La Junta vota el 22 de septiembre
Ahora dígale a la Junta lo que piensa
Un correo listo para cada miembro de la Junta, que empieza con estas palabras. Unos dos minutos.
Escríbale a la Junta →Both of my kids went to Douglass, and my wife has been a teacher at Douglass for 23 years. At the last board meeting, like many people—including staff at both schools—I expected to hear that Heatherwood would be consolidated into Douglass. Heatherwood is operating at enrollment levels in the 40-percent range, while Douglass is in the high 60s, well above the threshold that was supposed to trigger consolidation consideration. I have a PhD in biology, and I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing data. So I assumed there must be compelling data behind the decision to close Douglass. I did not see data supporting this decision. Instead, I saw maps and heard an explanation that Heatherwood has a better opportunity to attract neighborhood students than Douglass. The plan seems to depend on gerrymandering several attendance boundaries, and hoping Gunbarrel becomes affordable to enough young families, and then hoping those families choose Heatherwood rather than open enrolling elsewhere. Then we were told that High Peaks was the most requested focus school and could use a new building in East Boulder County. So, I assumed we would see enrollment projections showing that High Peaks would substantially outperform Douglass by 2030. However, those projections for 2030 were identical. Next was the decision to move the ICAN program to Heatherwood, an open-concept building that is extremely noisy. I wonder if anyone involved in this decision has worked with students like those in the ICAN program. Many need headphones in overstimulating environments (assemblies, loud classrooms, etc.), or they otherwise become escalated by excessive noise and need quiet spaces to de-escalate. Douglass already has the physical resources to support these students, and has successfully done so for years. They have dedicated spaces and quiet areas. Finally, Douglass has also demonstrated teaching excellence over recent decades. In 2006, Newsweek highlighted Douglass nationally for its work addressing the achievement gap between boys and girls. More recently, taking on the ICAN program was a significant change from what they were used to. Rather than teachers leaving for an easier teaching path, they embraced the challenge, and the school is thriving. So, why is BVSD proposing to close a school with teaching excellence, appropriate facilities, and a successful history of adapting to students’ needs, in favor of shipping out the ICAN program to a school that isn’t equipped for it. To me, this looks less like a data-driven consolidation and more like a complicated plan built around evicting a successful school to upgrade the building for a niche focus school.
La Junta vota el 22 de septiembre
Un correo listo para cada miembro de la Junta, que empieza con estas palabras. Unos dos minutos.
Escríbale a la Junta →