It's all about making choices and decisions that are popular among the community. Not just popular among the politicians.
Friday, August 24, 2007
K-8 Schools
What is your view on the City adopting a K-8 educational system? What positives and negatives do you think will impact the city if it is initiated? If you do not support a K-8 system, what solution do you think the City should pursue?
17 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I don't feel a K-8 is going to work. Maybe they should go back to K-6, 7&8, then 9-12. Worked for so many generations before.
In deciding the issue of what grades should be housed in one school, the issue of cost and space need to be considered. More importantly is the issue of safety and maturational level of the kids. The onset of puberty is one such factor to consider. K-8 sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
Let me begin with the way the town went about this K-8 issue; disastrous! Holding meetings during school conferences, not answering the general publics’ questions after the meeting, and so forth... I am not opposed completely to the K-8 school system. There are pros and cons to this type of school system. And if it's not done correctly it will affect our children negatively.
Our school system NOW should becoming a more hands on type of institution; with fewer lectures, focusing on building team work within each class room and throughout the school. We have talented teachers in our school system, give them the resources and support so they can achieve.
One thought that I want to mention is if this does come to be, then we should build these as green schools, and have the children involved in the learning process. It's important for our future to head in this direction.
these are the types of concerns that need to be brought forward to our Board of education and the newly created school building committees so that they are not after thoughts.
I have advocated and will continue to advocate for "Public Participation" to be inserted in the beginning of the monthly Board of education meetings, as it is for the City council meetings.
I will be open to hearing the rationale behind this decision but my first inclination is to advocate for the use of the Roberts property due to the fact that we already own it. Additionally, the Roberts property site is also large enough to supply the city with (4) four new athletic fields.
I hate to bring up tax dollars, but I must. With reevaluation going on, and a for sure property tax increase from it, along with the incredible rising cost of energy, I have had to stop all un needing spending at my home. Before moving on with any new educational construction in town, I want to know what will be the bottom line to the taxpayer.
You can be assured that I share your concern my concern. All aspects of these projects and their implementation will be discussed in open forums and in timely fashion.
I realize that you and Craig are on the same team, but you don't appear to be on the same page. I have serious reservations about K-8 and Craig's comments in the paper concern me even more.
A mega school is relative to the city population, therefore a 900 student school would be a mega school for Bristol.
Craig's quote from the BP "The number of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, a measure of poverty, has increased from 20 percent to over 27 percent in the past decade, and I'm told that it's 33 percent in the elementary schools," Minor said, adding that the number of kids who don't speak English at home has grown to almost 8 percent. "The research data that the Board of Education has shared with us indicates that K-8 is the way to go to deal with these trends, while the opponents claim that their data is outdated, wrong, or taken out of context," said Minor, who serves as the council's liaison to the school board. "I don't know if these changing demographics call for converting to a K-8 system, but clearly we need to take action to address these trends," he said.
If Bristol converts to a K-8 system based on the growing number of low income children, the State will view Bristol as a structure that is built to support low income families. This will enable the State/Federal Gov. to offer more Sec 8 and other low income benefits to Bristol's population. This will encourage those receiving these benefits to move to Bristol, thereby encouraging additional absentee landlord opportunities, more Leer Groups and more Bristol Property Mgmt groups to take over our community.
K-8 based on the belief that we need to follow the trend of free lunch participants is a death sentence for this community. Our median income (per cap)will decline over the next 5 years. Our crime will increase and the number of single home owners will decline as well.
On an education level, K-8 is not a proven positive education system. How many public K-8 systems are in Connecticut?
Those supporting K-8 need to take a better look a the big picture and start focusing on new or revamped smaller schools that are K-5.
This centers around the core problem associated with the whole school(s)project - lack of communication on the part of the Board of Education. The actuality of the proposed projects is that the facility will consist of K-5 seperated from 6-8 by a Library, auditorium and gymnasium which, in effect, creates two (2)seperate entities on the same campus - not the normal K-8 structure associated with the past.
I still see it as one mega-school, creating longer travel time for students and parents getting to and from school. CCSU has multiple buildings seperated by great distances, but still all located in one place. I'm sorry, but your last comment about the grades being seperated by a gym would not sway me to support the mega-school.
You stated that you were not in favor of the K-8 schools but last night at the council meeting you and your council members except for Nicastro gave the green light to the BOE to start negoatiations with Crowley to buy his property,which side of the fence are you on?
The fact is that while the council might not prefer the K-8 idea, the decision is, by state law, under the authority of the Board of Education not the city council. Additionally, the actual project is a K-5 and a K-6 which are seperated by common areas such as the gym,auditorium and library. I wish that the Board of Ed did a better job of communicating with the public.
17 comments:
I don't feel a K-8 is going to work. Maybe they should go back to K-6, 7&8, then 9-12. Worked for so many generations before.
You are right - K-6, 7 & 8 and 9-12 was a good system at the time.
Do you think that the current systems needs to be changed - PreK-5; 6-8; 9-12?
In deciding the issue of what grades should be housed in one school, the issue of cost and space need to be considered. More importantly is the issue of safety and maturational level of the kids. The onset of puberty is one such factor to consider. K-8 sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
Let me begin with the way the town went about this K-8 issue; disastrous! Holding meetings during school conferences, not answering the general publics’ questions after the meeting, and so forth... I am not opposed completely to the K-8 school system. There are pros and cons to this type of school system. And if it's not done correctly it will affect our children negatively.
Our school system NOW should becoming a more hands on type of institution; with fewer lectures, focusing on building team work within each class room and throughout the school. We have talented teachers in our school system, give them the resources and support so they can achieve.
One thought that I want to mention is if this does come to be, then we should build these as green schools, and have the children involved in the learning process. It's important for our future to head in this direction.
Why do we need to continue to manipulate the grades? This is ridiculous.
Only things that matter are how many kids in the class, the quality of the teachers, and what goes on at home. STOP MANIPULATING THE GRADE STRUCTURE.
these are the types of concerns that need to be brought forward to our Board of education and the newly created school building committees so that they are not after thoughts.
How do you (Ward) feel about public participation at the end of the BOE meetings? I for one hate it!
I have advocated and will continue to advocate for "Public Participation" to be inserted in the beginning of the monthly Board of education meetings, as it is for the City council meetings.
How do you plan on voting when the Scalia site comes up to City council for the K-8 site?
I will be open to hearing the rationale behind this decision but my first inclination is to advocate for the use of the Roberts property due to the fact that we already own it. Additionally, the Roberts property site is also large enough to supply the city with (4) four new athletic fields.
I hate to bring up tax dollars, but I must. With reevaluation going on, and a for sure property tax increase from it, along with the incredible rising cost of energy, I have had to stop all un needing spending at my home. Before moving on with any new educational construction in town, I want to know what will be the bottom line to the taxpayer.
You can be assured that I share your concern my concern. All aspects of these projects and their implementation will be discussed in open forums and in timely fashion.
I realize that you and Craig are on the same team, but you don't appear to be on the same page. I have serious reservations about K-8 and Craig's comments in the paper concern me even more.
A mega school is relative to the city population, therefore a 900 student school would be a mega school for Bristol.
Craig's quote from the BP "The number of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, a measure of poverty, has increased from 20 percent to over 27 percent in the past decade, and I'm told that it's 33 percent in the elementary schools," Minor said, adding that the number of kids who don't speak English at home has grown to almost 8 percent.
"The research data that the Board of Education has shared with us indicates that K-8 is the way to go to deal with these trends, while the opponents claim that their data is outdated, wrong, or taken out of context," said Minor, who serves as the council's liaison to the school board.
"I don't know if these changing demographics call for converting to a K-8 system, but clearly we need to take action to address these trends," he said.
If Bristol converts to a K-8 system based on the growing number of low income children, the State will view Bristol as a structure that is built to support low income families. This will enable the State/Federal Gov. to offer more Sec 8 and other low income benefits to Bristol's population. This will encourage those receiving these benefits to move to Bristol, thereby encouraging additional absentee landlord opportunities, more Leer Groups and more Bristol Property Mgmt groups to take over our community.
K-8 based on the belief that we need to follow the trend of free lunch participants is a death sentence for this community. Our median income (per cap)will decline over the next 5 years. Our crime will increase and the number of single home owners will decline as well.
On an education level, K-8 is not a proven positive education system. How many public K-8 systems are in Connecticut?
Those supporting K-8 need to take a better look a the big picture and start focusing on new or revamped smaller schools that are K-5.
This centers around the core problem associated with the whole school(s)project - lack of communication on the part of the Board of Education.
The actuality of the proposed projects is that the facility will consist of K-5 seperated from 6-8 by a Library, auditorium and gymnasium which, in effect, creates two (2)seperate entities on the same campus - not the normal K-8 structure associated with the past.
I still see it as one mega-school, creating longer travel time for students and parents getting to and from school. CCSU has multiple buildings seperated by great distances, but still all located in one place. I'm sorry, but your last comment about the grades being seperated by a gym would not sway me to support the mega-school.
You stated that you were not in favor of the K-8 schools but last night at the council meeting you and your council members except for Nicastro gave the green light to the BOE to start negoatiations with Crowley to buy his property,which side of the fence are you on?
The fact is that while the council might not prefer the K-8 idea, the decision is, by state law, under the authority of the Board of Education not the city council. Additionally, the actual project is a K-5 and a K-6 which are seperated by common areas such as the gym,auditorium and library. I wish that the Board of Ed did a better job of communicating with the public.
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