Greetings All,
It's official. The letters to parents regarding the school reconfiguration plan are out. Letters were sent via email confirming the information we shared with you last week. If we didn't have your attention before, we certainly hope we do now!
Read the letter by clicking on the 'read more' link below.Dear WCS Administration, School Board, Superintendent Pinckney and the Williston Observer:
I was still holding out hope that you would reconsider the reconfiguration plans you had formulated before school vacation. I am, once again, extremely dissappointed, frustrated and angry. I implore you to go back to the drawing board, but with parental/community input this time!
First of all, I am upset with HOW the current reconfiguration was determined behind closed doors with the lack of involvement by parents and community. You asked for our opinion, and then ignored it!
After reading the letter announcing the changes for next year, I also find it quite compelling that the Administration feels that the students/families from Verve and Phoenix are the ones most impacted by this plan. Doesn't it dramatically impact the children in Voyager who are losing 2 teachers and getting 2 new ones? (Why isn't that house called Phoenix instead of Voyager as there are equal representations from each?) And, isn't the academic and social climate and presumed equality going to change dramatically in Swift and Full House with the new unequal balance of grades?
This is NOT a "reconfiguration" plan. This is a further degradation of the old system which the Upper House Parents and the Community just voiced against loudly and clearly, just as they have done numerous times before. How many times do the parents/community need to fight this unorthodox structure before things change?
FACT: This structure is not only social isolating and academically non-rigorous it is also not supported by ANY research as an effective or acceptable model of education. (Confirmed by Superintedent Elaine Pinckney via e-mail to me: "Walter will follow up with you on the research (or lack thereof) related to configuration of any kind.")
FACT: This structure is not used in the other CCSU Middle Schools nor anywhere else in the United States that we are able to identify through research. This "reconfiguration" does NOT make things better. It makes this structure much worse!
Financially there is a tremendous amount of duplication of services with the house system with each house requiring their "own" of everything. Teachers may not have had to be cut if there was not so much duplication driving up the budget! This structure also causes inflexible scheduling disallowing collaboration for advanced courses for same grade students who need them.
It is now time for an "evidenced based" model of education for Williston schools which has "proven" results and rigorous academics for all students. We finally need "academic accountability" across the grades and within the grades. We need each grade learning the same thing at the same time so when a switch occurs, no subjects are missed and no subjects are repeated.
Finally, I want my children to become acquainted with and experience learning with ALL of their age/grade and sex matched peers and not just the 4 or 5 (per sex) the school choses for them to be with for four long years.
It's time to reconfigure your reconfiguration and it's time to get it right!
The Williston School Reconfiguration Campaign for Change
To Concerned Our Community Members:
Please plan to attend the Community Forum on Monday, May 5,2008 at the Federated Church at 7pm. We need to unite and be strong! Spread the word. Get your friends and neighbors on board. Share our email address reconfig.williston.schools
Please write to:
Check our blog for some upcoming information about the Forum! You will receive an email alert once it's updated. Please also let us know how we are doing!
Thank you,
Williston School Reconfiguration Campaign for Change
12 comments:
When I heard about the changes Voyager, Verve and Phoenix had to go through, I was heartbroken. As a former Voyager student, it really hurts to see Deb Taylor, the spirit of Voyager, leave to a new house. All of this change is not necessary, and is just destroying the great system we had. If the majority of parents loved the 4 year house system, then tell me, WHY ARE WE IGNORING THE RESULTS? When I went through the system I loved it. Now, because of a few unhappy parents and students, my siblings have to suffer. We are ruining the spirit of the school. Why are we causing this unneeded stress? What we had, was great.
I think this post reflects the strong sense of house loyalty inculcated in students, to the exclusion of a sense of larger school connectedness.
As it happens, the majority (54%)of upper house parents have said they DO NOT LIKE the current FOUR-YEAR structure...so I'm not sure where the writer gets the idea that the majority "love the 4-year house system."
In addition, the changes alluded to have NOTHING to do with unhappy parents! These are, by the school's own admission, changes in response to staff reductions. The real problem rests with an administration that foisted change on a select group of students rather than having everyone own a piece of much-needed systemic change.
It is distressing to me to see the inflexibility and clannish behavior we are encouraging in our children via this system. Maybe rather than "suffer," this writer's siblings will actually be enriched by meeting children and teachers in different settings.
If all children experienced natural transitions more often, they'd not become so unhinged by changes in their environment.
In response to comment #2... I wonder how often are you forced to change your circle of friends? We are not encourageing clannish behavior. My kids have friends from other houses, but the majority of their friends are from their own house, a house which has been cut from the program. The majority of kids like the system they are in and your comment only served to talk down to a student who had the courage to publish a comment that is apparently "incorrect" to you.
I didn't see the parent letter until this morning. I sent an e-mail back to Full House asking what role Mr. Duncan would play in Full House next year. The response was that they hadn't yet determined what role he would play, and that 22 students would join Full House as well. I just sent an e-mail to the admin and school board. How can this possibly be a well-considered plan when they don't know what role a teacher will play in a house? It seems to me that that there are fundamental curricular implications at stake here, we can't just shuffle teachers around. Perhaps they do know what Mr. Duncan will be doing, and I was given misinformation. Either way, we should have that curricular information NOW. In the past, teachers in Full House have only taught in the content area in which they are certified to teach (it is not a "generalist" model) -- I have asked for information on Mr. Duncan's certifications as well.
I offered the original comments in response to the Voyager student posting.
PLEASE do not misconstrue my message... I have nothing but sympathy for those students who are being torn out of their houses. It isn't fair to any of them or their families!
But these changes have NOTHING to do with the parents who feel that the 4-year system is not working.
Instead, look to the school administration...this is THEIR plan and they did NOT take the input from the community to heart when targeting select houses for elimination and staff shakeups.
Has anyone noticed that- on the Parent Input forms sent to Verve and Phoenix parents- no where has the administration asked for input regarding student assessment. The manner in which Upper House students are assessed varies wildly and it seems that taking the opportunity to codify this piece of the puzzle at this juncture along ALL Upper Houses would do much to enhance connectedness and, more importantly, feelings of equity.
That's a very good point. There should be a standard set of questions asked of parents, teachers and the student, school wide.
Of course, if we had a more traditional 5-6 / 7-8 structure, this would not be necessary. I can't imagine the countless hours wasted bt faculty and administration trying to 'find the right fit' and appeasing upset parents who feel their children were placed in the 'wrong' house. If all the houses were truly 'equal' it wouldn't matter. But, I digress. Your point is a good one.
I would ask the reconfiguration group to please not discount the very many parents and students who are who happy and successful with the current upper house system. No, it's not perfect and no system will be. However, before throwing the baby out with the bath water, perhaps we should focus on trying to improve the areas where we are lacking. I don't believe the upper house system itself is the problem, but more so how it is implemented. I feel that's where the focus needs to be. Reviewing the positive comments from the survey on the upper house structure may be remind some of why students and parents are committed to such a system.
I am writing in support of the person who asked the reconfiguration group not to discount the parents who are happy.
Looking at your Power Point slides which show the results of the Community survey from the Fall of 2007 it is stated that:
"44% of parents do not support current upper-house structure"
"47% of parents do not support fifth-grade students being with older students"
"42% of parents do not support having four-year houses"
Well, the other side of each of these percentages show that:
56% of parents DO support current upper-house structure
53% of parents DO support fifth-grade students being with older students
58% of parents DO support having four-year houses
Yes, there are things we could be doing better, but the majority of parents are supportive of our current system. Working together, I'm sure we can enhance our current structure.
Why can't they just leave us alone?
When I read the comment "why can't they just leave us alone?" I cried. If that one simple question isn't enough to make you drop this thoughtless, hurtful attack on the school then I feel really sorry for you all. Remember... the majority of parents in this community don't want what you are trying to force upon us. If you are so concerned why don't you all spend more time with your kids and less time looking for press opportunities.
I have been in voyager house for 3 years and I have become very fond of our situation. Next year is going to be my and my friends last, the problem is it is going to feel odd as an 8th grader to have two new teachers we don't know and having to have kids want to switch out for the reconfiguration. we were all so happy before this happened. I think they had compleatly forgotten the kids thoughts on this problem. If you were to ask almost any kid in our school if they enjoyed the house they were in the majority would say yes. The unequal balance of teachers per house confuses me. I also think they did a bad job of placing and replacing kids in diffrent houses (for example...I heard that the new house Harbor's 7th grade class for next year will have 18 boys and 2 girls.) I am scared of what is to come with the enrollment decreasing there is no way this is supposed to help the decrease. un happy kids= un happy parents and un happy parents mean more problems. The last part i would like to write about is Mrs. Taylor. I remember as a fifth grader, i knew nothing about middle school and I would spend many nights crying in my bed. but she was always supportive of me. She kept me beliving. If you were to ask the voyager kids who their favorite teacher was a vast majority would say mrs. Taylor in a heartbeat she has become not only a teacher but a mentor and not only that she has also become someone you could trust. so in the reconfiguration in voyager, and all of the school I ask this question. "why, fix what is not broken?"
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