School Board Meeting and why YOU should attend

Who choses what opportunities your child has? Who knows your child best? Who gets to decide what is best for your child? Is your voice being heard?

Here is my report on what I think everyone needs to know about the School Board Meeting from September 20, 2011.

The issue of the night was one near and dear to my heart: alternative education. We have lost all control over our children's public education in this country. Our teachers don't even have control anymore. Our schools, principals and even our school boards are all held accountable for a standardized, one fits all test, in order to get funding. This is an OPPORTUNITY to get to have some say in our children's education.

There were two things that the public needs to understand:

1. If no one attends these meetings, the school board must make decisions without our input and opinions.
2. If these decisions are being made without us, we have no one else to blame.

Richland Community College in conjunction with Charter Pros is proposing an Early College Charter High School that will serve Clinton, in addition to six other tax districts. Ten students from Clinton will have the opportunity to attend this charter school starting in 9th and 10th grades. Families will apply and be selected via lottery. The school will have its own board, principal and teachers. The students will be dual enrolled and could potentially graduate with not only a high school diploma but an Associates Degree from Richland Community College.


Each tax district will vote on whether to approve this proposal. The issues raised with this were :
target students and selection, money, transportation and extracurricular activities.

I decided to go to the horse's mouth for the answers to my questions. I called Lisa Gregory from Richland Community College to discuss these issues. Here is the breakdown of what we were told, what the potential issues are and what we need to know.

1. Target Students

What we were told:
The charter high school would target at-risk students but the acceptance is based on applications being drawn from a lottery.

Issues raised:
If they are drawn from a lottery those at-risk students might not get chosen

The facts:
The Early College Charter High School is geared toward the middle 50% of students. Those who are doing okay but with a little extra push and some one on one would excel and attend college when maybe they wouldn't.

The application process is completed by the parents and student after which they meet with the principal and decide if this is the right fit for them. If so, the application is assigned a number. The number is literally placed on a ping pong ball and that ball enters the lottery. No one is being forced to apply or attend. Its completely in the hands of the parents and students.

2. Money

What we were told :
The board informed us that it will cost the school district $7,400 per student, per year to attend. The board will vote but the vote could be overturned and the school district might have to pay this anyway.

The issues raised:
As soon as the words "taxpayer's money" were uttered there was negative noises all around.

The facts:
I had actually recently been reading the schools' report cards found on their own website and had read that, in fact, Clinton spent $8,608 per high school student in  the 09-10 school year. So to me it seemed the school district would be SAVING $1208 by sending the students to the charter school. 

According to IL Charter Law, the only school district money that can be negotiated is that money specifically designated for educational purposes. So the transportation money, building maintenance etc. is not on the table. Also the charter school could negotiate as little as 75% of that money leaving the school district with 25% of that $8600 even though they aren't educating that student anymore.

As to "making" the school district pay anyway, IL Charter School Law allows for the potential charter school to appeal the decision sending it to a separate committee to be decided. With money not an issue, there really isn't any logical reason for the school board to vote against this proposal.

3. Transportation

What we were told:
The charter school will provide the transportation.

The issues raised:
Someone from the audience mentioned that the student could potentially be on a bus for an hour and a half each way.

The facts:
The Early College Charter High School would be responsible for providing transportation to and from the Richland Community College campus. As to the estimate given by the audience member, I don't know how that was arrived at.

4. Extracurriculars

What we were told:
 Their extracurriculars would be separate from Clinton's.

The issues raised
Again someone was appalled that the students might not get to participate in Clinton's extracurriculars.

The facts:
Ms. Gregory informed me that Early College Charter High School will not have extracurriculars, nor art, music or sports.

So far, no decision has been made. As a matter of fact, the proposal hasn't been delivered. It may be on the docket for October for Charter Pros to present to the school board. If so, I encourage you to be there.

The transportation, extracurriculars and selection are all a personal choice as far as I see. A personal FAMILY choice. Whether you apply is YOUR choice. Whether the transportation options meet with your approval are YOUR choice. Whether your child participates in extracurricular activities is YOUR choice. In fact, you make those choices for your child already.

The only thing approving this Early College Charter High School will change for YOU is to give you another choice. An opportunity for your child's education. Do we not all want MORE choices for our children, not fewer?

Here is part of what I learned when talking to Ms. Gregory:

She told me that she has personally been researching this opportunity for  year for Richland Community College. She has spent hours and hours pouring over data, laws and finally called a principal of one such charter high school in Elmira, OH. She asked the principal to give it to her straight. Tell her the bad stuff. Turns out, all schools struggle with budgets, transportation and feeding the students. But other than that, the administrative part of running any school, it was wonderful. She told of the class of 214 she recently graduated. Of those 214, 114 graduated with no less than 50 college credits and a high school diploma. 100 of those students graduate with a high school diploma AND an Associates Degree and 50% graduated cum laude, with honors.

The students Ms. Gregory spoke to said this: Its forced them to work harder, behave better and its a wonderful experience.

I can understand some disappointment in the lack of in school extras like art and music. I can understand that a parent and child might not be interested in attending a school without them. I can see the value in joining these organizations and the lessons they teach. I can also see that I would not want someone else making that choice for my child. Whether my child participates in those activities or not is a FAMILY decision. Its made for all kinds of reason and we might want to reflect on the mission of the school here: to prepare students for college.

Again, whether you agree with or want these things for your child, it should be up to YOU to decide if you want to apply or not. The school board needs to hear opinions from our parents to make a decision benefitting our community.

I encourage everyone to take time this month to reflect on this issue and to attend the next school board meeting where hopefully Richland Community College and Charter Pros can answer any questions you have and we can make our wishes know to our elected officals.