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Contribution by Jodi Dansingburg Coordinator, Ridgeway Community School Coordinator, Youth Leadership for Vital Communities Mr. Bianchi’s presentation put forth a number of ideas that make sense for improving the learning environment in Winona. There are three which I will address to kick off this on-line discussion. First, he encouraged educational organizations to recognize and act on the differences in and among children in our schools. I understood Mr. Bianchi to mean “understanding the various learning styles that children have as well as the various emotional needs of the children.” I would put forth that we, as a community of educators, further need to understand the various social and cultural backgrounds from which our increasingly diverse students come . I believe Winona’s educators are in an ideal setting to focus on this task. We already have a large selection of educational choices in our community from which to develop these varied opportunities for learning. I believe, however, in the public sphere these choices can, and should, be taken further. The various public elementary schools (both WAPS & Charter) are an obvious place to begin this process. As we have seen by the parade of parents at school closing meetings over the years, I think it is safe to conclude that Winona families like and want neighborhood elementary schools. Why not use this desire for smaller community schools as the foundation for offering more educational public school choices at the elementary level and help turn the liability of “too many small, costly schools” into an asset “a variety of attractive ways for our equally varied children to enter the public school system.” The recent demographic report put out by Winona Area Public Schools shows that the public schools in Winona are loosing more students to neighboring districts than we are gaining from the open enrollment process (a net loss of @ 150). As a larger district with more choices at the secondary level to offer students this should not be the case. Why are parent choosing to send their children on what is more often a longer bus ride to a neighboring district? I believe the most consistent answer you will find is their belief that in a smaller school system their child will be more known as an individual learner. Therefore, these parents believe their child’s individual learning needs will be better addressed. By using teacher and parent input to develop a variety of learning opportunities and to build the public identity of the individual elementary schools and their teachers, we can begin to gain back those students we are loosing to other districts as well as attract students from neighboring districts; thereby supporting with more student dollars the choices we are offering. The removal of the Profile of Learning by the state legislature may provide the opportunity for teachers in the public schools to be given more autonomy, another point Mr. Bianchi encouraged. This autonomy is essential if teachers are to develop their classrooms to meet the varied needs of their students in a delivery method that works for their teaching style. By giving teachers the opportunity to develop their classrooms and schools and schools in ways that they feel best meets the needs of their learning community we will be building the platform on which creative kids entering the system become creative, responsible, and engaged learners throughout the system. The Third point from Mr. Bianchi presentation which would ensure the strategy outlined above would be successful is “to make allies with parents.” In Winona I think we need to implement the corollary to that point which is “to make allies of the grandparents.” In order for this strategy of diverse educational offerings at the elementary level to be successful financially as well as educationally is to fully engage the parents and their voting relatives the grandparents in the educational process. Development specialists will tell you that individuals give to what they know. The only way to raise more dollars for education locally, through donations and taxes, is to increase parents and grandparents knowledge of and involvement in our quality schools. Since Ridgeway Community School converted to a charter schools we have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of parent and grandparent involvement in the school. Why? I believe because these caring adults feel like it is their school. They have control over its destiny. I think it is possible to impart a similar level of ownership among school families without going through the charter process. If meaningful control in setting educational direction and supporting the educational process can be given to individual elementary schools via their site based teams I believe all public schools could see the increase in parent, grandparent, and community involvement that is essential to allow our schools to survive and thrive. If a formula could be developed that fairly distributes reasonable administrative costs across the buildings, site teams could be given a workable time frame in which to balance their budgets or close. Surely such a directive would lay the ground work to bring out the creative energies of our citizens in a proactive way to build stronger schools. Finally, I must say that in order to lessen the impact of Declining Enrollment which looms like a storm cloud over our head I believe Winona educators should take a strategic look at the changing demographics of our greater Winona community and region. There are two quick examples I would like to give in this area. Demographers are telling us growth will occur in smaller communities which neighbor the larger towns like Winona and LaCrosse. Why not, then, do everything we can to make the schools we currently have in those communities attractive places for these new families to send their kids? Then, once they have chosen to send their students to these smaller elementary schools, we should be doing everything possible to make them comfortable sending them on to the larger secondary schools in town. Second, demographers also tell us that for the foreseeable future the largest influx of newcomers to Minnesota will be from the Latino community. What can Winona schools do to attract and enhance the educational opportunities for Latino students??? I believe Mr. Bianchi’s ideas give us some guidance here too. Engage Latino parents and students in developing an educational program that works for the variety of Latino students who will be entering our schools. If we can work together with newcomers to the area to build a positive learning environment for their loved ones, they will choose to send their children to school in Winona even though they may work in St. Charles, Altura, or Arcadia. By gaining students from the edges of our district and through welcoming newcomers with different cultural backgrounds we can help offset the financial difficulties associated with declining enrollment. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to Mr. Bianchi’s presentation and continue to dialogue about improving education in Winona. |
