Today Karen Frisco predicted bruising battles about closing any FWCS schools as part of their "bold plans" to cut costs. Of course the cost reductions are necessary because the taxpayers are getting what they deserve after letting the legislature shift school funding from property taxes to sales taxes. We should have just let them continue to tax people out of their houses so the schools could keep their "stable" source of revenue. But that's just an aside and if you haven't been foreclosed on by now, you're probably OK.
No, Karen thinks the real tragedy is losing the anchors that neighborhood schools provide. They encourage parental involvement. Kids and parents have loyalties to their schools and the traditions they provide. But that wasn't a concern three years ago when Wendy and her consultant proposed closing five elementary schools and one high school as part of her remodeling project. That was a "sensible " plan because the Inskeeps and Karen Frisco were on the remodeling bandwagon.
She doesn't see any inconsistency between her feigned concern for neighborhood schools and her support for busing kids across town for the sake of "choice " and "racial balance" either. Only her hypocrisy is consistent.
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9 comments:
Wow, so Karen now knows how disruptive a school closing can be and how many people's lives that this really affects...do you suppose that she expressed this type of concern to Ball State University while trying with her BFF's at the JG and FWCS to close Imagine Schools? Are the children and parents and teachers and staff not as worthy as FWCS'S are?
Truth-
No on both counts, but those people made the unpardonable sin of opting out of FWCS, like board members Mark GiaQuinta and Steve Corona did by the way.
But inquiring minds would like to know what BFF stands for? You probably only need to explain the "B" and one of the "F's".
BFF
Best Friends Forever...it's a girlie thing, you know like Karen and Wendy and Krista...
..... and Mark...
So what is the opinion of this blog on closing schools? Do you think FWCS should close any schools? The Towles experiment seems to be working; will that be a discussion, to create more K-8 schools perhaps. just a thought.
Jules-
Philosophically I don't agree with closing schools. I believe smaller schools are better academically, especially in an urban district where individual attention to student needs is more important. I was opposed to merging Elmhurst with Wayne, for example, which I thought would just make Wayne a bigger failing school.
I also believe schools are important as neighborhood anchors, with proximity encouraging parental involvement. FWCS' cherished busing program has diluted this benefit, however. Not knowing how many kids are bused to any given school from beyond their neighborhoods, it's hard to say how much the benefit to neighborhoods has ben diluted or how much is being spent on busing for racial balance.
I don't know how successful Towles is. Are they selective in who they admit, for example? I know that when Geyer closed, most of the kids who didn't stay in the building went to Miami, which then became the worst middle school in the system. I would have thought that South Side would get better with Geyer gone because the kids I saw coming to South from Geyer were the most poorly prepared. But South hasn't improved.
Anyway, I don't get to decide.
Most of the students whom attend South Side come from Memorial Park and Miami. From what I know several students don't want to go to Miami, based upon the reaction with students and active parents.
Actually, closing schools is a good choice. Several of them have vacant classrooms, especially those on the southeast side. Interesting the students at Abbett are bused from the Fairfield/Pontiac area.
I saw a recent comment from Wendy that the buildings were overflowing, so closing any of them would be a good trick. After the bond issue failed we heard stories of teachers working in hallways and under stairwells. In the high schools, on the other hand, block scheduling means one out of four classrooms is unoccupied at any given time during the "plan" period. So its hard to know the actual feasibility of closing buildings.
There were issues in my child's middle school 4-5 years ago where several teachers were using mobile carts and going from classroom to classroom. I have not seen that lately. Perhaps classrooms have opened up because the Middle School Foreign language program was eliminated. I suppose as we drop these electives, classroom space becomes less of an issue.
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