Diverse Choices in Education: The Community Speaks!
In Topeka, Kansas...Thursday, January 3, 2008@6:00pm, a protest will take place at the Burnett Administrative Center at 624 SW 24th. The purpose of the protest is to inform the community about the USD 501 School Boards’ unwillingness to work earnestly and in good faith with Sandra Lassiter to develop a charter school at the historic Sumner School. The Hope Street Academy proposal was accepted by the School Board with only an eighteen page proposal, whereas, the Sumner proposal was submitted with twice as many pages of documentation as Hope’s proposal and it has been denied three times for uncertain reasons.
Protests will be held every Thursday at the same time and place until the first week in February 2008, the deadline for the submission of a final charter proposal. Bias Busters of Kansas is asking all concerned parties to contact Sandra Lassiter at sandraklassiter@msn.com to lend their support and any available resources. The underlying goals are twofold: to satisfy the requests of the School Board Committee in proposal submission and to provide the community with alternative sources for the education of their children.Under the leadership of Reverend Floyd D. Harris, the National Network in Action sponsors the protest. Rev. Harris is a member of the Kansas National Brown v. Board Committee and endorses the Sumner School Charter Proposal. Committee Member Cindi ONeal states, "Why not come together for the educational welfare of our children?"
Bias Busters of Kansas and the NNIA request all activists across the nation to E-mail the Capitol Journal editors at letters@cjonline.com in support of the proposal.
For further information contact Sonny Scroggins, @ (785 232-3761, 845-6148), Cindi ONeal @ 785-354-7733 or 785-969-6911.
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The Wichita Branch NAACP stands in support of Sandra Lassiter in her multi-year effort to open a charter school in the Topeka area. We believe that Charter schools represent an opportunity to explore alternative educational choices and methods. With far too many of our children lagging behind national standards, charter schools allow for innovation and new approaches at a time when 'out-of-the-box' thinking is so clearly needed.
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We proudly lend our voice to the call for USD501 to fairly evaluate and accept the proposal from Sandra Lassiter to develop a charter school at the historic Sumner school.
