WHAT'S NEXT? RECONFIGURATION, PART 2
On Monday, June 2, the Williston School Board will be hosting a "School Reconfiguration Forum" at the Williston Central School Auditorium from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. The Forum is a continuation of communication initiated by the Reconfiguration Committee for Change and will include School Administration, Williston School Board, Teachers and Williston Residents. (Click "read more" to continue)
At the first public forum sponsored by "Williston Reconfiguration Committee For Change, approximately 125 residents came together to voice publicly, their questions, concerns and satisfaction of the Williston School System. Numerous questions and comments were compiled and presented to the Administration/School Board. A School Board Meeting at CVU High School on May 14 also brought many comments from Williston Residents.
At the forum, the Administration will publicly respond to the questions presented to them regarding but not limited to: communication with and involvement of parents with regard to the reconfiguration plan; number of hours of instruction in core subject areas (state of Vt. requires minimum 120 hours each for math, science, social studies and language arts), curriculum and scheduling, inconsistency in academic quality among houses, alternate configuration options, length of school day, creation of the separate elementary school and questions about four year vs. 2 year placements and/or looping. There will be time allotted for the public to respond with questions/comments to the Administration/School Board.
All children/families are affected by reconfiguration. Whether the current system does or does not work for you and your child(ren), please attend the forum to become fully informed of the issues at hand. Now is the time for all Williston residents to set aside a few hours and take a vested interest in our childrens' education.
This forum is a vital step to finding common ground among parents, administrators, teachers and the community who all want to produce well-rounded, well educated students who will be prepared for the many challenges that they will face as they enter society as young adults.
Mary Whitcomb
Williston
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
School Board Reconfiguration Community Forum!
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3 comments:
I urge everyone who has concerns or questions about the current configuration plan to come to the forum on Monday.
I, for one, want to hear details about the changes in the Upper House. There is a lot of talk that Full House is no longer going to have an extra group of 8th graders. Is this true? If so, why? And why hasn't this been shared with parents? What is being done with those extra 8th graders? How about the extra teacher?
Will Swift House still have the extra group of 5th graders?
Will all same-grade students have lunch together? Will 5th graders have some classes together across houses? How will this work?
Will band still be held in the middle of the day? Can it be moved after school to open up more academic time during the day--especially since we aren't tied to the CVU buses?
These are just a few of the questions I hope to have answered.
Reading the Burlington Free Press this morning sent a shiver up my spine. I left the forum feeling that everyone had a great platform to air their opinions. I also left knowing that our administration is listening and is working hard to provide a great education for our children. The article presented Williston as divided, and I'm sorry, that is not the case. Ultimately, this tone will impact us all in a negative way. Home values, school budget votes, state funding...let's look at the bigger picture. It's time to trust experts, work more positively for change that has merit, and realize that we have a great school system. Let's take the energy from the meeting and try to build a better school budget that can accommodate language, more music, more enrichment. Then, lets rally to get that budget voted in. Let's not bruise our town's reputation.
I disagree that we have a strong school system. I felt like this was repeat of the forum a month ago. I don't think a lot of people appreciated the lack of response from the administration/schoolboard to questions that were already posed. I think we need more communication and interaction from administration than the School Bell. Communication is key and needs improvement. I also think that before we add more language, enrichment, etc. that we need to make sure the basics are being met.
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