Riverside decision the wrong choice |
| December 14, 2012 |
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The audacious hypocrisy of a public school board
insuring that they will fund a school for
another school year, then voting to close it
mid-year, with only six weeks' notice leaves my
mouth hanging open! At the June 12, 2012, board meeting, Mr. Conley stated that, “the students are the most important." Then, six months later, turns 180 degrees with a knee jerk reaction to a star-rating system that gives five options for low rating schools, NOT one! Our board admits their own confusion to this system. There are 99 schools in our state with the same five options. Why are we the only district closing our school? What an embarrassment! Education is proven to keep our prison rates, welfare rates and crime rates down. How then can any sane person possibly think that it will be in the best interest of these 26 kids to be placed in a “large” (20’x20’) classroom together with four teachers teaching four different subjects? Subsequently, this will jeopardize their education! These are already “at-risk” kids, meeting the state criteria for admission into an alternative school setting. Many of these kids have a hard time in larger classroom settings, thus creating the need for an alternative setting. If "the students are the most important,” shouldn’t our school board be looking at the other options? These students have already expressed their intent to drop-out, thus lowering our district enrollment further! It is simply outrageous to throw a closure unexpectedly at these high risk kids in mid-year. This board is not considering the immense negative impact this will have on all 26 childrens' emotional health and education. As a voter, a tax payer and a parent of five kids enrolled in this district, I am outraged at the idea of closing yet another school because of a lack of desire to improve our kids’ education. Riverside School is giving teens a good place and keeping them off of our streets, out of crime. I fear the day we decide to close all of our schools down “because they did not perform well enough on a test!" I would say it is time to show our children how to rise up against dishonest, un-kind elected officials! Maybe if we as parents all write to this board, they will reconsider this disastrous decision and keep our schools ALL open … |