Parent Meeting 3/23/2011

"The only person who likes change is a wet baby." 

I'm not sure who to attribute that quote to, as several different people are cited as having said it.  However, it sums up the parents' meeting last night.  The comments on this meeting are going to be different from what I normally do.  I won't cover everything & I will put my opinion in some places.

There seemed to be a lot of angst among incoming-Kindergarten parents about the proposed change to Full-day-every-other-day Kindergarten from 1/2 days.  Let me say: It will be okay.  Currently, in the half-day setting, Kindergarten teachers have 2 1/2 hours to get everything in.  That is not a lot of time for what they need to accomplish.  If anything happens to get them off schedule by 5 minutes, there is no time to get back on track.  With a whole day, if something gets you off schedule by 5 minutes, there is an opportunity to make up that time.   Part of that 2 1/2 hours is spending time to gear up & wind down.  That amount of time out of 2 1/2 hours is a significant percentage....out of a whole day, not so much.  The students will actually be gaining instructional time.  We have great Kindergarten teachers and I'm sure they will be able to structure the day that is advantageous to everyone.  It is a great first step to all-day/every-day.  It's only taken them 12 years to get to this point. 

One of the other areas of concern was the dissolution of the teams for 7th & 8th grade.  Again... it will be okay.  Each way has its advantages & disadvantages.  One clear advantage I see for the proposed structure is the flexibility it will give for scheduling.  This would have been good for our youngest.  The math class and CA classes she needed to be in were at the same time.  She ended up in a lower math class than she should have been in because of the CA class she needed.  Having no teams would have allowed her to be in a more appropriate math class. 

One concern that was shared was about kids being "guinea pigs".  Your child will be a "guinea pig" at some point in their school career no matter where they attend school.  Every time a pilot program is introduced, your kid is a "guinea pig" (Project Read, the Scott Foresman series).  Every time a new assessment is introduced, your kid is a "guinea pig" (i.e. high school students taking the Keystone exams this year to set the standards). 

There was a lot of discussion about what could be done.  Dr. Newcome spoke about the Octorara Regional Planning Commission.  He again emphasized that people need to contact their local municipalities and make sure they are ready for commercial development as the economy improves.  The district NEEDS that commercial development to ease the tax burden on residents. 

People complain about their school property taxes, but in a lot of ways the district's hands are tied.  They are limited in how much they can raise taxes, but have no control over taxable property or mandates from the state that increase costs. 

Another area that was discussed was athletics.  The goal of the district is to move to private funding for sports.  This has been several years in the making - although many people haven't wanted to recognize it.  There were some comments that if that is the case, then the district needs to "get out of the way" and let the clubs do what they need to.  There were questions about coaching salaries & whether the clubs would be bound to the contracted points system.  That would need to be negotiated out of the teachers' contract.  Audience members asked that it be considered during negotiations.

The administration would not discuss the current contract negotiations.  Audience members made it clear that the teachers need to understand how difficult it has been for a lot of people over the past few years and that the negotiating team needs to be tough.

For the most part, the meeting was civil and informative.  I wasn't sure that it was going to be, as someone who isn't a parent of a current student seemed angry & antagonistic with his questions.

The rest of the meetings should be just as interesting.