School Board Meeting on Wednesday Night at 7pm!

Hello Neighbors,
Here's a little update on how things are proceeding.

On Monday afternoon the core organizational members of the Reconfiguration Campaign for Change will be meeting with Walter Nardelli, Jackie Parks, John Terko and Carter Smith. We will present them with the entire list of questions and comments compiled at the forum and have included ALL of them both for and against the current plan and the issues surrounding academic rigor. We will NOT be asking for Walter to answer the questions at this meeting. We feel it is Walter's responsibility and obligation to respond to the community himself. We will instead be addressing key concerns we have, which we would like to have addressed by the administration. We will give you all a complete report after the meeting.


THERE IS A SCHOOL BOARD MEETING THIS WEDNESDAY AT CVU at 7pm and we have been informed that the issue of reconfiguration is on the agenda. We encourage you to make this meeting a priority. This is everyone's opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback to the administration, superintendent and school board and to work with them to make our school system even stronger. (Click "read more" to continue)
There is also time allotted for public comment prior to the beginning of the formal agenda and as long as there are questions, they will defer the beginning of the formal agenda items. Please come prepared with a question or we can hand out the questions we gathered at the forum to give to anyone who may not have formulated one in advance. This is an extremely important meeting. Please plan to attend!!

The dialogue we stimulated at the forum is very important and everyone's voice counts. We know that there are some who feel that we are not acknowledging that some families are very happy with the structure the way it is. We want to reassure you that we hear you and respect you just as we hope you can hear us and respect us! We are all part of this community, let's listen to each other and try to hear what each other is saying. We all want what is best for ALL the children in our community. There is room to find common ground and improvements that will benefit all of Williston's children.

One of our main objectives for this Campaign has really transformed to be to improve the academic rigor for all students in all houses. Williston needs to not only improve to meet state minimum requirements for a "course of study" in science and social studies they need to be exceeding it just as our fellow CSSU middle schools and neighboring middle schools do. Minimum should not and cannot be good enough for our children in this rapidly changing and complex global society with exploding technology and scientific advancement. The Williston community, school board and administration need to work together and strive to be the best! We need to go from offering below minimum requirements to providing maximal instruction in all areas.

Through this process we have also learned that there needs to be a system of accountability (checks and balances) which assures all houses are meeting the Grade Level Expectations for each grade each year. Right now there is no reliable accountability system in place. This is exemplified when children switch houses and then miss key academic curriculum and/or repeat others.

The academic rigor piece is HUGE and is significantly impacted by the structure of the house system. There is very little flexibility for scheduling, less time for "core subject instruction," limited sharing of academic resources and teaching expertise and little to no ability to group children from different houses for advanced and/or tutorial classes/instruction as needed. Our kids need this sharing and grouping to maximize their education and their socialization. Nearly all other middle schools can do it and we can too!

We'll be in touch. Thanks for your support. Keep writing, keep calling, keep the momentum rolling!

Remember, we need you there at the School Board Meeting on Wednesday May 14th at CVU at 7pm.

With great respect,
Your reconfiguration team-
Abby, Jason, Sarah, Michelle, Mary, Sandy, Nancy, Kevin, Jeff and Ann