Having been through years of school closings, budget cuts and realignment of attendance center boundaries, I've witnessed and experienced the positive and negative aspects involved.
There were a lot of negative feelings among the parents. Some still have those feelings and have pulled back from helping in the school. As for the kids, they're just fine. Sure there were nervous feelings over the changes, but the kids adjusted well and moved on.
One thing I can recommend is that the BOE be very open and up front about the changes. They need to tell everyone what is happening and why. They need to recognize the negatives and positives of the changes and do everything they can to help parents and staff understand the issues and how to handle the negatives. Our board had several occasions where community members could voice their opinions and ask questions. Sometimes, just being able to "get it off your chest" can help someone better cope with changes.
It's just so sad that our education system as a whole is in such a awful financial state that districts have to even consider closing buildings and making extreme budget cuts.
In response to the person who said their district talked about eliminating sports then kept them: At least your district consider it! When we were looking at big budget cuts a few years ago, I asked(Yes, I like to ask the hard questions)why there were not cuts to the athletic programs in the proposed cuts. I was told that is an area that brings on the wrath of parents when cuts are proposed. I said it was sad to think that sports were more important than reading and math teachers. This person didn't disagree, they just said it was one of the unfortunate facts. Later in a public forum a board member voiced that he had a student tell him that sports was the only thing keeping him in school. My response to that was "What does that say about our schools? At what point did we lose this child so that he feels so negative about school that sports are the only thing keeping him here?" I told them we obviously have some other issues we need to look at and fix so that doesn't become a common statement. I also asked what happens to the child who becomes disenchanted with school like this young man, but isn't an athlete?
Been there twice. We use to have 4 elem. schools(each one was k-5), 2 yrs. ago our supertintendent/boe said due to budget cuts from the 'gov'(thank god she's up for relection....I bet she won't get it.)the schools were going to be restructured. East became 1-2. west became k only. Black River & Inverness became 3-5. If this was being done for educational reasons, our teachers & parents would have been happier but it was not the case. We also ended up with bigger classes at least 25 in each class. In the long run....it cost more in bussing because bus routes had to be redone. Well at the end of last school yr. another round of budget cuts (thanks to the gov.) my school closed & the other schools were restructured yet again. West became k-1, East became 2-3, & Inverness became 4-5. A lot of parents won't join the ptos because of the changes. MY B.R. parents got burned. We bought & installed $10,000. worth of playground equip. that we raised for 2 yrs. only to find out about 2 weeks later after installation our school was closing. We have a super. (who does have a tough job) who can't give straight answers & really doesn't care about what the parents have to say because he's going to do what he feels is necessary & our boe goes along with him. I feel for all the teachers who had to keep moving buildings. Again the bussing had to be redone. Its not easy having kids in all different schools but East & West combined ptos (wish they were separate) & Inverness is struggling to keep going next yr. A lot of parents won't fundraise or join the ptos anymore. It hasn't been easy on any of the kids either especially the B.R. ones. We were in our own little world & made to feel like family. By closing my school..it save $140,000 out of a million dollar budget cut. They were even going to cut all high school sports except football, basketball & volleyball. Some how the school kept all sports & all the teachers that were given their pink slips came back. The only reason B.R. was closed & not Inverness was that Inv. had 1 more classroom than us. Sorry but this has left a bitter taste in our mouths. Maybe if the super. & boe would have been willing to work with us, we wouldn't of been so bitter. I've tried to remain as positive as possible for my kids. Good luck on your split.
A few years ago our 4th & 5th grades were moved into another school. We were not happy about it, but it really had to be done due to space constraints. Many of us have children in both schools. For this reason the school start and end times vary by 15 minutes to help us get back and forth between both schools. We deal with it and it is not really a problem.
I think the main thing to look at is why they BOE feels these changes are necessary. In our case the change was better for our children who can now be in a classroom of 20 kids as opposed to being in a classroom of 28-29 kids.
BOE is proposing splitting K-3 from two schools into one, and 4-5th from two schools into a seperate school. Three years from now, I would have three kids at three different schools.
Does anyone have any experience with such a split? Pros/cons welcome. Of course parents are not happy, including myself...I would like other's opinions as well [img]smile.gif[/img] Besides teacher/staff moves and everything else, is there anything to be gained by this?
