Promises matter

[Ardys Palmer]

Dear CHCCS community,

I’m the parent of a third-grade student who's happy in the world language plus STEAM track at Glenwood Elementary and a seventh-grade student at Smith. We applied for the lottery at Glenwood because of my son’s early and strong interest in science and math. As we hoped, the school’s STEAM2 program has been a great fit for him. We were disappointed to hear that our district is considering discontinuing the STEAM portion of the magnet because of the adoption of a new, district-wide science curriculum. Glenwood has an experienced, dedicated STEAM teacher who is supported by the herculean fundraising efforts of the Glenwood PTA, and who in turn also supports our K-5 classroom teachers. Our school community is fully committed to STEAM and it shows. I am glad that the district values STEAM, and I'm confident that Glenwood's STEAM teacher can be a useful resource to the district as an in-house expert on K-5 STEAM instruction. However, it is worth noting that that expertise was honed within the STEAM2 program at Glenwood. This district rightly prides itself on diversity, but it does not seem to value the instructional diversity that attracts families, leads to an elementary school being 95% full, and innovates.

For families in our area who are looking for instructional diversity, there are private schools and a number of public charters on our doorstep waiting to welcome them and receive taxpayer dollars for the service. However, none of these schools can teach students what it means to be educated within a much larger civic community, with an embedded democratic structure, and where their neighbors vote to literally raise their own taxes in order to support the education of the next generation. I think these are important lessons about community that are badly needed right now.

What other lessons are our children learning about being part of a larger civic community? I was shocked to read Dr. Trice’s email on Monday. Surely all within CHCCS have a unified interest in being part of a community that values honesty, trust, and solid decision-making based on comprehensible facts and analysis. Unless there is some special, unique thing about the families and staff at Glenwood that makes it okay to treat them poorly, I think all in CHCCS need take note of what happens next, if out of personal interest, if nothing else. All district teachers and staff rely on the promises of the administration and the Board. All school communities expect transparency, fairness, and repeated promises to be kept. Anyone receiving academic programming that is “different,” any school communities housed in aging facilities that will need support, one way or another, from the district should be paying attention now.

Several months ago, my family watched the 1952 film High Noon for family movie night. In it, Gary Cooper plays a sheriff compelled by personal honor to do the right thing, even though the stakes are high and he stands alone. The movie explores the many ways people can convince themselves why it’s right to do the wrong thing. I saw a school board choose to close a particular school because they thought that it would be easy to move a full magnet program. I'm not convinced the district made much of an effort, but it turns out that's hard. How will this story end, and what justifications will we hear tonight?  

Respectfully,
Ardys Palmer

CHCCS parent

[As a final aside, I am concerned about allowing "black-box" analysis to be used for decision making--analysis that either cannot or will not be explained to people who have the requisite background to understand it. A shared foundation of facts is essential for institutional trust.]