*****This is for my local readers. The following are my thoughts and opinions. I am just a parent not a teacher, administrator, or member of the FAC.
Last night, I went to a Ferndale School District Facilities Advisory Committee Meeting Presentation/Forum. Try to say that 5 times fast. It helped to dispel some of the rumors going around. There were a lot of people there. I don't think they were quite ready to test out there presentation on so many.
Some of the recommendations that were put forth by the committee were to move 6th graders to Middle School, close a school, and adjust boundary attendance lines. THESE are only recommendations/proposals that are being investigated. There are number of things that would have to happened. Mainly two levies will have to be passed. One is an maintenance and operational levy (M&O )and the other a Capital Project Levy. Neither of those are for sure things. Though a levy has never failed in our town but a bond has. They did have a proposed/recommended 5 year timeline. The proposals in their self need a lot more specific details to get the public on board. I think it is tricky to show people your specifics because it also makes them more polarized if they haven't bought off on the whole proposal. I think this meeting was attempt to let people in and make them feel part of the process. Later when people get upset, they will say, " Hey, we gave you a chance to comment."
We broke into small groups to discuss the proposals. It seems that most people were concerned with 6th graders being part of the Middle School environment. There also was quite a bit of discussion on current class sizes which in many schools is quite large already. There were also voiced concerns about transition. The need to know well in advance. I sat with parents from Skyline, Cascasdia, and Vista Middle School. When met back as a large group, the discussion centered around 6th graders moving to Middle School in 2012-2013 school year. The overall feeling in my opinion was that parents didn't want their 6th graders in a Middle School environment. There were have to be an overwhelming academic argument I believe to convince most of the parents to go for this proposal of putting their 6th graders in Middle School. At least, that is the feeling I got from the meeting. Someone expressed that is the main reason they chose Ferndale School District was that 6th graders were in Elementary School. They felt this added value to Ferndale. Ferndale is the only district that doesn't include 6th graders in their Middle School. I should preface that most of the parents didn't seem opposed to having 6th graders on their own campus or 6th/7th together.The Superintendent of Schools, Linda Quinn emphasized that there was a trade off for small elementary schools and that was larger class sizes. Though one would be led to believe that larger schools don't have small class sizes either. This was never voiced. She said that numerous times that there would be a trade off. In addition, closing a school would allow the district to keep more teacher and save programs. Some felt that the proposals were being presented as a done deal.
****I did not stay for the entire discussion in part because we seemed to be basically rehashing the proposal that left a lot of gaps.I was there for a 1 1/2 hrs. These were the main unanswered questions - when does a decision needed to be made, is it really cost effective, what school would need to be closed, what boundary would need to be changed and numerous other details. I don't believe the committee or the board are ready to make those specific decisions. Talking in generalities just left me feeling that the discussion would never end.
No comments:
Post a Comment