School Reorganization

I attended the meeting tonight regarding the school reorganization plan.  For people reading this from out of town, a major reorganization of our school district has been proposed and we're in the middle of the "public comment" period.

I don't feel that I can openly vent on the Facebook page, but I can be a little more candid here.  As I sat at the meeting tonight I felt like nobody had really listened to anything the superintendent said.  People kept wanting answers to their questions, and details like which kid would be going to which school, how much money would be spent/saved, etc.  Personally, if the reorganization team had presented a detailed plan with the lines already drawn, I would assume that it was a done deal and that it was too late for feedback.  This week is the period where we get to COMMENT, and then the reorg team makes any necessary changes and issues a final proposal to be voted on by the school committee.  Seems simple enough.

The reorganization team is made up of a group of educators in our school system, many of whom are parents of kids in our schools.  They know about education and they care about kids.  I know most of them, either personally or by reputation.  I trust them.  What do I know?  I sell locks.

Parents keep talking about how the changes will negatively affect their kids.  I strongly believe that if we are positive about it, the kids will be too.  Aliya and Adlani aren't at all concerned.  To be fair, the kids who are being relocated to their neighborhood school will have a tougher adjustment than our school which will be moving as a complete unit, but I still think kids adapt to change much easier than we do, and factor our response into theirs.  If we're fine, they'll be fine too.

There are obvious advantages to the proposal, if people would put their emotions and fear of change aside and listen.  The principal of Dunning and the high school principal both gave great insight into why the proposal of K-2/3-5 pairings will benefit education.  But people seemed hung up on "I don't want to leave my school," or "I don't want my kid to go to a school with low MCAS scores."  That argument doesn't really make sense to me.  If the MCAS scores are low at a particular school (let's put aside the reasons why for now), but every school is being changed and the kids are being shuffled around, how do last year's MCAS scores matter?  If the scores are low because the teachers are bad, that's one thing, but that's not the reason.

At least 6 people said they didn't want their kids to go to Woodrow Wilson because it's in a "bad part of town," and some even suggested sending the Two-Way program there.  (I couldn't help feeling like they were suggesting it as some sort of punishment.  Someone said on the Facebook page that the program was "elitist" because you have to enter in kindergarten.  Duh...you can't enter at a higher grade because you'd have to be fluent in Spanish.  If you are and there's space available, you're welcome!)  One woman said she would move out of the 'Ham if her kid got assigned to Woodrow.  True, it's not in a good part of town.  But I kept wondering if anyone was going to defend the school because I know how I'd feel if people were saying that they didn't want their kids to go to our school.  The last comment of the night was my favorite Zumba instructor Ali (her son went to our preschool last year).  As soon as I saw her standing there I knew she was going to be the one to defend Woodrow Wilson because I remember when her son was assigned there for kindergarten.

Ali was extremely emotional, so of course I immediately started crying.  (Ted didn't help when he told me to pull it together.)  She was very hurt that everyone was slamming the school her son attends, and she wanted to share the story of his success there.  Like all of the schools in the 'Ham, Woodrow has amazing teachers, and because of them, her son is thriving.  I was so proud of Ali for standing up and speaking out, even though I'm sure she knew she would have a hard time.  I don't think I would have been able to do the same.  She was very brave.

There's one more meeting for public comment on Thursday night, and no doubt some of the same people will show up with the same gripes.  Personally, I'm a big fan of working together toward a positive outcome rather than fighting against each other but we'll have to wait and see how it goes.  There may be some nice real estate opening up on the south side of route 9.   
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