David Brauer wrote:
I completely agree. When it was time to choose a school for my child, I insisted on a K-8 school because I could not see myself willing to send her to a middle school in Minneapolis.
I'd say that the trend to K-8s is driven by parents, not board members.
That's because - as poorly as Lee might think K-8s are doing - the
perception is that "true" middle schools (grades 6-8 only) are doing worse.
This is anecdotal, but many of my daughter's friends who went to K-5 schools ended up in the St. Anthony schools by 6th grade because the middle schools are largely appalling. In Northeast, St. Anthony is a very attrctive option because it doesn't seem like the suburbs (it's practically Minneapolis), and Northeast MS in particular can scare the snot out of parents. Most of the kids we lose to suburban schools in 6th grade never return, even though many parents intend to bring their kids back to Minneapolis for high school. The kids don't want to come back once they've made friends and connections elsewhere.
I'm guessing the board is aware of this as they push for more K-8's. I also know this is very hard on parents who chose K-5s or K-3s because they wanted smaller schools focused on younger kids. But I'm also guessing we lose a vast majority of our kids in the middle school years, or pre-kindergarten, and the board is trying to create more attractive options for those parents considering placing their kids elsewhere.
My daughter attends Marcy Open, a fantastic school. Until this year, in fact, Marcy had been able to withstand many of the budget cuts that devistated other schools because it had such strong parent and community support, low staff turn-over, and some of the longest-serving teachers in the district. We tried to keep the cuts away from the kids as long as possible, but simply can't make up for the losses anymore. Marcy is still an excellent school, though, and should be a model for the school board in how to build a great school community that works.
-Dorian Eder
Windom Park
REMINDERS:
1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
