Who would you like to see at the helm of Durango's schools?
Do you have a favorite person in mind or can you describe the qualities you most want in a leader? It could be years before we have this chance again.
9-R District Board members are currently engaged in the search for a new leader.
The Herald recently noted sparse attendance at the community open houses, but it's not too late to put in a word. Superintendent meeting draws 3 "Officials say they want public input about hiring a new superintendent... but members of the public did not clamor to do so." In response, several letters have appeared suggesting that "because 9-R never listens" it wasn't worth attending. Not true. We believe the new board not only listens, it is eager to move our district forward in positive, innovative ways. But they need to hear from us.
If you prefer to bypass the 9-R Information Office, comments can be sent directly to the search team c/o the website of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates. The firm is scheduled to present a summary of our community comments at the board's Nov. 27 meeting. Make sure yours get counted.
While an initial deadline has passed, we can't imagine the search team excluding honest input that comes in soon. Request the Leadership Profile Form ... or simply share your views on 9-R's strengths and weaknesses, but mostly tell them what qualities and criteria you want the board to use in evaluating the candidates.
For more info
Oct. 2, Herald article:
Durango 9-R Jumps Into Search
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23 comments:
I know the perfect superintendent...I wish I could share who, and I've wanted him to be our superintendent since August 2006....he is interested too, and he would take our school district to such great heights, that everyone would benefit. He is a sure fire bet on the perfect superintendent....the problem is, he could run for Education Secretary, or he could run for our superintendent vacancy.....I wonder what he would like to do? Top end career to steer education in a better direction for the entire nation, or small town America and work with a model town/citizenship/state BEFORE taking on the nation?! I hope he choses to give us a shot! We would become the envy of the whole of America with him at the helm.
The "dream" part, is that he has the heart, passion, integrity, and intelligence, plus experience beyond my dreams to be our superintendent. I hope the search team run after him.
Hazard Young has said it welcomes nominations from the public - let's do our homework and make sure the candidate pool is as rich as possible. Our highly desirable community should attract interesting candidates. Let’s select a superintendent who will welcome Animas High as a partner in public education and who will respond positively and creatively to the options the AHS Board wants to create for our children.
You're right about getting a collaborative,fearless & forward thinking superintendent. If it had been up to 9-R, Animas High would now be "dead in the water." Hurray for getting charter directly from the State. I look forward to seeing the kind of partnerships they create. They will collaborate with DHS, if the powers that be can only see the win-win benefits.
9R have started a PR campaign called "Be There".....to encourage parents to "be there" at school or in every day moments for their children. Huh? Isn't that our job? To "be there?!" Like...."hello?!"....we have "been there" since birth, and "being there" at school doesn't make a slightest bit of difference to the quality of education our children receive.
"Be There", just so we can tell you how lucky your child is to have such a wonderful parent as you, but hey....we still can't teach him to read, write and spell to grade level, and just for fun, we will call you a "naysayer", or "critic", because you were "being there".
I'd like to see 9R start a campaign that actually gives academic results at the end of the year. Apparently, for 97% of our 10th grade special educational students, it's quite alright for them to FAIL their Math CSAP. 9R administration do NOT care about our special education students, because if they did, they wouldn't let 97% of them FAIL anything!
Yes..."Be There", just so you can despair about how little the administration really care for your child's educational development.
qAnyone heard about the proposed changes to DHS in fall 2008? There will definitely be a change, one way or the other, and it will definintely happen by fall 2008. (one has to wonder why the big push for such radical change in such a short amount of time--they will make a decision on implemeting one of the following models by Christmas break).
Here's a breakdown:
Model 1: 9th grade "house." All
9th graders will be grouped together with subgroups within the 9th grade. They will be separated from the other DHS students and will not be allowed to have electives. They will stay with the same students and the same teachers for the entire year.
Model 2: similar to Model 1, but will include 10th graders. 9th and 10th will each be separated from each other and the rest of the school and will stay with the same teachers and same students all year. Under this model, all students will be allowed to take electives.
Model 3: Small school model. All students will be assigned to a "school" or "group" most likely by assessments and testing and they will stay with that group of students and teachers for all 4 years. Electives may or may not be available in certain "schools." If a student wants to move to another "school" it will be allowed only one time and only after proving that student truly needs to be moved. It will be very difficult to move a student once he/she is placed in a "school."
Model 4: designed by DHS teachers. Similar to the structure we have today but with some changes. Students would be able to stay with teachers through the year and/or course (no having different math teachers for the same course through the year) and courses with more than one part would follow immediately after each other instead of allowing a trimester between them.
Some of these model require more funding. From where?
Some require more/less teachers.
Most require teachers to take on more work and teach more subjects.
If your student is placed with a teacher that doesn't work well with your student, your student may be stuck with that teacher/group of teachers for the entire year/all four years.
They believe this will cut down on absences since attendance is so poor. My question: Why is attendance poor? Aren't parents insisting their kids go to school? Aren't parents disciplining their kids who ditch? How can attendance be so bad?
Also, they want graduation rates to rise. Again, where are the parents?
And, they want kids to feel connected to something. Isn't that what a family is for? Does DHS want to become my kids' family now?
They claim this restructuring will weed out "bad" teachers, will make kids want to go to school, will give all the kids a connection that they're missing, and will solve attendance and dropout problems. Will it?
I think it's a bandaid. They say they want parental support. Yet they undermine me all the time. Yes, we need a big change, but it's not restructuring DHS that will make the difference, it's admitting that the most important unit in our society is the family and until 9-R can admit the importance of and support families and parents, nothing will change. (Oh, yeah there's the "Be There" day--I forgot, they must be honoring families, oh brother).
And, the most disturbing part about this change to DHS? They've already made up their minds and it's all a big show asking for input from parents and the community. It's another "sure you can give input as long as it agrees with our decision." It's just another example of how 9-R disregards parents.
Maybe Animas High is the answer!
The session I attended at Riverview last night was evenly balanced between staff and parents.. hope that the middle school turnouts draw more parents!!! Before the public or board weigh in on these staff ideas we could use more information.
My personal take is that new positive leadership energy will improve DHS but major changes will depend on community partnerships and improved respectful communications. (meaning "can we hear the truth? We've been told that DHS is great for average students - and this change is then only to meet the needs of those handfuls on either end who are currently underperforming? Which is why some people left last night asking "Why such huge changes??"
A restructuring will depend on a new kind of transparency and trust, not business as usual. Someone might explain more clearly what's happening with recent 9-R district efforts to meet the needs of the far ends of the student spectrum. Why was Entrada's alternative program allowed to silently slip away... that was explained last night as a casualty of NCLB's requirement for "highly qualified teachers" - wouldn't this NCLB requirement also impact the creation of the 4 new small schools?
How much funding is being considered over what period of time to support such a major reorganization? I can't imagine the conversion of DHS into small schools succeeding without additional funding - but where will it come from? The creation of four new leadership teams plus new curricula shouldn't be expected to come from the current DHS budget level. How much is 9-R currently spending to subsidize the Durango Academy experiment? How much did its year of designing cost? (Minimally the new DHS model warrants many times over what that effort required.) With only 40 "DA" students currently in the old Excel quarters, the "per pupil operating revenue or PPOR" must be pretty high! Excel was told a year ago that it could not continue to operate with fewer than 100 students. Yet DA was opened with 70 students that have now dropped to about 40 - we learned last night.
I am all for experimentation and school model reforms ...we have to get it as "right" as we can for all our young people. That is why charters have been embraced in other communities.
I trust we are recruiting for a new superintendent who understands the benefits of working with charter schools instead of against them.
My initial response is to recommend the DHS reorganization not be fast tracked (just to get the schedules printed by February.)
Why not use Animas High as a timely R&D model and take 2008-09 to develop funding and partners for a new DHS model? Lashinsky brings fresh ideas and good will and her experience should help 9-R estimate how much budgetary support will be needed for any of the 4 proposed models to succeed. Typically large school conversions receive large grants to cover the first three years or so of their launch.
Thanks to whomever posted the different models being proposed for DHS, I was at the Board Meeting last night, so missed the Riverview evening.
Personally....I don't believe any of the models that exclude electives will work. I have never heard of such a thing, sending children to school and taking away their electives will NOT improve their academic results. I'm surprised that Diane would even allow those options to be placed on the table. In fact, I'm feeling a little bit queasy all of a sudden...like who thought those options up?
I don't have a problem with students having the same teachers throughout the year, I support that suggestion. My son cannot fathom some of his teachers (the one's who don't have the time for dyslexic students, because their "box" doesn't include accommodations that don't cost money, just bucket loads of commonsense), and just when my son figures out how to work within their narrow paradigm, and begins to see success, the trimester is over and he gets a whole new set of teachers, most of whom think just because he is dyslexic he is also "stupid", and unfortunately, have very low expectations of him.
The whole 'changing teachers every trimester' routine is damaging to the academic growth of our children. I've never known a school do that before DHS. I would have thought, that if a student/teacher did not hit it off, and there was a possibility to change the pairing, then that doorway for change should be left open. We just changed a teacher at DHS, because I refused to allow the narrow minded person to be part of my son's education. If you're an English teacher, and you haven't got a clue about what it means to be dyslexic, then you don't deserve to teach one.
I like the idea of all 9th graders being together though, especially since my son was severely beaten up in 9th grade, much to the amusement of Greg and Kevin, and the superintendent, all of whom chose not to punish the perpetrator for the extreme level of violence inflicted on my son. Heck, the boy only attacked Officer Lee in 5th grade over at Miller.....why punish him now for causing the level of damage he did to my son in 9th grade? Nowadays though, instead of getting enormous medical bills at the hospital, one could get "free" treatment in the *new* clinic at DHS, so maybe that's why they don't care about how violent some students can be. (Silly me...of course, they simply didn't care less, because he was MY son).
I didn't know that the Durango Academy ONLY had 40 students. Someone with some commonsense needs to shut that school down. They wouldn't let EXCEL operate with less than 100, read all the Herald reports over the years to see those statements from the PIO and superintendent. What's good for the goose, is good for the gander. But, then again, when high level ego's are involved, they would still operate down to the last child sitting in an empty classroom, rather than admit defeat.
Ha ha ha, over the "Be There" day....what a crock......I've BEEN THERE since 1999, and they couldn't care less about educating my son. It's just another piece of trashy PR.
I want to give them some credit, you know...for at least trying, but I can't, because the reality is, they don't want parent or community support under the current administration.
If I sound angry, it's the memory of them doing nothing when my son was so badly beaten up. I can't believe it was so many years ago, and that it still has an effect on me.
On a lighter side, I do love Diane Lashinsky, and I am very excited about her leadership, laughter, expertise, and genuine delight in bringing about change. I do have faith in her and the good staff there pulling off some of their ideas. I would like them to go slower, and get it right though. I feel they are rushing it through, just so the PIO can write a piece about why the community does not need a charter school. I wouldn't allow "fear" of competition to be the reason for rushing through ideas. Competition is healthy, and there is room for AHS and DHS.
I would like to see the following changes at DHS:
Same teachers throughout the year, so both student and teacher can truly know each other, thus learn more.
9th grade students kept on campus.
Shorter lesson periods, because they don't teach for the full 75 minutes as it is, and students get bored around the 45/55 minute mark and stop learning.
English Language, English Literature and Math to be taught all year round for the full 4 years, so that our children might actually get an education that will stand them in good stead at college/university level.
Oh yes, whilst I'm writing, I think they should spend the $25K knocking down the off license, BUT they should build a Learning Development Center on the site, and employ expert qualified teachers to remediate the students so they can actually leave DHS with a 12th grade reading age.
To say they are knocking it down so they can pile the snow from the parking lot in it's place is just plain silly. Build a state of the art Learning Development Center and teach these young people to read, write and spell to grade level.
My daughter had the same English teacher for two trimesters because of the class she was enrolled in. This teacher was condescending, arrogant, and basically chewed her out for having a different opinion about a piece of literature. He did not care about my daughter and was not interested in her best interest. When I spoke with him he was even more arrogant and condescending. Would I want any other child to be stuck with him for a year or even a trimester? No. He shouldn't be a teacher. A teacher's place is not to lord over the students and feed that teacher's ego. It is not to make intelligent students feel inferior just because they disagree with that teacher. So, am I in favor of having the same teachers all year? Not if it's with a teacher such as this one. We've made a list of teachers to stay away from and I will not support any school model that would force my children to have to endure a teacher such as this one again. Yes, there are many excellent teachers and many who take the time to develop relationships with their students and truly care about the kids, but when you get one of those who doesn't, it makes the trimester seem to last forever. I simply can't imagine doing for an entire year or worse, for four years. I'd pull my student out of DHS.
I also believe they should take more time to really investigate the different options. Why the rush? What happens if they don't make it happen by fall 2008? Seems like there's some underlying
reason(s) that they aren't sharing. What a shock--9-R not telling parents the whole story.
From what I've learned about it, it seems as though these changes are to reach the kids who habitually ditch classes, kids who dropout, and to have teachers form better relationships with the kids. I don't think a restructuring will address the ditching or dropout rate because some kids just don't want to be at school no matter what. And those who can get away with ditching will continue to do so--I think that's a parent problem. As far as teacher relationships, I'd say that those teachers who care about relationships with their students already have relationships and those teachers who don't care aren't suddenly going to care and be better teachers just because the school has been restructured.
Let me guess where the money will come from--us. We'll see another bond issue or some other form of taxation to make these changes.
We all need time to digest these options and study them. Three weeks is not enough time. It isn't fair to any of us--students, teachers, parents--to shove something through simply because they want to hurry and get it done. We all deserve time to buy into the new changes so we can support the changes.
Of course, the bottom line is it doesn't matter what we think. They will do what they want. Business as usual.
First of all, I would love to see Anonymous's list of teachers to avoid. Could you post that? As a parent I want to know and I will use it. Secondly, if you ever find a teacher that is less than acceptable or abusive towards your children,you have the right to take them out of this class and insist on other arrangements. I have done this several times. Does it take energy and time? You bet. Call me, I'll help it happen.
I too was at the meeting Tues Night at Riverview.
We can All Agree Change is Difficult. We can also All Agree something needs to change at DHS.
I believe DHS needs plenty of time deciding what is best and should not rush into this Change. Next Fall may be too soon.
I Heard Tues Night that
Smalls Schools can be manipulated to reach all. I want to see relationships built between teachers and students. I want to see smaller environments for our children. Electives will be offered. There may be a need for less/more teachers.
I for one am not afraid of this journey and feel many attempts are being made to include the community.
Restructuring is hard work and uncomfortable for some.
Change? Difficult but Necessary.
Thank you so much, Mimi, for your positive comments. I don't know you or Anne, but I see you are both part of this website creation. Mimi, while you have many concerns, you don't write like you've just had too many glasses of wine. In other words, when I read Anne Spence's frequent contributions they seem mostly sarcastic, negative and nasty. I come to this website for more intelligent and constructive viewpoints than I sometimes receive from the school district. But....I am committed to finding ways to break down the barriers, not perpetuate them. Please, Anne, give folks a chance!!
Dear “Anonymous,”
You are probably right: what my son has endured for years as we have attempted to get 9-R to be honest about what it can and cannot do – definitely has contributed to my cynical perspective. While I don't drink alcohol (even wine) or take any medications, I would take them up if doing so would help create positive change for children and parents experiencing similar frustrations with 9-R.
Unfortunately, drinking while medicated seems to do the opposite and can be harmful to one’s employer and to the community that counts on public servants having minimal levels of integrity.
Dismissing my comments as “sarcastic, negative and nasty” suggests you’ve never lived abroad – if you had, you’d detect the British sense of humor which gives me peace of mind – not the alcohol or drugs that you – Mr. or Ms. Anonymous - suggest play a role in this blog. Laughing is sometimes the only resource one is left to draw upon – especially when all other avenues are shut down.
What was your name again? Should we assume your anonymity is due to being a parent or a 9-R employee?
To Anonymous,
Anne makes a good point: if you want to criticize someone who has signed in here with their name, at the least explain your anonymity but think about revealing your identity.
Also, you might want to reread Ms. Spence's comments for the content, not the tone. It's true that "blogging" can bring out one's emotions especially when there is no genuinely inclusive forum to address the problem on one's mind. It's bit an uphill battle getting 9-R administrators to entertain the idea that the public's opinions might be useful or illuminating - until very recently, which has to do with the new school board's understanding that putting a lid on a boiling pot often doesn't work. Dealing with reality honestly is a better strategy.
Let's hope the next 9-R Administration is made up of people committed to putting the public back in public education. Listening skills required.
Bravo Anne!
This blog has been provided for those of us who have suffered, who have stories of abuse by a system meant to help us and our children. Public Schools do not like criticism, known fact. We criticise based on are own personal experiences. We don't expect all to agree or understand what we and our children have been through, but as I say, it is what it is. No one can take that away from me. It comes from the heart, from pain, from disappointment, from caring Too much about our children.
Thanks for complimenting me, Anonymous, but you are missing the point. We use this blog to vent, you feel it is inappropriate? Why, because you are part of the system we criticise? We are passionate and proud of it!
We have been responsible for change and awareness in this district for children who suffer with Learning Disabilities. Is there more to be done? Absolutely! We criticise, in good humor amongst ourselves. We laugh a lot. We have turned the corner. I can forgive, but I will not forget!
Love, Peace & Bananas.
I think we should be remain watchful and wary during our Superintendent search...this district is in trouble if any of the finalists are chosen because they "raised test scores and closed the achievement gap" in their past or current district.
Sounds like Christy Zeller (spelling?) defending Mary Barter during the Shane Voss debacle...as if that's how quality in schools is defined. Besides, you can manipulate the data to say anything you want it to. Remember Rod Paige and the "Houston Miricle?" He worked his little game of test scores and achievement gaps all the way to U.S. Secretary of Education.
It is so good to read that only 4 people read or write to this blog. Bliss, Anne, Mimi and Anoymous. Durango must have a good school district if there are only 4 angry people. Maybe you will find a good Superintendent.
Anne said...
Actually more than 4 people read the blog on a daily basis.....Bliss would have to post the numbers, but during the Shane Voss fiasco, when our high school principal "resigned" there were hundreds of hits per day....
I feel like the Ghost of Christmas Past.....tonight there is a community meet and greet with the school board, over at the Rec Center, it starts at 6:30 p.m. and I have this whole spiel to say, and know that I won't say any of it, so here it is, in black and white.
Last night a lovely young man stopped me and said that he knew me. He knew me when he was little, in Elementary School. A polite and well mannered young man, from an intellectual family. I asked him how high school was this year, and he said: "I'm meant to be a Junior, but I dropped out in the summer". I asked him why, and he said that he couldn't stand DHS any longer. Fair enough, my son feel's the same. I asked after his two sisters. One is home schooled, and the other is barely getting an education, she is at the Durango Academy, and her mother, whom was taking two of the children to the chiropractor's when we ran into each other, said she was surprised the Durango Academy was even in business, because they changed things every week, teachers, schedule, programs. Her daughter is about ready to drop out too. Only 40 students attend, if that. Wow. How much does DA cost our school district? Does anyone know? Does anyone care? How long will the school board keep the doors open for? EXCEL would have been closed down in a hot flash. Double standards anyone?
When I picked up my son, I mentioned I had met these people, and my son said that he knew 7 students who had dropped out this year, and I almost crashed the car. Why did they drop out? Where they intellectual or ignorant? Where they white or Hispanic? Where they working class or middle class? Much to my surprise, these students didn't meet the stereotype's we would so like to believe where the drop outs. End of conversation, but it struck a nerve.
We are "this close" to dropping out. March the 9th would be the day, because my son would be 17 then. Funnily enough, the young man I met last night is still only 16, which of course is against state law, as I believe the state changed the legal drop out age to 17 for the 2007 year. Why would we drop out, when everyone was well educated in my family? Because it is a farce. The whole DHS academic "thang" is a farce. I gave them my son with an 11th grade reading age in 9th grade, and they spat him out again less than two years later, with an 8.8 grade reading age, and still they fail to provide him with a Free and Appropriate Public Education.
What have the school board done in the 8 years I have been a diligent advocate? Nothing. Nobody has been brave enough to demand that our district take on board a program, that would serve all our children, not just the dyslexic students (yes....I might be a "naysayer" Mr. Brennan....but my vision is big). Currently, they have two programs at DHS, one for 4 students, and I'm not sure how many the other program serves, but neither program has invited my son to attend. Apparently, they must think it is OK to only be 3 years behind in reading, and 5 years behind in spelling. I suppose they are lucky he went there with an 11th grade reading age, but then I did spend an awful lot of money on private tutoring and private summer camps to make that a reality, otherwise, bless him, left to 9R, he would be in 11th grade with a 4th grade reading age.
I do remember Joel Jones writing to me about six years ago, telling me to "breath......I always told my daughters to breath deeply". Well, Dr. Jones, last time I looked, breathing kept a person alive, but it didn't help them to learn to read, write and spell.
Boy.....am I madly upset this morning. How dare they ruin my son's education. That's the bottom line. How dare they allow our children to drop out, and still they sit there and do nothing.
Nobody was really listening last night at the informal school board meeting over at the Rec Center. Where they just thinking "it's the usual suspects", and we will just spin the "usual 9R is brilliant" rouse back at them, so they can go home and think they said something of value?
I love some of the administration who were coming back at us telling fabulous rosy stories of success just to confuse the school board, but once again, 9R were not listening. My beef was about the lack of multi-sensory teaching or a scientifically proven method of teaching for our dyslexic children. Yet, I got to hear how we have Lindamood Bell at the high school, (which ONLY 4 students benefit from), and Language! programs (15 benefit), at all our schools, BUT the teachers say the students don't like Language! or don't go to school, so it is impossible to teach them using this methodology.
Once again we blame the students. Gosh darn it, I'm not sure why they would even bother to go to high school when they have an elementary school reading age, and yet, nobody with vision, can see that might just be the problem. That's because there is nobody with vision in the administration. How can there be, when I just had to sit through and listen to how well we are doing with dyslexic children, when my own son is 3 years behind in reading, and 6 years behind in spelling, despite my changing state law to recognize dyslexia as a specific learning disability. It's not like I'm asleep at the wheel, eh?
Apparently, this is acceptable. One school board member asked me: "What are you teaching him?" in response to my saying I allow my son to go snowboarding on a Friday. Incredulously, I asked: "What am I teaching him?" like a lunatic, trying to figure out the disconnect between us, after 8 years of advocating for dyslexic students in the state of Colorado, you would think my school board friend would "know" what it means to be in high school without the proper ability to access the curriculum. Yawn.
I know, if you don't have a dyslexic child, it is hard to imagine that they might suffer at the hands of some of their teachers on a daily basis, because after all, as one prominent soon to be ex member of the administration staff screamed at me once in front of about 20 mothers in Leigh Meggs house years ago, "Why do you always complain! Your child has two arms and two legs!" -- it's hard to look at our dyslexic students compared to say a child who suffers from cerebral palsy, and wonder what all the fuss is about.
But let me tell you, when your 4th grade teacher puts your child in the corridor for most of the year, or sits him with the principals secretary on a daily basis, and your 5th grade teacher forces your child to move his desk to the front of the classroom, facing the brick wall, (for total humiliation effect), and your 6th grade teacher blames your child for his lack of comprehension, as opposed to investigating dyslexia and studying scientifically proven methods of teaching so that the teacher might actually teach said child, and your 7th grade teacher gets back to sending your child to sit in a cubicle with the school secretary, and your 8th grade teacher can't get your child to read, because our kids don't just brush past the book and learn how to read, so the 8th grade teacher allows your child to lie his head on the desk like a 2 year old might, whilst she reads a book to him and his peers, who also can't read either (instead of teaching them to learn how to read), and your 9th grade teacher is saying: "At what point do you give up on them?" and your high school principal is overjoyed when the school thug beats the s*** out of your son and does nothing to re-address the balance, because it's "you", and they hate your mother for being so vocal, and your 10th grade teacher is giving your child A grades, because he is on an IEP, and it is easier that way to say he is an A student, even when the work he hands in, looks like a 5 year old did it, and he knows it's not his best work, but he also knows his teacher is a schmuck for falling for it as his best work and rewarding him with a bogus grade, and your 11th grade teacher is strutting around saying: "I don't have to follow the IEP, and by George you will recite, learn, spell, and decipher 56 root words by Monday, or go to the back of the classroom and put that Dunces Hat on," (which of course is an absolute impossibility for a dyslexic student to do.......in such a short period of time, and obviously against state and federal law to ignore the IEP and the accommodations and modifications written upon it) -- as a mother with a heart, you are going to conspire with your child a day out of school, simply so he stays alive, and doesn't end up on drugs or alcohol, or killing himself.
Christ....would you go to work every day of your life in a place that is detriment to your well being, with people who couldn't be bothered to teach you the fundamental right to learn how to (read), and treated you like a second class citizen, and still wake up every day for 14 years and repeat your misery? I wouldn't.
The facts speak for themselves. Over 80% of youth in prison are illiterate. That tells me if they had learned to read, chances are they would be fully functioning members of society. Reading is the fundamental currency for success in our western world. Without success, without the ability to access the school curriculum, how can you possibly stay focused in school? When you are made to feel like an imbecile every day of your life by just one person, let alone a procession of them, why would you even want to stay in school?
Nah.....I support my son 110% in all that he does, and our little conspiracy together, to play hooky on a Friday, when nothing much happens anyway since the half day thing happened, is my way of showing him that I "get it". He hates school, he only goes because it's fun to hang out with his friends, he is bored by school, has been since 4th grade and beginning in 9R.
About once a year, one teacher challenges him, and lights a fire underneath him or within him (it's currently his creative writing teacher over at DHS, because he is brilliant at creative writing, and she supports him by acknowledging and praising his work).
Snowboarding on a Friday lights a big fire underneath him too. He is brilliant at that, and it allows him to feel he gets to do something he can do, without the criticism and apathy that most teachers have when he enters their classroom.
I can't help but remember the Teacher's Breakfast this August. When the PIO did a skit for them. "Press 1 if you want an IEP....Press 2 if you want an IEP.....Press 3 if you want an IEP...." and so on and so forth, up to goodness knows how many buttons. She basically took the P.I.S.S. out of our dyslexic and special ed. students, and the worst part was, the teachers roared with laughter. It might have been funny, if it had stopped at "Press 1 if you want an IEP", but to make each button an IEP joke at the expense of our children, really wasn't funny. In fact, this skit shows you what is fundamentally wrong with our school district. It starts at the top, and trickles on down, and it is called "attitude", and of course, the sad part is, attitude is free. You don't need a big budget to spread joy into the lives of children you failed to teach to read, write or spell in 3rd grade.
Don't forget, based upon the NIH statistics, up to 1/5 of our district's students are in need of a scientifically proven method of teaching just like my son, or simply put, there are 1000 other children like him in our district alone. Yet, we leave them behind. Every day. It's not right.
The next leader of our school district will have to be a visionary, like Superintendent Joyce Bales was over in Pueblo 60, and is now currently working her magic in CA.
Someday, someone will tell me why it is so hard to teach dyslexic students to read, write and spell, because they have been doing it for over 50 years now and it was first diagnosed in the 19th Century.
Now that the word is out....I think the district has at least two candidates who will listen to the community and should be able to make a positive impact on the teachers, students and atmoshere. My opinion of the third is another of what we currently have. I think it will become blatenly clear who this is once the public sees and hears them. When you do your research, goodle them, talk to the teachers from where they came from, talk to students about the learning environments, study where they came from, what they have accomplished, make no bones to the school board as to who you want. My guess is that there will be a small group of people who make the decision who will try to 'sell' you one candidate over another. Make sure that the board is clear on what characteristics you believe the superintendant should posses. Let me know what you expect. Remember...it's your childs education. When the going gets tough....I remember all my former students who worked hard, weekends, holidays, after school to build a program that they would remember a long time. I am a school board member and am there for them. Disclaimer: I do not speak for the school board, I do not make decisions for the school board. I am one of seven. My opinions are solely my own as a concerned citizen. Thanks for being involved. .....and be sure to thank Jeff for all the time, effort, and diligence that he has put in. He has worked long and hard...for free.
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