I've never went to a school board meeting before, but I really wanted to have a question answered so I decided to go. A few weeks ago I was told by a school employee that a project, a remodel of a intermediate school, was $20M over budget. $20M overbudget for a school remodel?? That's why I went. I arrived at 5:30pm, the board meeting was called into session and I was promptly escorted out of the auditorium because there was an executive session and the public wasn't invited. Oh well. I met a lady in the cafeteria and we began to chat. She has three kids in this school district. At 6:30pm we were invited back into the auditorium and the meeting continued. Lots of agenda items, some perked my ears up, some were hohum. A school employee named Steve, I later found out he was the grand poobah of the physical building guru(sorry I don't know his title), stood up and proceeded to explain how the remodel of the intermediate school was progressing. $15M has been spent as to date with a total cost over run of about a million. He explained in detail on why the overruns happened and I fully understood what he was saying.
The meeting lasted about two hours but what really frightened me was the lack of people in the audience. Only myself and the lady with three kids were present. That's it. A school district with about 2000 kids and probably 10K+ residents and only TWO people show up for a school board meeting.
Is this common for other parts of America? If so then I completely understand why our schools are turning out dolts. No parental oversight of the board members. No input. No nothing to keep the school board on a path which most parents want. I plan on seeing the Superintendent of the school system and the guy named Steve. Pick their minds and express my wishes on how to make the school a better place for the kids. Somehow the board wants to spend large quantites of money on buildings but the average percentile this school system has, compared with the entire state, is around 37% for reading comprehension and 43% for Math. Something is not quite right in this district. Maybe I'll figure it out.
If you have suggestions on how to raise the percentile rates please let me know.
These huge school systems need to be dismantled. We need to go back to the basics. Parents need the time to be more involved. Our society has never allowed for it. Everyone is running here and there with no focus on what is important. The other night I was at the table with people who still had kids in high school - all they talked about was soccer and show choir. Really? It’s all boasting and bragging about their kids. We have lost our way... Today’s kids are being raised by these phones. Very little kitchen table conversations going on current events. School systems have consolidated and have become so big, they keep all the 4th graders in one building so they never grow up and mature into adults.
I grew up with K-8 in one building. The older you were the more responsibilities you had. The little kids looked up to the 8th graders. Now some of the 8th graders can’t even talk because they are so unsocial and you can tell how much time a kid spends on their phone.
Have you ever met a home schooled kid who is teenager and doesn’t have a phone? They are some of the most intelligent critical thinking adults we have!! Smaller schools with mixed ages in the classroom is how kids grow and learn fast. I was in a split 5th-6th grade class. The teacher was so impressed with how much the 5th graders achieved that year...when you teach to 2 grade levels you increase their knowledge! They know what it takes to improve education, they are getting paid to dumb down our students, it’s called equity. Equity translation = dumb down.