CompStatting schools

Considering that MNPS with over 73,000 students is a fair sized population I'm a little surprised to learn that we're just now considering what looks to me like a mini MPD CompStat program to track discipline issues.

Back in June CM Pam Murrey hosted a meeting in Cleveland Park to discuss the grave situation at Maplewood and how the community might help turn things around. At that meeting I, as a BOE member, asked Ralph Thompson, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services, for crime information about Maplewood. He wasn't able to provide it. He did say that new statistics were expected shortly and that he'd have to go through it before he could provide the information needed. He has since managed to give me a few numbers but nothing comprehensive.

From today's City Paper we learn that a free program call School COP (Crime Operations Package) is being considered. I would have thought, given the success of CompStat techniques in Nashville, East Nashville specifically, we could have been doing this all along.

Of course, just like real life, if citizens/students don't report incidents they don't get logged and patterns and needs are not revealed.