[CSPS] update on schoolwide enrichment

[Lisa Ellis]

Hello CSPSers, 
 
Here's a copy of a message sent to fellow-signatories of a petition for
renewed schoolwide enrichment funding.
 
Best,
Lisa Ellis
 
 
 
Dear Friends, 
 
Thanks so much for all of your signatures on the letter supporting renewed
funding for schoolwide enrichment programs in the CSISD.  Thanks especially
to those of you who helped gather them.  By the time I submitted our letter
to the Board last Tuesday, we had 63 signatures, and I feel certain that if
we had to, we could easily double or triple our numbers.  However, I am
hopeful that this will not be necessary.  
 
I met with (outgoing) superintendent Steve Johnson last Tuesday afternoon.
He told me the following things: the district is attempting, but failing, to
maintain a quality enrichment program with half the number of specialists;
principals and others in addition to ourselves have advocated returning to
the one-specialist-per-school model; these re-hired specialists are
currently rated "orange" on a scale of blue to red refunding priorities for
next year, with orange being one step below the top priority of red; if the
district has correctly forecast its revenue for next year, the specialists
should be rehired.  Superintendent Johnson said that no preliminary decision
would be made before May, and that no final one before July, because of
funding uncertainty.  He did not mention that either the full Robotics
program or middle-school French were on the list for re-funding.  He says
that he will keep me posted.
 
I was of course glad that the district shares our view that the fully funded
program is superior to the underfunded one.  But I am not confident that any
of the priorities mentioned in our letter, including a specialist in every
school, Robotics, and middle-school language, will make the final list.  
 
Therefore I would like to ask you all for advice.  What should we do next?
Anything?  It would be nice to have the District do the right thing without
our having to do any more work.  But I wonder whether such a wish is
realistic.  Please advise me, and also let me know if you would like me to
forward your comments to all of us or not.
 
I have recently begun volunteer teaching of a small section of math
enrichment in my daughter's class at College Hills.   I recommend this to
anyone who wants to have serious fun, and also to anyone who might question
the value of specialist expertise.  Teaching is an extremely demanding,
highly skilled profession, and untrained volunteers like myself can only
scratch the surface of what these kids need.
 
Finally, if you are interested in keeping up with important issues around
education in College Station, you should join the CSPS e-mail list
("Coalition for Support of the Public Schools").  The archives are very
interesting to anyone curious about local public education.
 
General information about the mailing list is at:

 <http://philebus.tamu.edu/mailman/listinfo/csps>
http://philebus.tamu.edu/mailman/listinfo/csps

 

Thanks for reading all this!  I look forward to hearing from you!

 

All the best,

Lisa Ellis

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