Board of Education Meeting

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Board of Education Meeting; March 6, 2006 Your thoughts
Tweet Topic Started: Mar 5 2006, 11:27 AM (7,542 Views)
grant_two	Mar 7 2006, 10:33 PM Post #106
2nd Grade Posts: 13 Group: Members Member #339 Joined: March 7, 2006	NFarquharson Mar 7 2006, 10:05 PM Tell us what you like about the LI if you would. As you are all aware, the idea that there were going to be school closings coming was running rampant through many of the buildings. We, at our school, knew that ours was probably on the chopping block. I was unable to attend the meeting in Oct. when the LI was announced, but did watch it at home. I was stunned, but pleasantly surprised at the new ideas being brought forth. There will be transitions, not a huge issue for most kids. There will be some who will require special attention, but I think most will be fine in the long run. I attended 3 elementary schools and it was not a horrible thing, but that is my story. The 5/6 model should be wonderful for most kids. They have a different set of needs than the K-4th graders. I am not saying they have "special" needs, but have different needs than the lower ele. and this can be more efficiently handled if they are located in fewer buildings. I appreciate the BOE not dividing neighborhoods. I have friends who attended Adams, Riley and then sent away from their friends to separate high schools Livonia is built on it's neighborhoods and although we can't fund a neighborhood school, we can keep the kids together at another school. As for bussing, you could live in parts of Canton where the kids are bussed past 3-4 different schools that are full. Only to attend a school miles away from home. Canton has been built up so fast that the home schools can't keep up, even with portables. In the meantime, kids get sent further and further away from home. I would prefer my child walk to school, as I did, but it seems that is a thing of the past. At our school, even the children who live within walking distance get picked up. Very few walk, which is a sad state of affairs, but not relevant to this conversation. I am sure there is more, but it seems to become redundant. I have read the posts on the forum discussing support of the LI and most of what they have said rings true with me.



NFarquharson	Mar 7 2006, 10:40 PM Post #107
Principal Posts: 4,311 Group: Members Member #103 Joined: November 9, 2005	grant_two Mar 7 2006, 10:33 PM NFarquharson Mar 7 2006, 10:05 PM Tell us what you like about the LI if you would. As you are all aware, the idea that there were going to be school closings coming was running rampant through many of the buildings. We, at our school, knew that ours was probably on the chopping block. I was unable to attend the meeting in Oct. when the LI was announced, but did watch it at home. I was stunned, but pleasantly surprised at the new ideas being brought forth. There will be transitions, not a huge issue for most kids. There will be some who will require special attention, but I think most will be fine in the long run. I attended 3 elementary schools and it was not a horrible thing, but that is my story. The 5/6 model should be wonderful for most kids. They have a different set of needs than the K-4th graders. I am not saying they have "special" needs, but have different needs than the lower ele. and this can be more efficiently handled if they are located in fewer buildings. I appreciate the BOE not dividing neighborhoods. I have friends who attended Adams, Riley and then sent away from their friends to separate high schools Livonia is built on it's neighborhoods and although we can't fund a neighborhood school, we can keep the kids together at another school. As for bussing, you could live in parts of Canton where the kids are bussed past 3-4 different schools that are full. Only to attend a school miles away from home. Canton has been built up so fast that the home schools can't keep up, even with portables. In the meantime, kids get sent further and further away from home. I would prefer my child walk to school, as I did, but it seems that is a thing of the past. At our school, even the children who live within walking distance get picked up. Very few walk, which is a sad state of affairs, but not relevant to this conversation. I am sure there is more, but it seems to become redundant. I have read the posts on the forum discussing support of the LI and most of what they have said rings true with me. Which needs of the 5th and 6ths graders would you say can be addressed in the 5/6 buildings but not in a K-6 building?



angrymom	Mar 7 2006, 10:44 PM Post #108
Principal Posts: 53 Group: Members Member #129 Joined: November 15, 2005	grant_two Mar 7 2006, 10:33 PM NFarquharson Mar 7 2006, 10:05 PM Tell us what you like about the LI if you would. As you are all aware, the idea that there were going to be school closings coming was running rampant through many of the buildings. We, at our school, knew that ours was probably on the chopping block. I was unable to attend the meeting in Oct. when the LI was announced, but did watch it at home. I was stunned, but pleasantly surprised at the new ideas being brought forth. There will be transitions, not a huge issue for most kids. There will be some who will require special attention, but I think most will be fine in the long run. I attended 3 elementary schools and it was not a horrible thing, but that is my story. The 5/6 model should be wonderful for most kids. They have a different set of needs than the K-4th graders. I am not saying they have "special" needs, but have different needs than the lower ele. and this can be more efficiently handled if they are located in fewer buildings. I appreciate the BOE not dividing neighborhoods. I have friends who attended Adams, Riley and then sent away from their friends to separate high schools Livonia is built on it's neighborhoods and although we can't fund a neighborhood school, we can keep the kids together at another school. As for bussing, you could live in parts of Canton where the kids are bussed past 3-4 different schools that are full. Only to attend a school miles away from home. Canton has been built up so fast that the home schools can't keep up, even with portables. In the meantime, kids get sent further and further away from home. I would prefer my child walk to school, as I did, but it seems that is a thing of the past. At our school, even the children who live within walking distance get picked up. Very few walk, which is a sad state of affairs, but not relevant to this conversation. I am sure there is more, but it seems to become redundant. I have read the posts on the forum discussing support of the LI and most of what they have said rings true with me. What are the "special needs" of 5th and 6th graders? This keeps being brought up but no one ever says what these needs are. Right now these older students play important roles to the younger grades such as reading buddies and helping out with the kindergardeners. Shoving the 5th and 6th graders out seems like it will just make them grow up too fast. There is just no stability which will harm acaedemic achievement



Derek	Mar 7 2006, 10:49 PM Post #109
Principal Posts: 137 Group: Members Member #269 Joined: January 5, 2006	Good points grant two, but for many, the benefits of 5-6 schools of 900 kids were not so evident. My girls did very well at Roosevelt in 5th and 6th grades. They were "buddies" to younger students that taught them to respect and appreciate others before they were old enough to just be snotty and disengaged. Sending 5th and 6th graders off by themselves deprives them of that opportunity and infact sends them to that Middle School mode 2 years earlier than now. As a middle schooler, my oldest is really getting full of herself and learning many lessons in this regard. I personally am gald that she remained at Roosevelt and spent those years bonding with others so she is more respectful and knows what's right and wrong when faced with middle school pressures. My youngest, 6th grade at Roosevelt, pickes up the neighbor girl in first grade and walks her to school for her Mom. Her Mom has two little ones that she doesn't like to take out so this works perfectly. At the same time it teaches my daughter a valuable lesson of helping and understanding of the little rugrats quirks too. While I agree 5th and 6th graders are differnt that their lower el counterparts... I DISAGREE that they have to be seperated to get a better education. As far as specials go... gym? they have recess... music? they still could do it in Elementary as they are this year!, and 20 minutes of a foriegn language? PLEASE... they will take a full year or two in high school... But most of all Grant two... the Board did not open up for input... and so as genuinely concerned as I truly feel they are about education... I will vote to re-call them unless they stop this plan. -Derek



momoffour	Mar 7 2006, 11:22 PM Post #110
Principal Posts: 181 Group: Members Member #231 Joined: December 15, 2005	I just find it amazing all the needs these 5th and 6th graders all of a sudden need The last of my foour children will be leaving the sixth gradeI have had children in the elementary schools since 1989. I wont even go into all the changes that have gone on through the years. I also find it amazing that people are willing to allow thier child to go from a school of 300 or 400 to 900+ . If they have all these special needs would it not make sense to leave them in a smaller school setting. Talk about helping them growing up faster then they are already.



momoffour	Mar 7 2006, 11:23 PM Post #111
Principal Posts: 181 Group: Members Member #231 Joined: December 15, 2005	oops should have checked my spelling



NFarquharson	Mar 7 2006, 11:48 PM Post #112
Principal Posts: 4,311 Group: Members Member #103 Joined: November 9, 2005	I also do not understand those "special needs" of 5th and 6th graders. So many of us, myself included, were products of this school system or others that had a K-6 elementary configuration. Why all of the sudden are there special needs for 5th and 6th graders? Have we done a bad job with them up until now? Are we saying that we have not been meeting those needs all along over the past 40 or more years? When I compare the K-6 schools of today with those in my era, it seems to me the kids already get "specials" that we never had, which is wonderful! I know we never had a seperate art special with an art teacher and of course we didn't have computer lab. We did art projects right in our usual classroom with our regular teacher and many of us sang in a church youth choir. I guess we did get a plastic flute in 5th grade and we got to make hidious noise with musical instruments in 6th grade. I don't see this as a major benefit, as I believe that the children can actually learn just as much if not more about music in a vocal music class with a good teacher at much less expense. In addition, there music lessons available after school, even some that are quite reasonably priced via LPS Community Education. I realize not everyone will afford private lessons. I guess the only special need I see is that for many of these kids, the hormones are starting to flow. I assume they still teach sex ed or whatever they call it at that age. I would love to keep the kids in an environment that will be more likely to encourage them to remain young and innocent as long as possible and that is K-6.



amomof2	Mar 8 2006, 09:02 AM Post #113
Principal Posts: 161 Group: Members Member #110 Joined: November 11, 2005	Count me in for someone that doesn't understand the "special needs" of a 5th or 6th grader. I do believe, however, that they have a need of feeling like they belong. My 5th grade son feels like he's going to be segregated from the rest of his school. He understands it will be all of his classmates going, but cannot understand why they need to be put in a different school.



cmic	Mar 8 2006, 09:05 AM Post #114
Principal Posts: 1,530 Group: Members Member #217 Joined: December 11, 2005	I don't understand the "special needs" either because it is almost an admission of not meeting our kids needs before this plan. I truly believe that teachers can always teach better, because we are always learning and whether or not they are in a different model school our students should still be serviced the same by their primary teachers.



fyi	Mar 8 2006, 11:04 AM Post #115
Principal Posts: 2,738 Group: Members Member #206 Joined: December 9, 2005	It's really quite laughable. In June of '06' your child is a fourth-grader, then "poof" in Sept. of '06' they are a 5th grader. They are suddenly transformed into another dimension and they are "special" kids with "special" needs who need a "special" school????? It's absolutely astounding what that three months will do to a child! :wacko: :wacko: :wacko: :wacko: :wacko: :wacko: If this is really true we should be angry that the BOE has not be meeting the needs of our "special" children! :angry: Are they saying that they didn't care before now?



for our kids	Mar 8 2006, 01:06 PM Post #116
Principal Posts: 106 Group: Members Member #109 Joined: November 11, 2005	grant_two Mar 7 2006, 10:33 PM NFarquharson Mar 7 2006, 10:05 PM Tell us what you like about the LI if you would. As you are all aware, the idea that there were going to be school closings coming was running rampant through many of the buildings. I was not at all aware of any school closings on the horizon. I walk my children to school, and pick them up every Monday, & Wednesday, and I help out in the schools every week, our school secretary knows me by name, several teachers know me as well, so let me say there was no talk whatsoever of any school closings coming! I resent that the post that "as you are all aware", as that is simply not the case!



cmic	Mar 8 2006, 01:42 PM Post #117
Principal Posts: 1,530 Group: Members Member #217 Joined: December 11, 2005	for our kids Mar 8 2006, 01:06 PM grant_two Mar 7 2006, 10:33 PM NFarquharson Mar 7 2006, 10:05 PM Tell us what you like about the LI if you would. As you are all aware, the idea that there were going to be school closings coming was running rampant through many of the buildings. I was not at all aware of any school closings on the horizon. I walk my children to school, and pick them up every Monday, & Wednesday, and I help out in the schools every week, our school secretary knows me by name, several teachers know me as well, so let me say there was no talk whatsoever of any school closings coming! I resent that the post that "as you are all aware", as that is simply not the case! I never heard it either, probably because I am at a school that isn't closing. So, this was all a shock to me as well.



Momforone	Mar 8 2006, 01:43 PM Post #118
Principal Posts: 127 Group: Members Member #131 Joined: November 16, 2005	cmic Mar 8 2006, 01:42 PM for our kids Mar 8 2006, 01:06 PM grant_two Mar 7 2006, 10:33 PM NFarquharson Mar 7 2006, 10:05 PM Tell us what you like about the LI if you would. As you are all aware, the idea that there were going to be school closings coming was running rampant through many of the buildings. I was not at all aware of any school closings on the horizon. I walk my children to school, and pick them up every Monday, & Wednesday, and I help out in the schools every week, our school secretary knows me by name, several teachers know me as well, so let me say there was no talk whatsoever of any school closings coming! I resent that the post that "as you are all aware", as that is simply not the case! I never heard it either, probably because I am at a school that isn't closing. So, this was all a shock to me as well. I didn't hear anything about schools closing.



ThatSuzyGirl	Mar 8 2006, 01:49 PM Post #119
3rd Grade Posts: 19 Group: Members Member #264 Joined: January 5, 2006	I had heard about school closings as a possibility just about a year before they announced the LI. Suzy



Grant1	Mar 8 2006, 02:37 PM Post #120
We have just begun to fight! Posts: 3,167 Group: Members Member #117 Joined: November 14, 2005	Talk about school closings has been going on for years and years. I have lived here over 30 years and it has always been brought up, especially during the major years of declining enrollment...heck, my Jr High was closed a few years after I left it to go to High School. What has never happened before is the closing of so many schools at one time, and the way in which this was done. It was always well communicated to the families and all affected stakeholders with previous BOE's and was always well planned and orchestrated. The LI is not well communicated, planned, or orchestrated....it is a sham and will cost this district - 2 cities - much more than anyone can realize... forever


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