Working Woes...Twitch-Twitch

Our district is coming to the realization that the money is not there anymore to run business as usual. We are looking at drastic changes which will impact everyone in our schools and communities. It is hard for some to deal with change, which is leading to denial and avoidance. Sadly, neither will work in these tough times. We are going to see building (systems) restructured to house different students, or lose a building altogether. We may have to tuition kids and we will CERTAINLY lose teachers and other personnel. It is just such a sad prospect. But I think what frustrates me the most is the lack of understanding that is out there about how kids learn and how the system works because it will lead to decisions made on false or uninformed assumptions. (twitch)

The Daily Bulldog posted an article on the subject, but the responses are the same as usual. There are teacher bashers such as "Captain Planet" who don't understand that teachers aren't eliminated on performance, but rather by seniority and others who read a suggestion like Joe Haines' and think it is doable, when Mt.Abram can't house the number of kids they are talking about. I might also note that it will cost MILLIONS of dollars to get MTA up to code when the other buildings are relatively new and in good condition. There is so much to be considered and yet the favored response is to shut down a school (never their own towns') and combine the elementary grades. I don't pretend to know what is best, but I do know that this is going to be a huge shift for kids and their families. Some kids are going to be bussed farther and someone are going to be unhappy, but once they get there, we will do our best to educate them and help prepare them for life.

I can see so many benefits to combining schools. Teachers will have more support per content area. They can have more informal meetings with their colleagues. As it is now, we only meet once or twice a year, and even then there is usually some other agenda to follow. When we were able to meet this year, we were able to come up with a new unit for "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins to be taught across the district. We were even able to purchase shared books! It is just amazing what the opportunity for collaboration yields.

I can also see it being a great opportunity for middle school kids. They will have more opportunities socially. They won't be competing against their future classmates and might even develop relationships where there once was animosity. Personality conflicts with teachers and other students will be more easily dealt with because they will finally have CHOICE about whose class they are in. It is hard for kids to be stuck with the same teacher for four years. As great as we all think we are as educators, we have weaknesses and the kids are stuck with them for four years.

I can see so many more opportunities for shared resources too. Every time a guest speaker is made available to one school, all kids would benefit. This is a huge difference. So far this month, PES has had Ralph Fletcher, but the other schools didn't get to engage in his workshop and KES had Barry Dana, but none of the other schools were able to benefit. This is a real problem. It costs money to have these people come and yet we are never truly able to get the bang for the buck because we are separated by so many miles. What if the miles weren't an issue any more?

I see the issues too. Kids would have to be bussed long distances, parents might have kids in many different schools at once, and communities might feel a loss of connection to their schools. But there are many issues with our systems now, and we have learned to adapt. Kids are bussed great distances to get to Mt. Abram and Mt. Blue for Foster Tech. I don't see kids from Stratton NOT going to Foster Tech. because of the ride. I also don't see parents having fits about having kids in both an elementary school in their town and a high school somewhere else. Also, communities will still have kids attending some sort of school, so hopefully they will not let the child's residence make that much of a difference in their willingness to support them. So would it be an adjustment? Yes. Would it take time to work out the kinks? Yes. Is it necessary? Yes. The time has come for real shifts, but we are resourceful people and we will make it happen.