ACSC Transitional Information meeting
Mon, 02/08/2010 - 11:33pm
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I went to the meeting tonight at Killbuck. I was at hoping to get some answers about the vision, strategy, plan for the upcoming school year and beyond. The nicest thing I could say is they probably should have delayed these meeting for a few more weeks so Dr. Chow would have actually had something to share. Another suggestion would be to rename these meetings to....."Meet Dr. Chow". That way people won't have any misconceptions of actually hearing something about the transition into next school year. Dave Stafford had to get up and walk out, it was that uninformative. It was said that Dave was at the previos two, so maybe it was just nothing new to hear. Killbuck parents did not show up, there might have been 20 tops. There was a rant by some about how we got where we are....building new schools, remodeling highschools, blah blah blah. Apparently those in the rant did not participate in any of the 2010 or pay any attention to the last 2 years of happenings. If it went on for 2 more minutes I was going to get up and walk out. I've ranted on here, but if you don't like it you don't have to read it. I asked 4-5 specific questions and Dr. Chow was unable or unwilling to provide anything close to a direct answer. At one point I interrupted him and asked the same question again, but gave him an answer and asked if that is what he meant. He looked at me like I was a jerk, or he was shocked that someone was paying attention. 1. How much is the new configuration going to save and how big is the projected budget shortfall from there? I learned that Detroit and California are much worse off than we are and that the global economy is suffering and affecting all facets of life. This was one question but I had to ask it three different ways to try to get an answer. 10 minutes later....The new configuration saves about $5 million and there is somewhere in the neighborhood of additional $6 mill shortfall (this jives with what I have heard before). He is going to present 3 options to the board to close the gap and staffing is the biggest cost. 2. What is the vision for planning and staffing the K-3 and 4-6? China and Italy have much bigger class sizes. Basketball was invented to keep football players sharp during the off season. There is every single configuration you could imagine in the world. China has 40 or more students per class and it can not be statistically proven that class size has anything to do with education. 3. What is going to be different other than the configuration of grades? Delphi left 3 years ago, how many years ago. He taught in Massachusets and symphony would be an excellent extra activity for kids starting as early as 1st grade. Las Vegas was building schools left and right a few years ago. Detroit should face the facts that they are not a city of 2 million anymore. 4. So the only difference you have a plan for right now is that schools will be bigger, classes will be larger, there will be fewer teachers, and that's all you have a plan for right now. Yes that is it. 5. So there is no vision or plan for a different teaching philosophy, staffing, organization structure.....people are working on it. Some systems 'loop' their teachers with the students....ie same teacher for 1,2,3 or 4,5,6. Then the teacher goes back to 1st or 4th.
He seems like a nice guy, well rounded, experienced....seems like he really likes to philosophize, goes off on tangents, and doesn't get to the point very quickly.
I am not trying to slam Dr. Chow or the meeting. My expectation was that there would be more data and a vison, or at least a strategy for the upcoming year to be shared. There are 11 more meetings. I might go to the last one and hope there is more information available. I feel that I was misled by the title of the meetings. It probably would have been great if my expectations going in were different. All I wanted to know is....this is what the strategy is....I didn't hear it. His philosophy on education is great. He has some good stories. But that is not what I thought the meeting was going to be about.
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I have a couple questions: How many board members were there? How many teachers were there? How many administrative people were there besides Dr. Chow?
YIPPEE!! new school board!!!!!
Dr. Chow asked for anyone representing board, admin, teachers, etc to speak up.
Tobi was there. One teacher was there. The Killbuck principle was there.
Chow: ACS still must cut $6 million
The prisoner wishes to say a word.............Freedom!!!!!!!
There were more teachers there who didn't announce their presence as teachers.
Several admin members were at the HHS and AHS meetings.
I agree that Dr. Chow has very little concrete information to share at this point.
I will share that there are committees in progress looking at things like magnet schools and other options that may be available to us. Still in progress and nothing to share at this point.
Please excuse me for eating all the chocolate...
Some will not be happy no matter what is done. If they were there for actual discussions they wouldn't be asking questions they already know the answers to. They know they won't like the answer given, but they ask anyway so they can bash away at the admin and say "They aren't telling me what i want to hear". Some are nasty, negative, bitter and seem to have no interest in helping come up with a solution. All they want to do is complain. Complaints are fine, but how about some solutions? Because they can't possibly cut what they have too without closing several schools and threats of moving kids out of district won't magically make more money appear to avoid closing schools.
Close the WIGWAM but that won't even come close to solving the money problems.
I went to all the challenge meeting last year, and what I learned was that we can cut and cut and cut and we will still have a short-fall.
What we need to do is make ACSC a place where people want to sent their kids. I remember last year, Mr. Robinson at Highland posted a wonderful plan for the 7-12 conversion on the Dear Martha forum. I thought it was so well done, I printed it off and passed it out to several people. I know Mr Fletcher from Highland also had some wonderful thoughts on the 7-12 plan.
People were excited about what we could become with the 7-12 plan. I had never seen people so excited about a plan that ACSC had. In the beginning I had high hopes that they would pick the 7-12 plan so we could really work together with the middle and high schools and make the schools strong again. Instead we throw the idea out and get a new plan that people don't like and don't want to get behind.
Once again its the same old story. Don't tell me you need to close Highland to save money. How are you saving money if you have hundreds of people leaving the system. All they did by closing the school was divide the community. Now we that are making other plans are the bad guys.
Sending my DD to a school all the way across town that has lower scores than the one she already attends isn't much of an incentive. She is an well rounded A student. I want her to excel, not move backwards. I want her to go to a school that will challenge her, not to a school where she is suppose to bring them up. Her job is to go higher and higher, not go backwards so other can catch up to her.
I think the lesson I am teaching her is that she is my #1 priority and I will do what it takes to make sure she succeeds, not that she needs to settle for anything less than what I feel is best for her.
There are well-rounded A studnets at AHS as well.
No one has EVER said there aren't well rounded students at Anderson. I know Anderson has wonderful students.
I have been out of town the last month attending meetings with coworkers from across the country. I never realized how stupid this whole situation is until I was explaining it to outsiders.
You have 2 high schools in your town that is losing residents.
If you only use figures to compare the two. One has a higher graduation rate, higher ISTEP scores, won the State Fair Band contest 4 out of the past 5 years, has a show choir that has won national honors. These are just a few of the things I came up with off the top of my head.
The other school is lower in graduation, lower in ISTEP and is known for the old high schools gym. Which one do you keep open.
Like I said, I know Anderson has wonderful teachers and students, but they just don't have the test scores to sell anyone on going there.
If the students and teachers are going to be consolidated anyway...are you saying there is something special about the bricks that make up the Highland building that make it better for learning?
Please excuse me for eating all the chocolate...
I guess all of those straight A students at highland will turn into failing students if they go to AHS.