Story posted Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Grade Level Concerns Remain
With Final Open Meeting Over, Dist. 26 Future Now Lays In Board's Hands
By RICHARD MAYER Assistant Managing Editor
Many of the approximately 100 parents in attendance at Monday night's meeting at River Trails Middle School in Mt. Prospect asked why the district is looking into grade level centers (GLC) and what will it mean to their child's education.
A grade level format is organized so all children of the same grade level attend the same school. One scenario consists of all pre-kindergarten through second grade students attending one school, all students in grades 3-5 attending another, and grades 6-8 together in a third school.
Another option would be to remodel Park View Montessori School, which is connected to the district administration office on Kensington Rd., and use it as a Pre-K-K center with Euclid housing grades 1-3, and Indian Grove housing grades 4-5.
According to Dr. James Warren, the consultant hired last spring to determine if GLCs would work in Dist. 26, costs for remodeling Park View would exceed $1 million.
The district owns that building the private school occupies and leases space to the school on a year-to-year basis. If GLCs were implemented, Supt. Dr. Dane Delli said Park View would have to vacate that building.
"We haven't had any conversations with the school, but they do know we are conducting a study and it could potentially impact them," said Delli. "The reason why we wanted to get Park View on the radar was to look at all district facilities and determine all possibilities. The one thing we realized with Park View is it is in need of renovations regardless of what the board decides."
Warren told parents there is research that shows moving to GLCs adds an additional transition (moving from one school to another) and could negatively affect learning and test scores. He said children take some time to adjust to the different culture of the new school.
The district currently has one transition (Euclid/Indian Grove to River Trails). One option would create two transitions---from primary to intermediate school and intermediate to middle school. A second option consisting of renovating Park View would create three transitions.
Some other points Warren discussed that parents were not happy about included parent involvement, transportation, and start/dismissal times.
By implementing GLCs, Warren said there tends to be less parent involvement as children progress through grades. There would be times when parents with children in multiple schools would miss events or miss opportunities to volunteer.
In regards to start/dismissal times, there could be a change in those times, but it would not be more than a 25-minute difference, Warren said.
If start times remained the same, Warren said it would require at least three additional busses at a cost of at least $165,000. If start times were staggered, no additional busses would be anticipated and no additional cost would incur, he said.
However, parent Peggy Tsevis said there would be some cost for additional gas and extended working times for drivers.
Another component if GLCs were implemented would consist of balancing classes to make enrollment spikes "less problematic," according to Warren. The maximum anticipated savings of salaries and benefits from eliminating 3 to 6 teachers would be between $150,000-$300,000.
Delli said if the board approves GLCs, all staff would be notified of the possible reduction, but informing them now would be "premature."
According to Warren, some things that would not change include the offering of special services, assessing and reporting student progress, technology, class size parameters, communication with parents, and before and after care would not be affected.
"A gentleman sitting right behind (board member) Donna Johnson, who heads the GLC committee, asked how many board members have children who will be effected by GLCs," said Gail Dieterich, parent. "Not one board member stood up and answered. Donna could have easily turned around and answered his question."
Dieterich went on to say with reviewing the facts, it appears a majority of the people have changed their mind as far as backing GLCs.
"Everything the board has done so far has been by a unanimous vote," said Board President Jeff Bradley "I did run my recent reelection supporting looking into grade level centers and still support it, but we need to let the final report come out before I make up my mind."
Bradley added the board has the responsibility to make a decision on this issue and would not be in favor of having this go to referendum.
"This process is flawed," said Tservis. "They are using the results from a clearly biased, pro-GLC survey that was written by someone not qualified to write surveys in the first place. We are troubled that seven people are going to make this enormous decision that affects our children, not theirs. Elected officials are supposed to represent the sentiment of their constituents, aren't they? That is not what is going on here, and we are feeling very frustrated with this process."
"How is this a model for better education?" asked Dan Miller, parent, who said he has collected hundreds of signatures from people against this concept. "There is also no definitive financial advantage. There is a lack of credibility with this entire process."
"There is not enough information to make an educated decision and I have a responsibility to the community to make a rational judgment," said Steve O'Mara, board member.
On Feb. 16, Warren will present the final report to the board. The board will then review and further discuss the report and could possibly make a decision sometime in the spring. If the board approves grade centers, they would not be implemented until the 2011-12 school year at the earliest, Delli said.
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