|
|
|
After Monday night’s heated meeting between the community, the school administration and School Committee, one thing is very clear: Things are going to change around here.
It took Avery to become an “underperforming school” under the No Child Left Behind Act to get parents out and demanding better.
A day after receiving a wonderful, “Welcome to Second Grade” letter from my daughter's teacher, I found myself reading a very different letter from the principal explaining that our school had been “identified” as needing improvement in math.
What really raised my eyebrows was seeing we had a choice to transfer to another elementary school until Avery gets back on track.
Within hours of getting the letter the phone was ringing and my e-mail inbox was filling up. What was everyone going to do? What does this all mean? How did we get to this point? Fear spread throughout the Avery community and beyond. Oakdale and Riverdale friends were instantly worried about their child’s class sizes and school resources. How would this all work? Where is the principal? Parents were calling the schools only to receive voicemails and messages announcing that administrators were on vacation.
Finally , a call came from Assistant Superintendent Cynthia Kelly announcing there would be a meeting on Monday night to explain the letter and our choices. This quieted things down, only because parents got busy and started doing their research.
For me, the next several days were spent scouring the Massachusetts Department of Education's website looking for data, comparing the schools and trying to figure out what “level” offender Avery had been identified. I was desperately trying to make sense of it all. The language of education and millions of acronyms from AYP, to CPI to SGP had me going to bed at night with a headache.
Finally, meeting night arrived and I went prepared to listen and prepared to ask questions. I was in good company. The gymnasium at Avery was packed and the energy was high. The administration and School Committee looked scared, and frankly, should have been. After a carefully crafted presentation by Kelly that addressed a lot of basic questions, parents were allowed to step up to the microphone and one by one we did.
Everyone one from Superintendent June Doe to School Committee member Tom Ryan were doing their best to answer the barrage of questions from, “Why didn’t we know what was happening last year?” to concern over the cutting of recess and turning the school into some kind of pressure cooker where kids, teachers and administrators are operating at high levels of stress. At the end of the two hours there was still a sense of confusion and frustration as parents looked at each other wondering if they were going to leave or stay.
After Monday night’s heated meeting between the community, the school administration and School Committee, one thing is very clear: Things are going to change around here.
It took Avery to become an “underperforming school” under the No Child Left Behind Act to get parents out and demanding better.
A day after receiving a wonderful, “Welcome to Second Grade” letter from my daughter's teacher, I found myself reading a very different letter from the principal explaining that our school had been “identified” as needing improvement in math.
What really raised my eyebrows was seeing we had a choice to transfer to another elementary school until Avery gets back on track.
Within hours of getting the letter the phone was ringing and my e-mail inbox was filling up. What was everyone going to do? What does this all mean? How did we get to this point? Fear spread throughout the Avery community and beyond. Oakdale and Riverdale friends were instantly worried about their child’s class sizes and school resources. How would this all work? Where is the principal? Parents were calling the schools only to receive voicemails and messages announcing that administrators were on vacation.
Finally , a call came from Assistant Superintendent Cynthia Kelly announcing there would be a meeting on Monday night to explain the letter and our choices. This quieted things down, only because parents got busy and started doing their research.
For me, the next several days were spent scouring the Massachusetts Department of Education's website looking for data, comparing the schools and trying to figure out what “level” offender Avery had been identified. I was desperately trying to make sense of it all. The language of education and millions of acronyms from AYP, to CPI to SGP had me going to bed at night with a headache.
Finally, meeting night arrived and I went prepared to listen and prepared to ask questions. I was in good company. The gymnasium at Avery was packed and the energy was high. The administration and School Committee looked scared, and frankly, should have been. After a carefully crafted presentation by Kelly that addressed a lot of basic questions, parents were allowed to step up to the microphone and one by one we did.
Everyone one from Superintendent June Doe to School Committee member Tom Ryan were doing their best to answer the barrage of questions from, “Why didn’t we know what was happening last year?” to concern over the cutting of recess and turning the school into some kind of pressure cooker where kids, teachers and administrators are operating at high levels of stress. At the end of the two hours there was still a sense of confusion and frustration as parents looked at each other wondering if they were going to leave or stay.
I myself am going to stay.
I’m going to stay because I love my daughter’s teacher, that she had in first grade and knows her well and will help her grow and develop emotionally and academically.
I’m going to stay because I want to be inside my child’s classroom as a helper, an active member of the PTO and community. We will both feel like “outsiders” if she is suddenly in school across town.
I’m going to stay because at the end of the day, no matter what the school provides, what I do as a parent and put into bringing up my child is what’s going to matter most.
I’m going to monitor her homework completion, listen to stories about her day, feed her nutritious meals, and get her to bed at a reasonable hour. These are ways to help improve my school.
Schools can’t raise my kids, but they certainly are a partner in doing so. As in any good partnership, respect and communication are qualities that make it succeed or fail. The partnership between Avery parents and the school administration needs to improve. Parents can’t be afraid to voice their concerns or ask the hard questions. Administrations have to trust that parents want the information. If there is a problem, we want to be part of the solution, not cast blame. If we aren’t aware, how can we engage?
I am looking toward the future and using the energy from Monday’s community meeting to launch this academic year at Avery. It’s time to dig deep and address the socio-economic challenges Avery faces head on and not to use them as excuses anymore.
We all need to do what’s best for our children. When Washington politicians met and decided the consequences and made school choice one of them, they really didn’t put themselves in the shoes of the parents, the children or local communities.
An individual choice is easy if it is clearly a better option for the individual. Did the politicians think about the collective impact of so many individual decisions to leave a school? If an Avery parent transfers his or her child does this translate to “It isn’t good enough for my child, but it’s okay for someone else’s?” The choice is difficult. However the decision to stay allows the possibility for a positive change and the opportunity to be a shining example of what can happen when a community works together.
