Schools again...

Excuse me again whilst I take another detour. The leader of the local NAACP spoke at a press conference today about the state of the Huntsville City Schools. I cannot comprehend the comment that the problem with test scores lies not with the students or the parents but with the schools themselves. As a parent of children who attend a racially balanced school, I cannot accept this statement. This is no more true than saying that every white child is smart. Every child is different. I do not know the teachers in the schools to which she was referring but I know that some if not most of these teachers are there because they believe they can make a difference for these children. Learning does start at home. Parents have to model the behavior and set expectations for their children. Schools can help, but the re-enforcement from home is so important.

Spend a little time with Mark Strong and learn about the Lincoln Village Project. See how these children truly suffered from a home enviroment that was not conducive to learning. This group of volunteers went into Lincoln Elementary to mentor and tutor those children. They modelled for them the way to study and commit to learning. If it does not come from home, someone must teach them these things. Now that Lincoln and MLK have merged, the hard work is starting over. The teachers must be won over and the new students taught what was learned at Lincoln.

I have been raised and have tried to raise my own children to know that the color of a person does not matter. What matters is character and moral values. The Lord does not look upon our exterior but on our hearts to see who we are.

A great article on Huntsville and our lurking problem.

This story from the Huntsville Times is a good one. It really points out how wonderfully we are positioned for growth but that we still have a problem with which we must deal.

http://blog.al.com/huntsville-times-business/2011/02/leaders_predict_more_huntsvill.html

What's the fix?

Okay - I'm going off the path again so I'm going to beg your favor while I bend your ear about a subject near and dear to me. That's right! The current state of Huntsville City Schools has me worried and concerned for my children's education.

Huntsville is a city that has so many things going for it. We have a large military installation that is growing. We have a NASA center. We have multiple colleges and universities, including UAH which is a leading research school for science and technology. We have multiple research parks. One would think, and rightly so, that we have a very well educated populace. They say we have more engineers per capita than any other place. I don't doubt that at all. And the number of residents with advanced degrees is staggering.

I have barely scratched the surface of things that are great about Huntsville. When we relocated here in 1998, we rented a house for 1.5 years. That time allowed us to find our place in the area. We knew where my work would be, and then we found child care. And soon we had found a church. Our oldest enrolled in a dance program. And then we began to work with a realtor to find a place to purchase. We looked in the city of Madison. We looked out in the county. We checked out neighborhoods all over. The traffic in Madison was a nightmare and I don't see where that has improved at all in the past 13 years. If anything, it has become worse with the influx of new citizens.

Madison county, and to some extent Madison city, have mushroomed. Cotton fields have become subdivisions almost overnight. The county does not provide the services that come with city living and the zoning laws are not very strict. You could find your new home downwind of a pig farm if you weren't careful. They are the growth areas and it seems realtors often start their clients in these areas. But because we knew after 1.5 years that Huntsville is where we wanted to be, we were able to narrow our focus.

Huntsville will continue to find most new residents gravitating to Madison city and county if we don't fix the problems with Huntsville City Schools! What problem? The debt that is hanging around our neck like a millstone! The current total is $19.5M. That is not small change. Things have gotten so bad that the state board of education has threatened to step in and take over.

So now we find ourselves faced with difficult choices. We have already had a significant round of cutbacks at the schools. For instance, my children's school only has a part time assistant principal and a part time counselor. We have to share these administrators with the other magnet school (k-8). It makes it very difficult to arrange a conference when the person is out of the building. And that is just small sample of things all over the city. We also closed several schools this past year. There were hopes that at least one of the buildings would sell quickly after the school closed. Now over 1 year later, these building still sit empty with taxpayers still covering the utility bills that are required whether the buiding is in use or not.

Then comes word that our board is over paid! This has been going on for 2 years! Even with the cut back in pay to the max allowed, we have the highest paid board in the state! Incredible! If only our schools reflected that.

So now things are coming to a head. A former state superintendent is being hired to come in and help the current superintendent make the decisions necessary to balance the budget. Mind you, the current superintendent is a lame duck. She has resigned her post and will leave as soon as an interim can be put in place. It is hardly fair for an interim to handed this problem and told to make the cuts.

So what happens now? Rumors are swirling all over town! Some say the magnets will be targetted but they are still part of the court ordered desegregation. Unless the order is lifted, there is no way for the magnets to be cut. It is said that ASFL has the highest number of locally paid staff. I'm not sure what that means for them as certainly, the locally funded positions are being targetted. Non certified staff are going to be cut as well. Does that mean fewer aides in the classrooms? Fewer custodians to clean? Fewer maintenance workers to maintain an aging set of buildings?

I don't have any answers but I am following the debate closely. Like many other parents and homeowners, I will be watching to see that my children continue to receive a quality education in an environment that remains safe and nurturing for them. I am watching to see that cuts are made equitably. It is not fair to target one side of town and not the other. It is not fair to cut programs that advance our children's education. I believe that the arts make a difference. I believe that gifted education is vital. I believe that foreign languages are a requirement for success in a global society. I believe that learning a trade can put an individual on a path to success. I believe that our schools are a tool for growth. If Huntsville expects to benefit from BRAC, our schools must be fully funded and flourishing.

I would love to know what you think about this. Do you have ideas to improve our schools? Have you met with resistance before? Maybe now is the time to put those ideas into practice.

Division in Huntsville

I will start by saying that I love Huntsville, AL! It is a wonderful town to live, work, raise a family, worship and prosper. But I have serious concerns about our school system. The horrible rift that surfaced this spring and summer is very discouraging to me. Then this week I read an article about the budget planning session that happened on Thursday. It is clear to me that the administration is not supportive of the magnet programs that Huntsville offers.

Our magnets are not like those in other places. The magnets in Huntsville were created following a court order for desegregation of the school district. The DOJ court order still stands and the system seems unwilling to do what is required to fix it. I am the first to admit that I am a huge fan of the magnets here.

My children have attended the Academy for Academics and Arts for years now. My oldest has just left after 9 years there to attend high school. This school has afforded my children an education that is not available anywhere else in the city. They have had art, dance, music, drama, strings and all of the academics as well. I know there are flaws at AAA. There are some programs that are stronger than others, but I see a group of educators and parents working together to make things great. We chose not to send our oldest into the high school magnet for arts because we knew she had a great foundation for arts already and it was truly time to concentrate on academics. She is enrolled in the IB program at another school. This program is not part of the DOJ order but its feeder school is part of the magnet system.

I'm very fortunate to live in a town that has choices outside of our district schools. Not everyone has a choice. And not everyone who has a choice will exercise it. I would encourage parents to really look hard at what these magnets offer your children. It can be a great foundation for your child. I really feel for the parents of Johnson and Butler who are eligible to transfer their children based on the low test scores of the children.

I found myself very upset this week with the article in the Huntsville Times in which the finance director for Huntsville City Schools really seemed to drive a wedge between the schools in this city. His comment about how the magnet high school would have more teachers than mandated by the state while another school would have less seemed very hurtful. Also comments about how the two top high schools were too full to accept transfers seemed suspicious to me. The only choices then left for the parents trying to transfer from a low performing high school are the magnet school or the high school where the IB program resides. On the plus side for these students, they have the opportunity to find a quality education. They may not be accepted into the magnet or the IB cohort but surely they will find a better school.

The magnet schools exist because of a court order but they provide an exceptional education for the youth of our city! To belittle them in this way seems wrong. Because our city has not done anything to remediate the situation that the magnets address, they will remain. But to treat them as second class schools will only perpetuate the problems that brought about the court order. Lee High School is home to the arts magnets but kids who excel in these arts are also able to excel in academics. If we do not support the academics in these schools, smart parents will not choose them for their children. Why would you want to send your child to a school that only excels in the one area? Children deserve to receive a complete education. Even now, many parents are supplementing the education that their children receive and I know that occurs in schools other than magnets. Smart parents look at all the options for their kids and try to make the best choices.

We chose IB for our oldest because it promises to be a wonderful way to further her academic career. She is already taking an AP course as a freshman and with hard work, will have college credit at the end of this year! This program came to Huntsville because of our military and civil service families. Kids that are educated overseas are frequently in these programs. It is also quite prevalent in the DC area suburbs. She may very well have a full year of college credit by the time she graduates high school and hopefully several scholarship offers! We are also supplementing her education with private voice lessons. She has a lovely voice and was accepted into the vocal magnet but she also a terrific brain and was accepted into the IB cohort class. The cohort class is very small, probably under 40, but what a great transition that made!

So sorry for the rant but I'm truly a concerned parent trying to make the best choices for my children. Selling my house and moving to another district is not an option at this time any more than paying for private school would be. Hence my rant. If you should read this, please consider all the issues confronting our schools, not just the one in your own district. We are a community that deserves to have top notch schools all over the city. Our children deserve a quality education. Vote accordingly in the school board elections!