So, after 5 steering committee meetings and 3 community forums what does the Board of Education do at its last meeting? Semi-reject the community consensus and begin considering another option that hasn’t really been discussed because it isn’t feasible. One board member clearly states that he’s going to rely on his “30 years of experience”, another seems to listen to her friends in the community and that “she’s heard that we should consider this”. Viva la community input. Viva la data (and I’m big on data!).
I resisted getting up off the couch during that meeting and going to the Board and speaking during the public comment period last week; I’m certain that I’ll be there a week from Monday summarizing this letter, that I sent to them last week.
If you’re *really* interested, you can go the school district web site and see the documents with the data I’m referring to…they are on the front page at www.okemosschools.net
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I'd like to bring to your attention the following thoughts on the reconfiguration options that the Board seems to be considering currently.
Summary
If the decision has been made to close Central Elementary school, the decision now, seems, simply put, to be to either adopt Option A1 or Option C&D. Another way of saying that is that the Board has to decide whether to close Wardcliff or Chippewa. That choice comes down to compromising the educational environment and reducing the extracurricular opportunities for 900 to 950 students for the near future (at least 5 years) due to overcrowded conditions at one middle school (see discussion under C&D, below) versus keeping an elementary school open that serves 240 students (and only approx. 50 students of those students live within a walkable distance of the school). Leaving Wardcliff open does nothing to reduce enrollments at the other three elementary schools (see the discussion under Option A-1 below), instead, it only creates a greater chance of realizing class size inequities by distributing students over more buildings.
Keeping children together for 5 years at the elementary level and 4 years at the middle school level, under a K-4, 5-8 configuration, is optimal.
Why Option C&D should not be preferred
It seems that the Board is intent on studying C-D as the preferred option for reconfiguration. There are several issues with this configuration that led the community and the steering committee away from it, and you should be well aware of them.
1) Overcrowding at the Middle School.
Below are listed the current enrollments by grade for the 2008-2009 school year (these include Montessori enrollments since those students will be attending the middle school).
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Below are the projected rolled up enrollments at a combined 6-8 middle school in the coming years using the enrollment data the District provided for 2008-2009.
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I'd like to make the following comments on these enrollments. All of these points were discussed in length at the steering committee when this option was debated.
a) The enrollments at current grades 3 through 5 are not completely accurate if they are projected forward. There are children at St. Martha's, Radmoor Montessori, home schooled, or other private schools that rejoin the district at the middle school level. The roll-up doesn't account for the increases due to continued expansion of Middle School Montessori. In fact, the "History of Enrollments" document on the District web site shows that enrollment in 6th grade has only once dropped below 300 students since 1990, regardless of the smaller class sizes at the elementary levels. Any decision to combine the middle schools in one building should be made in the full knowledge that there will be over 900 students in that building and that situation isn't likely to change soon.
b) The subject of middle school capacity was a topic that occupied the steering committee for a long time. I'd like to bring to your attention the following points:
i.While the district lists the occupancy as 1,000 and 1,250 in the data documents, this is very clearly incorrect and the administration identified it as incorrect early in the process. Members of the committee who were in the District the last time there were 900+ students at Kinawa described the use of portables and overcrowding that was intolerable....this situation led to the decision to build the current high school. It seems unconscionable to return to that state of affairs in the hope that it will 'ease' over time. I find it more than ironic that the Board will be in a position of 'hoping' that enrollments decrease to make a decision made now more palatable in the future if this option is pursued.
ii.The administration, teachers, and principals at the middle school level were asked, very pointedly, during Steering Committee meetings what they considered the reasonable upper limits of enrollment at the facilities (Chippewa and Kinawa) are as they are currently configured. The answer was 700 to 800 students. I confirmed this number with John Hood and Barb Hoevel by phone today; in very rough terms and without any independent verification, John believes Chippewa’s maximum reasonable capacity to be approx. 700 students; Barb believes Kinawa’s to be approx. 760.
iii.It was clear from the discussions that there is a considerable difference between having elementary schools at capacity and middle schools at capacity. Currently Edgewood runs at capacity and there are no issues; each of the elementary principals indicated that the same situation would exist at their school. The elementary schools are designed with the idea that children are, for the most part, assigned to one room and stay there for most of the educational part of the day. The middle school environment is different; to offer the length and breadth of electives the school requires movement, it requires space.
iv.Under a 5-8 configuration, whether it be 5-6 7-8 or 5-8, the number of children at each building would increase to approximately 600 students at each school. This is approximately more than 100 students than current enrollments, and, approximately 75-80% of the 'real' maximum capacity of each school
v.The middle school Montessori program is designed to increase enrollments at the middle school level; the District needs to factor that increase into the capacity at the middle school AND the extra space this self-contained program will require.
vi.To say that assigning an additional administrator to the building is the solution is the functional equivalent of saying that aspirin is the solution for the flu; it may hide and mask the symptoms, but they are still there.
2) Loss of Educational Opportunities at the Middle School Level.
I refer you to the pro and con sheet for Option C; you should be fully aware of the cons if you choose to pursue this option. Foremost among these cons is the lessened opportunity for children at this age to experience new and different opportunities. Athletic events, fine arts, and extracurricular activities would all either be reduced by 50% or have the teacher/coach/volunteer ratio increased by 100%. At an age when children are discovering independence from their parents, it seems highly inappropriate to reduce or restrict these options.
There won't be two orchestras, there will be one; either multiple sections will be offered with combined concerts or one section with large numbers.
There won't be two volleyball teams and two basketball teams at each of the 7th and 8th grade levels, there will be one. For most sports, reduced opportunities to compete at a higher level will exist.
There won't be two Knowledge Master Open teams, there will be one. Fewer individuals will have the opportunity to contribute or feel as if they participate.
This list is only the tip of the iceberg. At a time when our District's adolescents are finding their own way, you are proposing to limit the oversight, teacher interaction, and extracurricular options.
3) The status of the closed Middle School.
In terms of utilization outside of the school day, the middle schools are the most frequently utilized buildings in the District. Extensive remodeling has been performed at Chippewa to make it a community asset; the tennis courts, the auditorium, the gyms, the large meeting spaces (group rooms) are all utilized by the community in one form or another and depriving the children, parents, and community of this asset without considering the true cost of closure seems short-sighted. It has been suggested that Chippewa can be converted into a community center; I would suggest doing the research to make sure that Meridian Township is interested in this reallocation of their money before you believe it is an option.
Why the Board’s concerns about Option A-1 need further reflection based on available data.
The steering committee and the community at various times and votes have considered Option A-1 the most preferred option.
March 4th Steering Committee A1 - 26 votes C&D - 5 votes
March 16h Community Forum A1 - 233 votes C&D - 35 votes
The Board made several comments suggesting why A-1 would not be feasible for implementation. I'd like to take a moment to address those thoughts as well.
1) The loss of neighborhood schools. This catch all phrase is convenient for those who have a neighborhood school and is extremely disingenuous. Wardcliff is considered a neighborhood school, yet only 55 out of the 247 students that currently attend the school lie inside the transportation boundary and can reasonably walk to the school (I again, refer you to the data packet in the Master Plan, Appendix E, pgs 15-21). Is Wardcliff a neighborhood school for the approximately 40 students who are bussed from further east than Cornell Road? Is Wardcliff a neighborhood school for the 32 school of choice students currently in residence? I would submit that the appeal of a neighborhood school for, generously, 50 to 60 local students on a yearly basis is outweighed by the educational impact to 900 to 950 students at the middle school level. There is no evidence that closing Wardcliff would have an educational impact on the elementary children at that school; there’s ample evidence what overcrowding at the middle school level will do to that population.
2) Overcrowding at the elementary schools. This is a complete and total misrepresentation of the available data. Option A1 provides the lowest percentages of students versus capacity.
Please refer to Appendix G of the Master Plan. You'll note each Option lists the predicted enrollments for the schools under each option, and, while they might not be entirely correct, they are based on the same model and that should be sufficient for comparison purposes.
Note 1: Middle School enrollments for Option A-1 (535 and 610) don’t seem to include Montessori enrollments. See the enrollment data presented in the C&D discussion above, two grades should be a minimum of 600 students under any scenario. I’ve tried to estimate it here by adjusting the middle school numbers to represent the rolled-up Montessori enrollments by taking the 951 enrollment presented in the Option C&D documentation (MS 6-8 with Montessori) and adding the District enrollment in Grade 5 (presented in the A1 discussion above, 308) for a total of 1259. Let’s agree just for capacity discussions the numbers should be 600 and 659. Even if Montessori 5th grades stay at Edgewood, that would only remove 20 to 30 students to the Kinawa enrollment.
Note 2: I make gross assumptions on what schools are assigned certain enrollments. Hiawatha has to have any enrollment over 405; the designation of Bennett Woods and Cornell for certain enrollments is arbitrary and could be reversed.
Note 3: I'd also refer you to the current composition of the Elementary Enrollments in Appendix E, page 13. The enrollment at Wardcliff, under option C&D, stays approximately the same as it is today ....I think it's fair to assume that the same sort of class size inequities that are present at the school currently will persist in the future and may only increase because of the limited enrollment area that a smaller school can draw on.
Note 4: One note of concern with a 5-8 configuration as opposed to a 5-6, 7-8 configuration is the uneven allocation of students to the middle schools. With a K-4, 5-8 system, that concern can be very easily abated by pairing the largest school (Hiawatha) with the smallest school (the Montessori school, Edgewood and Central) and pairing the two ‘middle’ enrollments together as well.
If you've made it this far(!); I appreciate the time you've taken to review the data and consider this viewpoint. Thank you.
