Grade centers a bust for St. Charles district?
An audience loaded with questions and doubt about a plan to create grade level centers at Davis and Richmond elementary Schools in St. Charles Unit District 303 added more tension Monday to what is already expected to be a divisive vote on the plan.
Parents told school board members, with the audience applauding, there are too many unanswered questions about logistics of shuttling students around and measuring success for the community to buy into the change.
Parent Randee Donovan told the board she hired a lawyer with expertise in No Child Left Behind legislation. The lawyer determined the district’s plan didn’t address the problem of impoverished students at Richmond not living up to Adequate Yearly Progress requirements. She said the district is trying to dilute that pool of students in any one school building to hide the problem.
Other parents spoke against any plan that separates siblings and prevents children from walking to school. Indeed, not one of the 13 parents who spoke favored the grade level center plan. That contrasts with an audience at the last school board meeting who largely favored at least some version of the grade level center plan.
With the community clearly divided, the school board is now faced with voting on a plan that a large group of parents are expected to opt out of if given the choice. With that in mind, the school board peppered the administration with questions about how the success or failure of the plan will be measured and why the risk is worth it.
District staff members answered that grade level centers would pool groups of students and teachers together with a focus on primary grade education not seen before in the district. The staff also said the district has better student assessments than ever before to measure progress. Success would be measured from the parent satisfaction survey the district performs every year and actual test results.
The staff said mixing bilingual and Hispanic students with English-speaking and, generally, white students would be beneficial for student achievement rather than a hindrance as some parents have suggested.
“We believe that adding 20 more days of instruction, that adding the foreign language component and that adding the focus on science will result in significant gains,” said Superintendent Don Schlomann. “I’m not going to apologize that we believe strongly that this is going to work.”
The staff also presented a transportation plan that would see shuttles pick up students at 8:20 a.m. for a day that begins at 8:40 a.m. at the K-2 Richmond School and at 7:40 a.m. for a day that begins at 8 a.m. at the 3-5 Davis School. Both schools would finish at 3 p.m., with shuttles arriving to pick students up at 3:10 p.m.
School board members also appeared to be leaning toward not letting any parents request a move to another school in the district.
“Short term, it may be sweet candy,” said board President Scott Nowling of an opt-out plan. “Long term, I think it’s a recipe for really dividing the community.”
The school board will discuss an opt-out provision and other aspects of the plan again on Thursday night. The board is expected to vote on the various aspects discussed individually.
Plan: School board to discuss opt-out provision at Thursday meeting