Bolton High School: What’s Next?
Guess what? The conversation is not over. We’ve talked about what has happened. Now, what happens next? (And isn’t this postcard awesome?)
Guess what? The conversation is not over. We’ve talked about what has happened. Now, what happens next? (And isn’t this postcard awesome?)
CenLamar 
As soon as Sams is off the school board, steps can be taken to bring Bolton back. Until then, no one with any power has the guts to stand up to him. Just a few more months!
I heard that the Bolton High School Alumni Association stood up to him. That is why he has abandoned his mission to revamp Bolton to his design and resight his guns on City Hall.
Interesting photo. Do you have the history of that particular photograph?
No, but I found it on Alexandria-Louisiana.com, which I will soon be writing a full report on. It’s a fantastic website, and if you haven’t yet visited it, I highly recommend that you check it out.
oh good we’ve long admired that website.
That photo is a picture of the school building that stood behind St. Francis Xavier Catedral.
Torn down? I guess it was the Bolton before the “new” Bolton?
“I’ll call John Sams if that b*tch steps foot on this campus again.”
5:46 What are you talking about??? I’m lost! Who was on campus?
GUYS STOP MAKING BLOGS ABOUT BOLTON GAYLE IS GETTING VERY UPSET.
VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
Vote for anyone but Sams!
WATERSLIDE! WATERSLIDE! WATERSLIDE!
The building in the picture clearly shows the cathedral on the right. There was a school where the school board office is located today. It might have been called Bolton at one time, but I remember it as Central Grammar School. It was torn down to create the school board complex we have today.
Yippie! Bolton has an ally on the RPSB!
Step 1 Get Webb elected – done
Step 2 Sams returns to private practice
Would anyone like to propose a step 3?
I’ll volunteer to help Sams pack up his house to MOVE OUT OF TOWN!
My only wish for a sweeter result would have been if he’d finished dead last behind Red Hammond.
We are free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now we must put aside our petty differences and rise to the challenge of restoring BHS to its former glory.
We are free but these are far from “petty differences.”
One administrator downtown has been checking trying to correct some of the problems. Thank you. Has anyone else seen RPSB members on campus investigating the problems? Have any changes within Bolton occurred?
The question still remains – What is the next step? What must happen next to return Bolton to its “former glory?”
Maybe they can get rid of Principal Higgins for not having the voting area handicapped accessible. I guess athletics(basketball floors) are more important than the right to vote.
I certainly don’t side with Higgins on anything, but the fact that the gym is not wheelchair accessible falls on the shoulders of the school board.
The gym is accessible from the side door, but they are redoing the floors. what did he do to let the school board know about the problem? couldn’t he have had them set up in another part of the school??
He’s not aware enough or smart enough to do that.
I’m not a lawyer, but couldn’t this be seen as obstruction?
Could someone who knows Ms. Webb find out where we should direct our respectful emails regarding Bolton’s future?
Polling places are the responsibility of the cith/parish and are not the responsiblity of the school. The school is only providing a spot as requested. The lobby of the gym has been used for voting for years as is.
If you want a ramp call the city or parish.
Get a life.
I have been an English teacher in Rapides Parish for over twenty years and was appalled at what I saw at Ms. Toney’s last English Cluster meeting. In the middle of her powerpoint presentation her screen saver came up showing a picture of a toilet flushing a sign saying, “Flush John Sams.”
This meeting was no place for her to hold her own political forum.
She owes everyone there an apology and should be reprimanded by her superiors.
If this is what I can expect from Ms. Toney, I will not return.
If you feel this strongly, why didn’t you use your name? I haven’t used my name because I’m not trashing anyone.
Since when is telling exactly what happened trashing anyone? This is a fact and if your were at the meeting you would know it is a fact.
How do we know this isn’t one of the Sams followers at Bolton? IF you are a teacher and have ever filled out a state form, you have required the student to take responsibility for voice and/or action. Do the same. Use your name.
And, what does this have to do with the question Lamar asked? What do we do about Bolton now? Ms. Toney has told us that she has moved on. Leave her alone. Focus on the task at hand: how to help.
I see how she is helping. Continuing to create a combative atmosphere with John Sams really shows that she has moved on. She continues to pull Bolton and her remaining friends at Bolton into her personal battle with Sams.
This really helps Bolton.
12:14
You have obviously not suffered the years of harrassment that Ms. Toney did at the hands of Sams. It is not only Ms. Toney who had issues with Sams, it is the entire community connected to Bolton. With Webb as the school board represenative there is hope on the horizon.
I think letting Webb know our hopes for the future of Bolton is a good idea.
No one ever said she moved on from the horror she suffered at the hands of John Sams or her civil right to free speech, but that she has moved on from Bolton; because of HIM, she was not given a choice….after attending Bolton, graduating from there, serving it as teacher, curriculum coordinator, then principal for 30 plus years…HE made her move on. But, many of us who suffered at his hands will never forget what he did or the pain he caused. Again, this forum is about what we should do now. So, get over your hatred for Ms. Toney, your passive agreement to Sams and his cronies, and try doing something positive for a change. Ms. Toney did something positive at that school for many years and deserves to be left alone. Obviously, you have never had your ivory tower shaken as so many did under the hands of John Sams. But, again, the issue now is how to resolve what he has done to Bolton and to bring hope and change and resolution.
To Anonymous at 9:08 am:
Are you a current teacher? Were you on the clock while browsing and commenting on this blog?
How would you feel if you were visciously removed against your will from a school that you had spent your life working in? I’d be willing to bet you’d be just as upset as Ms. Toney was. I wouldn’t have had one-tenth of the grace and style that Ms. Toney showed as this madman attempted to destroy her career and her reputation.
If you do not return to English cluster meetings because of this, then that’s your right. However, you will be missing out on a wonderful thing. Ms. Toney is a brilliant and innovative educator and could teach you far more than you realize.
Amen to 4:48 about 9:08
I am also an English teacher in the parish, and I also was at Ms. Toney’s cluster meeting. In response to 9:08’s comments, I have to say that neither Ms. Toney’s actions or the momentary display of her personal screensaver caused me alarm. Ms. Toney was not showing a powerpoint, but was displaying her Blackboard site that she had built for the parish. She was displaying this from her laptop; she stopped periodically to explain, to discuss, and to direct. In one of these moments of discussion, her screensaver kicked in and began to show a series of her own personal pictures, each displaying perhaps 2-3 seconds before the next one came atop it. When Ms. Toney realized that a cartoon had popped up in the middle of Thoreau, Emerson, and Dickinson, she immediately apologized, saying, “I’m sorry that you saw something personal that perhaps you shouldn’t have seen” and moved on. She did apologize and did not continue in her forum to discuss John Sams or her feelings for him. To the person who wrote this, who, like the last bloggers comment, and wrote this obviously on school time, I ask why he or she is just now, two days after the election in which John Sams was slaughtered and Alexandria’s true feelings for him were revealed in an undeniable way, commenting on something that appalled her “so,” when it happened on September 5th, almost a month ago? I ask this blogger: are you also appalled that Mr. Bill Higgins used his authority as principal in a faculty meeting to urge his faculty to support Pam Webb for school board member? that the same Bill Higgins posted a Sams for Mayor sign in his yard? Or did this blogger reprimand the Superintendent when he in the beginning of school inservice at the Pentecostal Church introduced John Sams as not only a school board member, but a candidate for mayor, one that we, as an audience, might consider, then joked to Mr. Sams that dependent upon how good the inservice was, perhaps he would pick up a vote or two? I dare say this blogger did not make these comments, even though they fall in the same category, or are in fact, worse, than what accidentally happened to Ms. Toney. As an English teacher, I find Ms. Toney to be insightful and intelligent, prepared and conscientious….and damn good at her job because she knows what she is talking about; she is also a very kind and “laid back” lady who has a right to her own opinions, particularly since she has every reason in the world to have them. And, who cares if it happened in a cluster meeting? It gave most of us a chuckle and we moved on, realizing that we all have those little 2-3 second moments, and none of us have a right to judge what was so apparently a personal feeling, not meant to be a part of a professional presentation.
Nice to have the whole story
This reminds me of a story Ms. Toney once used when dealing with a parent who didn’t necessarily get the “whole story” from her child.
– paraphrased, but to the best of my recollection
At dinner one night a student tells his parents that he received a 100 on a test. The parents profusely reward the child with extra TV time, desserts, and praise. The mother and child meet the teacher at the local supermarket and the parent brags about how wonderful it was to see her child excelling in the class with a 100 on a test.
The teacher smiles, looks at the child, then the parent and says “Did your child tell you that the test was out-of-200?”
So, it’s OK for Sams to discuss his negative feelings about Penny Toney all over the city to anyone who will listen? And it’s not OK for her to have an opinion about that? It’s THAT kind of thinking that has given Sams the overload of power he has had to do the things he’s done. You should be ashamed, as an educator particularly, to say what you said, Anonymous 9:08. I’m ashamed of you.
My question is, why does Penny Toney have personal items on what is apparently a school board computer? If personal items were left off, this would not have happened.
Why would you say apparently? Do you know that the laptop she used was for the school board? and, perhaps, even if it is, it has been given to her for her use as long as she is an employee, which is the case with most laptops that are distributed through Dr. Morrison’s office. Please. Get over it. Again, this blog area is SUPPOSED to be about ideas for Bolton. It sounds to me like it’s you who haven’t moved on and are still trying to make a combative atmosphere, not Ms. Toney.
I have another idea: have you contacted Ms. Toney in the MONTH you have had to address this issue? I doubt it; so, really, you have no reason to be on this blog complaining. Go to the source if the apology she gave in her forum wasn’t enough. It was a MONTH ago.
On to other issues….so, what was Bolton’s count yesterday? the official day for count? you know, the October 1st thing. What was it?
The official count will not be correct. I hear they are planning on lying, so they don’t lose teachers.
I sure hope they don’t cut the art program.
They should shut down the library.
When all is said and done, did Bolton loose any teachers? For the student’s sake, I hope not.
Not yet. Amazing what Mr. higgins can get away with. Ms. Toney had a smaller staff, but did such a better job. She was doomed to fail.
That’s because Ms. Toney was cut short every time she tried to do something. The “powers that be” wouldn’t give her a break. But that “power” will soon be powerless. Can’t wait ’til January!!!!
Funny how downtown supports their blatant mistakes. But then again, men are generally given more support because they both demand it and need it to be successful. Women are expected to “make do.”
There is the story of a husband who asked his wife to never to give him a list of tasks that needed to be accomplished, but instead, to let him know one task at a time. When that task was completed she should tell him the next task.
At least Ms. Toney has been given a chance to use her skills as an excellent educator and teach others about curriculum, instead of being parked at the motivation center.
I think Central Office jobs are only what you make them. She seems to be working hard.