This week I have read two letters on the newspapers on Charter Schools, and on both you can find the sentiment that Charter Schools are perfectly fine at urban communities where student performance is mostly failing. Suburbia has been insulted by the Charter Movement and its parents and concerned residents are joining forces to advocate against charter schools that want to be established at their zip code. Not so here in our urban city, which happens to house, I believe, all charter schools of Union county.
Looking at data on charter schools here in Plainfield tells the story that some, if not most, are not doing a better job than Plainfield public schools, but charter schools offer a smaller setting and what it might feel like a more family-friendly setting for students and parents (I am not saying a friendly setting equals a more accountable school, this is not the case at all local charters). It would be worth to find out if parents that have enrolled their children at Plainfield charter schools have done so through research, word of mouth or after a bad experience at Plainfield public schools. And this is where Plainfield public schools enter the picture.
As we have seen, through documentation, the Plainfield public schools district is lacking a more professional approach to the challenges its faces, what is more, their lack of responsiveness (I am not the only who gets ignored) and what seems to be their own failure to follow their own policies and regulations is now a glaring spot that needs to be tended to before it becomes one more scandal here in Plainfield.
If Plainfield public schools district continues to practice what it has been practicing until now: lack of professional accountability, then it is obvious where the education setting is heading here in Plainfield: to an even larger proliferation of charter schools as well as parents opting for other educational alternatives.
The district's school board and top administration can change this, but will they?
4 comments:
REMINDER: Tonight there is an OPEN MEETING of OUR PLAINFIELD Board of Education! The PUBLIC is INVITED and ENCOURAGED to attend and Speak Up for OUR children. There is easy and ample parking in front of and behind Plainfield High School and the auditorium is extremely accessible, comfortable and beautiful.
Please help keep Plainfield Public Schools on the right track and meet other like-minded neighbors at the meeting tonight at 8PM!
Your note of intention to attend tonight's meeting could even be posted here, on Maria's Blog, to encourage others to also attend.
Our school children need the community...Need YOU!!!!
Thank you!!!
I agree with the comment that the board and top administration could be more accommodating but I feel the schools do a good job of responding to concerns and inviting suggestions.
9:52,
Thanks, while your comment reflects what some of our public schools practice, it is not all schools that follow the same practice, what is more, more often than not, individual schools have their hands tied by the top administration. As an example just look at the enrollment situation all across the district and some of the issues that the district could face if the state was to demand action on certifications. But as I repeat, some schools do a good job trying to include all stakeholders and that is why we need to support and request more of this practice. Thanks.
they had a superintendent that very responsive. He was visible and accessible to the community.
They ran him away and the district has been going downhill ever since.
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