Update on the School District Task Force Report and
School Board. July 19, 2006
Dear neighbors,
Despite the calm at Champlain and Edmunds schools, the district administration
and school board have been busy. The 2008 budget process has begun and teacher
contract negotiations are ongoing (in fact-finding at present). More important
for the long term, the task force report (online at
www.bsdvt.org) is on the table. District
administrators met for two days last month to consider the report, and reached
consensus on their favorite idea for socioeconomic integration – the creation of
separate K-2 and 3-5 schools to replace our current six K-5 schools. That plan
was preferred by principals more than the idea of simply redistricting or
creating magnet/theme elementary schools with parental choice (i.e. no
geographic districting at all). Advantages of the K-2 and 3-5 model include
concentrated age-related resources and professional teams, and ease of student
assignment policies that promote integration versus the other plans.
The Board will go through a similar process of considering the various task
force observations and proposals at its retreat next month, and it will be
interesting to see how our perspective compares with the administrators’. These
conversations are just the beginning of lots more to come. At its July meeting,
the Board authorized our chair to appoint an ad hoc committee to organize a
substantial process for collecting public feedback on the task force report,
which will begin in September, and conclude in time for the real decision-making
and number-crunching that happens in November. One big decision in all of this
is the time-frame for change, which has not yet been discussed at all.
As far as timing goes, we do need to consider that plans for the sale and/or
lease of the Taft and Ira Allen buildings are going forward, and that means that
we probably need to relocate our district administration, Horizons, On Top, and
EEE programs at the end of this school year. As always, every penny we save on
bricks, mortar, energy, and maintenance costs is a penny we can spend on people
and programs. In August, the finance committee will move forward a motion for
the creation of an ad hoc committee on facilities. If approved, those folks
will systematically review all our buildings, consider their strengths and
weaknesses, repair needs, capacity, etc. and determine various options for what
to keep and how best to move things around.
The recent flap over a change in the City Kids administration (not even in the
program itself) was a good reminder to me of how hard change is when it comes to
kid and school issues. All I can say is that change is coming whether we want
it or not. We need to be proactive over the next few years if we are going to
maintain the excellence of our district and city and avoid bringing forward
huge, potentially-unsuccessful tax increases to our already-burdened voters.
Good communication will be essential as all of this unfolds.
Along with most districts across the country, we are beginning to face the
punitive elements of the federal No Child Left Behind act. Under this
controversial law, after the second year that even one ‘sub-group’ of students
(i.e. free-or-reduced lunch, Native-American, etc.) in a school fails to meet
“adequate yearly progress” (AYP) on standardized tests, federal education funds
must be set aside for parents to use to access private tutoring, and students in
that school must be given the choice of transferring to another one that has
made AYP. There will be news from the District on this soon.
Eventually, schools that don’t show improved test scores for all subgroups of
children face severe “corrective action” or the loss of federal funds (i.e. our
federal tax dollars do not come back home). Some legislators now are attempting
to speed up the process by which parents may use public funds to pay for tuition
at private and even faith-based schools as a logical extension of NCLB.
In order to make AYP, many districts outside of Vermont have taken their most
challenged students out of the reporting loop, by creating charter schools in
disadvantaged neighborhoods. Some of these schools have worked well, but far
too often the strategy for success is limiting the curriculum to test subjects
(i.e. just reading, math, and maybe science). The big picture in these schools
is institutionalized segregation, minimal education, non-union teachers, and no
local control – these schools are often for-profit ventures run by a corporate
board, rather than your (accountable) elected neighbors. I believe that the
task force vote for socio-economic integration in all our public schools is a
far more ethical and research-based solution to the achievement gap faced by
students from low-income families.
Throw into that difficult NCLB picture the obvious problems I have written to
you about before: our steeply rising energy costs, the end of some massive grant
funding (we’re talking millions over the next two years), salary and benefit
increases (we will soon begin negotiations with our bargaining units which
include employees earning less than the state-identified “livable wage”), and
declining enrollments (meaning less state money). If we don’t take a proactive
approach to change, our district will suffer from what historic preservationists
call “demolition by neglect.” Without serious attention and restructuring,
class sizes will rise, programs will diminish, valued employees will leave,
buildings will deteriorate, and our children will be the ones who are punished
for our failure to lead.
Don’t get me wrong – I am an eternal optimist. With your input, understanding,
and support, I am confident that we can manage the change we need to make in the
next few years in a positive, collaborative, and ultimately brilliant way (we
are Burlington after all!). Stay tuned, and stay in touch . . .
Amy Werbel
Ward 5 School Commissioner
12 Catherine Street
awerbel@bsdvt.org
www.amywerbel.info