -- 77 -- will be single homes on lots. The remaining 30 or so will be semis. The township waived a requirement to build sidewalks on Gaul Road.
The farmhouse will be preserved. The remains of huge trees are stacked at the site. The property is just south of the Little Cacoosing Creek. A bit more than 8 acres will be preserved, including about three acres of wetland.
The plans, filed in late May, show Grande will plant more than 300 shade trees, evergreens and trees for drainage basins.
The names of the streets: Regina, Stella, Merganser and Goldeneye.
by Steve Reinbrecht
Vigilantes have moved barriers to open a bridge in Lower Heidelberg Township.
The bridge, across the Little Cacoosing Creek in Lower Heidelberg, has been crossable for years, but Establishment forces have used concrete barriers to block passage for cars and trucks.
[Disclosure: it’s practically in my back yard.]
Recently, the length of Connecticut Avenue in the Green Valley development that crosses the creek has been paved, and the concrete barriers replaced with plastic barrels and saw-horses.
Desperate drivers, eager to save precious minutes on their commutes, have shoved the stuff aside to open a lane.
Establishment forces, either township police or Grande Construction workers, replace them. When that happens, before someone gets out and takes matters into his or her own hands, a steady stream of vehicles drive to the bridge, pause, and do three-point turns. Many drive down our cul-de-sac, looking for an alternate escape. GPS services have long directed vehicles across the dead-end bridge. Friends have been duped.
Major construction started in September 2011, almost three years ago. The township wants the bridge open for better emergency-response access.
The hundreds of families in the development want the bridge open because it shaves minutes off every trip east and lets us avoid The Worst Traffic in Berks County, on Route 422 through Sinking Spring. It saves me at least three minutes a trip from my errands and chauffeuring to Wilson High School and Wyomissing. It saves me driving through a mile of residential streets full of tots, old people, bikes, dogs and school buses.
Grande must have spent $1 million on the bridge. It certainly isn’t among Pennsylvania’s structurally deficient bridges. It has two spans. Grande created acres of wetlands to remediate disturbing the existing wetlands. The company planted dozens of native trees and shrubs and cattails etc.
How many new bridges have been built in Berks lately, especially by a private developer?
I know Establishment forces can’t let us vulnerable citizens drive across unsafe bridges.
But this bridge is safe. What’s the holdup preventing the public from using this high-cost infrastructure? It’s obviously some bureaucratic holdup with state approval or insurance or waiting for a quorum at a summer municipal meeting.
In any case, I’m glad the rules have been broken to let common sense prevail.
