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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (June 4, 2014)
News School curiosity, creativity and success in all of its students. An important goal is to lay a foundation for excellence in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) sub- jects. “We want to cultivate confident, creative, compassionate leaders who exceed the standard at every milestone.” Ladd is one of five women who founded KairosPDX. The others are: educators, Zalika Gardner, Kaaren Heikes and Jasmine Johnson; and OHSU project manager Marsha Williams. The school will focus on serving students of color and low-income families The five are uniquely qualified to take on the project with decades of teaching and early childhood education knowl- edge among them. Zalika Gardner , the school’s principal is a teacher with 20 years of experience. And each one brings passion and knowledge to the school. Four of the five founders are women of color. That’s important, Ladd says, because children need to see people who look like them as educational leaders. Making sure that the environment reflects the culture of the students will also be a priority. “Our curriculum will be intentionally multicultural,” she says. “If we are to empower children they need to see that they have power. To feel that they have the power to change the world around them, they need to see themselves in that world –in history, science and math: all those things.” The school’s name, KairosPDX, comes from an ancient Greek word, Kairos, which means the right moment, the moment where something special happens. If its students go on to defy the current statistics, that would definitely count as something special. Statistics show that African American, Latino and Native American children start school disadvantaged, and the gap increases throughout middle and high schools. PHOTO CREDIT KAIROSPDX continued from page 1 Meet KairosPDX founders (from left): Kaaren Heikes has been a leader in the charter school movement for more than 20 years; Marsha Williams, a project manager with OHSU, worked with Haitian youth for six years in Boston; Zalika Gardner, the school’s principal teacher, is a child development expert and taught in Los Angeles and at Catlin Gabel school; Kali Ladd, has 14 years of experience in education; Jasmine Johnson is an early childhood educator. In Oregon the achievement gap translates into an overall graduation rate of 57 percent for African American and Native American students, and 61 percent for Latinos and low-income students. Yet for White students the graduation rate is 71 percent. Harvard-educated, with experience as a teacher, program manager and policymaker, Ladd knows what she’s doing. She worked as education policy advisor for former Portland Mayor Sam Adams, before being elected to the board of Portland Community College. Her goal for the school is that it will become a model for how to close the achievement gap for students of color and low-income students. Tiffany Penson, a City of Portland employee and a volun- teer at the school, says it’s time. “I’m just very excited and I believe this will change lives,” she says. “I’m very proud of these women and I know they are going to make a difference.” Educators will use the Reggio model, created in Italy, which is based on the science of how children learn, Ladd says. “It’s a learning style that is student-centered and project- based, and it emphasizes higher order cognitive thinking skills. Critical thinking and problem solving are a key com- ponent.” The school has partnered with experts in the STEM sub- jects, who will come in for one period a week. Other partners include Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, Self Enhancement Inc., Mecy Corps., Friends of the Children and Oregon Department of Human Services. Classes are filling up quickly, Ladd says. A few spots remain in the first grade class. And because so many fami- lies signed up for the kindergarten class, the board has been trying to raise funds for a second class. The school already has raised close to $500,000 to cover its costs. Charter schools do get funding from the state, but they get far less per student than school districts. And Ore- gon does not yet fund full-day kindergarten classes for all children. To sign up or for more information, call 503-567-9820, email info@kairospdx.org or visit the school’s website kairospdx.org. that level anyway,” said Musser, whose restaurant employs between 50 and 60 people, depending on the time of year. Most of them are paid minimum wage. “If this passes, then it will pave the way for other cities and states. I really think so” Aden said. She said she and her three kids are living with her broth- er because she can’t afford an apartment of her own even though she works full time. “This will make changes to myself and also a lot of other people in my shoes.” San Francisco currently has the nation’s highest hourly minimum wage at $10.74. The current minimum wage in Washington state is $9.32 an hour. Earlier this year Minnesota raised the state’s guaranteed wage by more than $3, to $9.50, by 2016. California, Con- necticut and Maryland also have passed laws increasing their respective wages to $10 or more in coming years. Wage continued from page 1 months of discussion, the group presented its plan last month. Last week the Council delayed implementation by the few months and approved a sub-minimum wage for teenagers, a provision opposed by labor representatives. Although some local businesses have come out in support of the measure, a group of restaurant owners oppose it, say- ing it would force them to scuttle expansion plans, decrease hiring and possibly cut service hours. Nick Musser, executive chef and general manager of the Icon Grill in downtown Seattle, doesn’t think the wage credit for tips should phase out after seven years and finds the differentiation between large and big companies irrele- vant. “The reality is that the larger companies are going to ratchet up their wages and we’re going to have to play at ‘If this passes, it will pave the way for other cities and states’ Ubah Aden, 40, a Seattle home health worker who says she now earns $10.95 an hour, is looking forward to the way a higher wage will help her support her three children. But she also likes the idea of Seattle setting an example for the rest of the nation. Car continued from page 1 Battles’ address was not current with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Battles flatly denies that, insisting she hasn’t changed her address recently – and in fact the address is accurate on copies of the registration paperwork left in the vehicle as well as the police report, obtained by The Skanner News. Police spokesman Pete Simpson told a KOIN television reporter last week that Bat- tles was not informed when her car was recovered because, Simpson said, “We wouldn’t notify her unless it was listed as stolen.” The news report implied that because her boyfriend is related to the car thief, it was- n’t really stolen. Holmes, who is named as the car thief in the police report (incorrectly, as Shavonday Holmes), in April was arrested with three others as part of a retail theft ring that stole ‘And then having to start saving up for another car – just to realize they all knew where my car was since the week after I reported it’ more than $2,000 worth of goods from the Jantzen Beach TJ Maxx store as well as Ann Taylor in Lloyd Center. It remains unclear how or why the Police Bureau stopped considering the theft as a theft. Battles says she worked hard to buy her car and kept it in excellent condition – which is why she kept trying to locate it even though the authorities never let her know they’d found it. “I have a job, I worked hard to save the money for that car – and I own it,” she says. “When it went missing it was a real hard- ship – getting to work, having to find alter- native transportation, and all of that during the holiday season when the weather was so bad. “And then having to start saving up for another car – just to realize they all knew where my car was since the week after I reported it,” she says. Over the past six months, Battles says she checked in with towing companies to see if they had the vehicle, but none did. It wasn’t until a friend suggested she call the DMV two weeks ago that she was told that she is still the registered owner and the car was sitting on a used car lot. “So I understand I could be arrested for stealing my own vehicle that I am the regis- tered owner of? I did not drop the ball,” she says. “But why is no one taking ownership such as the Police Department and saying we messed up somewhere, let’s make this right?” Battles says the owner of the used car lot – who is also the owner of the towing com- pany – is trying to get her to pay to get her car back. “What the public needs to know is, if it happened to me, it could definitely happen to you,” she says. “And it’s probably hap- pened to other people.” “This is not a lawsuit that needs to be filed – they just need to do the right thing,” Fuller said this week. “And I think they will.” June 4, 2014 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 3
