Parents And Teachers Pack School Board Meeting
Students Plead For Their School To Be Spared, Board To Continue Budget-Cutting Talks
More than 100 parents, educators and students filled the aisles at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, and spilled out into the hallway. Every chair was taken. And for nearly 90 minutes, they came one by one to the podium to share their frustrations, applause and criticisms, to offer suggestions, to extol the virtues of Cutler Middle School – pleading for its very survival - and in at least one case, to call for a head.
“I don’t really like your vision for this town,” Leo Roche of Mystic said to Groton Schools Superintendent Paul J. Kadri. “You should resign from your job.” Scattered applause followed his call.
But most of the residents that appeared before the board came to vent following the Representative Town Meeting vote last week that level funded the schools budget. The RTM approved a $72.6 million schools budget, thereby creating a $2.1 million budget shortfall.
One option to close that gap has been the threat to consolidate the town’s three middle schools, forcing one to close.
Cutler Middle School seventh grade student Ben Bousquet made his case for why his school should be spared the ax.
“I’ve lived at the same address for 13 years (and) I’ve been to four different schools," he said. "Does it really have to be five before I get to high school?”
And Jacob Carlson, also a Cutler student, articulated his position clearly; as if middle school wasn’t hard enough, having to go to another school would be “…unnerving for a teen in some cases, and in some cases, devastating.” He described Cutler as a “one of a kind” school. If it were targeted for closure, he added, “well, that’s ludicrous.”
Many, many more would speak.
Michael Kane has a 7th grader at West Side. He worked for 3 ½ years on the recently defeated Phase II schools building plan. In all that time, he said, during all the meetings held, “No parents came. None.”
Scanning the very full room, Kane said, “We need your help. It’s not the RTM’s fault. It’s not the (Board of Education's) fault. It’s not the superintendent’s fault that we’re here tonight. It’s our fault.”
And parent Christian Driscoll made his position clear: “Two things are very near and dear to my heart; my money and my children,” he said, to a raucous laugh from the audience. “Please consider programs and personnel. We’re not competing against Stonington …we’re competing against Beijing ….”
After the last citizen spoke, the board took a brief break and then re-assembled to begin the task of finding where to cut. More than half the audience filed out.
On the table were options including a savings of $500,000 if maintenance projects, school field trips, educator professional development and supplies were cut. A second option – a savings of $1 million --would include those cuts plus additional program cuts including eliminating the anti-bullying program, technology initiatives, and additional maintenance projects. There was also a call for playing with class size and reconfiguring middle school teaching teams in an effort to keep all three middle schools open.
“It’s the lesser of two evils plan,” said Kadri. Class sizes would increase with teacher student ratios “not ideal;” 24 students to one teacher at Fitch Middle, for example. “It’s a down and dirty analysis, but if we want to keep the three schools open…”
Class size and team tweaking would mean no teacher layoffs, Kadri said. But it’s a short-term solution at best.
Board member Rita Volkmann cautioned the board that the plan is just a “first look.”
“This has to be scrubbed down,” she said.
Kadri joked he’d need a day to make the plan work on paper. But said there was still another “million plus” to carve out.
“You have to give me until at least tomorrow afternoon,” he said.
Groton also faces the underlying issue of racial imbalance, which the district still has to grapple with.
No matter what gets done now, Kadri said finances next year will be worse.
“We’ll have an even bigger gap next year,” he said. “Well over $1 million in federal money falling off the table. And without Phase II, we’ll be $2 to 3 million (in the) hole.”
“We had a vision. That’s gone,” said board member Chaz Zezulka. He said readjusted middle school teams and larger classes sizes won't be enough to fix it long term.
The board will meet again next Monday before its regular meeting to try and reach agreement on what and where to cut.
JO-ANN DYAKIW
8:38 am on Tuesday, May 17, 2011
THE MORE I HEAR ABOUT WANTING TO CLOSE SCHOOLS AND BUILD NEW AND LARGER ONES MAKES ME VERY UPSET. EVERYONE WANTS THE BEST FOR OUR CHILDREN BUT I THINK ITS GOTTEN WAY OUT OF CONTROL. WE ARE SO CONCERNED WITH CLOSING AND BUILDING MEGA SCHOOLS THAT THE CHILDREN ARE SUFFERING. HALF OF THE CHILDREN IN THE GROTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS CAN'T READ BUT EVEN WORSE THAN THAT CAN'T EVEN WRITE THEIR NAMES IN CURSIVE. WHY? ITS BECAUSE THEY WERE LOST IN THE SHUFFLE WITH THE SCHOOLS CLOSING AND BEING PUSHED FROM ONE SCHOOL TO ANOTHER. I THINK ITS A DISGRACE. WHEN I QUESTIONED THAT THE KIDS DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO WRITE IN CURSIVE I WAS TOLD BY A PRINCIPLE THAT ITS A COMPUTER WORLD, THEY DON'T NEED TO WRITE. WHAT ABOUT SIGNING PAY CHECKS OR IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS WHEN THEY GET OLDER? I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT THEN AND I CAN'T BELIEVE IT NOW. IF WE TRULY WANT THE BEST FOR OUR CHILDREN WE HAVE TO GO BACK TO BASICS AND START TEACHING THEM HOW TO WRITE, READ AND PUT MORE EMPHASIS ON ACADEMICS THAN SPORTS AND FORGET ABOUT CLOSING AND BUILDING NEW SCHOOLS. FIX THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN THE SCHOOLS AS THEY COME UP, DON'T WORRY ABOUT HOW MANY KIDS ARE IN EACH CLASS, DON'T WORRY ABOUT COMPETING WITH OTHER TOWNS OR OTHER COUNTRIES, CARE MORE ABOUT ACADEMICS THAN SPORTS AND THE CHILDREN WILL TURN OUT TO BE PRODUCTIVE YOUNG ADULTS.
JO-ANN DYAKIW
Beth Crowley
7:15 pm on Tuesday, May 17, 2011
I don't want Cutler to close nor do I want to see full-day Kindergarten eliminated however I am so tired of people making erroneous comments about what our children aren't learning and using that as justification to say we aren't getting what we are paying for. For example the statement in the previous comment "Half of the children in Groton Public Schools can't read." Really?! My fourth grader IS learning to write in cursive and my first grader is reading chapter books by himself (partly because of the amount of time spent on early literacy skills in his full-day Kindergarten class last year.) Oh and my older child was redistricted from Noank with no ill effect on her education. Obviously we have some serious issues to deal with here but let's at least base our decisions on facts not ridiculous exagerations.
Jennifer Sim
7:29 pm on Tuesday, May 17, 2011
I think we are all feeling the tension and frustration. We have a significant part of the population that wants to fund education to create the best education possible for all children. We then have part of our population that believes education would best be served as a private service. So the conflict of extremes is pulling on everyone. We are the adults and we are all (parents, elected officials, taxpayers, etc) responsible for the outcomes. The RTM made a decision to fund some aspects of the budget such as returning money to road projects and keep others, like education, at zero. That is a choice. This means the BOE has to determine the best way to adjust to the choice the RTM made by impacting the fewest programs possible. If the RTM is the voice of the voters then we have to prepare ourselves with the possibility that the funding of education is not a priority in this community. I hope I am wrong but I also know how many community members were out to support the budget the night of the vote. While we are all angry at what we may be losing as a result of the zero budget, we have to really think about public education. Is this valued in this community? If so, then speak out for it. While the public forum here is one place, you really need to contact the RTM and Town Council. They are in charge of how funds are spent in this town.
Neal Gardner
7:50 pm on Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Jennifer,
Cutting full day kindergarten is not the worse thing.Most of our generation went to half day kindergarten and we seem to have turned out ok.Just a suggestion.
Jennifer Sim
9:47 pm on Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Neal,
Thank you for the feedback. I do know many children do okay in half day K. I am sure you are aware that demands on individuals today has changed dramatically. When you examine industrialized nations and their efforts in early childhood, the U.S. is behind. So I suppose we can just say, the U.S. did okay but look at where the U.S. is globally now. Doing "ok" is just not enough. Leaving philosophy aside, the fiscal benefit from investing up front is too good to ignore. So if we really are talking about saving money for Groton and keeping the BOE budget as tight as possible then we have to use the most efficient ways to educate children. 1/2 Day programs only cause more remediation and special education services down the road for students that sometimes are never recovered back into the mainstream. If it is about money it has to stay and if it is about what it takes to be more than okay in this present day, then it needs to stay.
Greg
11:14 am on Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Jennifer,
I want to reply to your comment, but I do not want you to think I am attacking you personally. I would say the same thing to everyone with the thinking that all-day kindergarten and pre-K programs will fix our district. The fact is that this is a "speed up to get to the red light" attitude. Why spend all our energy trying to push the kids in pre-K and kindergarten just to let the smart kids rot away in the corner waiting for the rest of the class to catch up when they get to upper elementary and middle school. You do realize that the kids are thrown into teams, irrespective of their abilities. You do realize that we instill mediocrity in the district in order to preserve ethnic, racial, and socio-economic equality. This is a district that would take the kids from Cutler (the school with the highest mastery test scores) and divide them between the other two schools (with the lowest test scores) in order to water down the entire pool of kids. I say this because this is how it appears. If there is someone from the district or the BOE that can not just dispute this but explain what is really intended...I implore you to speak up! The people are here and we are listening.
Kris
11:46 am on Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Neal...times are very different now. Some families don't have the luxury of having a stay at home mom...both parents work. I'm not saying that this is a reason to have all our kids get full day kindergarten but it is an issue that myself along with many face. Daycares age out and it is hard and expensive to find after or before school care that is affordable. The full day also gives our kids time to process what they are being taught, half day is such a joke now. There is not enough time for teachers to teach everything that they try to do anymore.
JO-ANN DYAKIW
9:36 am on Wednesday, May 18, 2011
BETH ANN
THATS GREAT THAT YOUR KIDS DIDN'T FALL THROUGH THE CRACKS WITH READING, LEARNING TO WRITE IN CURSIVE AND THE REDISTRICTING, BUT OTHERS DID SO YOU SHOULD CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY THIS TIME. AS FAR AS KINDERGARTEN GOES, HALF DAY KINDERGARTEN IS ENOUGH. BY THE TIME ALL DAY KINDERGARTEN EAT THEIR LUNCH AND TAKE THEIR NAP, THERE ISN'T THAT MUCH THEY LEARN THAT HALF DAY KINDERGARTEN DOESN'T.
Jennifer Sim
11:47 am on Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Here is more detail on Full Day K. I believe Ms. Dyakiw has some false assumptions that I believe many share.
http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/po-05-01.pdf
Beth Crowley
5:58 pm on Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Great article Jennifer thanks. And it points out another benefit to full day K, the cost savings associated with eliminating mid-day bus runs that are necessary when you have half-day programs. In the article it stated that New Mexico saved over 5 million dollars.
Jo-Ann, saying some kids fall through the cracks is much different than saying half of all Groton school kids can't read. I also don't believe my children are the exception but rather they are the rule. And if that isn't true as you suggest, I don't see how providing less funding for education is the answer.
JO-ANN DYAKIW
11:25 am on Thursday, May 19, 2011
JENNIFER SIM AND BETH ANN
THANK YOU FOR THE DETAIL ON FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN. MY KIDS ALL WENT TO HALF DAY KINDERGARTEN. I WAS VERY HAPPY BECAUSE I WANTED TO HAVE THE EXTRA TIME TO SPEND WITH THEM. FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN WAS ONLY STARTING WITH A LOTTERY DRAWING TO GET INTO IT. MOST OF THE PARENTS I KNEW WANTED FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN SO IT WOULD HELP THEM OUT WITH DAY CARE WHICH I DIDN'T BLAME THEM ONE BIT. THINGS HAVE COME A LONG WAY SINCE MY KIDS WERE IN KINDERGARTEN BUT WITH THAT SAID I HAVE A SON WHO'S A CHEMICAL ENGINEER SO I DON'T FEEL THAT BY HIM NOT GOING TO FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN HURT HIM IN ANY WAY, SO I STILL FEEL THAT HALF DAY KINDERGARTEN IS ENOUGH AND I WOULD RATHER USE THE MONEY THAT WOULD BE PROVIDED FOR THE FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN TO HELP THE KIDS IN THE HIGHER GRADES WHO AREN'T DOING AS WELL AS YOUR KIDS.