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Members of an African American parent group at Berkeley High expressed anger Thursday that the school planned a program to aid failing students without consulting them. 

Although the parents, members of the group Parents of Children of African Descent, have run a program to help failing students at the school since January, the school administration apparently did not deem it important to seek their input in creating a similar program for next year, members of the PCAD Steering Committee said. 

PCAD Steering Committee member Michael Miller said the organization’s members didn’t even know that the high school was creating a program to assist failing students after the PCAD program ends this summer – something PCAD has been asking them to do – until the program was presented to the school board at its Thursday meeting.  

Berkeley High Principal Frank Lynch said in an interview Friday that school staff should have solicited feedback from PCAD members months ago and that he regrets this didn’t take place. He added, however, that he considers the plan he proposed Thursday a “framework” on which to build, and that he looks forward to fine tuning the plan with the aid of PCAD members over the summer. 

“I’m more than willing now to sit down with them,” he said. 

The so-called Critical Pathways program, as proposed by Lynch Thursday, would provide new support services for students entering Berkeley High as ninth graders, who have been identified as “at risk” of academic failure.  

Chief among these services are a one week summer school program in August to help prepare students emotionally and academically for the difficult transition to high school, and literacy classes offered during the regular school year to help students with reading skills below grade level keep up with their freshman curriculum. 

PCAD members said the program is not nearly enough to keep students from failing.  

“Our mistake is that we kept expecting that they were going to do something, and (that) we wouldn’t have to do all of it,” Miller said. Now, he added, PCAD “has got to come up with something because we know they aren’t going to do a damn thing.” 

Rebound, the PCAD program ending this summer, placed 50 students failing two or more subjects at mid-year in special English and math classes that were half the size of regular freshman classes and twice as long. With more time to work with – and fewer students to accommodate – teachers were able to build relationships with students and get them to engage in their academic work at the high school for the first time, PCAD members argue. 

Miller and other PCAD members said they may now have to consider how to continue these efforts next year. Lynch’s offer to collaborate may have come too late, they said. 

“This is not acceptable,” Rebound teacher and PCAD member Katrina Scott-George said repeatedly at the Thursday school board meeting. “What makes you think we would sit at the table with you now.” 

“For Lynch to turn around and say, ‘We commend you guys and we want to work with you guys,’ – to me, that was a slap in the face,” said Miller. “He has had all kinds of opportunities to communicate with us about this program.” 

School board members offered both praise and criticism of the Critical Pathway program Thursday. 

“You’ve put together a program with the cards we’ve dealt you,” said board President Terry Doran, pointing to the financial constraints faced by the high school in a year of budget cuts. 

But Doran and others expressed concern that, while Lynch’s Critical Pathway proposal targets around 100 kids to receive additional support services as freshman, the number of freshman failing two or more classes at the end of the first semester this year was closer to 200 students. 

“We need to develop a program where all the students that we identify as needing help can get it,” said board Director Joaquin Rivera. 

Lynch said the 100 students targeted by the program, who have already been invited to attend summer school this August, were chosen based on a review of their middle school grades, attendance and behavior and interviews with their middle school teachers.  

If more than 100 of the 800 freshman expected to enter Berkeley High next year need extra help to avoid failing classes, the Critical Pathways could easily be expanded during the year, Lynch said. This is because, rather than placing students in separate classes with separate teachers, Critical Pathways provides additional support to students within regular classes, he said. 

Rivera defended Lynch Friday against PCAD claims that he did not encourage parental involvement while planning his Critical Pathways proposal. 

“Maybe he could have done more of that, but the truth is, sometimes things are talked to death,” Rivera said. “Sometimes you have to move forward and develop a plan. 

“At this point, the best thing would be to have (PCAD) work with us in developing Critical Pathway, to make sure that this program is the best it can be,” Rivera added. 

Lynch said Thursday that he would like to meet with PCAD members before the school board’s Aug. 15 meeting to discuss the program.