School closures

[Craig Gordons Gloves]

I need to vent and rant, so feel free to close this post or read on.

 

Some background, we live in a city of 18000 which is part of a school district that covers 154 sq miles, there are 10 elementary schools (primary), 2 Jr high schools and a high school of around 3000. All in, around 8500 students. Around 8 months ago, voters were asked to approve a bond of $97.5m to improve school facilities, this vote was passed by voters on the promises that no schools would close.

 

Now, the personal piece, my 6 year old is on the autism spectrum, has speech apraxia and dispraxia. He's 1st grade, mainstream and has been at his elementary for 4 years including 2 years pre school. Anyone that knows anything about autism knows that security, routine and familiarity are important to kids on the spectrum. My youngest is at kindergarten at the same school.

 

On Dec 17th (note the date) the district administration presented a plan to the school board which consists of 7 elected members that we should close 3 schools in the district, this plan was based upon a disparity of numbers in the schools and they want to 'right size' the schools. My kids school is one of those that they are proposing to close. The other schools are rural and have smaller roll numbers. The administration also argued that this plan must be voted on by Feb 11th to fit in with all their plans. They were adamant that their numbers were correct and that the school district would see savings of $1.2m that could be invested in better services for kids that need it (English language support, speech therapy support etc etc). They based their closure decisions on the fact that the schools (2 rural and 1 in the city we live in) on projections from a demographer that said the population would decline. Now, this was sneaked in before Christmas and BANG...

 

Ever since Then, I have been involved with hundreds, probably thousands of other parents who don't want this plan to go through. We all want better services and programming for kids, but not at the expense of other kids. The 3 schools slated for closure are 3 of the top 4 schools in the district, 1 is in the top ten in the country! Why should kids educational experiences suffer so that others can get a bit more? Why not bring the other schools up to the levels of the schools that are great schools. Over the past month I've sat through public hearings, board meetings etc where I've heard every single argument by the administration being torn apart by facts. Every time the district heard these facts being torn apart, they changed their PR material. Now, the school board was due to vote this evening on the proposal, on Tuesday, a parent and voter group served notice that the district would be subject to a lawsuit should this vote be a yes. The lawsuit alleges electoral rules were broken amongst many other things. Funnily enough, within 12 hours of this lawsuit, the district superintendent (an arrogant cow in the job for 5 months) announces that they would be asking that the vote be delayed until March 3rd. Ostensibly so that people could be better educate on the plan. Incidentally, we've been asking for the last 7 weeks about what additional support my kids would get if this plan goes through, no answer or details have been provided so I'm curious as to what they're going to tell us now...

 

Tonight the board agreed to postpone the vote until March 3rd, despite overwhelming opposition. It's taken us 4 years to get our son to a place where he can not have to battle autism every day so he can learn, he's happy, he's secure and he's learning. The last 7 weeks have caused untold stress on our family as we have no idea where the kids would end up, what support they would get etc, my wife has worked tirelessly to ensure that our boys are getting what they need, she volunteers in the school, she works with the fantastic teachers they have to make their job easier. I've spoken at meetings, my wife has spoken at meetings, there are thousands of people that have signed a petition, there are hundreds of parents that have spoken against this and are working on solutions, only for a superintendent to continue down her path of BOLD ( that's the plan by the way). I'm so effin angry right now.

 

I'm just ranting now, but its cathartic, local politics really sucks balls right now. We have a further 3 weeks of uncertainty about what is going to happen with our kids education. Emails have been sent on numerous occasions, public meetings are held where you can give your view but don't get any answers due to the rules. It's all just shite.

 

Apologies if you were looking for a potential classic thread and I've probably missed out loads of other info. If you made it this far, thanks!

[Notorious BIG]

Forums are great for getting your rants out, I can't really comment on your issue however I hope your boy continues to receive the best education he can possibly get, I cant possibly imagine how stressed you are, I hope everything gets sorted.

[Dunks]

A population of 18,000 isn't a city.

[MrRobbo10]

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[Craig Gordons Gloves]

A population of 18,000 isn't a city.

I'm using city in the American term, it is a city in that sense in that it is incorporated as one. There are "cities" that have 2000 people in them. Although part of the reason we live here is that it has a small town feel about it.

[¼½¾]

Have you posted about this on here before?  It sounds kind of familiar.  Good luck, and I hope things turn out well for your son.

[niblick1874]

Gone are the days where you could embarrass those that you talk of into doing the right thing. It sounds like the only way you will get them to do the right thing is threw legal action and even then you'll probably find that the cards will be marked. It would be wrong of me to say I know where you are coming from but I will say that I think you are right to mull it over with as many as you can, Good luck Ally.